Meet Candi Carter

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Candi Carter a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Candi, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?

Where do I get my resilience from? That’s such an interesting question, because I’ve always just done it, or, like the Nike commercial says, Just do it. I remember growing up, my dad was one of the hardest working people I know. He traveled five days weeks, sometimes more and came home and worked. My mother, growing up, was working on two master’s degrees with two small children, doing extracurricular activities, running community organizations, etc, etc. So both my parents were really hard workers. I think that’s where the idea of just going after it comes from. But even in high school, when I was running track I used to get up early and go in before school started to practice. When somebody says, no, for me it means go. Professional setbacks for me have always been opportunities because I’d work on my craft while I “waited” for my turn. I’m always working and always ready for opportunity.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I was raised in Merrimack New Hampshire in the late 70’s and 80’s. What’s unique about that experience is my family is African American and we were only one of four black families in my small town. There were so few blacks in New Hampshire at the time, that the Boston Globe ran an article called, “Blacks in New Hampshire” and my family was featured on the front page of the living section. I attended Boston College on a full NCAA track scholarship. My events were long jump, triple jump and high jump. When I graduated, I went on to pursue a career in television. CNN in Atlanta, then WISN TV in Milwaukee  and The Oprah Show  for 15 incredible years. I went on to Executive Produce shows for Disney – The View on ABC and The Tamron Hall Show – and now I run my own ecommerce tech company called, “Cistus Media.” We are an ecommerce provider for media partners. We give the tools and infrastructure to monetize their audiences with ecommerce.
Personally, I run a foundation for teens with intellectual and developmental disabilities called, “We’ve Got Friends.” We help our teens develop friend groups of their own. I am also a wife of 26 years and mother of two children. My daughter is a high school sophomore and my son is a 22 year-old with special needs.

 

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Competence – I find that even in the toughest situations with some of the toughest people – competence is impressive. Getting things done is a skill that most people don’t possess. It’s surprising but true.

Kindness – I’ve worked in media for more than 30 years. Sadly it’s a business that promotes bad behavior. Screaming, degrading, throwing things – I’ve seen it all and for years it was, and in many shops still is, the norm. I have been intentional about being kind and competent in every job I’ve held.

Great Communicator – The most dysfunction I’ve seen in interpersonal relationships is usually not what people say but how they say it. Most people, at a fundamental level are very poor communicators. Usually because they’re trying to preserve their own self-interests in some way.

What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?

In the last 12 months I’ve launched an e-commerce tech company called Cistus Media. After 30+ years of working in the entertainment industry – I’ve literally earned a real life MBA. I’ve run businesses before and managed hundreds of people – but raising capital and learning everything that goes with that has been an unbelievable learning curve for a 56 year old woman.

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