Tonja Lewis

I attribute my success to my relationship with God. If I don't seek Him, and if I don't read, and if I don't pray, and if I don't fast, and I have a relationship with God, everything else in my life is not going to flow. Whether good, bad, or indifferent, I'll still be able to withstand, because I have a relationship with a God that withstands it all.

The best career advice I received is to be consistent and learn your brand. Learn your brand and be consistent. The learn your brand really overpowers more with the consistency, because once you learn it, you want to be consistent, because you learn more about it, because this arena is changing all the time. It allows you to stay humble. It allows you to stay grateful. It allows you to build your character, not because you are a CEO, but because you are a person that is serving their purpose, their God-given purpose.

Learn more about who you are, and be patient with yourself. Don't rush. Embrace all that you have endured. Embrace your traumas. Embrace your scars. Embrace your fall. Because throughout life, things happen. So, embrace who you are. And don't stay stuck negative. Take your time with yourself. Enjoy while you're building. Be patient with yourself and enjoy while you're building.

The biggest opportunities are that you can actually expand if you put in the work and use the right tools and have the right teams, because you can't do this by yourself. It's a team effort. The challenges are how the laws have changed drastically in reference to funding and health insurance. Everyone is being affected. You have to become strategic on how you could still provide services to those that are in need, and sustain your business and the staff. The grants, the healthcare challenges, the laws that's changing, paperwork that's being signed to cut back on funding.

Building foundational relationships is very important, because you cannot do this work by yourself. You have to build relationships, because you need people. In my personal life, that is something that I implement in my friendship, relationship, communication. You have to build relationships, and it takes a while to build relationships, because you're getting to know the person, the people. There is no rush. Building relationships and in-band growth of building is very, very pivotal and very important to me. Because where I meet you does not mean that's where you're going to stay.