Straight Outta Corporate America

Well the cat is out of the bag! I’m officially out of Corporate America…Woo Hoo!! I actually resigned over a month ago but I wanted to take some time to deliberate my next steps before making my final decision.

While the lure of a steady paycheck is a powerful thing…I had to ask myself a more powerful question! “Was I happy doing what I was I doing?” And my answer was a resounding “Hell to the No”! Can you relate? 

I write in my book about women knowing their currency (both self-worth and dollars in their bank account) yet here I’d become a number on a scorecard…my value measured in percentages in red or green…depending on how well I’d done that particular month. Since when did my value become a metric, based on some flavor of the day scorecard…and yet that’s what I’d become! A metric! 

Well I don’t know about most of you…but I believe I was born to do something BIGGER than exist in a job that I no longer felt passionate about…in an industry that’s going downhill faster than Lindsay Vaughn on a black diamond. The truth is I want a life bigger than me, and one where I can find my true purpose…and then splash it all over Instagram…letting all you lil worker bees know how great my life really is!

Seriously though…many of you know that I’ve written a book…and many of you have been asking where the hell is it! I know “Like hurry up already…where can I buy this Pulitzer Prize Winner?” Well here’s the deal! About 6 months ago I sent my 60-Page Book Proposal to a NY Literary Titan…someone who represents many NY Times Bestselling Authors… and his response was “While I think it’s salable…and that you’re onto something…I’m not going to represent you because you don’t have a platform”! WTH? A platform? Was he talking about…the shoe? 

Suffice to say, it’s no longer enough to show up with a completed manuscript that is “Salable”…in the high falutin’ world of New York Publishing…and instead you need to “arrive” ready for prime time with your audience already tuned in, tapped in and following you…before your damn book is even published! Think Kim Kardashian! If she rolled up to a Publisher…”sans book” she’d have a book deal faster than you can say “Sex Tape”! Unfortunately, it’s a sign of the times we live in when you can be a Z-List Reality Star or “Celebspawn Influencer”…barely able to spell your own name (or get into college without a “bribe”)..and get a book deal…whereas for the regular career woman like “moi”… it’s a whole other bag of chips!

So what’s a mere mortal like myself to do…someone who has toiled away in Corporate America for over 20 years and doesn’t have a platform? That’s right I have to create one! I was desperately trying to avoid becoming one of those annoying people who ask you to “Like” their page…worse still ”Follow” them…however, it would seem times are a changing…and if I want to be successful in this new endeavor, I’m going to have to hop on the Social Media Bandwagon myself and become annoying too!

More to follow as I figure out this next chapter (no pun intended)…stay tuned!

Clare Brackenridge