Take 1
Hi, this is Erica Gumieny. Welcome to the first episode of the Funny Kind.
Join me on this journey of finding the kindness and light in everyday places.
I have been wanting to do this for years, and like my mom used to say, you gotta *#!$ or get off the pot.
What is the Funny Kind? Well, it's going to be a lot of different things. There's going to be interviews, videos, blogs, and content that will help us go on a journey of finding the kindness and light in everyday places. As I inched forward to bringing this to fruition, I've had a lot of those negative voices saying things like “Okay, who needs one more voice out in this world of social media? There's so much out there already. Who really cares what you have to say” You probably know those voices, the negative ones stop us from doing the things that keep tapping us on the shoulder. And I then I just thought, you know, what, I'm going to muzzle those voices and I'm just going to do this thing! I'm scared. But I'm also really certain that we really need laughter and kindness RIGHT NOW- we REALLY do more than ever. And so here we go.
And this really came from a lot of my experiences during the COVID 19 pandemic. I remember when we were really at the height of it when we were isolated, and just scared. And there was just so much going on, and so much uncertainty. And we're just so much and I have the gift of being an early riser. And I love to go see the sunrise and I did that a lot during COVID-19 (isn’t it weird we use this a moment in time? interesting..) to help me feel connected to God and to nature.
I used to post those some of those sunrise pictures on Facebook and would often include prayers, scriptures and encouraging thoughts. It helped me feel better and I heard from friends that it made them feel better, too.
That just meant a lot to me. That I could make even the littlest difference and help people to not feel alone and to feel loved and cared for at a time when we were just really scared.
And so as we've been kind of reemerging from that I've been feeling discombobulated like, okay, so now what are we are we to go back to what we were like before - the busyness and the hamster wheel. It all seemed so senseless when I had time to pause.
I think I was in this kind of existential pivotal point. I just knew that I had to take some time to really reflect. I was thinking, and overthinking and overthinking and praying. And I just thought, you know, what, if not now When. So in December of 2021, my official recomobulation began.
I left my corporate job and have doing a few things that I wanted to share with you.
I am focusing on my business Pivotal Point. And I've had my business for many years, but I'm really focusing full time.
And I'm doing consulting bringing my enthusiasm, obsessive fixer upper tendencies, sales and program improvement skills to companies such as:
Working with a healthcare system to create and implement a sales strategy to bring an innovation product to market
Consulting with my alma mater, https://www.alverno.edu/Program/Master-of-Business-Administration to help with the MBA and graduate programs, which I LOVING
Helping clients launch their own businesses and “get off the pot” themselves, which is great.
I'm also finishing a book. I've been I've been writing a book for years, (procrastinating writing a book more accurately). I’m thinking about about my friend Jessica who was with me when this idea came many years ago. Sending you love my friend!
I have since hired a writing coach https://writenowcoach.com/ Rochelle has been holding me accountable, encouraging me and helping me to get this book DONE which I am really excited about!
And then there is The Funny Kind. My intention with this is to strive to find the kindness and light in everyday places. As I mentioned before, I really think that we need this more than ever because if you turn on the news, the news and you scroll through social media, it's like, okay - gloom, despair and agony, we are all divided, there is calamity everywhere, we are divided and angry. And I’m thinking - wow - is this it? Is this all there is? It’s just depressing. Now, I know there are real important and critical things that need to be fixed and there's hard work that needs to be done.
AND
while we do that, we can also seek out the goodness and kindness and light in the world because there really is more of that than darkness.
If there are two things I love doing making people laugh and making them feel loved and encouraged. So my hope is that on this journey, you will laugh, you will feel motivated, you'll feel encouraged and you may even pick up a few new things along the way.
We'll for sure have silly discussions but we’ll have some tough and deep ones too. Those of you that know me know that like, I have a range of a personality that can be deep and spiritual and then also sassy and appropriate and everything in between. So get ready for that spectrum!
I look forward to our next episode of The Funny Kind, which is going to be great. And as I continue on my recombobulation I'm uncertain of what this is going to be like. I’m scared but excited, mostly for us to connect and go on this journey together.
Until we meet again, I would love to hear from you about how you find the kindness and light in everyday places, so feel free to comment below or reach out to me.
#yourpivotalpoint #thefunnykind @findingkindnessandlight