A Brief History
2020 was a great year for bright STRATEGY + SOLUTIONS. It was the year bright was reborn, and the year I figured out what I was willing to go to zero for. I started my consulting firm back in 2018 and decided to take it full-time early in 2019. It was great! I was invigorated, refreshed and on cloud nine! Day in and day out, I was on phone calls with my LinkedIn and other contacts – some of which were potential clients. I was on webinars and going to networking events; and I was happy. It was the happiest I had been in a long time. And it lasted for about 3 months.
At around the two-month mark, I received a call from an old colleague. He thought I’d be a great asset and wanted me to come work for him at an ad tech company in south Florida. I had some of the most candid interviews I’d ever had – after all, I had nothing to lose. The benefits were great, the pay was good, the title okay; the company seemed to be on an upward swing and the job was a good balance of interesting and challenging. All that considered, I erred on the side of security, decided to put my business on the back burner and took the job. Can you feel my enthusiasm fleeting?
Time to Make a Change
Before long, I was working 12-hour days, eating out all the time, hardly sleeping and drinking a lot of wine just to wind down at night. This went on for months. There was just too much work, too few team members and never enough time in the day. Once 2020 rolled around, COVID-19 changed everything and like for many others, isolation was draining. Finally, after a mild mental breakdown to my HR director, I realized that I was officially burnt out. As a result, I tendered my resignation two days later. It was not received well, but it was, hands down, the right decision.
It took me a good two weeks to regain any form of motivation, but for the first time in my life, I was lost. Any motivation I had recouped in those two weeks was for naught, especially since it wasn’t targeted. I realized I hadn’t just back-burnered my company, but had set aside the life I envisioned when I started bright STRATEGY + SOLUTIONS. The freedom, the ownership, the quality of work…all of it was a distant memory. I wasn’t ready to give it another shot, but I knew I wanted to accomplish something in 2020.
One day, I received an email from my Toastmasters club (a club I hadn’t attended in months), advertising a weekend workshop. I had nothing else going on, so I decided to attend. For a night owl, I surprised myself when I woke up in time for the 8am virtual session. But thank God I did. You can read more about the impact of this session and Accountability Partners here.
WARRIOR
All of a sudden, I found some semblance of direction. I decided to write a book: WARRIOR – a raw, real, uncensored story about my journey in beating a very rare, very aggressive type of breast cancer. I finished and published it in about three months. In my writing process, I realized two things: 1 – how important it is to ‘barf it out;’ and 2 – attitude is everything.
In an attempt to take my own advice, I tried to change my attitude – a very difficult task. But I forced myself out of bed in the morning, found reasons to get pumped up and get excited and relied heavily on my savings to get me through this slump.
One day, I was watching Gary Vaynerchuk’s Marketing for the Now live stream. GaryVee was interviewing one of the many who’s who of the marketing and branding world. As they spoke, it dawned on me that the people who were successful and truly happy with their lives had accomplished their goals. They found something that they couldn’t NOT do. Something they were willing to go to zero for. By ‘willing to go to zero,’ I mean, they found something they were so attached to, that they were willing to spend all their savings and time and risk total loss in order to accomplish. If that doesn’t scream dedication, passion, purpose, I don’t know what does.
Going to Zero
In the last few months since I published WARRIOR, I thought long and hard about what I’m willing to go to zero for. I realized that for me, it’s a series of decisions…What do I want? To help people grow – personally and professionally. To use my voice and my point of view to inspire and empower people at all ages and stages of life and careers. And bright STRATEGY + SOLUTIONS is the vehicle to do just that. As we settle into the new normal of a post-COVID19 world, and make our way into 2020, I challenge you to figure out what you’re willing to go to zero for – and start heading in that direction. As for me, bright STRATEGY + SOLUTIONS is my zero barrier, but hopefully I won’t get there.