“Trust yourself,” Christine Gambino from Flywheel

Meet Christine Gambino, Chief Operations Officer at Flywheel Digital, where she drives strategy and operational excellence for the company. Her educational background in business information systems, information technology, and management technology have led her professional endeavors across a variety of brands, including her career at Flywheel Digital as a Director of DevOps before she stepped into her role as COO. Outside of her career and efforts to improve the strategy and operations, she spends her time going on adventures with her family. 

Christine joined Morgan James, Content Marketing Specialist at SiriusXM Media, to be a part of a special, upcoming season of the Pass the Mic Podcast called Mentor Me. In her interview, they discussed the challenges of navigating your career as a woman and the best practices to help you thrive.

Listen to the full interview with Christine below, then check out highlights from the conversation.

Enjoy yourself.

Highlight: “Just trust yourself. Trust that you are there for the right reasons. And trust that your path, although it may not be linear, you'll get to where you belong. And the opportunity is yours. Enjoy it, and make the best of it. And, just in general, have fun. You only live once. And at the end of the day, with the amount of time that you're gonna spend in your career, make sure that you’re doing it because you want to be doing it, and it's good for you.” - Christine Gambino

It’s all about what you want.

Highlight: “The sky's the limit. I never thought that I would be here sitting having this conversation in a million years. And telling my younger self to believe that there isn't a top, necessarily. It's all about what you want. And if you want to be a C-suite, go be a C-suite. If you want to be the CEO, go do it. If you want to be a stay-at-home mom, great, do it. But ultimately, just do what you want to do and do what makes you happy.” - Christine Gambino

You don't always have to prove yourself.

Highlight: “Earlier in my career especially, and even now, I'm oftentimes the only woman in the room. And I find myself naturally being like, ‘Okay, I’ve got to prove myself. I have to prove that I need to be there and I have something valuable to say.’ And it took me a while to overcome. Just because I may be the only person, from a female perspective, in the room, it doesn't mean that I have to say something… Learning that I didn't have to prove myself, I didn't have to speak, I didn't have to get the last point or a point across really helped me gain respect from my peers and my leaders above.” - Christine Gambino

Learn and listen.

Highlight: “Listening is just as much a great advantage to yourself and your career as talking. The learning and listening of—what is happening in the room? what is happening around you? et cetera—and being able to then formulate a very concise perspective or point of view on how you're bringing something to the table, is a great skillset that I definitely would offer to anyone, female or not, to learn and be comfortable in as they go through their career.” - Christine Gambino

Focus on the opportunities in front of you.

Highlight: “Oftentimes we're so busy looking at everything else in the world or in the company that's happening. And we sometimes miss that opportunity and we don't realize that if you focus on the opportunity that you have in front of you, then that may be your catalyst for your career. And having that focus and just making sure that you don't deviate from that, can really help you over the course.” - Christine Gambino

Learn from everyone around you.

Highlight: “There's nothing that says you can't learn from everyone around you—even family, and friends, and everything. And it's just a matter of a little bit of self-awareness. And one of the things I always try to coach when I do have the opportunity for a lot of our colleagues is, the more that you can understand your own positive traits and the things where you still have opportunity to grow and have that self-awareness, that's gonna allow you to continue to grow, whether that be in an actual career or just as a person.” - Christine Gambino

Moving forward in your career starts with trusting yourself. And Christine’s advice gives inspiration to the younger generations as they learn and grow. For more motivating content like this, check out the Pass the Mic page.

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