Written By: Lauren Howard
lady.
I am good with words and I can be eloquent without preparation, but sometimes the eff word is just the right word. Shrug.
I have worked from bed, from outside of my kid’s dentist's office, from the car during a long drive, and from the playground in the middle of a nice day.
I run entire companies without breaking a sweat but I cannot manage a calendar to save my life.
Most days, I wear leggings paired with a giant t-shirt and a messy bun that gets undone and redone 100 times.
Sometimes I straighten my insanely curly mane. Often I don’t. Sometimes I break out the makeup bag. Usually I don’t.
I get migraines that make half of my face go numb and that only get marginally better with complete darkness and ear plugs. At their worst, everything else just has to wait. I get so mad that I can't do anything that I absolutely make it worse.
I’m anxious at baseline. I get so excited about big ideas that I literally want to pace so I can talk through them . . . with myself.
I live for small company chaos, and even though I complain about it, I go looking for it when things calm down too much.
I almost never wear shoes. Like ever. It works well because I almost always also have a dog on my feet. Sometimes two.
All of that is professional.
Every quirk, migraine day, big idea, pivot, failure, and delegated calendar invite is professional. The jagged parts, creative parts, swear-y parts, compassionate parts, barely functioning parts . . . all professional.
All of me is professional.
Same goes for you.
If you can do the job with kindness and empathy, you’re professional.
Congratulations!
Founder & CEO at elletwo
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