Liz McGowen Blog

OK, so by now you’ve noticed that I was away for a while. Let’s just say my own elephants came out and needed to be slowly and carefully talked off the cliff. Since I didn’t have Tina around to help mediate, it took a while.

But I’m back.

Here’s what happened:

Thanks to my amazing brother and his lovely bride, my girls and I spent nearly two weeks in Nebraska. I know, we’re trend-setters, vacationing in such a spot. We tickled chickens (and had a wonderful time with @victoriashmoria on twitter discussing the implications of chicken tickling). We connected with old friends. My kids even drove a tractor. We looked at corn and soybeans. It was awesome.

Then there was my patient husband, who stayed home with our senile but still goofy dog, cleaned out the basement and assembled a new TV cabinet. I think he also became good friends of the staff at the Whole Foods deli, too, but he isn’t talking about that side of the story.

And my wonderful clients waited for me, and stored up all the great details of their lives to share when I got back. I even got to re-connect with someone I worked with several months ago, who is now ready to move to the next step. How cool is that?

In between all this there was a birthday for a certain-special-now-10-year-old, juggling summer camps and multiple playdates, and even a few breakfast-ey opportunities to sneak away for a cup of coffee and a chat. And the most lovely, encouraging, what-I-most-needed-to-hear-at-the-moment letter from my friend Jessica (@slackermomspeak).

All these are treasures.

And now there’s something new:

I’ll call the new thing FOCUS. I know, it can be a scary word. It always seems to be something I tend to avoid.

But I’m really kind of diggin’ it.

Focus means not worrying about all the other stuff around me. Focus just means I do what I do (and having the courage to admit that I’m damned good at it!).

Focus means I get to reach out to more people and say: Here’s what I do. Being able to say: Here’s how I can help.

It means getting to connect with new people, which is cool.

As long as it’s not speed-networking. That is not cool.

Now there’s also something old:

Old is the new focus.

Hope that makes sense.

By old, I mean doing things the way I love them and the way they work for me, rather than doing things the way other people do them.

It’s connecting with people who need my help — sometimes with their elephants, sometimes with other things.

It’s talking with them where they are comfortable — rather than being that-lady-with-an-office-they-must-go-see. Sometimes it means being outside if it’s nice, at their home if that’s most comfortable, over the phone if they live far away.

It means giving the very few the very best, especially if it means being highly original.

I love original. Don’t you?

It means being a human extension cord who connects people with resources and contacts to help them stretch to their goals.

And now there’s proof that the old works:

On Monday I heard from someone who is one of my “right people”. She is wonderful — no, amazingly brilliant is a better description — at what she does. She had been put in an impossible situation last year and, like most impossible situations, it didn’t work out. By the end of the year she was miserable. She lost her job, and her confidence was shattered.

I’m like the baking soda of self confidence for my right people — I get right in there and mix everything up to make sure things start rising. So we started with the basics. Goals. Desires. Grieving. Contacts. Good old-fashioned networking. Coffee. Making sure face-to-face connections were happening.

On Monday, she called to say she got THE job. Not just any job, but a job that she is going to be spectacular at. I stood in my living room and bounced up and down while we cheered — and cried — together about this happy event.

Now this is a woman who has probably sent out hundreds of resumes in the past few months. She’s networked with everyone imaginable. She stayed strong (even though she cried many, many tears).

And she will now be making an obscene amount of money (far more than before) and be in a position of authority and have more fun than she could imagine.

Yes, there is a Santa Claus. And you’d better believe that he networks his ass off and has a really good support system.

Hope all is well with you. I missed you.

-liz