Zarreah Dent

I would definitely say being surrounded by a community of like-minded people is key for me. I thrive in creative spaces, so anything that I can add a creative spin to, I just love that. I would also say prioritizing time and scheduling, making sure that I'm having a good balance of things. Especially as a businesswoman, having a social club, working full-time, and then having a business, it can all be really crazy. But I never really feel overwhelmed because I always make sure to allocate enough time for each bucket. I would definitely say making sure that you prioritize self-care at the forefront of everything you're doing, so that you never lose sight of you and what your mission is. And then, mission-wise, grounding yourself in your purpose, in your why. The reason we find what you're doing, and staying focused on that, because I think sometimes when you're going through ups and downs, we often forget about why are we even doing this. But there's always a light at the end of the tunnel.

The best career advice I ever received was: You are in your own lane, and that's okay. Don't focus on what other people are doing. Don't compare yourself, because you have value, you bring value to this space, and you matter. That one definitely stood out to me, because especially when you're new and upcoming, I think it's so easy to kind of compare yourself or think about what you're not doing. Sometimes we focus on where we want to be versus where we are. It always resonated with me.

I would definitely say it's okay to make mistakes. And I would also say that you have everything that you need. It's a marathon, not a sprint. I would also say that the long-term goals are just as important as the short-term goals. Those are my little nuggets.

I definitely think challenges are, I would say, the ability to be able to partner and sponsor with various different organizations to be able to pull off events. I would also say other challenges is just getting everybody on the same schedule. My social club is called the Busy Girls Travel Society because all of the women that are part of the social club, we really are busy women. Part of what is the challenge is getting everybody on one accord. It's not so easy to just snap your fingers and get all of these amazing women in one space. It takes a lot of planning and coordinating and feedback. Creating a community where the people that are part of your community, they feel part, and there's alignment in terms of scheduling. Other challenges I would say is funding, I think is always a big one for any club or nonprofit or organization. Where is the budgeting and funding coming from? How are you able to pull off these things? I would say one more would be just time management too, because at least for me, I wear a lot of different hats. I think at the end of the day, regardless of the hats that I wear, people still look up to me to basically operate and run the social club, regardless of all the things that are going on. So time management is definitely important, and managing stress is another challenge.

Values that really are important to me are genuine connections. I think that's the forefront of everything that I am trying to build with my social club, everything that I stand for. Part of also being just a good person too is being genuine and being kind, so I think that's number one on the list. Other values that are super important to me are sisterhood. The social club, we don't just operate in the lens of we just come together here and there, but we really operate as sisters. Part of what our focus is reclaiming what it truly means to be busy, and how do we do that? By pouring into ourselves and also pouring into each other. Another value that is super important to me is accountability. That's really important to me because there are so many things that are happening all at once, and we all have to be accountable for everything that we're doing, and so showing up is at the forefront. I would definitely say those three are definitely genuine connections, sisterhood, and accountability. And then values that we truly value are definitely self-care and reclaiming our crown. That's what we stand for, reclaiming our crown.