Confessions of an Accidental Entrepreneur
By Lucia Folk
DREAM JOB
It’s hard to believe that we launched The Change Agent·cy one year ago. It’s simultaneously felt like the longest and shortest year ever. Before we launched the business, and at different points in my career, I had a number of people tell me I should go out on my own, but the thought of figuring out paperwork, finding a lawyer, getting insurance, and worst of all, being my own IT department, seemed overwhelming - especially after spending the last 16 years in my dream job.
Yes, I was one of the few people who had “my perfect job” for years, until it wasn’t so perfect anymore. I was fortunate enough to create the public affairs department at CMT and spend 12 years growing that division, using our “reach for good.”
The job came with extreme highs, like kicking off initiatives such as the CMT One Country campaign at a Habitat for Humanity Build with Reba McEntire; presenting on stage next to President Clinton at the Clinton Global Initiative; and launching an education campaign that would make a positive impact in 26 of the most rural and distressed communities in the U.S. It was like having training wheels for a startup - I got to experience all of the challenges of building a brand with a built-in safety net of a steady paycheck, amazing benefits and summer Fridays.
I spent over a decade and a half at a company I loved, based in a city I loved. Working at CMT was the best of both worlds: it was a small division of a larger company with a progressive, creative culture located in the relatively quiet landscape of Nashville; versus that of our VIACOM colleagues who had to fight their way through Times Square crowds or LA traffic to get to the office each day.
Just having access to tapings of the acclaimed CMT Crossroads series was incredible. Shows with Ray Charles & Travis Tritt; Sting and Vince Gill; Reba and Kelly Clarkson; or my hands down favorite, Lionel Richie and Kenny Rogers AT THE RYMAN. Where else could you get perks like this?
And when you work in a building where artists pop in and out on a daily basis, these types of things tend to happen:
Dolly Parton walks into one of your company meetings to tease the network president in front of all his direct reports. The only one not blushing in the room that day was Dolly.
Seventeen-year old Taylor Swift visits CMT after her first win at the CMT Music Awards to personally thank every single one of us, delivering baked goods, and stopping and taking pictures.
And, even though we play it cool around the many artists who come in and out of the building, when Richard Simmons stops by, we all geek out and follow him around the building like the Pied Piper. This was the one time I asked for a personal photo because my mom has always loved him. Richard promptly picked up my leg and held it over the front of his teeny tiny shorts. And you guessed it, more blushing.
Then came the lows – like experiencing the effects of the rapidly changing media landscape on the cable industry. It began with yearly layoffs that became more and more frequent. With every reorganization, we were tasked with educating the new regime on CMT’s “audience,” reminding them that “Hee Haw” and hay bales were not the current aesthetic of country music. The constant change began to feel more like chaos, bringing out either the best, or the worst, in the people you’ve come to trust – like the colleagues who figuratively stepped on top of you to take one of the few spots left on the lifeboat (cue Titanic metaphor).
So when I received a severance package in the spring of 2018, it was an incredible gift. I was, and I remain, grateful for the resources CMT provided me with as I exited and the experiences it afforded me. I then proceeded to spend much-needed time with family in Charleston, enjoying the summer in style (I dubbed those precious months “Lolla-pa-Lucia”). Afterwards, it was time to find my next gig.
THE HUNT
Among the many privileges afforded to me by my previous job were the strong personal connections I was able to make. I’ve always taken great pride in my work and over the years, I’ve developed a positive reputation as a creative thinker who will get the job done (and if I can’t do it, I’ll connect you with someone who can). And if you know me, you’ll agree that I’m the furthest thing from being shy.
So when I started looking for a new job that fall, I hit the ground running with guns blazing. Pretty much everyone I knew was aware that I was job-hunting. I had countless meetings over coffee (prior to social distancing) and the town was papered with copies of my resume. The remainder of 2018 quickly turned into 2019. Although I was living in the “It City” (yuck, I know), with thousands of new jobs moving to town (many of which were unfilled), I could not land a job.
It didn’t make sense. I had so many supporters and champions, high level colleagues who introduced and endorsed me to their peers all over town. I spent six months in talks with one specific company who insisted they wanted to find a place for me in their organization – so much so that they encouraged me to create my own job description. I then proceeded to meet with several top executives and interview with their HR division multiple times, only to have the company completely ghost me. It was devastating.
MY NEXT DREAM JOB
I had loved working in corporate social responsibility and using the power of the CMT brand to help share good in the world. I wanted to find that again but knew that lightning rarely strikes twice. So, with the universe pushing me, first unwillingly and then excitedly, I decided it was time to create my own lightning. And that’s easy to do with a partner in crime like Lisa Chader. We spent the summer of 2019 dreaming and talking to everyone we could to help determine what our lines of business should be. How could we merge our passion for helping make the world a better place by connecting powerful brands with smarter ways to make an impact on the community? What were the gaps we could fill in Nashville and nationally?
Then I started doing all of the things I had dreaded about owning my own business: finding attorneys, filing paperwork, figuring out insurance, creating a website and more. It turns out those things weren’t that terrible. After feeling like I had no control over my career for a year, making each one of these new decisions brought me one step closer to regaining that control and creating my next dream job. And after the boring adult stuff, Lisa and I got to do the fun things like naming our company, creating our branding and areas of focus. After what seemed like an eternity, we were ready to announce The Change Agent·cy to the world (while crossing our fingers and toes).
And it worked!
Within the first few days of our announcement going out, we began conversations with two organizations that turned out to be our first clients, Habitat for Humanity International and the American Red Cross’ national office - contacts that I had carefully cultivated while at CMT. And like many startups, even with all of our planning and research, we had overlooked a viable potential client base - in our case, it was the national nonprofits who came knocking on our door. It was validating and exhilarating, especially after feeling like Sisyphus for the past year.
Since then, our client roster has continued to grow, to include such national nonprofits as Thistle Farms and the addition of a Fortune 400 healthcare company. We’ve also worked with the indomitable Fiona Prine in her fight for expanded voting rights and we’ve advised other high-profile individuals on civic engagement. Despite the horribleness of the pandemic and various other challenges, we’re still standing - with our sense of humor and humility intact.
We’re grateful not only to still be standing, but to implement a strategy that is essential to any business: hiring people smarter than yourself to push you to work harder and smarter every day. In our case, this is one person, Colleen Wright, a brilliant CSR strategist that makes The Change Agent∙cy exponentially better because of her presence. Our three-person team is on track to make a profit in our first year of business, even during the apocalypse that has been 2020.
Now, we’re well into planning for the new year to come, so that we can continue to do the meaningful work that makes this our dream job. If the civil unrest in the world and the time spent social distancing has taught us anything, it’s that life is too short to not spend every day doing what you love.
In light of October being designated as National Women’s Small Business Month, I’m living proof that if you’re not doing what you love, you can make that change. Whether finding a new job or starting your own business, your professional life is what you make it, and you get to decide what it is you stand for.
If you’re lucky enough to already work at your dream job, reach out and support those women who own small businesses. Your resources, expertise and feedback can make a big difference to someone else who is pursuing their dreams.
And if you do work for an organization that could do a better job using its reach for good, demand that they start now. It’s what The Change Agent∙cy whole-heartedly believes in and we’d love to help you make a difference in your industry by better supporting causes that you believe in. We’re not only passionate about this work, studies show that now more than ever before, employees expect corporations to make a meaningful difference in their communities.
And to all those girl bosses out there, keep forging ahead. And if you have some great employees working for you, make sure they know how much you appreciate them . . . they may very well have found their dream job working for you. And if you work for someone who steps on top of you to get to the lifeboat, know that your dream job is waiting . . . on you.