2018 was AMAZING!!! I had so many fun experiences, I YOLOed pretty much every day, I was happy without a day of sadness, and I never stubbed my toe on the corner of the coffee table. Let’s take a pause here and realize that no one has said this in the past 72 hours. I don’t know about you all, but 2018 was just rough.
I had been with C.H. Dean, LLC for 11 years of my life, 100% of my adult working career. That company made me the professional I am today, but I simply stalled out. I felt like I plateaued and was looking for the next challenge in my life. What greater challenge than in a new field with a new company. With that in mind I started the process of interviewing at Synchrony and my official start date had been slated for the last week of February. I went from Corporate Relations Manager to Client Services Manager (CRMàCSM) in a blink of an eye.
Remember your first day of school. Hair slicked with gel, the kind that makes it feel all crispy, packed lunch, and a bookbag filled with school supplies. Don’t forget the box of tissues. My first day survival kit consisted of the following items:
· No gel in my hair, because I am balding
· No packed lunch with the assumption of making new friends
· And a travel Ogio bookbag filled with different desk toys from my old job
I felt like a kid on Christmas. I was going to make a lot of new friends and learn a completely new craft and business. I walk in through the front door and have my picture snapped with my cheesin’ the perfect smile. I was then greeted by my new teammate and away we went.
Over the course of the next five months a lot of changes started to happen. With this new role, I decided that I needed to truly focus and stepped down from the different boards and community activities I was a part of. This left a pretty big emptiness in my life. One of the things that I took so much pride in was being active in the Dayton community, but I needed to learn my new craft and the best way to do this was to be completely focused.
This started the spiral of 2018. I began to become very depressed. I was not understanding my new job because I am the type of person who is impatient and wants to learn everything right on the spot. Frustration set in I went from the go to guy who would solve problems at my old job, to tracking down people to answer questions, to problems I did not understand. I was lacking a teacher of the trade and relied anyone who would listen.
This is where I learned about one of Synchrony’s greatest value adds. It doesn’t matter if you are entry level or an executive, their learning environment is conducive to people thirsty for knowledge and asking questions. So that’s what I did. I asked questions about everything I could and started to build my professional brand and network.
The first five months were a blur. I learned as much as I could with the team I started with but realized that environment wasn’t helping me grow. Then in late July I switched teams and that is where the training wheels came off, professionally and personally.
My first week on the new team I was greeted with handshakes and high fives. I was taken out to lunch three times that week and had a wealth of knowledge surrounding me. I felt like I was revived and back to my old self. This is how I thrive. Off of positive and powerful energy. The two folks who I directly supported began to engage with me and let me help the best way I knew, and that was with building relationships.
Now there is a lot of the story I have left out and everything may not make too much sense so I will try my best to bring it all back home.
I stopped being who I was, I didn’t do the things I enjoyed anymore in fear that it would make me fall behind on new opportunities. I changed myself when I didn’t need to.
With that said, 2019 will be different. This blog is my coming back to Dayton blog. It it starts with the list of resolutions below:
1. Make a Resolution (welp I can check that one off)
2. Get back involved with Dayton and the community
3. Share experiences with those close in my life
4. Begin posting back on my social networks like before
5. Blog like I did before, with passion
These are five simple resolutions that I know I can keep. I can’t wait to see everyone again.