Stephanie Henley

Definitely grit. It's kind of the way that I was raised - just a hard work ethic and sticking through things when times are tough. It takes some thick skin to keep pushing and building... to keep coming back day after day when the motivation runs thin. For the first couple of years, it was just me... leading distribution efforts for the US and everything that goes with, pushing and doing everything I can to maximize profit. It takes a lot of grit and stick-to-it-ness to show up every day knowing it's going to be hard, and there's no one else there to pick up the slack but yourself. You definitely learn something there over time. COVID was a major hurdle to jump over. We bought a building in 2020 thinking that we were going to begin manufacturing in 2020, but we couldn't get machines brought over, the supply chain was completely disrupted, and customers were closing down or selling out. We couldn't get anything done until mid-2021, so just trying to hang on financially through that time was an obvious challenge too. But steady deliberate actions led to the desired outcome. We are continuing to add machines to support our ever-growing US customer base.

One of my first mentors, Kellum Ferree, always said to me, "Set yourself up for success." And what does that mean? It sounds so cliche. But when you think about it, timing is everything. She really stressed going into your next work week - set yourself up for success on Friday afternoon. Instead of slowing down and thinking about your weekend plans, prepare for the next week instead. That way you're not thinking about it over the weekend. Go ahead and run through your schedule. Check your personal and professional schedule to make sure you don't have anything sneaking up on you. Check what meetings you have coming up. Prepare an outline if you've got to present. Just any of the little things you can do to get ahead. Because if you're starting prep on Monday... well, there's already some wasted time in the week. That's one of the things that I like to advise people too - prepare on Friday. It's like sharpening your axe every Friday afternoon. If you want to cut down a tree faster, you need to sharpen your axe. It's boring and monotonous to take the time to slow down and do that, but you see better results at the end of each week.

Definitely ask questions. Educate yourself and use the 80-20 rule of listening more than you're speaking, especially in sales or an advocacy role. Use your compassionate energy to listen to what workers are telling you,. They're the ones that fuel what I'm doing, because at the end of the day, the hands that build our cars, our city skylines, they deserve protection.

There are several challenges right now. One is raising HAVS and HAV related injury awareness, and another is getting the HAV-Sentry name out there. Furthermore, OSHA does not have a standard for daily vibration exposure limits, so HAV falls under the General Duty clause. This leaves a loose interpretation of vibration exposure safety, and therefore, a safety gap that exposes millions of workers to invisible risk. Part of my work as a Worker Safety Advocate is pushing the initiative for OSHA to set the Standard on Daily Vibration Exposure Limits. With HAV-Sentry being a brand-new, wildly unique product to the U.S., organizations are not really looking for the product just yet. But this is equally the biggest opportunity honestly, vibration is in so many different industries - construction, manufacturing, oil and gas, landscaping, woodworking... There are so many different opportunities for outreach.

Definitely taking ownership and accountability. Anything that I do, and I teach this to my boys as well, you go all in. We're not going to do anything halfway. We're going to claim ownership for what you do AND take pride in what you do. And then, of course, taking responsibility for your actions. If you've made a mistake, we're all human. Let's pick up the pieces, learn from it. Definitely not slipping off or trying to minimize your impact if you've made a mistake. Those are two very important things that I carry in both work life and home life.