GETTING LAID OFF

Wednesday, May 25, 2016 Gabby Bill 0 Comments



“Gabby, the purpose of this call is to let you know that your role has been eliminated.”

My vice president continued to speak, but that was really the last bit I heard. The sound of my heart pounding inside my chest was deafening. My palms would not stop sweating, despite me repeatedly wiping them against my jeans.   

I had just been laid off.

My brain wasn’t sure what to think or what to feel, so instead I thought and felt everything at once. Thrilled. Horrified. Tears. Laughter. Why me? Who else? What now?

“Do you have any questions?”

The voice on the phone broke me from my emotion-filled reverie. I said no. We hung up. A woman from HR waited outside the door.

She handed me an envelope, the word CONFIDENTIAL stamped across it in a never-ending pattern of bold red letters, like those things you see in detective movies when they’re delivering the results of a murder investigation.

It looked so official, so scary. This was really happening to me.

I quickly ripped a bland, white folder from the murder envelope and half-listened to the woman as she explained its contents, telling me I could go home and take off the rest of the week as I processed what had just happened.  

That’s when my mental state collapsed. As I walked down the stairs to my desk, a smile reminiscent of The Joker from Batman broke out across my face, and before I could help it, I erupted into a giant, uncontrollable belly laugh.

What the fuck?

I had just lost my job and I literally could not stop laughing. There I was, standing in a cement staircase, clutching a folder outlining my severance package and laughing like a hyena, the sounds reverberating against the walls. Defense mechanism, much?

When I finally composed myself I plastered a solemn, neutral look on my face, walked over to my desk and mimed to my buddy, Olivia, sliding a single finger across my jugular. That was crass, probably, but I couldn’t bring myself to speak the words. It would continue to make this ridiculous moment real.

Next thing I knew, I was surrounded by concerned co-workers. Most of them didn’t know how to react, so I got a lot of hugs, a lot of sad stares. One woman came up to me and cried, and somehow I found myself consoling HER – reassuring her that I was fine, that this was a good thing and that I was happy.

Of course, that was true, at least to an extent. I had been miserable in my job for months. In fact, the job had been wrong from the very start, and I had known it quite quickly. Yet something within me had told me to hold on, to hope and believe that things would get better, that my role would become more challenging and fulfilling, that the organization would get its act together.

In spite of the fact that I routinely prayed to get sick, just so I wouldn’t have to go to work (a truly bad sign!), I was blinded by an amazing paycheck, four weeks of vacation, unlimited sick days and perks upon perks. And perhaps worst of all, something in me had believed that there wasn’t anything better out there; that at 31 years old, this was the best it was going to get.

The day that I was laid off, I was one of 30 Associates that got the boot as a result of a massive reorganization of the marketing department. And the decision rocked everyone involved, even those that remained. The silent tension that filled our "cool" open floor plan was so thick that even my annoying ping-pong playing colleagues took a break from their daily festivities to mourn.

If you had asked me a few years ago if I ever thought I'd be laid off, I would probably have shrugged in an attempt to appear modest, but in my brain, I was pretty firm in my conviction that it wouldn't happen to me. After all, I was a Harvard educated marketer with work experience at one of the world's most loved brands. I was a diligent employee with excellent presentation skills, the ability to manage others and a sharp, strategic brain. In my past jobs, I was consistently one of the strongest and most liked performers on the floor. These are not the types of people that get laid off...right?

Maybe.

So many of the people that were laid off were brilliant. Nearly all had fantastic education. Few were your typical slackers or people that intentionally ruffled feathers. But what did distinguish us from the group that remained was our individuality. We weren't the cookie cutter workers that fit nicely into a mold. We spoke up when we didn't agree. We took an approach to solving problems that was a bit different. Our personalities didn't align completely with the person the company wanted us to be. It was a sad, yet not entirely shocking realization that even among a company that preached innovation, homogeneity was actually a value they prized.

Coming to this conclusion was comforting to my ego, particularly as I started to pack my possessions into my purse, getting ready to leave for the day. This was the first of many days to come during my "transition" period where I'd awkwardly try to carry arms full of belongings while simultaneously opening doors, as others on the floor diverted their eyes. The fact that I had lost my job made them feel awkward and ignoring me was often the way they dealt.

I never cried. That's just not my way. But I did spend a few days primarily laying in bed, greasy hair tossed into a bun, re-runs of Grey's Anatomy flipping by on Netflix.

And then I got up.

I showered, put on makeup and at 1pm on a Tuesday stepped outside into the sunshine and warmth of an early fall day in Philadelphia. I breathed in the air, felt the sun on my skin, and the emotion that overcame me was one of the most powerful I've felt in my life.

I felt free.

It was the start of something wonderful, and although I didn't know what it would be at the time, I put one foot in front of the other, walked out into the bliss of the empty city streets and never looked back.

