It has been almost two and a half months since I posted about leaving ClubReady, my employer for the prior seven years. In that time a lot has changed. I’ve gone 100% vegan, lost a bit of weight and lowered my blood pressure to a very healthy level, and held it there. I wonder how much of that was diet, and how much of that was leaving my role ;) (It was diet, my BP was still high after leaving CR).
In the 2.5 months I’ve had a lot of time to spend with my family, a little time to spend catching up with friends and former coworkers, and a little time to try to figure out what comes next. My last day at CR I actually had a phone interview scheduled with a local St. Louis company. That interview led to a few more calls, all conducted remotely, and ultimately led to a job offer back mid/late February.
I was super stoked to receive the offer, but I was a little selfish and didn’t want to start right away. I was already scheduled to travel to Orlando to present at the #DNNSummit conference the week the company wanted me to start, and then on March 14th I had a big bike race I was training for, and the week after that was spring break for the kids. So I asked the company if I could delay my start until March 23rd, after the kids went back to school.
Little did I know that the world would change in that 4 weeks I asked to delay my start. #Covid19 has taken over, shifting the axis on which the economy turns all around the world, and causing many people to have to change how they work, where they work, and even if they have work to do. For the past few weeks, I’ve been sitting here, regretting that decision to delay, with quite a bit of worry that my job would go away before I even started.
I still went to the bike race in Oklahoma, but it was so rainy and muddy (clay, see photo above) that we made it 38 miles out of the 100 mile route before we abandoned our race. For spring break this week, we had a few different destinations planned, but we stayed home and had family activities instead. The kids aren’t going back to school any time soon, and as of Thursday are supposed to be starting an ALP (alternative learning plan) to do their education online for the foreseeable future.
Fortunately for me, the new company reached out last week and let me know that things were moving forward, I would just be doing all my orientation and on-boarding online. So here I am, the night before, anxious about what comes next. Tomorrow I get introduced to a whole new world, a new role, a much larger company than I’ve ever worked for, with new people that I won’t get to meet in person for an unknown amount of time.
I know one of the questions you’re likely asking is, where are you going to work? Well, I’ll hold off on that for right now, perhaps I’ll get my linked in profile updated in the next week as I get ramped up on the new position. Just know that I am going to a great place to work, and am excited about the opportunity and challenges that this new role is going to provide me.
For those of you in my network that are in the fitness industry (or any industry negatively impacted by #Covid19) I wish you the best, and please let me know if I can help you in any way.