Gaining Strength through Unity & Emerging Influence

Late 2017 and early 2018 provided us with the opportunity to run the gamut of highs and lows as new mostly self-employed business owners. The public events were successful overall, and full of learning experiences. Locally, it was our third year and the most successful to that point. The other being an hour away (while I worked the final month in my full time role) offered more adversities to draw seeds from than we can sift through here so we’ll circle back to that more later on. Both, though, were emceed by a gentleman we had gotten to know a year prior. The business relationship we had built with him and his team had grown substantially, and it was some of the most fulfilling work we had experienced.

My final day of full time employment was either late October or early November; I honestly can’t remember and I don’t have anything special noted on the calendar I follow so meticulously. If I’m being completely honest, I didn’t give much thought to it as a milestone since I supported that company for a month after. I do remember being annoyed when I received my first ever summons for jury duty just after leaving a salaried role that would have provided me full compensation rather than a $50/day stipend. If nothing else, it was a wake up call that anything less than accepting full responsibility for the success (or failure) of our new business was no longer an option.

While we had some wonderful opportunities through the final months of 2017, with a few adversities mixed into those, a few personal gut punches came during the same time; Cindy’s mom was diagnosed with a very aggressive cancer, which was caused by treatments she received for another form of cancer a few years prior, and my grandmother, who was in her early nineties but still living independently, fell and fractured several vertebrae. Each scenario brought its own challenges. Thankfully, we were both in a spot where we could be present to support them however we could. We still had tremendous workloads to juggle but the opportunity to move much of that around to serve our family members through some incredibly hard times.

I’ll share it again here because it’s that important: I’m not suggesting that the adversities we’ve been through are worse (or even as bad) as you may have been through. Truth be told, detailing them is one of the most awkward things I’ve ever done. That said, my hope is that each serves as a starting point for you to look at yours in a way you may have never done before. This particular period spanning several months not only pushed us to lean into doing more than we were being paid for in ways we never had; so many highs and lows in such a short time span helped us build a kind of unity that we may not have had otherwise, all while continuing to do everything in our power to strengthen the emerging influence we had worked so had to earn with each client we had even the slightest opportunity to serve. Pivoting through family shifts builds authentic relational power; consistency in uncertainty earns trust no title grants.

As we navigated each adversity, we saw how uncertainty turns leaps into the values alignment we had based so many other decisions on in the years prior. We’ll begin tying this look at embracing uncertainty together by addressing that next. Now, though, think about a small piece of your story, one where you made a leap of your own, and share the seed you’ve pulled from that with someone you trust. As you do that, think about the ripple effect you’ve seen since as you’ve nurtured that seed.