A piece in the MentoringMoments section of forbes.com profiles Lou Hammond Group chairman and founder Lou Rena Hammond.

Lou Rena HammondLou Rena Hammond

Hammond recounts her career, which started out as a flight attendant on Pan Am’s Texas-Paris route in the early 60s.

She eventually became the tourism board liaison for the airline in New York, lobbying state and local governments and getting some experience with PR until 1984 when she started her agency.

Hammond credits the “corporate education” she gained at Pan Am.  “You get a sense of how business operates, and that’s helpful when you’re dealing with another business on your own – you know how they’re thinking.  Pan Am was a style, and that style became my motto: Do it right!,” Hammond says in the article.

Hammond’s advice for women includes getting as much education as possible, dressing right, respecting others and banking on the innate emotional intelligence and better understanding of human nature that women possess over men.

Lou Hammond Group is the #6 ranked travel PR firm in the country with $6.9 million in 2016 net fees, according to O’Dwyer’s.