Saturday morning I sat in front of my computer, listening to a guy out in California talking to a friend of mine who lives out in PA about his business. A friend of mine who lives down in Florida won the basebcall cap that my Philadelphia friend brought back from Taiwan after the team he helps coach won the gold medal. Now that's cool, but the really cool thing was sitting there thinking; there's a reason I'm hearing this right now. My friend the hitting coach talked about the mental approach to the plate, and as he spoke I nodded along in my computer room. I wish I would have had the foresight to write down what he said, because I don't remember most of it, but I remember him talking about losing, and then winning, and how he didn't have much to tell his team when they were preparing for the championship game because they had put in the effort required to win.

I spent yesterday morning writing up something that would explain what my company does. When I was finished, I was proud of what I had accomplished. Then I stayed up too late because my daughter couldn't stop coughing, and something funny happened. As the night wore on, I noticed that my decisions became worse, and worse. Pretty soon I was regretting every word I had written, and bemoaning having sent what I wrote to so many people. I tried telling myself that people make mistakes all the time, and if people didn't like what I had sent, the world would keep on turning, but I couldn't let it. Sometimes people have great advice, but if I don't like or trust them, I'm not going to listen to them. So that made me realize that sometimes people don't listen to me because I haven't earned their trust, and that's okay, because I'm not out to win the trust of everyone. There are people I want to work with, who also want to work with me, and those are the people that I need to worry about.

This morning I woke up to two emails from people that I do like and trust who know me, and what my business is about, perhaps even more so than I know myself. Both of them had very positive and encouraging feedback for me, and I was even more grateful for it after the rough night I had had. I have an unofficial list of mentors, people that I respect and admire, and I'm going to remember this lesson as I move forward. I will not push my well intentioned advice on others, nor will I subject myself to advice from people that I don't respect because it just doesn't work. There are things I need to do, and I did end up acting on the advice of the guy who told tried to fix something that I'm not sure was broken. I built a network of amazing friends when I worked in the therapeutic shoe industry. I had retail customers who loved me, when I worked at the smoothie shop people came there because of me, I am a fabulous networker, and I won't accumulate much money while I'm in business for mysely, but I'm going to call the shots, and I'm never going to represent myself as something I'm not.

Shoe fitting is not a glamorous job. It's humbling to have to get down in front of someone else's feet, but if you're a shoe fitter, and you try to make your title fancy, you've disrespected yourself, and your profession, and I refuse to do that so go me. Tomororrow I'm going back to be a substitute lunch lady at the school that a friend of mine works at. I had fun working with her today, and the extra money will be nice too. I met back up with a coach that worked with my girls when they played soccer, the woman I'm going to be working for has a son who plays D1 football, and opportunities are everywhere if that's the only thing you want to be seeing.

Take care,

Jess