Pam Eason’s Celebration of Life was in DC on October 9th.  In telling people where I was headed that day, I told them that I was attending a Celebration of Life for a Titan in my Industry.

The service was absolutely beautiful. Her family and colleagues captured what was wonderful and impactful about her life and work. We were able to say goodbye in a way Pam probably would have wanted, though she’d probably rather have been with us.

At the service and reception afterward, I saw a lot of people I had not seen since the WBENC conference – the last time many of us saw Pam.  We greeted each other warmly and asked each other, “How are you?”

It was hard to come up with an answer so I just started telling people, “I’m good, except for, you know, everything.”

Micro vs. Macro

And I am, for the most part, good. My family is enjoying good health and the hectic slide into the holiday season, starting with Halloween. Business is good and I have clients that I feel good about. I feel like I’m making and impact and, in fact, will keep track of how I’m doing against my impact goals at the end of the year.

But things feel heavy and foreboding. As I write this the Federal Government is shut down and DC is in or at high risk of being in a recession.  The writer stresses this is but one economist’s crunching of the numbers; the reader just stresses.

Climate Change has reached a tipping point. Small Businesses are suffering from current immigration policies  as is the economy as a whole.

While the microcosm of my life and family are ok, it feels like a fragile bubble that external forces could burst.

Business Unusual

Does that feeling of being in a bubble sound familiar?  The last time I felt this way was during the onset of COVID and the shutdowns that followed.  We had wrong or outdated information.  Everything seemed deadly and uncertain.  I can’t remember who said it but the phrase “Everyone less vigilant than we are, is reckless; everyone more vigilant is paranoid”  seems to fit any number of applications.

During that time, Heather Cox and I started a video interview series called Business UNusual. It was a way to talk to the other business owners we were no longer seeing at conferences and events.  They also talked to us not just about getting through COVID and the ubiquitous “pivot” that was the name of the game.  We talked about previous disasters, the dot.com bust, 9/11, the financial crisis of 2008.

Going back to that series now, I’m reminded of how different that time was but also how familiar.  The sound on my mic is a lot better (I hope) but the interviews still contain some lessons about how to keep your head up during unusual times (the punchline being – they’re all unusual).

At the same time, you may notice our look is a little different.

New Logo==>More Services

At the beginning of this year, Heather and I started to expand our services beyond our Diversity Masterminds® Curriculum to become a complete business development service – Mastermind My Company. As our corporate and small business clients’ needs evolved we found we were offering more than just a roadmap to navigating diverse business certification.

We have content and curriculum to offer small and local businesses that might not be certified.  And the takeaways of our certification curriculum about relationships and networking go beyond just the supplier development and inclusion space.

You’ll see from the link above that we are in the middle of the transition. We haven’t made all the changes and expanded all the services just yet. Partly because we are constantly coming up with more ideas but mostly because, change is hard.

Change is hard

There’s branding, tech, and a million little details to think about without losing sight of the bigger picture – offering more and better education, training and knowledge for the people who depend on us.

So when I talk about “everything” above, we all may have a different idea of what that means, how big a priority it is right now, and if something else is keeping us up at night.

As business owners, we are once again in the middle of uncertain changes and rules but there are constants.

Facts not Fear

I recently did a webinar for NAWBO titled Facts not Fear about what small business owners need to know in this general environment. My fellow panelists and I had a discussion about what fears we are hearing from small businesses and how to deal with them.

It will be released later this month so – no spoilers. But I will say that many of these massive changes are neither massive nor changes.  They do require a mindset shift – and maybe some days a self-care day. Stay tuned for that when it comes out.

So, I hope you are doing well and for those exceptions, hope you’re finding a way to be the person you want to be in the midst of it all.