What's the point?
Is it the journey or the destination? I’m still not sure….
Living through a pandemic brought us to a place of self-reflection I certainly wasn’t prepared for but needed desperately. When the pandemic hit I was a nursing mother who had just headed back to work from maternity leave as CEO of a digital agency and was ready to begin the jarring journey of reentry to the world with a newborn and a seven-year-old while running a company. All of that is complicated enough on its own.
At the beginning of March 2020, Doug, our creative director, stopped in and asked me “what are we going to communicate to our team about Coronavirus?” At this stage I barely had answers to basic questions, let alone answers to something that had yet to become a global story. I think I told him, “I’ll look into it” just to have an out from the conversation which I hoped I would never need to revisit. You know the rest of the story. In short order, a mysterious disease that was generating troubling headlines out of Asia, Italy, and the West Coast shut down the world and four days later I was communicating to the team that we're indefinitely closing our physical office effective immediately and rolled out a plan of action I had approximately an hour to craft.
Nine years of leading a company did not set me up to feel fully confident leading through a global pandemic as it turns out. Growing and learning lessons on the fly though are what comes with this gig. Good lessons, day-to-day lessons, and really really fucking tough lessons. So ready or not, COVID-19 was here and I know I’ve never navigated through a more difficult time as a business owner. I’ve had some difficult days or even weeks but this was a year and a half of stepping each day in the minefield. One day a client would be stopping all of their advertising overnight because their stores had been mandatory shut down, and the very next day (or even the same day) you’d be listening to a team member's personal struggles all of which was really heavy.
During this time of trying to make sure that all 20 of the humans that signed up to work for me would get paid and be safe, I was also homeschooling my 1st grader and nursing my newborn, and going through tremendous life changes of my own. The pandemic disrupted everyone’s lives in profound ways and I already look back at this very recent time in my life and wonder how I survived it all, but I did. We all did. And that, I supposed, is the entire point. The word growth sometimes annoys me, I think it can be overused or there is pressure to always be doing it. In this case, though, I really felt at a crossroads and I’m proud that I pushed forward. That road isn’t always straight, it’s almost never easy, it’s a multitude of things but it was always a choice to put one foot in front of the other and to me, that's what growth is. You can grow every day in many different ways. You can become a better mother, leader, team member, friend, the list is endless. You can also grow in your skill sets, you can become better at managing your money, or golfing, or whatever you want. But first, you have to choose to.
People have believed in this idea for a long time. Maia is the Roman goddess who embodied the concept of growth. She is also the Greek goddess of nursing mothers, making Maia one of a number of goddesses associated with motherhood in the Greek pantheon. The esteem of Maia was such that her name was still relevant in the Roman period, giving rise to the month of May in the English language, the month when life is reborn in the northern hemisphere. She represented the choice to grow, the choice to create new things, the choice to hope.
The pandemic has me questioning everything about my own life and evaluating my happiness, as it did for most. It gave me time to figure out what was working and what wasn’t and to also be brave enough to walk away from things that weren’t serving me peace.
It also gave me time to pivot to things I’ve wanted to do for a long time and the pandemic reminded me life is short; do the things now.
So with some of the most brilliant humans I know, we created this new brand; The Maia Group. I ultimately decided to include the word group, because I know this new journey of growth may involve several factors. It’s another reason I related so much to goddess Maia, she is known to be the goddess of many things, and that may be my favorite thing about her.
To begin, this brand will push me to come out of my comfort zone. I'm going to talk about my own growth in all the ways I’m working on. (everyone wants to hear about my very slowly improving golf game, I’ll assume?) I’m also working on creating and starting other things too. It’s what I’m good at and some of my favorite times were the beginnings of Happy Medium.
My first step is to support other entrepreneurs. I am proud to announce this new endeavor of mine has already given me the experience of supporting some very talented CEO’s doing some very cool things. I connect with them on business operational levels, sales strategy building, oh-shit moments, and also (and possibly the most important) the emotional and so personal side of founding/owning/running a business. It’s been by far the hardest piece for me over the last ten years and I have a goal to give entrepreneurs support I didn’t have that I would have very much benefitted from. The clients I’m currently working within this space and look forward to supporting more are entrepreneurs who have a few team members and are running rapidly growing businesses but they all face unique challenges that require a c-suite level of expertise to address several needs, without the full c-suite salary requirements. As the goddess Maia would be of many things, I know so too will The Maia Group. This is the place where I will support others and create my own new opportunities.
I don’t have an answer to my own question—if it’s the journey or the destination. I think it’s probably both (which is generally my favorite choice when asked to choose between two things). I’ve hit so many destinations on this journey but every day feels like major growth when looking back and huge opportunity when looking forward. I’m mostly thankful this past year and a half has brought me so much peace and happiness, and I’m looking forward to sharing my future growth experiences. I hope you choose to come with us. Follow along on Instagram: @themaiagroup
