A song, a life and a book of dreams

This ain’t a song for the broken-hearted / No silent prayer for the faith-departed/ I ain’t gonna be just a face in the crowd / You’re gonna hear my voice / When I shout it out loud.

It’s my life. 

This is the song that I have been singing since 1998, when I knew that I would have to be independent. That I would need to travel my own road. That I would need to be an entrepreneur.

At that time, I was at the beginning of my corporate career, having just graduated from the University of Regina School of Journalism program with a degree and a major in English, and a degree in Journalism and Communications.  As I sat there on the stage at convocation, I began to think about goals. What would I strive for when all I could think about up to that time was my degree?  What grand vision would take me off my chair and into my life?

As I walked across the stage to accept my degree, I set a goal to make $50,000 a year in five years time.  I had to be practical.  I could not afford the grand vision of writing a book someday, or becoming a great journalist, covering wars in the Middle East. I had children to raise, a mortgage to pay and dance lessons, dentists and tuition to pay for.

I started working for the local newspaper on the weekends covering community events, fires and things that go bump in the night.  From Monday to Friday, I worked as a communications officer at a federal crown corporation, working for the one woman who I regarded highly as a good human being. I worked there for six years, and learned about how to write and publish award winning annual reports and corporate plans, how to develop and market a vision, craft strategies and communicate them in such a way that people would engage.  I became aware of the power of one - the idea that if a company could inspire loyalty, anything would be possible.

Blue skies, nothing but blue skies.

I was asked to share a vision at a corporate ‘blue sky’ session, which I did, wearing black leather pants and Bon Jovi’s “It’s my Life” blasting, while the words flashed on the screen.

"Each person is the CEO of his or her own life. 

CEO means Creative, Optimistic, Energetic.

Don’t hold me back: Never say no to an idea. Ask how it can grow.

The power to lead comes from vision.  Yours. Mine. Ours. Vision is two ways. 

Vision is not necessarily for the sighted, or the promoted. 

Vision keeps you going when everything else tells your to stop.

Inspirare. Breathe in and live. Oxygen deprivation does strange things to the human body. 

Heart rates go haywire, brain function decreases, blood thickens, and intestines shut down."

I found my way ahead that day, and they didn’t fire me, but I never thought they would. I was not afraid. I was excited about the possibility of discovering this place that I could see so clearly.

The Power of One. 

Being so close to the planning process and the vision that created it, I realized that if people could see what I saw, they would find purpose in their work, and the company and community would benefit.  And so I made it my personal vision to bring the vision to the people who do the work.  I remember my boss sitting down with me asking me what I wanted for my career. I told her, I would like a job like yours (she was the Vice President of Communications) but I want to be good at it, so it will take a while.

Leaving that job was like leaving home.  In fact, I cried when I resigned.  But I knew if I wanted to continue growing and learning, I had to take a chance, joining the credit union system as the manager of corporate planning.  When I interviewed for that position, I asked them if there were any changes on the horizon that would be particularly important to know about. They both said, "no, business as usual.”

The Belly of the Great Whale. 

That wasn’t exactly true. In fact, quite the opposite. (I am writing this smiling).  The credit union system across the country has been undergoing changes in order to be competitive and there were significant strategies afoot to facilitate the transformation of the system.  One of those strategies was to implement a joint venture that would provide operational support to multiple entities, and thereby allow the economies of scale necessary to fund expansions.  In layperson’s terms, this means to reduce overhead costs by streamlining services and processes.

I was part of the joint venture, responsible for leading the business planning function of multiple entities.  It was exhausting and overwhelming most days, as we struggled to make the changes we needed to reduce costs so that we could basically keep our jobs.  I worked long hours, and became exhausted. In 2006, I knew that the current state was not sustainable, and so I made changes. I created my own strategy to change what ever was necessary to find balance.  In that year, I gave myself permission to say no and time to reflect on my part in helping to create this crazy existence.  I changed whatever didn’t feel good, from the food that I was eating to the people that I was spending time with, to my tendency to say yes all the time.

Deciding that enough was enough, and that it was time for a change, I took a job as a director of business planning and risk management for a provincial crown corporation where I worked for three years, where I learned the true measure of leadership, the importance of good intentions and purposeful visions, and the importance of living in one’s own values in all the parts of life.

It’s my life.

On my date of emancipation, I decided that life was too short to spend time in other people’s visions and plans - that it was time to starting living my own vision and making my own plans. I started my first company, Lynear Thinking Strategy & Communications Ltd. to offer my 20 years of strategic planning and communications expertise to the private sector.

I learned that the language of the corporate world was nothing like the language of my new world, that in this new world, visions and intentions are not words in a plan, but lived.  I learned in this world that good companies are those that are led by leaders who are able to inspire with integrity and honesty, that doing good things is the true measure of worthiness.

In working with entrepreneurs, I discovered a gap in their ability to share their stories in such a way that others would be inspired to seek them out.  And so I went back to my roots - to my love of journalism and writing - to create a magazine that would bring the stories of these great entrepreneurs to light, so that others could read them and know them as well as by inspired by them.

SKY: a book of dreams. 

Quite serendipitously, SKY Magazine found me.  One of my clients called me to tell me he had seen SKY for sale on Kijiji, which was quite curious, because I never shared my vision with him.  I contacted the publisher, and did some research about the magazine in the market place, and found that I could think of nothing else, but the possibility of what I could create under the SKY.  And so, I invested my retirement savings and bought my book of dreams, SKY Magazine.

SKY is my story and the stories of people like me who chose to walk their own path as leaders.  Watch for the next issue of SKY Magazine to read about the great entrepreneurs who inspire me every day of my life.