Vera Minot, 35
Co-owner & Creative Director, Southwest Solutions
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What about your work brings you joy?
I think what brings me joy at work is seeing the aha moment when I’m explaining to a client how their merch can facilitate real connection, and they get it, and they’re like, “Oh my gosh.” It’s giving them a little bit of the warm fuzzies of the why that moves me, and then I get to see it move them, and I get to see it light up their face. That’s a really, really cool moment.
What is your approach to leadership?
I know that I have a standard I aspire to. Leaders should strive to be their highest selves. It’s really hard to navigate other humans when you are not as regulated as possible and as present as possible. It’s really hard to do right by other humans, I think, in a true human-to-human kind of way. So, I approach leadership pretty much the same way as general self-growth, just with a little bit more of an emphasis on interpersonal dynamics.
How do you juggle interpersonal instincts with the needs of the business?
When I’m dysregulated, the business side of me just wants to see performance gets louder. Sometimes that tension exists, but if I pay at least a little bit of attention to myself, I can usually pinpoint that. If I’m struggling that hard to approach the situation like a full-blown human who has done a fair amount of work on myself for the purposes of being a good leader, that’s usually pretty good data that I need to go touch some grass or something – or in the case of Arizona, play in the dirt, which is just as awesome.
