Getting Laid Off.

Would you believe me if I told you that I graduated from college in 2008 with a degree in Psychology with a goal to become a Child Psychologist. Yup. But once I graduated, I could not fathom the idea of putting myself into debt and heading off to graduate school, so instead I landed a job at a recruiting office as a receptionist/assistant. I worked there for a few months until they were kind enough to place me in a role at a really great brokerage firm. There I started my career in finance - somewhere I never saw myself but quickly became a part of. After a few years at the brokerage firm I found myself transitioning to a larger well known bank working in International Wealth Management & then after that I moved to another big bank where I spent 8 years - working from an associate up to a management position. Then one day, out of nowhere, I got the call that has changed the trajectory of basically everything I knew.

I was being laid off.

I was in complete shock. I had never received a bad performance review let alone any indication of losing my job. But, there I was - on a zoom call with my bosses being told that I was loosing my job. For those of you reading this that have been laid off before I am sure you can sympathize with what I was feeling in that moment. I have two children and a household to support, how was I going to afford going forward without this job. All of the thoughts circled my brain.

Although had been doing calligraphy on the side for a couple of years here and there, I didn’t really think it would be possible to be a full time gig. In my head it was a dream to be able to work from home and do something that I loved but I did not truly think it was possible. But now with being laid off I started to think - could I really do this? I had some serious talks with my husband and decided that if there was ever going to be a time to try, it was now.

So, I hit the ground running.

I started to build my website, get branding photos done, and started networking (read about that experience here). I knew that if I was going to make this a reality I needed to start investing in myself and my business - as weird as that was to say. So that is exactly what I did & am still doing!

When I was doing this as a ‘side hustle‘ I was working under the company name of C.O. & Co Events but I found that when I was reaching out to planners and other wedding vendors they were assuming that I was also an event planner just by my name. So, I decided to do a complete rebranding! I designed my logo myself, created a whole new website based off of this brand, put together a branding package choosing colors & fonts. I started to work with a mentor and joined a business group because I knew I could not figure this all out on my own.

All of the things.

I wish I could say during all of this I felt 100% confident in what I was doing - but that is far from the truth. I was just doing what felt right to me at the time. Yes, I was doing a lot of research and learning from others that were willing to share but I had little to no clue if what I was doing was correct, let alone would actually work!

But, here we are 6 months later and everything I have done has not been a waste! I can honestly say that I have learned from everything I have done. Whether it has been beneficial or not - I now know a few things to not waste time on and a few things that were 100% worth the efforts.

More to come on all of that eventually - but moral of the story here is, when one door closes another one truly does open as long as you are looking in the right places.

So if you ever find yourself like me - laid off and lost - I challenge you to look at what you love doing and go after it.