It is official, because of the pandemic...

...or better put: despite the pandemic, Cire Omni Solutions has officially changed from a sole proprietorship to a limited liability corporation.

You might ask, “Why the change?”

That is not a bad question.

Several years ago, I made the decision to close our two offices – Washington, DC and Dallas, TX – because client meetings just didn’t happen in the office. I have long held the belief that, as an HR consulting and executive/career/life coaching firm, you meet your clients in their space (or a space they choose) because it gives you a better sense of who they are...what they value, prioritize, and how they project themselves. You get to observe them on their home turf and start to assess if and how you can help them.

Apart from our talent (booking) department, the activities that brought in revenue were not happening in the office. Aside from the pride I felt for having office space in my hometown of DC (for which I understand I have an abnormal love/obsession), the offices served as only a place for mail to be delivered and for the team to gather before they went back out to do work.

So we closed the offices. I sent everyone to work from home (or the local coffee shop or the beach...wherever). The plan was to take the money saved and reinvest it in my people and – something I am very passionate about – giving back.

COVID-19, however, was an unexpected game changer…along with me electing to forego my own salary, the money saved ended up being used for supporting payroll during a time that some customers struggled to pay invoices or were forced to cancel our services altogether.

I still have never given up on the idea of charitable giving and, the need for support over the past year grew so substantially. I found myself doing so much more. In addition to the usual support of charities focused on animals, children, diversity, and certain disabilities, I was personally funding programs to donate meals to frontline COVID-19 medical professionals, people – especially pet owners – who were struggling financially due to COVID-19 restrictions, helping organizations that support Black and Asian communities, people affected by the California wildfires and, most recently, the unexpected weather events in Texas. Instead of a one-day birthday event, this year was a giving campaign for the whole month of December, where my social media followers could nominate people who needed help and share their Amazon wish lists. Every day, one would be selected, and we would send them items from their lists.

Even with this activity, I feel like I am not able to do enough. There is so much more…but it takes resources that require the right strategy and structure. For me, this meant changing my company structure from a sole proprietorship to an LLC. Under this new organization, we will spend the next several months finishing the planning and standup of a 501c3 charitable foundation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cire Omni Solutions, that will drive many of the initiatives that will help bring aid to more people.

It is a pretty exciting time and has been taking a lot of work – and a LOT of learning – to get to this point. I know many folks have been waiting for the launch of the podcast that I had hoped would come out in January but every free minute of these last several months has gone into getting things to this point where we can dig into the setup of the charitable foundation.

 The podcast will be part of this journey – I actually recorded the first episode this morning and will work to get that posted online by the end of March. (Please do not lose patience!)

 As with this celebratory announcement, I will try to share more about what is happening, as I hope you will also be a part of this journey with me. It truly is an exciting time and a tremendous lift so, as always, I hope to be surrounded by smart, high energy people who will cheer us on and speak up if (when) you see us taking a misstep. As the quote from Ram Dass goes, “We are all just walking each other home.”

 Thanks for walking with me.