Meet Mia Nelson

We were lucky to catch up with Mia Nelson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Mia, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

I got my work ethic from my mother, Tirzah Nelson. She raised my sister and I while being a single parent. She did whatever she had to do to keep me in dance classes. When I went to study dance at Arizona State University, she got two jobs to help me pay for college. She didn’t care how long her work days would be. As long as my sister and I were happy, she was happy. I look up to her for so many things, but she taught me so me much about work ethic and to go after what you want no matter what.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

My profession is being a dance teacher and dance team coach. I am someone who wakes up every day, getting to do what I love which is teaching dance. Dance is so special to me because I have grown up doing it since I was two years old. The art form of dance helps me out in so many ways. It helps me when I’m sad, stressed, or just want to blow off some steam! It also makes me really happy when I am in just in the mood to move my body. My favorite is teaching my students a combination to a song they resonate with, and they get really into it. That’s how im able to connect with my students. It makes teaching so special because my students are in my class because they love to dance, so we get to share the love we have for the art form of dance

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

The three most important things I learned while growing up in my industry is to work hard for what you want, speak up, and don’t be afraid to fail!

It is so important to work for what you want. If you don’t put in the hard work to get to where you want to be, you will not achieve it. It is never handed to you on a silver platter. The people who work hard and get noticed for putting in the work are the ones who get recognized by others and are given the opportunities you work towards to. Don’t be afraid to speak up! Sometimes you do need to speak your mind for what you want. Ask questions, be bold, and be confident. Lastly, none of us are perfect which means that you will make a mistake along the road. Acknowledge to yourself when you mess up, learn from it, and move on. People don’t care if you are wrong, they care about how you handle being wrong and what you are going to do to move past it.

Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?

When I feel overwhelmed, I like to self asses why I am feeling this way. I like to speak about it with either family or one of my close friends. 9 times out of 10 I am overwhelming myself for no reason, so that is why I like to talk about it with someone that I value to help me realize if I am being to harsh on myself. When I do feel overwhelmed, it’s mostly because of what my schedule for the week looks like. The way I cope with that is getting out my hand written calendar and writing out what I have planned for the week so I can organize when I need to have certain projects completed.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @ecpomcats
• Facebook: El Camino POMcats

Image Credits

Game Day Photos by Devina Lopez (instagram @devinalopezphoto)