14 Days of Love: Love Your Career

So here’s the funny thing, two months ago I showed up to a women’s networking group to support a friend. I was a stay at home mom, who considered myself lost… yet I once had all these talents that helped me to excel in my career. I had found an amazing job with a Fortune 500 company at the height of the recession and I was being promoted yearly (one year even TWICE)! My plan was to move up the corporate ladder and take NYC by storm.

Change came when I got married and we decided to start a family. When I saw this little human, oh man, nothing else mattered and the old Jodi was gone. None of my career accomplishments mattered. I needed to stay home and I knew that was where I was meant to be. For those of you who know me, I NEVER thought I’d be a stay at home but God had other plans.

I spent the last four years focusing on my family.… determined to invest every ounce of myself into these little beings and being a wife (oh by the way two years later another little human joined us). My days were spent watching them grow and develop, but in the back of my mind and in my heart I felt this tug. I knew I was meant to do something in addition to caring for my family, so I prayed and prayed. I tried a few things that still allowed me to work from home… but nothing felt right.

So there I sat at this meeting, Jodi Natal, lost but loved, sharing what I knew about marketing with the other awesome ladies that sat around sharing their accomplishments and trials. It wasn’t until a complete stranger stopped the meeting and said, “You aren’t lost at all, you need to stop giving away advice for free. You have amazing ideas and you need to put your talents to work helping others but also yourself” Woah, Ding! My moment of clarity. I went home with ideas swimming my head. I reached out to a friend who is a graphic designer and asked if she’d like to take this journey with me and here we are.

We have been in business for two whole months.

Ha! Every moment of every day has felt right. Don’t get me wrong we’ve had our challenges, starting a business from the ground up has been CRAZY! We are both stay at home moms with two kids so we work strange hours but we make it work and it’s been simply amazing. From the moment we started, we had clients contacting us left and right. I was shocked! I mean… I’m super confident in our skills and services but I thought for sure the first month or two we would be able to focus on the logistics and marketing ourselves. To date we’ve done countless consultations, proposals and a bunch of super fun projects with the most amazing clients.

I know far too many people who are miserable. We spend way too much time working to be not enjoy what you’re doing. Now, I’m not saying go quit your job…Please! However, start thinking about things that make YOU happy. Not you as a spouse, a parent, a sibling or friend but YOU! Start doing whatever that is. If you are a happier version of yourself it will carry over into the rest of your life. It might turn into something else like it did for me. My mom always said, “you can’t run on empty, you have to invest in yourself the same amount of time and energy that you invest in others.” Easier said than done because let’s be honest, she doesn’t always do this for herself (and neither do I) but at least we can try.

When you are happy from within it radiates. Life is entirely too short to waste your time being anything but happy. I think the key for me was spending less time worrying about what I don’t have, appreciating and being grateful for what I do and living in the moment. When I gave up trying to control every part of my life and let life happen it was amazing what worked itself out.

So what do you do?

For those feeling lost, I get it. I was there. I knew I was meant to do something but had no stinkin’ clue what that something was for awhile. What I know now is that everything really happens for a reason. I know this because of the way that everything aligned with Purpose Marketing and Design. It was perfect and happened exactly when it was supposed to.

For those who believe in God, pray on it. For those who don’t, focus on you and focus on what makes you happy. It’s coming, I promise. Be happy. Live purposefully. Stay in the moment. Be Blessed.

Jodi

Jodi is a graduate of SUNY Oswego where she studied Public Relations. With big dreams she headed to NYC where she began her career at a Fortune 500 company as an event coordinator. She quickly moved up the corporate ladder and helped start up and expand an entire department as a territorial developer. With a passion for helping others she made the move to higher education before leaving to focus on raising her two boys. She’s back with that same passion and fresh new ideas.

www.purposemarketinganddesign.com