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Want to stay in touch, be notified of new posts and get some career inspiration in your inbox? Sign up for email updates today (no spam here, just an email every few weeks or so...and I promise, they're good). You'll also get a FREE copy of my guidebook, 7 Strategies to a Seamless Job Search, just for signing up.

Gabrielle "Gabby" Bill is a career coach and consultant who believes everyone should be working in a job that leaves them feeling fulfilled. She coaches groups and individuals through a reflection process, uncovering often hidden motivations, values, goals and skills as they relate to their career. These reflections are then parlayed into concrete action plans to guide clients through the process of finding, creating and landing their dream jobs. You can learn more about her services by visiting www.gabriellebill.com

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THE FREEDOM OF MINIMALISM

Friday, May 13, 2016 Gabby Bill 0 Comments



I'm an avid YouTube watcher. It's part of the reason I stopped paying for cable, because frankly, I was watching way more hours of YouTube videos each week than I was of network TV. This made for fascinating scenarios when my friends would talk about the latest episode of Parks & Recreation or Modern Family or whatever, and I'd be like, well Zoella's latest favorites video was just....no one? Just me? Ok.

I mention this because sometimes the channels I subscribe to don't upload fast enough, and it results in me aimlessly trolling my list of recommended videos. It was this very act of trolling that led me to discover LightbyCoco last year. Coco is a minimalist, or as she calls it, someone who ascribes to the principles of "living light." I watched a few of her videos and, this is going to sound totally hippie dippie, but I felt a sort of calling. 

When I was a child, I loved to collect things -- stickers, keychains, postcards, Beanie Babies -- but as I've gotten older, I've noticed that all of these "things" started to weigh me down. I found myself going to not one, not two, but THREE grand openings of The Container Store and relishing all of their amazing storage solutions, only to realize that the way I was approaching organizing was just finding creative ways to hide my excess shit, which at the end of the day, meant I still owned way too much stuff.

I really started to notice just how much I had amassed when I moved to Philadelphia and went from a 1,100 square foot Florida apartment with 1.5 baths, a walk-in closet, coat closet, linen closet, pantry and about 15 cabinets and cupboards to a 700 square foot box with less than half the storage. When I moved I found that every single nook and cranny where I could possibly hide a "thing" was quickly full, and maybe for some people that works, but for me, it just made me stressed.

My best friend doesn't understand this, because in her world, as long as everything has a place she's cool, but I was consistently reminded of how full every space was and it weighed me down mentally. When I watched Coco's minimalist house tour or capsule wardrobe, the idea really resonated with me, and so I started decluttering.

This was months before Marie Kondo's now famous book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up came into fashion. By the time that book caught fire, I had already made four trips to Goodwill with full carloads of stuff I no longer wanted or needed. I started calling myself a minimalist. 

And then this happened:

I was on a girls' trip to New York City with three of my best friends from high school, and naturally because it's a topic that inspires me, I started talking about my journey to minimalism and how it had begun to change my life. And one of my friends called me out. She took one look at my weekend makeup bag, which was filled with probably 12 products and said, "Umm, look at that," (pointing to the bag), "You're no minimalist."

And that's when I realized just how misunderstood minimalism was. Sure, if you're going by the traditional definition from the dictionary, minimalism is the art of "extreme" spareness and simplicity. But in reality, 1) minimalism need not be extreme if that doesn't work for you, and 2) you make your own rules!

The root of the minimalism movement is in the concept of keeping items and possessions that have a purpose. I think Marie Kondo's principle of things "sparking joy" takes it a bit far, because my whisk in my kitchen rarely sparks joy, but rather it has a use, and I frequently take it out of its drawer to stir up baking mixes or scramble my eggs. This is in contrast to the three pairs of kitchen tongs that I owned at the beginning of my journey or the "spare" coffee maker that I kept in my hall closet "just in case my Keurig ever breaks." 

Let's face it, if my Keurig ever breaks, am I going to whip out the 3-year-old KitchenAid or am I going to go out and buy another Keurig?

Creating a minimalist home is about evaluating the possessions that add value to your life in one way or another and then surrounding yourself with only those possessions. But YOU get to define what value means and which possessions fall into that category. For me, I love beauty products, and YES, I use 12 products every single day. So having these things in my possession actually supports my minimalism, rather than refuting it. Someone who maintains a makeup bag of 8 items, on the other hand, but only uses 2 of them daily, is actually less of a minimalist than me. 

The journey of getting to minimalism is fun and challenging. It sounds hokey, but I felt a weight lifted off my shoulders every time I made a donation or realized I could pass an item along to someone who would enjoy it more than me. I had a party a few months ago, and I put out about 10 items I no longer wanted. I felt more joy in seeing them pass into new hands than I ever would have with those things sitting unused in my drawers. And oh -- giving myself permission to throw away photos that brought up bad memories? That may have been the most cathartic decluttering session of them all.

