Seeds of Wisdom: The SEED that remains after 37 years

August 11, 1989!

As I mark 37 years since incorporation, I find myself looking at my business like I look at my garden in August—not only at what has grown, but at what the growing has taught me.

When I think back to who I was then, I am impressed that the young woman I was could put a stake in the ground and make it all happen.

After I was fired three times and started two other businesses, I was searching for a place where I could use all my natural talents and really make a difference in the world. When I was hired as a contractor to write resumes for small consulting firm, I found a place where I could finally flourish.

Who could have predicted that I would become a partner within a year and buy out the founder within the decade?

Mostly, I have learned that nothing happens in a straight line. Yet the Essence of who I was then and what I wanted to do has remained remarkably consistent.

I finally found a place to apply my innate ability to see what was possible in people and a burning desire to help them recognize their own inherent value.

I wanted them to grow into the raw potential that I could see in our first meeting.

Mostly, I wanted people to get clear about who they were and get on with being the fabulous humans they were meant to be.

The Work Took Many Forms

Along the way, I created, launched, and delivered a multitude of services. The services evolved. The people I served changed. The language I used to describe my work shifted.

The deeper purpose did not.

Whether I was helping someone write a resume, guiding a manager through a team challenge, helping a professional recognize her value, or supporting a new entrepreneur as she built her business, I was doing some version of the same essential work.

I was helping people answer questions such as:

· Who am I?

· What value do I bring?

· How can my work become a more honest reflection of who I am?

Some of the most powerful shifts happened with clients who had been laid off from high-level corporate positions and then decided to launch their own consulting businesses. It was like watching a caged bird fly freely.

The transformation usually began in the process of creating their resumes and helping them understand their market value. They were able to fully acknowledge the depth and breadth of their expertise, stepped into their potential, and declared themselves CEOs of their own companies.

I loved watching that happen.

The Shape Changed. The Essence Remained.

I did not always know where I was going.

But each time I hit a wall, I also allowed my own interests, passions, and curiosities to guide me into new customer groups and new areas of thought leadership.

Some services, such as writing resumes, stayed on the vine too long, like an overgrown zucchini. Still others produced an abundant harvest for a season and then gradually stopped feeding either me or the people I served.

Over time, I began to understand that the services were seasonal expressions of the business. They were not the business itself.

Releasing a service did not mean it had been a mistake. Sometimes holding on to an old form prevented me from seeing the new form my work was ready to take.

My business has grown through recessions, the arrival of the internet and social media, dramatic changes in how people work and purchase services, and seven presidential administrations.

Each time, I adapted, shifted, upgraded, and learned new skills.

All this time, I stayed in business because I was willing to listen when the business, the market, or my own life told me that something needed to change.

I could change what I offered without abandoning why I offered it.

The Essence Became Clearer

I could not have fully named the Essence of my work in 1989.

I had to live it long enough to recognize it.

Again and again, people came to me because they could not yet fully see the value, possibility, or leadership capacity I could see in them.

Again and again, my role was to help them recognize what was already there, give it language and structure, and create a way for it to be expressed through their work.

What I once did primarily through instinct, I can now see as the consistent thread running through all these years.

That is the Essence.

The Harvest of 37 Years

As I look at the harvest of these 37 years, I do not see a perfectly planned business following a straight path.

I see experiments, reinventions, unexpected successes, and ideas that produced far more than I imagined they would.

The business I lead today does not look like the one incorporated on August 11, 1989.

It should not.

I am not the same woman. The world is not the same. And the people I serve are facing different opportunities and challenges.

But beneath every reinvention, I can recognize the same seed.

I still want people to recognize and trust their inherent value.

I still want women to become the leaders they are capable of becoming.

I still want people to create work and businesses that allow more of who they are to be expressed.

And I still want them to get on with being the fabulous humans they are.

This journey has been about learning what to cultivate, what to change, what to release, and what is essential enough to carry forward.

As I celebrate this anniversary, I am grateful for everything that has grown from the stake I put in the ground when I declared my Freedom.

I am grateful for the clients who trusted me, the opportunities that stretched me, the ideas that surprised me, and even the overgrown zucchinis that taught me when it was time to move on.

And I am excited to see what this same seed is ready to grow next.

As you look at your own business, what has remained true beneath every version of your work?

That may be the seed of your Essence—and the clearest guide to what you are meant to grow next.

Discover Your Business Essence

Clarify what has always been at the heart of your work—and use it to guide what comes next.