How this works · STRATEGY 22

How this works

So you took a chance, maybe out of desperation, maybe just curious, on that post on Linkedin and now you find yourself here.

First of all, welcome.

Second, here's why "here" exists and how this will work.

I was the OG "professional misfit". The nicest thing an employer or recruiter ever had to say about my resume was " your experience is so diverse".... And for a lot of years ( A LOT) I let that give me a complex and define me. Always been a little too grateful, a little too insecure about what I did and did well. And while the resume was "diverse" it also was impressive and had receipts to back up the experience in not one, not two but five fields.

But as a woman of a certain age, I was programmed to continually show up, to continually bring value, to work harder, to not ask for my due, and to continually worry that I was the problem. Yet my managers, co workers, and peers ( mostly male, but not all) coasted through. It took me forever to realize that my 40 % was head and shoulders above most peoples 110%, And worse.... I was exhausted, under paid, and overwhelmed. I'd spent years making other people dreams come true and others filthy rich off of my blood, sweat, and work. And all I had to show for it was... well nothing.

There were turning points that I'll talk further about as we go.. but in the end they boiled down to a heart attack, a lay off, and an absolute professional ( and personal ) loss, all in the span of about 18 months. Throw in a new baby... and well things got real, fast.

I've been consulting for years, coaching for more without calling it that, or frankly knowing that's what it was. The explosion of " online courses" and gurus made me nauseated and as lay offs got worse and the noise got louder.... I started to check out.

Yet I was hearing the same thing over and over... I don't know how, I don't know where, I don't know what. All from some of the most educated, compassionate, and talented professionals. Ones I spent time in awe of. So I bought in, gave in and tried some "coaches" who promised to package what I did and make me visible... poppycock. Maybe it would have worked, if I could have stomached it. But it all felt ... wrong. And expensive and way way too risky for me, much less someone putting all their eggs in one basket.

I was lucky, I had landed on my feet after being traumatically laid off from the dream job. Years of consulting on the side and that "diversity" allowed me to be a viable candidate and pivot into not just one field of jobs but three. But I finally recognized my story wasn't typical and a new direction for Strategy 22 was born. We had been primarily in seed to stage A startups, we could have stayed in startups.

We were doing okay... but I wasn't. And suddenly I knew it was time to pivot.

We had an internal motto of why we were consultants, why we built the company the way we did.

" to even the playing field...." and that kept coming back to haunt me, because we in fact were not. In fact, we were teaching people how to contribute to the noise and the isolation of the market. And that was when we knew it had to stop.

Strategy is lead by mostly all moms, single moms to boot. Our CFO isn't a mom but is responsible for 2 sets of aging parents, hundreds of miles from where he lives. To say that none of us where having our lives made better by traditional corporate jobs was understatement. And we all were reaching a point where we were tired of not only building someone else's dream, but having our worth be determined by someone else through a paycheck, that told us when to show up and how to raise our kids. Lastly, each one of us hit a point where our personal lives outside of a traditional work structure demanded more hours in the week than we had available- and it was time for some tough decisions.

We will be the first to tell you that entrepreneurship, even "side hustles" (and I HATE that term,) are not for everyone. But you can only control what you can and at some point hard decisions and choices have to made so you better be able to make the best one you can with the right information at each stage.

And that is where we find ourselves today.

Tired of the hustle and the noise, we have decided to even the playing field. Membership is a dollar, it will remain a dollar a month for the foreseeable future. What you get is the following

15 years of consulting with start ups and Fractional executives around compliance, operations and SOP, sales, strategy, forecasting and finance, Rev Ops, and more condensed into guides and PDFs in the library... absolutely free.

A community to ask questions, find similar stories, remember that you aren't alone, and to find inspiration- the kind of networking that allows you to learn, promote, and grow... basically what Linkedin should have been or could have been, had it not gone to the dark side.
Monthly coaching and office hours as well as open email and chats to ask business specific questions and help with things that you are facing, either privately or in the community to get feedback and assistance from our team along with worksheets, challenges, and thought questions if you just want to lurk but need to work thing out on your own timeline.
There will be more in the coming weeks- break out groups, workshops, calls and one on one coaching as well as guest speakers and guest experts. Some will be paid. Simply because my team and I like indoor plumbing and food, but it will always be your choice. No sales pressure, no upsell, no pitches, no spamming emails, and no guilt.

And that's it .. for now.

Hopefully its enough, hopefully its starts leveling the playing field for anyone who needs just a little support among trying to figure out the mortgage payment, getting the dog to the vet, saving for retirement, college, taking care of senior parent. and all the rest that doesn't stop just because your 9-5 did.

For now all I ask is this. Make a post, introduce yourself, tell us where you find yourself in this crazy world. How you got here, what your facing and where you'd like to go. If you find some solace, refer a friend... for anyone a founding member ( designation as a founding membership will close ) brings into the community my team and I will give you an hour of one on one coaching up to 10 hours, normally a package that would run between 6-8k ( however, you want to refer more people... lets talk)

Our why, my why.... is that this current business world isn't sustainable professionally or personally. We've gotten lost somewhere in the noise and in the all consuming idea of " me", and the only way we are going to get out of this and create the new normal is with the return to the idea of "we".

So .. it's time to go to work.

Do your best,

-Meg

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