As I just moved into an even smaller apartment, minimalism has been on my mind again, and I continue to go through my belongings and pull out things I can pass along. Those old chargers, plates and napkins that I had on my tiny kitchen table? I realized that because they're old, sort of faded and chipped that every time I looked at them, I felt a knot in my stomach. I got rid of them. And frankly, I kind of liked the look of the bare table more, because it showed off the wood grain and shifted the focus to the beautiful, cream-colored chairs that flanked it. Those gorgeous pillows on my couch that are crazy uncomfortable because the ends of the feathers stick into your back every time you try to lay on them? Those went too, to a household where "show" pillows are necessary and comfort doesn't matter.

I still have two trunks full of stuff from my childhood that I'm not ready to let go of. Old yearbooks, my baby blanket, a few stuffed animals, my grandfather's Gator hat. I still have 10 nail polishes (down from 40!) and 10 coffee mugs (all varieties of nerdy!). But these items are additive to my life, rather than subtractive, so minimalism is still achieved for me.

You might be wondering what in the heck any of this has to do with careers, and I'll admit that the relationship is tangential. But I think the moral of the story is that surrounding yourself with things, experiences, people and the like that ADD to your life can be massively powerful. And along those same lines, removing the things that DETRACT from your life can be even more so. 

What might happen if you cleared off your desk at work today? What if you removed those piles of papers you've been meaning to attend to (but never find the time to look at)? I challenge you to clear away the useless office supplies that you reach for once every six months (like tape! Who really needs tape on their desk?). Think about what might happen if you replace your twelve knick knacks with two framed photos of loved ones that remind you of serene, peaceful or truly happy moments? How would you feel if you kept out the one award that's most meaningful to you and hid those that don't make you feel proud?

You can choose to apply the principles of minimalism to anything in your life, really, from the physical space around you to the mental chatter that clutters your thoughts and inhibits focus. Apply it to your email inbox (Hi Christine!) or streamline your notes by using a single notebook. Maybe create a work "uniform" that helps you get dressed in the morning with ease. Do whatever feels right to you and go slow. Make small changes that you try out for a few weeks to see how you feel. 

I know for me, both the journey and the end result have proven to be powerful in shifting not only my mindset, but my finances (I buy less and am more careful about what I do buy). I'm significantly more relaxed, and instead of looking out into my space and seeing stress and clutter, I see peace. It's been transformational. 

Now it's your turn. Have you heard of minimalism, and do you think it's absolutely nuts? Have you tried it and loved it, too? What are your best tips for helping others achieve minimalism in their life or work? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.

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CENTER STAGE: SINGER / SONGWRITER CHLOE DOLANDIS

Tuesday, May 10, 2016 Gabby Bill 0 Comments



I first met Chloe when I was in 7th grade and she was in 6th. We were both cast in our English teacher's "musical" -- Scenes from the Old West -- in which no one actually sang, but rather lip-synced to tape decks illegally recorded from old-timey Western albums. From the moment I saw her literally bounce across the room during our first rehearsal, I was enamored. I hand-picked her (as I still do today) as someone I wanted to make my friend, and without fail, by high school we had developed the kind of closeness that stays strong even when years and years pass between conversations. 

She was, and still is, a dynamo, although the boundless energy she possessed as a child has cooled just enough in her adult life to make her appear both on-fire with passion and simultaneously grounded. I was inspired by Chloe's energy as a teen, but what has kept me so inspired all these years is the fact that Chloe is one of the few people I know to truly pursue her passion, no holds barred.

You see, I was a total drama nerd in high school. We were this really tight knit group of performers with a hodge podge of talents, and since we rehearsed five nights a week -- whether for our fall straight play, spring musical or bevy of neighborhood "gigs" (mostly old age homes, but that's what you get when you grow up in south Florida) -- it meant few of us had many friends outside the circle. It also meant that, with a world so narrowly focused on one particular passion, many of us proclaimed loudly and clearly that we would be the special ones to break through the clutter and become professionals in the theatre arts.

Although theatre has, and always will be, my one true love, I was one of the less brave ones who succumbed to the societal notion that being rich was more important than living your passion (I learned my lesson!), but Chloe and a select few never let the sheer impracticality of making a living in the arts stop them from chasing their dreams. 

Of course, for Chloe, becoming an artist may have been destiny. She grew up with musical parents -- her mom was a professional ballet dancer who had done some musical theatre and her dad was a professional musician -- so from the jump, she was encouraged to pursue creativity in its many forms. She took dance lessons, developed a love for drawing, and even started collecting pig stuffed animals (today this massive collection could create a very impressive art installation in a museum, so yes, I consider that to be creativity). 

