2021 IN REVIEW
2021 IN REVIEW
2021 was a year of wild swings. At the beginning of the year, I was still trying to recover from the steep drop in business that began with the COVID outbreak in March 2020. In that month, my training calendar went from full to empty in the space of two days. Only one client kept me on, and that at a greatly reduced level, so I went to work for Walmart as a stocker to make ends meet. At the beginning of 2021, I was still waking at 3:00 AM to be at the store at 4:00 AM, still spending much of my shift in a meat cooler, and still thankful for the work.1
Continuing with work, my situation changed shortly into the new year. Initially, when I got the message from my one client i.e., “Rob we need to talk,” I was sure that it would be another notice of funding cut and the end of any work together; instead, my client said “Rob, I need as much of your time as you can give me.” (Wait, let me check my schedule … YES!) That was the beginning of a dramatic turnaround: within the next 3 months or so, two additional clients signed on for very intensive and high profile projects: a global manufacturer needed to dramatically ramp up their sales efforts, for which I introduced CODE, and a publicly-traded Exploration and Production company need to strengthen the company’s safety culture, which requires work on multiple levels. Needless to say, I was on the road almost continually from May through December, and SO APPRECIATIVE after the barrenness of 2021. It was a banner year!
On a personal level, we took the leap and moved from Tulsa, OK (our home since 2011) to Chattanooga, TN. Tennessee has been our desired location for over thirty years, but work always seemed to dictate that we live elsewhere. Something about living through a pandemic, losing almost everything from a financial perspective brought home the biggest lesson of 2021: life is uncertain, so if there is something that you really want to do, orient your energy and resources and just make it happen.
I was also reminded again about the centrality of relationship, and of the value of nurturing those relationships over time, for business development. Both of those big projects came from relationships that were nurtured over the course of several years, of investments of time and sharing expertise when there wasn’t any immediate payoff. It brought me back to being even more deliberate about nurturing those relationships, tracking their growth, and being patient.
What a momentous year!
-ROBERT
Notes
... and for the Walmart haters, here’s one person who’ll disagree – I found it to be a good company to work for, at least at my store.
