Melissa Bradley

You talked a little bit about how it's easier for women today. There are more mentors and role models out there. Who were your role models and mentors?

My mom worked several jobs to keep me in school. She sent me to private school after some negative experiences in the public school in my area. She worked during the week and she worked on the weekend. I gained a work ethic from her that has stuck with me through the years. She was a role model because I would come home and say, "Hey, guess what? I want to be an astronaut. I want to be President. I want to be a ballerina." She would say that's great, let's research that. She got me this huge picture book of all the Presidents. And I'm like, "I'm noticing a trend here, Mom. There's no women. There's no Black people." And she goes, "Well, why is that and what does it take to be President?" And so I really began to learn a lot. The challenging on her part allowed for my own timing, self-paced growth, and oftentimes you don't get from people.

How do you balance your personal and professional life. How have you resolved that? Or at least, how do you deal with that?

Working for myself has really allowed that because I feel like I have better control of my time. I think I've done a couple things. I surround myself with friends. I tend to make sure that I only work with people who share the same values that I do so that when I'm working it's not a negative experience. One of the things that I've had people say is "You know you work too much, Melissa." And I say I really don't because I enjoy what I do. I think the whole balance between work and family becomes skewed when one is neglected over the other, or when you are doing one thing that you don't like and you really wanted to do the other. I tend to be the kind of person who just loves to work because I really love what I do. So what I decided to do is surround myself with people that I could have both fun with and work with. I also tend to just schedule time in. I love to play golf and so I do that. I got into running, so there's time that I spend with myself. I do daily meditations. That's time that I spend with myself.

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