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Dina Dwyer-Owens
Chairwoman and CEO, The Dwyer Group
How has your life experience
made you the leader you are today? I literally grew up working in
the business before it became a holding company for multiple franchised
service brands. By the time I was 13,
I was learning all about sales and customer service at a car wash my father
owned. From there I went on to work
in almost every aspect of our company.
From cleaning carpets to franchise
sales, I learned by doing. I also had
the privilege of being raised by parents who expected the best from all
their children. My mother grounded
me in my faith, and my father instilled
a strong work ethic to (as we like to
say) “re-earn my position every day in
every way.” Of course, I can’t overlook
the great lessons I inherited as a head
cheerleader in high school. Whether
it had to do with fundraising, creating
agendas for pep rallies, managing a
team of high-spirited girls, or speaking
in front of large groups and inspiring
the student body, faculty, and families,
I embraced those invaluable skills. And
in many ways, I call myself the head
cheerleader of The Dwyer Group today for some of those very same skills.
Role models? My father always told
me that whatever your mind can conceive and believe you can achieve—and
demonstrated that by achieving 99
percent of his personal targets. He also
had me listen to positive motivational
tapes from amazing leaders like Zig
Ziglar, Paul Meyer, Brian Tracy, etc.
He would pay me an extra allowance
if I listened to a program six times and
could answer his questions. He also
put m RF