Sky Velazquez

I didn't have the best childhood and moved out of my parents' house at age 16, so when I was legally able to get a job full-time, I started working on the floor in the flooring industry at the manufacturing level. I knew I wanted to go to college and grow my career, so I started going to college full-time while working 12-hour shifts, 5 days a week. I made connections inside the plant and started doing backup for the receptionist and the person who managed production schedules and PO placements for parts and paying vendors. When that lady retired, they offered me the position. I took initiative and started doing projects on fixing issues I found in production scheduling, whether cost-related or efficiency-related to make it more productive. That initiative really got me seen, and I slowly started rising up inside the company with 3 to 4 promotions in the 5 years I was there. I ended up taking over that facility for all production needs and 11 to 13 warehouses across the United States, doing all the planning and shipping. When I felt like I couldn't go anywhere anytime soon at Mohawk, I wanted to keep building momentum and get more experience, so I left and went to Tarket where I got my first management position. I was managing quite a few employees and owning the planning from beginning to end, from raw materials to the customer, including freight. It was a mom-and-pop shop before they were bought out, so there were a lot of things that weren't where they needed to be, which gave me full control of getting them to a corporate level. I really started getting noticed on LinkedIn at that point, which led me to KIND shortly after they were bought by Mars. It was an amazing opportunity and where I needed to be for my life and career. I'm located in the carpet capital of the world, so you can't really do much other than flooring here, but I wanted experience to be one of those people you can throw at any company regardless of what they do and be successful. I needed to prove to myself that I'm capable of anything I put my mind to. At KIND, I had so many opportunities over 4 years to put my hands on everything. I'm a go-getter who wants to continue learning and learn a company structure from top to bottom. I threw myself into IT projects, planning, product development, and project management. I built fantastic relationships and friends that will last a lifetime. I got several awards and I'm still in touch with people all the way up to VP and leadership level. It was the time in my life when that imposter syndrome started to go away. When I was little, there were times we didn't have electricity, we didn't have food, we were eating at food shelters. I was one of those kids you wouldn't think would make it. As young as I was, I told myself I was going to change the course of my life, and that's exactly what I did. At KIND, I achieved the personal goals I set for myself, which were making 6 figures before age 30 and owning a house before age 30. Now my whole focus is rebuilding my family, putting back into my parents and grandparents, and setting a path for my kids to not have to go through the struggle and hardship I went through. I want to turn the family around and build a better foundation for the future lineage. Now at Legendary Milk, it's my next step. I want to keep growing my career and end up in a director-level position. I want to test myself to see how far I can get, then take all of this I've been through and all the dedication I've put into growing my career and changing my life, and talk to people about it, especially the youth. I've worked with multiple youth groups over the years, especially kids that come from struggling homes or hard situations, to prove to them that if you put your mind to it and own your story, you can take control of your life. No matter where you come from, you can make something of yourself and change your living situation. What you're born into doesn't have to be the rest of your life.