Hipsy in a Corporate World…

7 years….that’s how long it took for me to move up in a company and become the Vice President of Client Services.

If you told me when I first started this job, that this is where I’d be, I wouldn’t have believed you. I wonder if I would have even stayed for so long if I had known all that I would have to go through.

I always knew that I wanted to have a job where I could dress up “business like”, wear heels and act all “grown up”. Your typical 9-5 job. Stability, consistency; that’s what I was looking for when I started this job.

A year of door to door sales and waitressing had left me burnt out and the office life was what I was looking for. I had just gotten fired from working at a dental office where I verified patients dental insurance all day. It was literally the worse 3 month job I ever worked. So while it sucked that I got fired, I wasn’t that sad to leave.

I went several months without a job, going to every interview I could but unsuccessful when it came to landing the job. Life was not looking up for me and to make matters worse while driving home one day, I got into a car wreck and totaled my car.

With no car, no job, and two kids to feed…I felt like I hit rock bottom.

Thanksgiving, Xmas and New Years passed, and I remained jobless. I had taken a huge leap into the unknown moving to Houston and I was totally failing at everything I had set out to do. I wasn’t even sure how I was going to pay my bills the next month.

Thankfully, my insurance covered a rental car while I figured out what car I would get next, and how I would start making some income. I needed something desperately and I needed it now.

Finally, one day in January of 2015, I was driving home from another terrible interview, when I got a call from a company that wanted to interview me for the front desk position I applied for. I said yes, and when I got off the phone I quickly looked up the company. It didn’t really make sense what they did, but I needed the job and so I went to the interview.

The interview process was long. Around 4-5 people came to interview me; but when I was done I walked out with a new job. A couple days later, I was able to find a 2005 Toyota Camry that some kid was selling for cheap as he was moving to India. Life was starting to look up.

At the end of January 2015, I started my new job as the “Director of First Impressions” aka the Receptionist.

My job was to handle a very high volume of phone calls while managing clients or customers who came to drop off checks, documents for investments or needing to meet with individuals. I also opened all the mail for the company while sitting there answering the phone.

Taxes, retirement accounts, IRAs…it was a whole new world for me. I successfully passed my new hire review and slowly but surely retirement accounts and all they could do started to sound less like a foreign language.

About 6-7 months into working at the company, I finally got transferred to be the VP of Finance assistant. My computer/office was moved to the back office and was given my first real project.

An employee who’s responsibility was handling all the original investment documentation for the company had been fired, and it was my job to sort and file all the documents that this person had not processed for months. I said good bye to 3 months of my life working on that tedious and boring project.

After many late nights and long hours, I finally earned the right to learn something else and take on more tasks. The person who was handling the auditing for the company was fired, and the responsibility was given to the VP of Finance to figure out how the auditing would continue.

I started to learn how to audit investments and how to balance the books for the company. I watched, I learned, and I did. Like all things with this company, you had to learn fast or be left behind. It’s not for the weak.

My manager taught me everything I needed to know. She was smart but she made me work hard for the knowledge she passed on. I started to be allowed to go on work trips, and I got my first taste of the business travel life. Hotel living and business traveling…it was amazing.

Many more long hours, and long days. I audited, I learned and I took on more. I got assigned to manage the front desk with my manager and figure out the mail system. We were a growing company, and it was no longer working to have the receptionist open all the mail.

My manager and I created a separate department and new systems for the Logistics Department. We finally had some separation and some order at the front desk.

Like all things in life, nothing is for certain and one day my manager gave in her two weeks and I was given the auditing department to supervisor. I’m not sure it was something I ever really wanted, but I was never one to back down from the challenge.

I did it for a couple months, but when the description of my new role involved balancing the company books every day, I gave up on that challenge. I hated numbers.

My refusal to take on balancing for the company obviously did not go over well and I was moved to the Accounting Department. It was the worst month of my life, and I almost quit.

Yet fate or the company owner had other plans for me and I got transferred to the New Accounts Department where I started to learn all about opening accounts and how to transfer money.

As a faster learner, I excelled in the department and quickly realized that there was a need to get the transferring in of cash for the company in order. My new supervisor and I were not seeing eye to eye on several issues and I slowly started to plan a way to seperate the two job duties and create my own department.

I came up with a proposal for the next 6 months, and with the blessing of my new manager I started to develop the beginning phases of a new department and started to process all the cash in transfers with the help of my friend who lived in Austin.

I became the supervisor of the Transfers Department; it was my new baby. I continued to learn all the different aspects of transferring money and assets in and out of the company and all the requirements that it came with.

The work load began to grow and I was given additional help. I finally got another shot of managing someone for longer then 3 months… and I totally failed. If there’s one thing you learn really quick about being a new manager it’s that you know nothing and you’re going to fail a thousand times.

