Samika Douglas

The best career advice I ever received was to be teachable. Sometimes you have to take things at the teachable moment, even when it's a little hard. You know, some things we look at and we think about the bad every time, but sometimes you have to pull the good from that bad and take it as a learning experience and somewhere that you could grow, seeing how you could grow from that situation. Somebody once told me I was unteachable, and that stuck with me since. I was like, you know what, even as an adult, we can still learn. They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but you can. You just gotta be patient. Also, especially if they're someone who wants to learn, so you just have to be patient. You gotta understand that everybody's comprehension level is different, so you may have to tell them 3-4 times for them to get it, but you gotta have that passion to want to see people grow as well.

It seems like a cliche, but don't give up, and don't stop. If I stopped every time somebody told me no, then I'd be just still spinning wheels. There's no telling where I'd be right now if I would have listened to those individuals. There's more than one way to do something, so just because it don't work for them in that capacity don't mean it won't work for you. So continue to strive for what it is that you want. And also, hold God first. You know, with me, it's been my faith. If it wasn't for my faith, then, you know, He told me I could do anything through Christ Jesus who strengthened me. Take it to God. If this is not something that's in your wheel, then show me and help me to move past it and get around it, whether that be a relationship or whether that be something career-wise. Take it to God and let him direct my path, and it'll work itself out.

The biggest challenges right now would be really just finance. A lot of things, because I work with a lot of nonprofits and small businesses, they don't have the money sometimes to pay me adequately. So I will sometimes take on things pro bono or with a minimum amount of payment. And so, really, it's finance as well as getting our elected officials to, sometimes too, when I'm advocating for a policy change, just getting those officials on board.

The biggest one is integrity. That's real big for me. Just having that integrity as well as being transparent with individuals. When you have that integrity and being transparent, it speaks for itself with individuals, and they become more open with you, they're trusting. You know, when you build that trust with those individuals, they become more trusting with you, and they're open to being more vulnerable, and also you being vulnerable with them as well.