Component 1: Structure
So, I’ve really launched my business. Well, I technically started it 3 years ago in 2021 – but I’ve gone Full-Time with it now. As I’ve spent the last few months with my daughter part-time in daycare, getting my full tech-stack set up, my materials developed and printed, my presence bolstered in the small business community here in the Waterloo Region – I’ve still felt a bit of a roadblock.
I’ve got everything ‘checked off’ in terms of what I need in place to really hard-launch my consulting practice but I felt that something was missing.
I’m a bit spotlight shy, and after passing off some of my work to family members in the commerce field, after listening to audio books from subject-matter-experts (SME’s), and knowing all that I know through my business undergrad and 15 years in industry, the underlying message was the same – I’m missing that personal branding. And I should know better – but I’m camera shy and I don’t ostentatiously speak about myself. I typically like my work to speak for itself.
And that’s usually worked for me! I’ve gone to the best business school in the country, I’ve landed my dream job(s) and earned 6-figure salaries all before the age of 30. I’ve bought my first home in one of the toughest economies our country has faced in 4 decades. Ironically, I can say all this here and now because I had an epiphany. I know where and how I want to start my personal branding journey. With my Mom.
This is my favourite photo I have of her.
This isn’t going to be a soft-ball post on why I am who I am because of how Mom raised me, or a sympathy post to tug at heart strings. I just can’t tell my story or share my journey in entrepreneurship without sharing that she was the pillar in why I’ve arrived here and why I’m on this journey.
Component 2: Characters
So without too much backstory, my mom was a terrific artist. Not by trade – she was a RN – but by sheer talent. Twice growing up, she tried to start her own business. First in 2003 with Studio Finishes as an Interior Decorator and Specialty Finishes Painter, and again around 2010 or so with Design Unlimited, as a furniture refinisher.
Both attempts were complete and utter flops.
She did some preliminary set-up for the time like getting a professional Logo, registering her business in our city, and the first company at least, she had a basic but functional website. She joined the Chamber of Commerce and, if my memory serves me correctly, she went to one or two networking events, business cards in hand.
As I grew up, it became quite clear to me that she had a tremendous amount of ability in her craft but she had zero business acumen to get her to launch and $0 in revenue. Both times. In the years following those dismal attempts at entrepreneurship, and as my knowledge and skills in business developed (through education and experience) her and I casually did post-mortems on those businesses.
She was the expert in her craft (she completed continuing education in her field on top of her natural talent), but she could not sell herself, she couldn’t market herself, she wanted to do the end work but didn’t know how to actual work to get clients.
Fast forward to January 2021, she approached me to sit down with her in an actual meeting format to discuss her desire to kick the can a third, albeit final, time. She expressed her desire to replace her corporate income with self-employment income and we endeavoured to develop a full business plan inclusive of strategy, time tracking, start-up expenditures, registrations, time-management tools, product development and road to launch.
I was pumped! I was finally at the place in my career where she saw the value of coming to me and I was more than happy to spend my free time putting all these best practices I’d learned into action. We had follow-up appointments in the calendar, I set up a simplified tech-stack for her that I could manage on her behalf (she was not tech savvy in the LEAST) and we met a couple more times going into the Spring of 2021.
We set objectives, I held her accountable – she was the talent, and I was able to use my skills to better the condition of someone I loved and respected. And that’s where the story ends.
Component 3: Conflict
I lost my mom on October 30th, 2022 to Heart Failure – the precursor but also the after effects of a severe stroke.
Component 4: Resolution
Through her trials and tribulations of entrepreneurship and with her dreams having been left unaccomplished I have taken it upon myself to enter my own journey of entrepreneurship and not only work toward my dreams, but to truly help someone else’s mother, brother, neighbour, or friend fulfill theirs.
I genuinely believe in supporting small businesses and if I can improve someone’s condition on my path to fulfillment, then I’ll be able to leave the world accomplishing something bigger than myself.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading my very own Origin Story and I hope we cross paths soon.