Written By: Lauren Howard
I remember staring at an empty inbox on my first day. I’m fanatical about inbox zero, and I’m usually drowning in emails. But there it sat, empty. I didn’t even have any folders to file things in because, well, I didn’t have any files.
I was pretty sure that it didn’t even make sense to organize my inbox. I mean, who was every going to fill it? I didn’t have any clients. I didn’t even really know what my business was. I knew that I had this name that meant the world to me that I wasn’t going to give back when I left my job. In my final act of defiance, I started looking up domain names that sounded like L2 because L2 dot com was taken.
EL2? Ew, no.
EllTwo? Missing something.
Ell2? Yeah, no.
Elle2? Wait.
ElleTwo.
And there it was. Available as a dot com. It felt like home. It felt like retaining my identity. It felt a little bit like a middle finger to the life I was running away from.
And now, it was an empty inbox, which was TERRIFYING. I sat and stared, willing someone to send me something that would make all of this feel full.
But it wasn’t ready to be full yet. There was work to do. I wasn't even sure what I wanted to do with this domain and this email address and *waves arms* these hopes that I was just barely allowing myself to have.
What if I started my own business doing . . . something? I know things, right?
Right?
Silence.
But eventually, a chime. A bolded subject line that I hadn't read yet.
AH! Someone wants me!
Didn’t matter if it was spam or a notification or a reminder to pay a bill. IT WAS IN MY INBOX.
Read it. Reacted appropriately. Made the folder. Filed it away.
It was important because it existed.
Then another. Days passed, and another. Then hours passed and another.
Now, over 18 months later, if I don’t stay ON TOP of this inbox, it is constantly overflowing. There are so. many. folders.
The SDRS have found me, my friends, and they are very impressed with what I’m doing at Virtuelle Health. *smirk*
But more than that, friends have found me. Clients have found me.
A whole new life has found me. It all started with that crisp new inbox.
My world might be constant chaos, but my inbox is always, always clean.
There was a time when I was certain it would never be full.
Oh, you sweet, summer, imposter syndrome-filled me-child.
Just you wait.
Ding.
Founder & CEO at elletwo
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