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Christine Browning

L’OBSERVATEUR

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your business: 

I am the General Manager at L’OBSERVATEUR. My job is running the day to day operations. I am also a Notary Public. 

 I have been with the paper for 14 years and started out as an ad rep selling print ads. The products L’OBSERVATEUR offers has grown by leaps in bounds since that time. We not only have the newspaper, but also magazines and a busy website. In addition to a presence on social media, L’OBSRVATEUR has the ability to sell a wide variety of digital products such as website development, email blasts and streaming commercials. 

Who are some role models you look up to, and why? 

We moved around quite a bit when I was a child. My parents taught me to be self reliant and gave me an education. They taught me the world did not revolve around me giving me the ability to work within a team structure, but also the tools to be able to lead the team. 

 Though she was not raised to believe it, my mom was multi talented and generally able to learn what ever it is that she wanted to learn. When I was in grade school she tried to go to college and someone at the school mocked her and told her she wasn’t smart enough. My mother eventually went to college and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in History and Business when she was in her late 40s. She had a sense of humor and taught us how to laugh at ourselves. If you could dish it, you had to be able to take it. 

 I was taught to be kind to others and show respect.

Why is it important to encourage and be a role model for other young women that want to get into business? 

 They are the future. The world is changing so fast and sometimes it is hard to judge what is real and what isn’t.  There is an understanding comes from doing. 

What advice would you offer?   

 You don’t fail until you quit. Not succeeding the first few or several times is not failure. It is learning.  Everyone is allowed to learn. When this happens think about what you did right and how you can improve what didn’t go quite so well.

 Listen to those that have come before you, have fallen down and learned the lessons.

 When a company wants to teach you something, learn it. Knowledge is never wasted. You never know when it will come in handy in the future.

 When you succeed, think about what you did well, what didn’t go quite as you would have liked and ways to make it better. Success is easier when you have a model to recreate it.

 Be kind to others. The guy sweeping the floors may be a multi millionaire. 

If you can avoid it, never burn bridges. You may have to go back down that bridge.

 Know your audience. It can save you heart ache.

 You can’t control the behavior of others, but you can control your reaction.

 Surround yourself with successful, positive, happy people. People that you want to be like. Don’t be afraid to befriend someone smarter or older than you. They may have something to teach you.

 I have a friend that was a Marine for 20 years and when in a supervisory position he would always find the smartest person in the room to help him. He would also work with the strengths and talents of the people he was assigned to. Though he doesn’t consider himself to be smart, he has excellent people skills and is able to complete complicated tasks. He told me a story about a project he had to do and there was a person that had done it multiple times. He let that person take the lead and his group not only came in first, but they had to go back for one of the other teams.