I received a rude awakening many years ago when I entered the corporate world for the first time. I was in an incredibly toxic culture. There was bullying, backstabbing, lying, racism, sexism. All the things an empath would hate, except I didn’t know I was one at the time. It was an excruciating time for me. Every morning I would wake up and just want to stay in bed. The world just felt so gray.
My career was everything to me, but I also knew I never wanted to be as cold or cruel as those around me. So in my attempt to survive and thrive in this truly horrible environment, I had to learn how to navigate this world in a way that aligned with my heart-centered way of being.
As I figured things out or received key advice from mentors, I would write them down so I wouldn’t forget, and could refer back to it the rest of my career. I had to learn everything firsthand because no one talks about these things openly. Organizational behavior touches on it a little. But for the most part, where it really matters, office politics is a taboo topic.
When you interview for your next job and you are asked why you want to leave your current company, it is not acceptable to say that you are in a toxic culture, you don’t align with that environment, you know you deserve better and you want to be somewhere where you can get real work done, and in an honest way. You have to find a way to sugar coat it.
When I realized others struggled with these same issues, I decided to put out into the world these lessons I had learned. So I took all the notes I had taken and put them into a book called 25 Things They Don’t Teach in Business School: A User’s Manual for Surviving Office Politics. And I launched my first YouTube channel, Consulting For Rookies.
I had no idea what I was doing, but pretty soon one of my videos got over 500,000 views. I’m sure at this point it’s had a million views. I have other videos that also hit 500,000+ views. And my book started to sell. I was really helping people :)
I was the President of the Entrepreneurship Club while doing my MBA, and I had done other little business activities when I was younger. But this book and this channel was my first real entry into helping others and having a business of my own. And after getting bitten by that bug, I haven’t been able to stop since.
I have tried many other businesses since. What I have learned is that the way the majority of entrepreneurs conduct business is not the way I want to do business. I don’t want to push my agenda down your throat and tell you what is good for you. I want to draw you in with real value. I want you to trust yourself to know whether we are the right fit for your next steps. I want you to want to be here. I want to respect your boundaries.
I don’t want to work with every person who crosses my path and chase them down like an unfortunate victim. I want to work with those I can truly help and who are ready for the journey it takes to get to where their heart wants to go.
And I certainly don’t want to work with someone who would fit into a toxic culture like the one I had to endure. I want to work with the honest, sensitive souls trying to make a real difference in the world.
I believe empaths are the leaders our futures desperately need. I want to work with the empath, whether they identify themselves by that, or by terms like lightworkers, sensitives, indigos children / adults.
I didn’t know I was an empath all those years ago and that I was writing an office politics book specifically for them. But I do now, and I want to help my people succeed now, just as I did then. Whether they need to grow their confidence, find balance in who they are, bounce off ideas, build a plan or receive next step guidance, I want to help them become the leader they know they came here to become.