1,005 Days

I had been an addiction therapist for over a decade.... I was just working from home for a six months to get myself more emotionally centered. I was feeling pretty darn burnt out a year+ into Covid with so many clients and others passing away. As an extreme empath - this was a very challenging time for me.

I never fathomed that I wouldn't go back to therapy.

After six months, I realized how happy I was. How "light" I felt. How much better of a wife, mother, friend I was.

I was not ready to go back. Plus, I had been promoted at my job and it was looking like another promotion was in the works.

I told myself to give it another six months - that was when my state & national credentials would need to be renewed.

June 30, 2022. It was 11:45pm and I either had to renew my credentials or let them lapse. I knew what I wanted, but I couldn't have it.

I wanted to be a therapist!
I wanted to go back to helping change people's lives!
But, I wanted to keep the peace I felt inside...

So 12:01am came and the tears flowed. I was mourning the loss of my identity.
"I am an addiction therapist. I help people get their lives back!"

One year after that, I realized that though I had made the right choice for me, I could not and would not walk away from helping people.

I needed to marry my two worlds. My two sets of expertise.
- I know how to help people (I was a damn good therapist, y'all.)
- And now I knew all about the tech B2B world.

I knew what each persona did, the obstacles they faced, the way they worked, what they needed, what they wanted.... I worked with every kind of person, from IC to manager to director to CEO. I worked with people at super small startups and people at enterprise companies.

So, the question became, "How do I marry these? CAN I marry these?"

With the guidance of my awesome coach, Brian Gallagher, I landed on executive leadership coaching. I wanted to help the Founder-CEOs I admired so much.

I remember the day he asked me to "defend why you're qualified to help me" (as he was playing the part of a prospective CEO client).

The short version of my answer:

- I am used to working with people that don't want to work with me or change. Helping people who have a desire to work with me and to change, will be a walk in the park.

- I am an expert stress buster. Stress fuel addiction. I didn't just teach the addicted population about their disease and tell them "okay, stop using now." I had to teach them how to cope with stress. I had to teach them how to reduce the stress they faced from outside forces.

- Their lack of self awareness, inability to communicate, poor boundaries, lack of humility/vulnerability, and inability to trust led to additional stress. THAT is what we spent the majority of our time working on.

👉 And those are the exact skills that make a good leader!

To the Next 1,005 Days 🎉
SaaSy Cassie