This article is the first post in a series about creating momentum for your new, emerging work and business by strengthening your foundation before you attempt large-scale marketing efforts.
Article 1: Read Below
Article 2: How Mainstream Business Development Lets You Down, Steers You Wrong Article 3: When Business Guidance Triggers Business Trauma
Article 4: Business Development: There IS Another Way
Article 5: A Strong Business Foundation Creates Momentum in Your Emerging Venture
Article 6: The Best Way I Know to Create Momentum in Your Emerging Venture
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On June 3, 1991, I walked out the doors of my corporate job for the last time. I can still conjure up that memory and the feelings that went with it. Walking down the hall to the heavy double doors, flinging them open, and breathing in freedom!
Which means this month I'm celebrating the 30th anniversary of my business!
Sometimes it seems like just yesterday…
Honoring the Themes that Have Withstood the Test of Time
The path to get where I am now was certainly not straight! The journey was defined by moments of discovery, dedication to my insights, a few stretches of stomach-churning twists and turns, unexpected detours, and a few dead ends I didn’t spot soon enough.
Looking back, I can clearly see how the work I do now is the true culmination of the themes that have run through my life and business during the last 30 years.
(Good thing I didn’t listen to the conventional wisdom to focus my work on just one topic and release the others!)
Some of the most difficult passages of my life and business fueled my development, first personally and then professionally. Although these themes stand out clearly now, this wasn't always the case in the early years of my business.
As you read the scenarios below, do you see areas
of your life experience that have fueled your own
personal development that could now provide
sparks of insight about your emerging work?
Themes: Deep, Conscious Grief --> Seasons of Change
Some of you know that my father’s death in 1986 was a key turning point in my life. I had no notion how to handle the waves of emotion or the grief I felt so deeply. In 1984, before he was diagnosed with lymphoma, my father gave me a book about transitions: (William Bridges’ Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes). That book became my lifeline after his diagnosis and his eventual death.
Within a few months of his death, I noticed how changes in the natural world gave me new ways of thinking about my own response to change. These insights inspired me to turn to nature for solace and guidance as I consciously processed my grief. Throughout my healing journey, I noticed how little our society supports people in navigating changes in their lives—whether desired or unexpected.
My discoveries during this period of my life eventually became the foundation of my Seasons of Change work. This body of work led to countless presentations, two books, and several training programs for Change Catalysts. More recently, my way of seeing change helped me solve a riddle that stymied me for five years. (More on that in the next post in this Anniversary series.)
In response to the relentless waves of change we've all experienced in the last couple of years, I have updated, deepened, and refined my thoughts about how working with the changes in our lives can help us grow, heal, and evolve.
Change Catalysts are on the front lines of this important work now and will continue to be in the years to come. My new eBook: Riding the Waves of Change is an easy way to access my current understanding of how we can shift our relationship with change.
Themes: Burnout and Fatigue --> Career Change and Purpose Clarity
While working in the corporate world and grieving my father’s death and several other family losses, I slipped into a period of extreme fatigue. At 29 years old a 10-minute walk put me in bed for 3-4 hours.
Although I eventually sorted out some physical reasons for my fatigue, I also realized that my body was rebelling. The more my intuitive, creative, sensitive nature revealed itself through my healing process, the more obvious it became that my body, mind, and spirit were not built to thrive in a corporate setting.
In 1990 I became obsessed with figuring out the focus of my next chapter. I was asking the same question morning, noon, and night, on a continuous loop. At first, I hyper-focused on the question “What can I do?” Then the question morphed into “What do I want to do?” And finally I explored "How do I want to feel?"
After several long months, I came up with the notion of helping people navigate difficult transitions. Although this idea isn't very remarkable in 2021, in 1990 I was way ahead of the wave. Most people I talked to asked me if I helped women go through menopause or if I helped people die. They didn't have any sense that they might be going through a transition. Coaching was not a known profession at the time either.
Ultimately it turned out that many of my clients were craving a career change and wanted to do what I had just done — move toward a career that aligned with their values, deep nature, and preferred lifestyle.
(Notice my clients showed me my specialty! In all the planning I had done around my new business, I never considered this specialty. It wasn’t until I was working with actual paying clients that the light bulb of recognition flipped on. )
Over the years I worked with a full range of clients from CEOs to administrative assistants, from scientists to artists to create and refine a system that reliably gives clients insights into the work that expresses their interests, skills, and expertise while aligning with their values, personal style, and desired lifestyle.
My extensive expertise in this field led to three contracts with the publisher of the For Dummies series. In addition, since 2007 I have trained other Change Catalysts to use my Purpose Clarity Program with their clients.
And 30 years later, I'm still using a version of this program to help my clients gain clarity about their careers. Now, instead of working with clients searching for their next career, I work with Change Catalyst entrepreneurs who are bringing their work into the world.
Themes: Deep Calling, Deep Frustration --> Game-Changing Insight
In 2010 as I was approaching my 50th birthday, I started feeling called to deepen my work with clients. At the time I had no idea what that meant, but I knew, without doubt, that something significant was brewing.
For five long years I kept marketing my existing work while I searched for this new work. I alternated between investing in business development courses, working with marketing coaches, and exploring ideas on my own.
I was doing all the things I knew to do and still nothing worked. Nothing stuck. Emotionally and financially, I hit rock bottom. I became obsessed with finding a new answer, a new direction, a new inspiration, something, anything to give me hope again.
As with the other two themes I just described, this trying period ended up providing me with the insight that sparked an idea with potential that ultimately became the work I do now.
This game-changing insight is something I wish I had known much earlier in my quest to re-imagine my work.
This insight will be especially relevant to you if you are bringing your new, emerging work into form:
- Starting a new business
- Taking your existing business in a new direction
- Creating a new, innovative body of work
Read the next post in this series.
If you'd like to understand more about developing your work, download Carol's eBook:
7 Vital Milestones to Turn Your Emerging Idea into a Flourishing Business.