You all may be thinking… “Oh Michelle, you talked about overcoming challenges and getting through hard times last week.” And while you are right on the money with that, I wanted to give you guys my story on how I have overcome challenges in my professional life. It is important to talk about personal challenges, but I believe it is just as important to discuss professional challenges.
I feel very passionate about this topic being a woman in a male-dominated industry. People warn you about some of the female discrimination in industries like these, but it is a different story when you are immersed in it yourself. I give so much of myself to my work, and I need to be respected in return. Not only are there challenges in the towing business, but there are challenges with my personal brand as well – we will get into those a bit later.
Towing Industry
I knew immediately when I got started with my towing business that it was male dominated and that scared me a bit. I didn’t want to feel as though I didn’t belong, my team wouldn’t take me seriously, or that I wasn’t respected. However, because I am a badass woman, I quickly snapped out of that mindset and realized, if I was going to make something of myself I needed to change that attitude. I accepted that this industry was always going to be male-dominated and that some men would inherently not appreciate my hard work – but I didn’t care. This pushed me to work harder. It honestly fueled me knowing that some men wouldn’t like that there was a woman succeeding in the industry.
The idea of a male-dominated industry was an internal struggle for me, but I still encounter external struggles in the business today. Fuel prices are skyrocketing, rules and regulations are constantly changing, and it is becoming harder and harder to find drivers. With all of these challenges, I sometimes feel like I am wearing ten hats trying to juggle everyone and everything.
Today, I can proudly say that although it is tiring, I am supported by so many people that make overcoming challenges a lot easier. I am able to keep pushing and making strides because of my industry friends and mentors, my hard working team, and my passion for what I do.
My Personal Brand
I started my personal brand because I knew that people would be able to relate to me in some way or another. I have been through a lot of personal and professional challenges, and I have come a long way from those experiences. Surely there would be some people in the world that resonated with what I had to say, right? Well, yes this is true, people do have a lot of the same obstacles, and they did resonate with what I had to say, but with starting my own brand came a few struggles.
When telling your personal story, you are sharing it in hopes that it can help someone. I do not share my story to get attention, likes, and comments. I share my story so that I can reach an audience who feels lost, unconfident, negative, and ultimately wants to change their life for the better. There are millions of entrepreneurs like myself who share their story, but I want to be the one that resonates with all of you. Going through hard times, like divorce and everything else I have been through, I share hoping to be a different voice amongst a million others. The challenge for me is that I am not aware of everyone I could be helping. Sometimes I am sharing these personal moments hoping that I am impacting individuals, when in reality I don’t know if I am until I get that one person that reaches out to me telling me I positively impacted their life. That is why I do what I do. I feel if I can connect with someone personally then I have the ability to help them that much more.
This brand and my towing business are worth all of the challenges in the world because knowing I have the ability to impact people in a positive way keeps me going. I believe my voice is one that can help many people in different ways. I have persevered and survived so many things, and I want to share with all of you the many ways I got through them and continue to get through them today.
Live Life On Your Own Terms!
Michelle