Happy birthday, Allovus! With 7 years in business under our belt, it’s nice to reflect back on our successes and look forward to our future. Over the years, we’ve laughed and learned from our mistakes, grown as a company and as people, and are extremely grateful for those that make our success possible—and that’s All-ov-u.

We asked our fearless leader, Hayley Nichols, to share 7 life lessons that she’s learned along the way; one for each year Allovus has been in business.

1. Focus on people’s strengths and talents. Rather than getting upset with people when they’re not getting to something—make it easy for them to hand it off to others who can.
2. Make decisions quickly and be okay with making some mistakes along the way. If you don’t make decisions quickly, it can paralyze the work and productivity. Sometimes you can’t make speedy decisions because you don’t have all the info. In that case, you have to rely on others that have subject-matter expertise and be okay if they make mistakes.
3. The relationships you have with everyone around you is what leads to your success. You have to align with people who share your core values.
4. Go with your gut and trust it. Don’t worry about how people are going to perceive your choices.
5. Don’t say yes to everything that comes through the door. You have to vet it and make sure it represents who you are.
6. Establish not only your individual brand, but your company brand—and do it early. Live your brand—who you are, what you do, and what you stand for. Go back to your core values when making decisions—that way, you can only succeed.
7. White space is GOOD! Everybody needs white space—that’s where you come up with new ideas. If you constantly have noise going on in your head, you can’t think clearly or be creative. Turn off your phone, don’t listen to the radio, go get a massage. I’ve learned to give my brain resting time and white space. Think of it as a clear white board; if it has a bunch of stuff on it, wipe it clean. Then you’ll have the space to say, “How can I present a solution to this problem?”

Hayley is looking forward to the next 7 years. “I think they’re going to be awesome. I know our employees are living our brand and representing our values well. Our business team is doing great. They do what they do best and that allows them to shine. It makes it easy for me to focus on our future, our strategy, and any products we want to develop.”

Happy birthday, Allovus! Cheers to many more.