I made it home from Detroit last night. I had actually prepared for my flight to be cancelled because the weather had been predicted to be icy and then snow on top of that and when I woke up in the hotel and turned on the news on Friday morning, the ice storm was the top story! I’m pretty sure that’s super unusual for Detroit as they are used to the snowy winters, so I had a lot of anxiety over whether we’d even make it to our meeting!
But we made it - met early with Boss and co-worker, John (he’s the guy who basically took my job when Boss made his staff changes - clearly, he’s Boss’s golden child and Boss loves to rib him in that dude jokey way. I don’t want to hate on John, but he’s no big deal, you guys…Boss just wants a dude in that seat - you’ll see why in a minute). Quick meeting with the two of them, pre-breakfast, and then it was off to meet with the licensing agency we’re working with to have an official breakfast meeting. Seriously, it’s like the anxiety level was insane. The meeting before the meeting before the meeting!!! And the licensing agency dudes are super-serious, watch-what-you-say, stick-to-the-rules, analyze everything kind of guys…yes, ALL men.
Then we caravanned through the ice and snow to this GIANT company’s WORLD HEADQUARTERS, which is a brand new super high-tech (and stunningly gorgeous, I might add) corporate office. I’d say it was one of the best parts about this visit - - the offices were so beautiful, pristine, super tech-y and stylish. Loved this building set in kind of a wooded campus that has hiking trails and such. Just an amazing corporate campus.
Settled in for the meeting, and two guys from corporate show up. So that makes, two guys from my company, five guys from the licensing company, two guys from this corporation, and ME. Nine men, One woman. No problem. But you can imagine that the BRO-factor was very, very high, right?
Of course, the first thing we do is go around the room and introduce ourselves, but you know what??? Boss just had to introduce John and me. It was as if he didn’t trust us to give our own introductions! What is UP with that??? Such a dick move. And I’m not sure if it was so we’d acquiesce to him and not talk as much or what, but it only made me feel more inclined to speak up and interject throughout the whole day.
Yeah, so that set the tone, and I could tell that for some reason Boss got nervous and felt the need to pontificate at certain times. Now that I think about it, I think he may have been overcompensating for John, who doesn’t know the business that well. Regardless, it was annoying, but I ended up letting that go.
Because when my portions of the presentation popped up, I was ON.
And there was a point in time when we were walking down to the super beautiful cafeteria inside the offices to have lunch and continue our meeting in a slick and modern executive dining room when I overheard the VP of the licensing company tell my boss, “Your team is nailing this meeting.”
And I think that Boss finally felt more comfortable at that point, but SHIT! I saw him in somewhat of a new light. He’s not the be-all-end-all. He actually overcompensates for some kind of insecurity and it really came out to me during this meeting, so I picked up that ball and ran with it.
The last part of the day was to meet with some of the creative team of the corporation, and that’s truly where I feel most comfortable and can speak a language with their person (a woman, naturally) that those dudes just don’t understand, and I believe it was truly my shining moment, proving to corporate, the licensing agency, and MY team that I know WTF I’m doing.
So bottom line, what I won on Friday was the green light to BUST MY ASS getting this project complete by March. Now the pressure begins! And you know what? I’m actually super excited! Because (A) this is a very high-level and highly visible project for the company, and (B) I’m now connected to people in another industry, and (C ), it’s another chance to have a shining moment, and after what I felt like were blunders earlier in the week I really needed this shot in the arm.
This is a moment! This is not to please Boss. This is to have the thrill and satisfaction of this super cool project. I HAVE to rock this. I WILL ROCK THIS.
Anyway, meeting over and we were cutting it close to get to the airport as snow had been blowing and blowing all morning and afternoon. But the snowy roads ended up being only slightly slick with mostly snow and our plane was only delayed 15 minutes - nothing short of a miracle.
Got home, picked up my dog from her sitter’s and made it home by 10pm and pretty much straight to bed.
Now I’m ready to start this cold, cold weekend. Sitting in my warm bed with a giant cup of coffee, a book to finish and my laptop to continue the Argentina Trip Report. I’d say it’s a good start.
xox,
GS
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