Well, I guess if I think back to the beginning of my career, I grew up in a family on that didn't have a lot of money. And so I had to work very hard for any extras that I wanted, such as going out to eat, or a car, or nice clothes, or anything I wanted. So I started working at a very young age. I had a series of jobs - a hamburger place, Wendy's, and Pizza Place, Round Table. And then I ended up working in a grocery store, which was called Lucky's at the time. And I think those early work experiences taught me the value of hard work and dedication and money, and also just putting up with the nonsense that you have to put up with sometimes in the workplace, teaching me some measure of resilience, which I think has served me very well, as I kind of grew into my career along the years

So my role - I've been a C level executive in my current position and in the last few positions I've held. I am responsible for everything from hiring, to developing to off boarding employees in our company. It's a lot. I also run internal communications and all of our corporate social responsibility functions. So the kinds of decisions I make really have to do with everything that falls into those areas of responsibility. So it's quite broad and quite people focused. Regarding my work hours - it varies, but it's definitely more than 40 hour work week, and it honestly has been for the majority of my career in this role. But with that level, you do get paid more, and you get more perks around flexibility and things you need to do, so there are tradeoffs for sure. At this level of a job - and my last company was a very global company - I traveled a ton because we had employees sitting in 58 countries, so I was on the road a lot, and, well, it was fun to see a lot of interesting new places and meet people all over the world. I mean, it's great. I know have friends all over the world. I love that. But I was hard on my family. I've got two kids and I'm married. And, you know, that was hard. And I don't honestly know if I could have done that particular role without the family support at home from my husband. So I'm lucky, fortunate to have a support network that allowed me to have this job.

So I guess, particularly in a small company, but really any company, resources are always the biggest challenge. There's never enough money or people or tools or systems do all that stuff you want to do. I've seen this at many companies. You identify great stuff that needs to be done, and you want to do it - you have these great ideas and you want to implement new programs and you just don't have the resources. So, first we have to prioritize. And then, second of all, you have to be kind of gritty and resourceful and do a lot of things on your own, or find ways or workarounds to do things. So an example about when I was that Genesys, my last company, I really wanted to create a robust diversity and inclusion program. This was several years ago, and there just wasn't appetite for it at the senior leadership level. They wouldn't give me money for a diversity officer. Nobody would offer up much money for the things I wanted to do to implement this program. And so because I led internal communications, I sat down with the person who is my internal communications person and we designed an awareness program and a training program. Basically, we did it ourselves with the resources we have at hand without having to spend any money and it was quite successful. And within a year, and because I own recruiting, I also could push the recruiters to bring in more diverse candidates and to have women and people of color on interview panels. And so I could implement things that didn't cost anything, because I controlled some of the the things that contributed to a good diversity program. And at the end of the year, we actually improved our percentage of women in the company by a full percent, which for company that big to move the needle like that is actually pretty good. It might not sound like very much, but I was pretty proud of it. I guess the other challenge, I would say I experience a lot of, being both a woman and an HR professional, you get two strikes against you sometimes - sometimes being heard is the challenge. So really learning how to influence, is a great skill. And I have learned that, sometimes, being the loudest voice in the room is not the way to be heard, but figuring out how to navigate relationships effectively across the organization, to get buy in for your decisions and your programs, and the things you want to do is the best way to get things done.