Improving resilience speeds recovery from life's curve balls. Here's my story of resiliency from job loss, divorce, and cancer - all at once.
I was applying for a speaking opportunity at a conference, and one of the questions on the application was:
Leaders often face challenges and crises. Can you describe a situation where you successfully navigated your team or organization through a crisis, demonstrating resilience, decisiveness, and effective communication?
Resilience:
- The capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.
- The ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity.
After pondering this for a while, I had to write about my most significant resilience story. It all started when I got fired...
Table of Contents
- Learning the Sales Ropes (1999 to Summer 2009)
- Getting Canned (Summer 2009)
- Transforming from a Salesperson to a Business Owner (Fall 2009) *Resilience
- Launching a New Business on a Rough Road! (Summer 2010) *Resilience
- Settling In and Gaining Experience (Winter 2011)
- Tackling a New Mission! (2024)
- How to Be Resilient
Learning the Sales Ropes
1999 to Summer 2009
After college, I did the typical thing early-career folks do: I got married, we bought a starter house, had some babies, and tried to make enough money to pay for it all. Boy, it was tough having two kids in daycare simultaneously! Daycare was equal to our mortgage payment.
I was a sponge 🧽 trying to be the best salesperson I could be - my goal was to hit the six-figure mark. Through various sales experiences, I had the opportunity to participate in many sales training courses and work with multiple managers and target buyers. I loved it: the challenge of working toward a sales goal each month, hitting the road, driving around meeting people, educating them, helping them make a buying decision, closing deals...
There were some great experiences, like winning Rookie of the Year, and some roadblocks and challenges along the way. I read every sales book I could get my hands on, including my favorites: Rick Page's Hope is Not a Strategy and Jill Konrath's Selling to Big Companies.
Over these years, I had the opportunity to learn all about configuring CRM systems, sales processes, how to talk to prospects, and how to work with different types of people—oh, so much!
I also had to create a lot of marketing and sales collateral because this stage of my career was right at the onset of businesses coming online. Sellers still held the key to the information buyers needed to make a decision. And sellers didn't always have a marketing team supporting them. It's a different day now!
Getting Canned
Summer 2009
I got fired! Uh Oh.
As a brand new commercial insurance rep with no book of business, I made 70-100 phone calls 📞 per day to get appointments, went to chamber events like I was encouraged to do, tried to get involved in the community by joining the Girls on the Run and Young Professional Network steering committees, and wasn't filling my appointment book satisfactorily.
I talked to a lot of prospects, though. I was building a relationship with them through consistent email and phone calls. I wanted to include lead nurturing campaigns in my sales process. The company owner I worked for wasn't picking up what I was putting down. He wasn't interested in digital marketing or lead nurturing that way, so he let me go. That's one potential reason I was fired.
Another potential reason I was fired is that he disliked that I couldn't make it into the office at 7:15 or 7:30 and stay until 6:00 or 7:00 because I had to take my kids to school and then do mom stuff in the evening. The hours I put in at night at home after the kids went to bed did not count.
He wanted it all done in the office, which was impossible at that time in my life to be at work for so many hours. What was I supposed to do with my kids? So frustrating. I'm sure he had other resources available so he could work all the time (a wife?...I don't know if that is true, but you understand my point!). I felt like it was a boys' club; he never took me seriously. He may also not have enjoyed me bringing new ideas to the table. He's missing out now! 😊
Not to play the woman card, but I had a lot of misogynistic experiences as a woman in the sales industry. Some situations were very obvious; some were subtle enough to make me start questioning myself and my capabilities. Through it all, I kept pushing forward, determined to be a great salesperson.
Transforming from a Salesperson to a Business Owner
Fall 2009
A young family, a new mortgage, and no job—scary times! Through it all, I knew it would be all right. I don't know how I knew; I just knew. I was sticking with sales; I wasn't giving up.
Making My First Website
I thought long and hard about how to differentiate myself from other sales candidates for potential job openings. I also wanted to make applying for jobs as easy as possible now and forever because it was difficult—all of those applications!
I decided to put my resume on a website to send potential employers a link. (LinkedIn was in it's infancy back then!) It would show that I go the extra mile to differentiate from the competition. It would also make my application process easier.
