Shanice L. Dawson

I attribute my success to my parents. I watched my mom and my dad both work very hard for the past 30-something years. Growing up, watching my mom go to work, my dad going to work in the morning, my mom getting off in the morning, taking care of us, watching my little sister - they've worked so hard, and they're still working. I believe my dad's getting ready to retire, but they embedded in us that you have to work hard to get what you want. If you work hard, you'll succeed and get the things that you want. They built that strong sense of self and believing in yourself, and they gave us that encouragement and always supported me and my sisters in everything that we do. They allowed us to grow and to feel those growing pains. They allowed us to fail and then taught us the lessons that came behind it. I think a big part of my success is my parents.

The best career advice I've ever received is don't be complacent. Never, never get comfortable where you are, and just be comfortable with being uncomfortable. Never settle. Strive to push yourself a little bit harder each and every day. Don't be satisfied with where you are - there's always more to get, there's always more to achieve. Once you settle, that pretty much just puts you in a box, and you never want to be in that box. So always push forward, don't be complacent, and be comfortable in being uncomfortable.

We can do it too. I love the women aspect of it. I know when I entered the company, women weren't a big part of the management career and things like that, as far as being an assistant store manager. So I've always advocated for it - I made it kind of my thing when I became a manager to always push for the woman, to identify those different things in women, to promote them and push them and let them know that we can do this too. As a matter of fact, we can do it better than the guys do it. Don't ever shortchange yourself. Men are great allies - learn from them, pick up what you can pick up, but don't be afraid to advocate for women and to share your experience, knowledge, and different things with women. It shouldn't be a battle between us. We should be lifting each other up and trying to get to the same spots and at the top together. It doesn't help us to tear each other down, but if we build each other up, it's amazing the things that we can do and we can accomplish.

One of the biggest challenges is that it's hard to find good people - good people who want to work. I think COVID kind of had a hand in that a little bit, making people want to stay inside and not really go out into the workforce. That's one of the biggest challenges - people actually committing to work, wanting to stay and build and say this is my career. And then just understanding that you can be influential in different ways. The other thing is being in a small town - you have the challenges of having reoccurring customers, so you build those relationships, but then how do you get outside of that and help to build a business and make money? Those are probably the biggest challenges I face. And then just trying to motivate people and create habits - creating habits amongst people so that they understand what it is that they're working towards, why they're working, and how the business operates.

The values most important to me in my work and personal life are being authentic, maintaining your integrity, and above all else, just being who you are. No one can be you - you're uniquely you for a reason. Don't change that for anyone, don't change it for anything. Find a way to bring out the best part of who you are in everything that you do. So, being authentic, staying true to yourself, and leaning into that and making it work for who you are and where you want to be.