Introducing...The PepTalk

I love people.

I love meeting them and I love their stories. But I really hate planning. I'm more of a jump-right-in-and-get-sh*t-done type of person.

This year was going to be different though - finally I was turning over a new leaf. In January, my coach Mary told me to plan my year by imagining it was the end of 2020:

• What goals had I have achieved? 
• What countries had I explored? 
• How many women had we helped through PepTalkHer?

Somewhat reluctantly, I sat down and wrote a list. A vision and roadmap for my year. In 2020, I was going to achieve all of the things!

Some goals were related to my business and supporting my team (I was so looking forward to our 2020 summer team retreat.) A lot of the plans focused on people. People in my life I wanted to intentionally spend more time with and people I didn't know, but wanted to meet. I wrote in my notebook: “Meet Sara Blakely from Spanx."

And then…. the world changed. 

Like millions of others, I caught the dreaded Coronavirus. I was lucky and made a full recovery, but those goals? Those plans? They went out the window as I went into full survival mode as a CEO: How could I save my team’s jobs? How could we best support our corporate clients remotely? Could we survive this recession?!

I said to myself: "Meggie - I'll give you 48 hours to wallow." So I did - I consumed a LOT of chocolate and let the doom and gloom wash over me. And then, on the third day, I snapped out of it. I began focusing on the reframe.

I was LUCKY. We were ahead of the curve because my company was already remote first, we could continue delivering our corporate programming and my team had the essential ingredient to surviving 2020 - a glass half full attitude.

We weren’t quite sure how the road ahead would look, but we knew how we wanted to make our community feel: supported, empowered and hopeful.  

Our small, mighty team came up with a plan to pay it forward - we launched daily Power PepTalks. Over 16 weeks, we ran 15 minute live chats every weekday.

50,000 people from all around the world tuned in. We talked about investing in a recession, the politics of negotiating a raise in a pandemic (yes, it is possible) and building habits, which is how I met Keita Williams the Success Bully.

She’s an absolute delight and managed to get somewhat skeptical old me excited about planning ahead, although to be fair, it’s hard not to be excited when you’re in Keita’s orbit - her enthusiastic energy is literally contagious! (By the way, tomorrow we’re running a free, live event tomorrow with Keita about Bullying Yourself to Success in 20201.)

With 2020 a total trash fire before Q1 had even finished, I assumed my goals for the year were a pipe dream to be revisited in ‘21. And then, everything changed... again.

While I was sick on the couch with covid, my friend Cori Sue encouraged me to apply for a grant. This wasn't just any grant, it was a grant focused on female founders - The Red BackPack grant. A grant funded by (you guessed it) Sara Blakely. When I received the email saying we were one of the grantees, it felt like a literal miracle. I started crying immediately. (By the way, see if you can spot me in the video about the grant below)

Not long after, something spooky happened. I was asked to be involved in an interview on a live Zoom call. It was with a VIP they said, was I interested? Sure!

It turns out that VIP....was SARA BLAKELY. Meeting her virtually on a Salesforce webinar was not quite the irl meeting I'd envisioned, but in 2020 terms, well and truly a 5 star outcome.

Now, I’m not a 'woo woo' person, nor am I overly religious. But when serendipitous things like this can happen - even in 2020 - it gives me hope. Hope that if we keep looking, maybe, just maybe, more of these silver linings will appear. 

If, like me, you dread dealing with holiday gifting, I’ve got a silver lining just for you - our annual holiday gift guide. We’ve broken the gifts into categories:

• Pay it Forward
• Treat Yo Elf   
• Brain Food
• Shake off 2020 in Style

Some of our favorite people are featured - their books, businesses & charitable endeavors. Like author Minda Harts, Anna McGregor from Sorella Organics and the fab co-founders from LNDR activewear (because everyone needs more comfy leggings in their lives during quarantine!) I trust you’ll enjoy supporting them as much as I do.

As we start to wind down a year for the history books, I’m excited. Excited for the silver linings that’ll keep popping up. And, would you believe it, I'm even excited about 2021 planning. I’m looking forward to dreaming and strategizing about the work we’ll do, the impact we’ll make and the people we'll meet... here’s hoping in 2021, it’s in person.

Meggie

PS. You're awesome!

PPS. This is my first LinkedIn Newsletter, I'd LOVE to connect and please let me know what you think in the comments below. Stay well and keep in touch.