Tina Mosetis

Before you choose a career, you should really know what you're getting into. I think it's really important to call a lot of people and have informational meetings. You may call 10 people and perhaps 7 will blow you off, and maybe one will even be nasty, but you're gonna find one person that's willing to talk to you and give you advice about the career. Have informational meetings with people, preferably in person, but whether it's on the phone or via Zoom, it's okay. Prepare your questions in advance, what you're curious about, let them tell you about the career. If you can do an internship so you can get a flavor for what the everyday workload is like and what it consists of, that way you're going in with your eyes wide open.

I think things are much better today in terms of being accepted in the industry, and I think people are much more open to a woman's perspective than any other time in history, so that's really fantastic. One thing I can say is not to be shy, to be assertive in a positive way. I'll give you an example. One day I was giving a lecture before a large woman's organization, and I was shocked to notice that the front row was filled with young men, while all the women sat back from the stage. I pointed it out to the audience. I said, I don't want to embarrass the young men here, but if you notice, they're all in the first row. You've got to be aware of what you're doing and be assertive. And that goes for being in the workplace as well, so that people hear your voice, and don't be shy. And if you are nervous about asking a question or proposing an idea, maybe run it by people you trust, and that will give you more confidence to speak up.

Obviously, one of the big opportunities for brands is that there are so many ways to get the word out there besides your website. There are opportunities in social media, there are opportunities in videos to propose on social media. There's opportunities in terms of networking with other businesses, with award ceremonies, and pitching your brands for awards and presenting differences. All these opportunities, I think, are more accessible these days than ever before, because we have so many easy ways of communicating across the globe today to seek these opportunities and to make them happen.

Honesty is absolutely at the top of the list, because when you're building your personal life and your friends, you want honest friends who will tell you the truth and always be there for you in terms of you can trust what they're telling you. And with your clients, you want to build their brand in an honest way, because we live in a day where you can't deceive the public. In the old days, like in my parents' days, Hollywood could just make up stories about people and say they were from Zanzibar or wherever, and you couldn't catch them at it. But today, you can't deceive the public. It's always a bad idea anyway, but you can't get away with it because there's so many vehicles to find the truth, whether it's via the internet or just talking to your colleagues across the country easily these days. When you build your brand, you have to be honest about your brand, and if you make a mistake, you have to be honest about that.