Life Update: August 2023

^{Photo by Elizabeth Baltadjieva on Pexels}

I have a life update: I got a new job! Next week, I start working for Carter Myers Automotive (CMA), a Fortune 500 family business based in Charlottesville. My role will be leading human resources and employee experience for the 25 dealerships and 1,200 employees. I’m thrilled to start this new chapter in what has felt like a never-ending cycle of transitions.

You may remember that I stepped away from the HR lead role two years ago at EnergyCAP, where I worked with my dad and two brothers. I wanted to focus full-time on my own business. That transition led us to Charlottesville, where we moved a little over a year ago.

Since then, we’ve been building a new life, and it’s finally feeling like home. We found a great church, our sons started going to a fantastic school, and we began building meaningful friendships. Of course, a big part of settling in for me was going full-on to grow my own business. To that end, I pursued all of these initiatives:

• joined the chamber of commerce
• sent out a mailing
• found a coworking space
• attended sales school
• hosted learning events for the public
• created program offers
• coached clients
• won some corporate contracts

I had local CEOs calling me on their cell phones, and I exceeded quarterly sales goals. By all accounts, my business was succeeding, but what was my life telling me?

In his book, Let Your Life Speak, Parker Palmer writes, “Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am.”

If I was honest, my life was telling me that I wanted to do something different for work. But deciding on a change is one thing; seeing it fulfilled is another.

Ironically, though listening to my life is what prompted the change that led us to Charlottesville, I also had to conquer my negative self-talk. I’d written publicly about leaving EnergyCAP, moving to Charlottesville, and running my own business. Somehow sharing with others that I was looking for work felt like failure (which is the worst thing for a Type 3 on the Enneagram).

But the truth is that I did have a plan, and that plan changed when I walked it for a while and kept listening to my life. There are some things you have to learn by doing them. I think I had to try everything I could to build a full-time business so I’d know that it wasn’t this tactic or that method that was missing. In the end, I discovered it was something more fundamental.

I simply:

• missed being part of a team
• longed to join a vision larger than myself
• was tired of the sales work it took to keep things running
• wanted to regularly use more of my natural abilities

On the road to a new job, conquering the self-talk was one thing, but actually getting hired was another! They say it takes a village to raise a child, and it took a village to get me hired. I had not applied for a job in about 20 years, so you could say I was out of practice!

I’m so grateful to the folks who were part of my job process. These wonderful people:

• revised my resume
• told me of open jobs
• screened job boards
• reached out to contacts
• brainstormed job options
• prayed for me
• coached me
• checked in and encouraged me

While looking for the right job, I filled out 102 job applications! But you need to get only one YES! I guess you could say my hire rate was less than 1%. (Don’t let my new bosses read this, or they’ll doubt their choice!) Even though applying 102 times sounds like a lot, the process of getting hired at CMA felt surprisingly easy and actually supernatural. When the fit is right, it just feels right.

August 21 will be a big day in our household. Our sons start school that day. I start working at CMA that day. Our daughter starts her college semester the day after. I want to take a picture of us holding signs at our front door to announce our first days like people do on Facebook, but I don’t think my kids will want to. This mention will have to suffice.

What about my business, you may ask? We’ll still keep the lights on, so to speak. I still plan to run it on a limited basis. We just won’t do as much as we did before.

When we moved, I didn’t think I’d be starting a new job a year later. But I am because I listened to what my life was telling me. So let me ask you: What is your life telling you?