In high school -- as is the case for many -- thinking about the future of her career got serious, and even her uber-supportive dad urged Chloe to give practicality some consideration. "My dad wanted to make sure I could take care of myself financially," Chloe says. "But I realized that practical and natural, like what feels right, are completely married. If you're doing something you love, everything flourishes."

Even though she felt self-assurance around her performance career, Chloe did take the somewhat practical route and pursued a bachelor's degree at Florida Atlantic University. She chose to stay close to home for school, rather than going away to college, so she could be in the midst of the burgeoning south Florida performance scene. And then she started auditioning. 

She landed a hosting role on a Nickelodeon game show called "SPLAT!" in 2004 -- her first major television gig. (True story: Chloe wasn't the original woman hired for the job! She was hired as a replacement a year after her first audition, a "great lesson in patience" she recalls.) 

"I took a semester off of school to host the show," Chloe says, "and I found myself writing songs during every break from taping." She remembers how she'd beg the producers to let her sing for the cast and crew, although at the time she'd sing covers of other artists' music; too shy to share the originals she'd penned. 

"It was a gradual progression as far as the blossoming of my love for music," she says. "I had a lot of fear around it. I had been in dance class, and I was in musical theatre, but the shy side of me kept holding me back as far as singing goes and songwriting and playing instruments. It took me longer than I expected to develop my voice and confidence, but I just had this feeling that music was the way, that music was what I wanted to pursue as my main focus."


Her work on SPLAT! resulted in being cast on another game show called "Friday Night SlimeTime" that shot in Los Angeles, but interestingly Chloe didn't feel as fulfilled as she expected. Deciding that it was no longer possible to ignore the calling she felt toward music, Chloe left the West Coast when the show wrapped and dove headfirst into the singer / songwriter scene. That's when she met Zach Ziskin, a man she credits with changing her life.

Zach was a Grammy-award winning producer, and after sparking an immediate connection, the pair wrote, recorded and released Chloe's first album, "Bring Back the Fever," a self-funded collection of soulful, jazzy songs with deep, meaningful lyrics. "We just created it, then started figuring out how to market it," she says, "Meanwhile I just continued to audition, trying out for lots of reality shows. When I got past the fear of judgment, I was able to start allowing myself to try things."

Naturally, it wasn't all smooth sailing. In spite of making really great music and having a natural, raw talent that's hard to fake, Chloe's album wasn't the overnight, runaway hit that she might have hoped for. Instead she had to come to grips, not only with the pain of rejection, but also the concept that her music career might be more of a slow burn than a rapidly-sparked fire. 

"It hurt. I let it hurt. To stifle it or to pretend makes it more difficult because then you’re not acknowledging what’s really going on. It’s not that it isn’t hard sometimes, because sometimes it really, really stings, and so I’ve let it hurt and I’ve moved through it. I genuinely from the bottom of my heart do my best to handle things with grace, but that doesn’t mean I don’t cry. Allowing myself to do this and accepting it as part of the process makes it easier. I know those feelings aren’t going to last. Rejection can be redirection."

And Chloe truly embraces that attitude, using the forks in the road to help her continually hone and develop her craft. "My style is always developing. It’s kind of like cooking. I'll listen to a bunch of music and say, 'I like the bass drum from this song, the synth pattern from this song and the groove of this song, and I love the vocal styling of this person.' I take inspiration from lots of things and then figure out how to do things my own way." And her method works.



After performing for more than half of her life, Chloe has become a veritable celebrity in the south Florida singing community. Ask for a peek at her calendar, and you'll feel as though she's constantly working, whether performing live at venues near and far with her band, recording new music in the studio, doing a photo shoot or wrapping up behind-the-scenes production work on a new album she co-wrote. The success she's found is real, valuable and meaningful, even if her face isn't plastered on a billboard in Hollywood.

"I've always had this desire to connect artistically with other people, with myself, with the world," she says. "My career is a huge part of who I am, and I can really say that every day I love what I do."

If you'd like to learn more about Chloe or hear her music, you can connect with her via her website, www.chloedolandis.com or on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
 
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Want to stay in touch, be notified of new posts and get some career inspiration in your inbox? Sign up for email updates today (no spam here, just an email every few weeks or so...and I promise, they're good). You'll also get a FREE copy of my guidebook, 7 Strategies to a Seamless Job Search, just for signing up.

Gabrielle "Gabby" Bill is a career coach and consultant who believes everyone should be working in a job that leaves them feeling fulfilled. She coaches groups and individuals through a reflection process, uncovering often hidden motivations, values, goals and skills as they relate to their career. These reflections are then parlayed into concrete action plans to guide clients through the process of finding, creating and landing their dream jobs. You can learn more about her services by visiting www.gabriellebill.com

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