Stacy Richardson

For me, it's hard work. Getting up every day knowing that there's something I need to go do to be successful, and figuring out what that path is and doing it. You know, like, with my son, he's had his own business since he was 12. And it's just a matter of, what do you want to do in life? Get up and go do it, don't let anybody stop you. Be unstoppable.

I think the best career advice would be to put blinders on and not listen to the noise. You know, you got a lot of people - a lot of people will tell you, you can't do this, or you've bit off too much. I mean, the waste industry, that's a huge industry, it's over a trillion with all the big boys. But knowing that we're doing something no one else in the world is doing, processing trash upstream of the trash truck even showing up, doing something very innovative, never been done before - you have to keep the blinders on and not listen to the noise.

My advice to women, and especially women in my industry, is seek each other out. One of the things that I've done over the past year is put together a Women-Owned Waste and Recycling Collective, WOW-RC, and we jokingly call ourselves the Women of Waste. We all own different waste companies, have different waste streams that we process, and we all work together in collaboration to bring a full-package solution to our clients. Or bring each other to the table when we know we need that extra help, or we're not going to be able to close a deal - it's not for us, but it is for one of our women, then we bring them to the table to give them the opportunity. So it's about bringing that chair and setting that chair at the table with you, and not being competitive about it, but being collaborative and seeing how you can work together to build each other's businesses.

I'm breaking the system. The way you handle trash now is you throw it away, you take it to the curb, and you don't ever think about it. And that's an old, outdated system, because trash is an asset, it is not a liability anymore. There's so many amazing things we can do with trash to become new energy or new products. It's about teaching people you're paying someone to carry a dumpster full of cash away. Why are you doing that? Why not get paid for your trash? And let me show you how to do that. So, for me, the hardest part of this journey is rewriting that system and educating people on there's other ways to put money back on your budget with the stuff you're throwing away.

Integrity would have to be the first one, because your name is the only thing you are given in this world, and so you have to take care of it. And then, you know, the other is taking care of people. You're not gonna get anywhere by yourself, you have to have relationships.