WOMEN AT
24
THE TOP
Melanie Bergeron
Chair of the Board, Two Men and a Truck
entious leaders. The best book that intensely addresses this is the Holy Bible
(read Proverbs!). Lincoln on Leadership
was a book I leaned heavily on in the
early years, and also Good to Great by
Jim Collins.
How has your life experience made
you the leader you are today? In
my early years, my family was lower
middle class working toward middle
class, which taught me a lot about the
value of hard work and leadership. My
parents were never afraid to get their
hands dirty and work incredibly hard
to get the things they wanted, which
gave me the inspiration and confidence
to do the same. Now, I appreciate and
recognize when others are ambitious,
energetic, and work hard to reach their
goals. These are the very people I strive
to be associated with.
I started working at 15 in retail, then
went on to be a waitress, bartender, even
a magician’s assistant! I’ve also had several different kinds of sales jobs, selling
air conditioners and mainframe computers through telemarketing. I was a
food broker, had my real estate license,
and finally got into pharmaceutical sales.
Even though they’re all different, these
jobs had one thing in common: serving
the customer and anticipating their
needs. I’ve always wanted to exceed my
customers’ expectations—I’m a people
pleaser. As a leader, I have always wanted
our team to hold these same values for
customer service. One of our core values
at Two Men and a Truck is something
we call the “Grandma Rule,” which says,
“Treat others the way you would like
your Grandma treated.” In other words,
with patience, dignity, and respect.
Role models? Most definitely my
grandmas and my mom. They were all
career women: incredible work ethic,
implementers, organized, results-driven,
and they knew how to get the job done
in a timely manner. While they we