Woh… What a whirlwind!
The past two months have been far from predictable. In true spirit of the dictum, everything really does happen for a reason. The events of the last 8 weeks were a mix of good and bad, but I will just focus on the good and share that part of the story.
As you all know, I have asked myself many times if I was doing what I was truly meant to be doing. These reflexions have led me to set some pretty challenging goals for myself for the year and to subsequently create this blog but more importantly, I guess it also left me more open to possibility… I have worked in digital marketing for close to 10 years and I love it more today than I did back then but it finally occurred to me that I wasn’t channeling it properly. I was doing my work, in the wrong context. My good friend Dave Forde has been telling me for years that I needed to be doing my own thing, ie: mix together the things that I am most passionate about, namely digital marketing, giving back to people and community, the environment and volunteering. He could not have been more right!
At work, I’d been working on this account that was really close to my heart. My client was this amazing kindred spirit who shared many of the same views as me. We saw eye to eye on pretty much everything and I felt compelled to help her off hours too, in that if I found information that was relevant to her and her venture I would pass it along. From related articles to sources of funding or inspiration, I was constantly on the lookout for her. Within our professional relationship, the mandate she had given us was to create the branding and the interim microsite for her venture until the actual website was built, as well as to conduct a technical analysis that would detail how the site should be built. The first half of the mandate went off without a hitch but the second half, not so much…
This is where the story starts to twist. Most of my colleagues assumed that she now hated us and wanted nothing more to do with us, but what I tried to make everyone understand was that it simply wasn’t the case. She was very disappointed by the outcome of the analysis but she was overjoyed at the quality of the branding and microsite that we did deliver. It didn’t necessarily have to spell the end of the business relationship, but that was how it was interpreted internally. At this point my morale was pretty low and I felt disenchanted by the whole experience. The thought of leaving the agency did cross my mind but because I loved it there so much, I didn’t want to bail just because I was going through a rough patch… That’s not my style. But then again, I wasn’t sure if it was just a rough patch either… I had to decide between “fight or flight”. I hadn’t slept well since the problems we had on the second half of the mandate and I was walking on eggshells at work. I desperately needed to decompress and regroup. Thankfully, just when I thought I could not feel worse, my best friend and I split for South Beach, FL for a long weekend at this awesome boutique hotel 2 blocks from the beach. While there, my client sent me an email with a question about something work-related. She figured I’d be checking my emails (turned out, she knew me as well as I knew her). I answered her and we had a couple of back and forths until she added that even though she knew I was happy where I was, if ever I decide to go elsewhere, she hoped I would consider joining her. Little did she realize the headspace I was in… I wrote back and suggested we speak when I returned. Strangely, after that moment, I already felt lighter and was able to relax and thoroughly enjoy my time in SoBe.
To say that the next 3 weeks went by fast is an understatement. She and I met for lunch that week. We talked about everything that happened – good and bad and in spite of the bad she told me that in the grand scheme of things it didn’t matter. She never personally blamed me anyway. She and I both believe that everything happens for a reason and so we were quickly able to put the bad behind us and focus on the now and the future. The offer she made me was more than I could have hoped for. I felt like Diane Keaton in Baby Boom where when she was made an offer that blew her mind, her nerves would get the best of her and she would start to bang her knee against the underside of the tabletop… I still took the weekend to think about it but my mind was already made up.
I resigned that Wednesday and gave a 2 1/2 week notice. In between places, I took a week off.
As of May 20th, I officially started my role as Partner, responsible for Marketing and Business Development at BuyCanadianFirst.ca. I’ll write about it in a future post but if you are curious, the microsite explain very well who we are and what we are about. SOOO much more to come…
I can’t even begin to express how excited I am about this!
Filed under: Events, People, Travel, Update | Tagged: Buy Canadian First, client relations, community, employment, giving back, kindred spirit, satisfaction
