My early years were spent in a military family. I was born in California but spent time in Texas, Missouri, and Virginia. We made a final move to Chattanooga, TN in 1978 where I remain a resident. My career path spans several industries to include 12 years Food & Beverage, 11 years Insurance, and the last 13+ years sales, marketing and business development.

I’ve done my time and worked for the corporate gods, but in 2007 my entire career world shifted, and I found myself in an entrepreneurial space I never even fully knew existed or understood. I was hooked and discovered my gifting and calling was connecting people. In fact, I had been connecting people since the 4th grade – I just didn’t know what to call it. I mean, who fully understands the power of connections in the 4th grade?

My mission in life is to transform lives through the power of connections, and that can look like a 1,000 different things depending on who I’m sitting in front of at the time. For me, it’s not about building my own empire, but rather truly listening to a person’s story and then being willing to help connect them to whatever they need to help them take the next step in their journey.

I spent nearly a decade working with the world’s largest referral organization and must credit them for the training I received. However, that model wasn’t sustainable for me or the clients and colleagues I found myself among, so I had to search for a different model, and was ecstatic to find The Referrals Group in 2017.

Sadly, closed-networking and word-of-mouth marketing have developed a bad rap over the years, and I think the reason for that is perhaps because some of those models continue to hold too tightly to traditions and structures that just aren’t working well anymore. When I began noticing the high attrition rates within these settings, I knew something had to change, and I wanted to be a part of that change.

 TRAGEDY AND CHALLENGES

My first challenge was leaving Corporate America and embarking on an entrepreneurial journey I knew nothing about. There were failures and pitfalls along the way, but it’s also where I found my calling and my niche.

Another challenge was a decade-long period where I didn’t think I would ever find light or beauty or success. I went through a bitter divorce, lost several close family members, and then in January 2018 I found my partner dead in our home (we had known each other since 1987). Six months later, the niece of one my best friends was murdered less than a mile from my home, and two weeks after that my very best friend of 30 years died from organ failure due to heart transplant complications. I had only been with The Referrals Group for six months, and my life came to a screeching halt in terms of reevaluating my purpose and calling.

My Advice

As of October 2019, my world looks very different. I was determined I was not going to allow the last four decades of my life determine the next 50 years of my life. I clung to my faith in God. I chased healing. I stayed in therapy. I went to a grief recovery class. I taught business at a local community college. I slowly built more Referral Group chapters. I allowed myself to feel the anger and frustration and grief and loss, but I also gave myself permission to change and become a better human being. I took a long hard look in the mirror and admitted the changes I needed to make going forward so that I wouldn’t be in some of the same situations that caused the death of my loved ones.

Today, I blog.  I adopted the hashtags #fullypresent and #chasingbeauty to define 2019. I also adopted Exodus 14:14 – “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Rather than trying to furiously make things happen, I chose to just do the next needed thing and trust God for the results.