Q: What is your personal formal education background?

My formal education in business was not achieved in a straight line. As a little girl, my dream and the expectation, was for me to become a doctor. So that’s what I set out to become, that’s what I told everyone I was going to be “when I grew up”. That or a WNBA basketball player, although nobody else seemed to like that one as much as “Doctor”.  Fast forward to my college admissions and there I was picking my major, Biology obviously. The first two semesters, nothing crazy happened, between completing GEs, your basic biology courses and working 6 days a week to pay for it all, I barely had time to think about what I was studying, let alone if I actually liked it or not. In my second year, the notorious anatomy class landed in my lap, and it was then for the first time that I realized, I actually really do not like this.  Having to memorize every single crevice of the human body, just did not float my boat, rock my world or anything of the sort. I ended up dropping out of that class and taking an incomplete. Of course, you cannot get a biology degree without completing Anatomy so I found myself in a bit of a predicament. The next semester I focused on completing more GEs and instead of picking science electives, I picked some out of the box ones I wouldn’t normally go for. One of them was your basic intro to Business course. Instantly, I fell in love with the course. Despite my still ridiculous schedule, I was actually engaged and on fire in this course. Deciding to switch majors on the spot and taking only business courses the next semester, I realized I finally found a place where I actually belonged.  With that, I added another year to my schooling portfolio and finished with a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Management from the University of California, Northridge.

Q: What is your personal professional work background?

My professional working career began at 16 years old when I got my first “real” job to help my parents with household bills and start earning my own money. Of course, like everything else in my life, I didn’t dive in half-heartedly… I decided to take a night job working 4 nights per week initially and moving up to working 6 nights per week while still going full time to high school. The job itself was nothing to write home about, physically and mentally draining, but the face pacedness of my life moving forward instilled a work ethic in me like no other. A couple of years later, while applying to colleges, I quickly realized that financial aid was not going to be my friend, so I put my tuition, books, school supplies, etc on credit cards, took out a loan and kept my 6 day per week work schedule to start my rat race of paying down my student debt. Once out of school, I obtained an internship with a small start-up technology company in North Hollywood, CA and for the first time in my life, I worked a regular M-F, 9-5 job and realized that I now had way too much time on my hands. I quickly moved up the ranks in this small business and used my spare time to continue researching, taking online classes and equipping myself with as much knowledge as I could to continue succeeding. Working in mundane, laborious, physically demanding, unappreciated jobs for the first 10 years of my working life was a great motivator to do everything I could to never have to go back there. In a couple of short years, I moved up from being an intern, to a Sales Assistant, to a Sales Manager and then to a Project Manager.

Q: What is your driving motivation in life?

A: My driving motivator in life has always been to help others. For better or worse, if I’m feeling sick, down, depressed, great, happy, sad or otherwise, I get up and do whatever it takes to ensure we are moving the needle for somebody in a positive direction each and every day.

Q: What do you like best about working at CCFI?

A: Being in the working force over half my life now, I have had the opportunity to work with all types of people, co-workers, peers, colleagues, managers, bosses, etc. BUT, I have never felt more “at home” than I do working for this company. Considering I spend more time with my business partners than I do with my own family and friends most days, it would be pretty unbearable if I still worked with some of the A-holes I’ve encountered in my life. Besides being a professional “match made in heaven” with my partners, we are all just genuine people first, who truly care about our customers and take pride in the level of care we provide to them…and I don’t care who you are or what type of business you are in, that is the first and most important quality in running a successful business and in life in general.