Absent Without Lisa.

I have to explain why I have been MIA for almost five months from the blogfront.

My year of living FEARLESSLY has been EPIC.  Not only did I smash it in the first half of 2019 @ work, I received my second promotion in less than a year.  It went down like this:

Text from my (best) boss:  Lisa, have you left on vacation?  I need to talk to you.

Phone rings 30 seconds later.

“Hello?”

“Hey it’s (Boss).  What are you doing?”

“Having a pedi before getting on the plane.”

Small amount of small talk.

“Congratulations!  You have a new job!”

“Whaaaat?!”

From Server Sales to National Business Development Manager for our business partner ecosystem.  They loved my passion, my fearless reinvention, my tenacity.  I was hand picked by the executives to rejuvenate the channels.  Looking back, my entire career in IT was leading up to this job.  Over twenty-five years ago, I was a customer of these companies, then I worked along side them in my technical and sales positions.  Their owners, CEOs, sales and technical staff were not just business colleagues, but friends.

Landing a plum new assignment made for an interesting start to my vacation in beautiful British Columbia with my Cali boi.  Half of my brain was thinking ahead to my new role, while the other side had switched into relax mode.  If there is one lesson I have learned from my battle with cancer, it’s that nothing is more important than savouring each moment life offers us… even the bad ones.

Once back from our tour of interior B.C. (Vernon, Kamloops, camping somewhere in the weeds where he had to save me from a creepy dude, adventures with Cherry Bombs in bright orange containers, and the exquisite Kelowna) I likened my new position to trying to land a jet and take off at the same time.  The talented person I was replacing (big shoes to fill!) left on his vacation the day before I got back.

I was on my own to figure it out while heads were rolling, offices were shuffled and sales were down across the board.

Remember to be fearless.

I dove into my new position head first, did 150 hours of education while still taking my own UofT class – which I flunked – because I wasn’t around for the damn assignments.

But I loved every minute of my new job.  I flew from coast to coast, meeting the partners I didn’t know.  Forgot to file my expenses (not perfect!) but wrote detailed reports on what I needed to change.  Even took my rusty Français to Montréal for back to back to back to back meetings.  While listening (écoute) to them banter back and forth, I blurted something out in French.

Mic drop.

Tu parle Français!

It was good to be home.

I’ve kicked ass.  Learned new Agile styles.  Conducted workshops.  Came home so exhausted I fell asleep before 6pm.  Yet, my mind is fully awake and thinking about my workday by 5am.

I LOVE IT.

One thing was missing.  I wasn’t writing.  I was listening, learning, presenting, arguing, crying, snarking, asking probing questions, digging into root-cause analysis, deep-diving into massively parallel spreadsheets, leading the charge, being the boss, defining new think tanks, and terrifying those who aren’t used to my Type A Alpha fearlessness.

But,  I wasn’t writing for me.  Those story ideas would still bubble up to the surface of my brain, but pop without leaving an impression on paper.  I was far too focused on the stack of notes on my brand new pure white home office desk.  For kicks, I spin around in my ultra modern white leather chair.

I realized how much I miss writing.  I miss you.  And, I have to rebuild my awesome readership again because I let the blog go for months.

Stay with me.

The Quick Brown Fox is Still Jumping Over the Lazy Dog.

Love you.

XOXO

The Fox circa 2020BC