Wishing You The Best This Holiday Season
We are approaching Christmas and finishing Hanukkah as this publishes. Happy Holidays! I hope everyone is having a wonderful winter and enjoying the holidays so far.
It is almost impossible to process that we have reached the end of the year. This has been one of the fastest years I can remember. It seems like just yesterday that the year began.
At the start of this year, my life was in one of the most uncertain stages I've ever experienced. Party City had just announced it would begin liquidating stores as part of its final bankruptcy proceedings. Nearly all the corporate staff was laid off, including me. At this time last year, I had just received that news and had no idea what that would mean.
2025 turned out to be one of the most educational and honestly fun years I have had. I learned so many different things I never would have experienced without that fateful news from Party City. The process for job seeking and interviewingwas eye-opening to say the least. I still have more to write about that process, but I shared some insights earlier in the year, and even presented on the subject at a June conference. In short, that is a terrible process for nearly everyoneinvolved.
I also learned and appreciated how much connections and networking matter. I am extremely grateful for so many people and their support throughout the year for many reasons. When I finally decided to start my own business in the consulting and support arena, I had encouragement from so many places. Many unexpected. I have made several new connections and friends through that process, and I count myself as tremendously fortunate for that. But at that the start of that process, a connection from many years ago began a chain reaction of events that helped give me confidence that I could do this new business successfully.
As we near the end of the year, I have learned that starting and running your own business is not as easy as it sometimes seems on the outside looking in. The knowledge and skills of running a business I had. I was never worried about what I would be able to offer from a support and consultation standpoint. But the outreach, the effort of working through legal details, and the administrative items is something that is easy to take for granted when you’re part of a larger organization. That said, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I have a much better understanding of many things that I only had a vague awareness of before.
Now as we reach the holidays and I have a chance to catch my breath just a little bit (benefits of managing your own schedule), I look ahead to another year that hopefully will be filled with new opportunities as well. The challenge that comes with owning your own consulting business is that as you wrap one project up, you have to be working towards the next one already. It is a world in constant motion, regardless of whether you are your own boss or working for someone else.
I hope this year has been as exciting and full of learning opportunities as mine has been. We have all weathered a lot this year. Tariffs, inflation, world conflicts, and even the end of the penny has created plenty of challenges and the need for change. All of that will strengthen our skills and expose us to learnings we might not have had otherwise. I choose to believe that struggle leads to strength, and strength leads to opportunity. In leadership, we can take these moments to engage with our teams, show our support, and provide coaching and guidance that helps everyone find the options that work best for them. We can, and do, make a difference.
With that, I wish everyone the happiest of holiday seasons. Enjoy the time with friends, family, and those that are close to you. Reach out to friends and colleagues just to say ‘hi.’ And, let’s all look forward to a new year ahead that will offer endless new experiences we can all benefit from.
Happy Holidays!
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