What I learned in 2022 can change your 2023

In February of 2022, I resigned from a company I was building 80 hours a week in the C-Suite.

But here’s what was really scary: After all that work, I had nothing to do with the company. And, all of the relationships, reputation, skills everything I’d acquired—I had no scaffolding to hold them.

I had made a decision to back-burner my business in 2021 to fully deep dive into social audio. I had grandfathered in a client or two at just a few hours a week, and: I ignored my business and my brand for what we were building. Everything I built was under the mantle of an original club that wasn’t mine, and then, Breakfast with Champions. The gorgeous brand design I created: languished. The thought leaders I recruited: asked me what I was doing, but I didn’t have a community to bring them to. The lead magnets? Never went my list.

And so, once I left that company, I was starting my own brand back from zero.

I’ve done it. And at times it’s felt like three steps forward two steps back. But they say failure is the greatest teacher, so the lessons are these:

• Don’t build anyone else’s dream at the expense of your own.

• Momentum is real. Find the time to nurture your community, share your thought leadership, and continue growing as a personal brand. You don’t ever want to have to “come back” to a list and platforms you ignored for a year.

• Sign papers in a startup situation. Always, sign papers in a startup situation.

• Know that it’s okay to be really sad you didn’t get to build and do the things you thought you would at a company you left.

• Keep going.

• Center your values in all of your decisions, so even when you’re in the incredibly hard in between, you’re proud of the path you’re on.