Well over 11 years ago, at the time of this recording, I went into business for myself. My day job, my day business, is that I run a digital marketing agency. We do public relations, social media management, online content. We can create websites, the whole shebang. Suffice to say, when I launched my business, it was very demanding in ways that I had never experienced before. One thing that became apparently clear was I needed a solution to keep my house clean. I’m relatively orderly, as is my husband; things go back where they came from. But when it comes to scrubbing and dusting and vacuuming, those things were not so much happening. Once I launched my business and I, through a really neat set of circumstances, found a great service. And so, for this almost entire time I’ve had my business, the same company–that has now been sold and changed hands–has been coming to clean our house.

This very morning, one of the ladies… there’s a crew that usually comes, that includes four people, but on most occasions at least two of those people are the same people every time and there are two lovely women who, have been coming to our home consistently every other week for seven years… Well today, unbeknownst to me until they arrived, one of them, it was her last day. Beautifully, she’s able to break away and pursue her desired profession entirely, in full; she can focus on it. She has enough business to justify that move, and I’m thrilled for her. But it caught me off guard, and I literally started crying. We have three dogs, and she knows our dogs and is so sweet to our dogs. I had to make sure she got to love on them and say goodbye.

But I felt led to record today and share a few thoughts related to this.

First of all, speak up if you need help. Back in the day when I started my business–and I do love an orderly house–but it was starting to get a little wackadoo around here, I sought a solution to help me keep things clean. I wanna add a footnote here. My husband is completely blind. This does not absolve him from participation in keeping our house clean, but obviously it adds a factor in how we manage things around here. And I just wanted to acknowledge that around our house, we are a team. This is one reason we have a really sweet, cool marriage ; there is a division of labor. So I just wanted to acknowledge that. I mean, he’s completely capable of contributing, but perhaps in a different way–some of that detail work,. We just needed the help.

And I’m so thankful that, though I am by nature relatively independent and, it’s a learned skill to ask for help, that I spoke up. And when someone made a suggestion and felt confident in who they were recommending, I made the move; I got the help I needed. Also, I look back and–I’ve, shared, about this before–but I didn’t focus on “how expensive are they? What is this gonna cost me?”. I wanted a great recommendation for which the person that was recommending felt that they were getting quality work and then I would figure out the pricing. I think a lot of times when we ask for services, we fixate on what it’s gonna cost. And by the time we’re getting recommendations, I want us to get to a place where we trust that we want the quality and the reliability of great service and the cost can be figured out on the flip side. So adding that caveat in your ask can sometimes be limiting. I don’t want people to throw that out when they’re looking for an agency or the kind of services I provide. I want them to look for great quality and great solutions and insight and service first. We’ll talk about price on the other side, because that does matter, but let’s get to the good stuff.

So yay. I asked for help, and I trusted that the pricing was gonna work.

But another thing that struck me today as they were cleaning our house is I don’t clean in advance of the crew coming. That’s why I hired them. That’s their job. And when they’re doing their job, I can be in here focusing on my job. Many of us seek help, and then we wanna tidy up in advance. It’s… I don’t know what that is…I could do a little exploratory thinking on the nuances of some neuroscience, how we jump in and maybe feel awkward when we’re asking for certain kinds of assistance and we recruit certain kinds of services…but–the cleaning crew comes to clean. And while again, I love an orderly house., I love a clean house, I know that they’re excellent at what they do. So those bigger tasks that I hired them for, I leave them for them to do.

And then another lesson from today is things change. And for the good.

I’m so happy for this person I’ve known for seven years, who has come here–with a very sweet spirit, by the way–and been so kind to me and my husband and our little dogs and been very thoughtful in the care of our home that she’s provided. But I thrill that she has carved her path and has the chance to move forward. I’m excited for her. It’s a loss for us, but it’s an opportunity for her.

And after they left, my husband…I was verklempt; I was crying…he, noted that he loved that I feel things. So there’s another lesson. Go ahead and feel it. It seemed a little surprising to be that emotional in that circumstance, but I’m feeling it, you know. I gotta feel it. We’re allowed–we should–feel our feelings. Don’t package ’em up and push ’em down. Feel the feelings.

And after my husband acknowledged that he loved that I feel things, he said, “think about when it’s your turn to move on to new and bigger and better things and saying goodbye from that direction.” Whatever that may look like, we all get our turn, here’s hoping, to move forward. And I ditto that for my husband. He has some goals and dreams that we’re, uh, he’s working on. And because we’re a team, we kind of help each other. So we, we are both working on.

So thanks for being here today and hearing me out on these life lessons that happened on a random Tuesday morning.

Feel the feelings.
Ask for help.
Appreciate and thrill in other people’s opportunities to grow.
Trust the quality of service; focus on that first. The value will come.
And let’s be there for each other.

Have a good one. Thanks!