I had no idea what I was doing, but I created my first website on Joomla! (Side note: after all these years, in 2024, I am leaning into a personal brand like I originally planned when I built that first website. More to come!)
Discovering HubSpot
While learning how to make a website, I discovered HubSpot, which aligned with my sales philosophy. After learning about their partner program and sales support, I decided to sell inbound services using HubSpot instead of working for another company. I was transformed.
Sustaining My Family
Since I had been fired, unemployment income was available to me, which sustained me (barely) during this transitionary period. It lasted quite a while, which I am very thankful for because it gave me the space to transition. But it didn't last forever—the cutoff deadline always loomed over me. No more money. No more job. Yikes!! I kept pushing forward because I believed in myself and what I was trying to do.
I spent the winter, spring and early summer months of 2010 creating my business and prospecting for clients.
Unemployment was running out on August 1st! Guess when my first client started? August 1st! Getting down to the wire was very stressful, as I wondered if I would get a client before the money ran dry. But I kept at it and did not give up!
Launching a New Business!
Summer 2010
Thanks to Todd Hall from Glastender, I got a client! He's such a nice guy, and he holds a special place in my heart for giving me a chance. And he's really cool, too—he's a rocker and was on the Voice! 🤘 He hired me to launch a new product using inbound strategies. It was a six-month project. Money crises averted.
More Rough Road Ahead
That same time, my then-husband moved out because we had to get a divorce. I had a four- and five-year-old for whom I was 100% responsible. I had to make this work!
In October 2010, two months after my husband moved out and I started a new business... I found out I had breast cancer! Oh no! 2 little kids, one client that was only on a 6-month contract, and in the middle of a divorce. Hunker down and FOCUS. Health, business, kids, mental wellbeing...
(If interested, you can check out my cancer journey at https://www.youtube.com/@kristamoonbc. I don't know why I recorded all of that...but I did. I feel embarrassed to show it...but I still do. 🤷♀️)
Settling In and Gaining Experience
Winter 2011
I was 'head down' on that first project, putting everything into it - while wrapping my head around the fact that I had stupid cancer! As 2011 came into view, the end of my first client agreement was looming near, and I had nothing lined up!
Here we went again: freaking out about how to make money while I was also freaking out about my decision about whether or not to do chemotherapy and recovering from a double mastectomy while taking care of the kids - it was a lot to handle.
But I never gave up! Thank goodness for my mom, who was there for me every single step of the way. And my dad and all the other people who supported me.
The month my contract ended with Glastender, I got a couple of more clients! Money crisis averted yet again.
Todd introduced me to another company that used our digital marketing services for a while - my first referral! I also started working with Jill Konrath, the bestselling author I mentioned earlier, who hired me to work with her on www.jillkonrath.com. There's a fun story there, but I'll save that for another day. Jill was a main client for 4 years, and I built the business from that relationship. I also learned a TON about writing, marketing, and sales from her. I still work with her!
Moving on to the Next Mission!
Today
It's been 14 years! I beat cancer, sustained the business, hired some smart people to help advance our company skills, and raised my kids. First mission accomplished! Stay alive long enough to see my kids graduate from high school. It might sound morbid, but that was my prayer when this journey began. 🤲
Now that goal has been met, I can move on to the next mission! Scaling the business and building a savvy team that puts authentic effort, skill, and care into client success defined by our core values.
How to Be Resilient
Stay true to your convictions, listen to your instincts, live your passion, and don't give up, even if it's scary. Have faith in yourself. You'll figure it out - you always have and always will!
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Quick Braggy Side-Story - More Resilience 😉
I had the blessing to help my daughter, Kaylee, a teen mom, raise my granddaughter, who is now 4. I helped Kaylee set up her tattoo shop, and she is booked up! She is so good. https://www.instagram.com/zealtattoos. I saw potential in Kaylee and nurtured and supported it. And now, even though she is 20 years old with a 4-year-old daughter, she is doing so great. And I thought Kaylee was creative, but my granddaughter will blow us all away with her creativity when she grows up. I've never seen anything like it! My son is on the dean's list in college and a really upstanding guy, so I must also brag about him, too!
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