Learning to delegate work, learning to trust those you work with to not fuck up, having them fuck up and having to take the blame…you start to learn a thing or two about yourself.

After awhile, the person who was helping me in my department wasn’t working out, so I had her transfer to another department and we hired someone else.

My first male employee. I was in for a ride. To not go into to much detail…he ended up quitting after 6 months, but not before telling me to my face and everyone else that I worked with that I was a horrible human being who needed to be medicated.

I have a reputation at work as being “mean and scary”; you don’t mess with me and most employees who do not directly work with me are too afraid to speak to me. And though I remained that way as he told me his last rant, the words he said cut me deep. I’ll never forget that weekend, it made me realize I needed to look at myself a little harder in the mirror and maybe I needed to start to work on who I was on the inside.

I may have started to work my way up the corporate ladder and was starting to get trusted with the bigger task, but the depression was starting to eat me from the inside out. I had been at this job for 3 years now and I was needing something more then crying on my way work every morning and driving home every day crying, feeling depressed and wondering if this was really all there was to life.

I needed a way out of my depression, I needed to find a better version of myself. I needed more then this feeling of emptiness and sadness.I needed to work harder on myself then I worked on my job. I needed to learn to become a better human being so that I would not have to look at my actions and feel utter regret.

And so began my self development journey.

I continued to work on the Transfers Department, and slowly I brought all the pieces of the puzzles together. On November 1, 2018 the Transfers Department became an official department that handled all transfers of cash and assets in and out for the company.

It was one of the proudest moments in my career to accomplish something that big, and something to defined that I set out to do.

The responsibilities continued to grow, I was given the New Accounts Department to manage and got promoted to Account Services Manager. I promoted an employee to supervisor over the New Accounts Department, and managed her while making all the changes that needed to be done to increase the effectiveness of the department.

Everything was good for awhile, and I slowly expanded the Transfers Department to our remote offices in two different cities. Not only had I started the department, I was effectively growing it. Life got comfortable and work got easy….and soon I was wanting more, but what was more… and what did that look like?

I planned out my 2020 and I set all my goals for the year. We were off to a good start, and then COVID-19 struck and my job which had never been done from home, had to immediately pivot to a work from home environment. We got everyone set up to work from home for the next 2 weeks, and then 2 weeks turned into 6 months.

I had never thought I would be one to love working from home. I had done it in the past with a previous job, but I had hated it (if i only knew that it was the job and not the working from home).

2 months in, I was in love with working from home and I never wanted to return to work. I researched how to manage people effectively working form home, and started to implement what I learned into my management. Working from home became my new favorite thing. I was able to manage all my employees effectively.

As the dust began to settle, the feeling of wanting more came back, and after attending an online version of ‘Unleash the Power Within’ by the last quarter of 2020 I almost quit my job.

But like always, the universe had other plans. Instead I was given a challenge with a price tag to complete at work. Money is my language and I love a good challenge so I said yes.

I planned my next year, I set my goals for 2021. I got myself a life coach. I went to work on myself harder then I had ever before and I said yes to the things that made me feel uncomfortable. I got promoted to Client Services Officer.

Over the next couple of months I took on 3 more departments; got over my fear of presenting on zoom and began to lead our management training. I wanted to make a difference, if I was going to to continue to work here, things were going to change. Not tomorrow, today.

The work piled on and I continued to push through. I figured out systems that worked for me. I got myself an iPad and forced myself to learn how to be more digital. I adapted processes and systems. I delegated, managed, lead, coached, guided and I expanded my empire in the company.

I became the person people came to for advice. The person people were loyal to and respected. Without realizing it, I had become someone I never realized I could become. Someone that even I admired when I looked in the mirror.

From Receptionist to Vice President of Client services, I couldn’t be more proud of what I’ve accomplished. I know I still have a long way to go and as I revel in my newly attained c-suite title, I smile and know that this is only the beginning.

My journey through the corporate world has not been easy, but I’ve learned so much about myself and what I am capable of doing, creating and being. Today, tomorrow and everyday I am committed to working harder on myself then anything else, because I know that’s where I’m going to get my biggest returns.

This hipsy has danced the tunes of the 9-5 and has climbed the ladder of corporate success, and now as I wander into the land of ‘what’s next?’ I can’t help but smile and feel the butterflies of excitement as I envision the version of me unleashed.

If 7 years of semi-focused goals and work can bring me here…what can another 7 years of focused goals and absolute clarity bring me?

This is only the beginning; there’s so much more to do and learn. I know I am exactly where I need to be, because it’s leading me to the person that I am truly meant to become.

I’ve accomplished what I dreamed…now it’s time to keep on dreaming.

A.A