Mid Year Tune Up

Summertime always seems to interrupt the flow of my business due to vacations and scheduling conflicts.  Clients are away recharging with their friends and families, and organizations are typically not making big decisions regarding their leadership development needs.

Each year when I am in Maine I try to reflect on trends I am seeing in the corporate and federal leadership space and get inspired on where I should be focusing, or a new idea pops into my brain that guides me for the next year.

Two years ago I was inspired to focus on Millennials.  At first I was thinking it was a book.  I declared it, researched it, conducted over 100 interviews, and wrote the proposal.  I learned a lot about what it takes to write a book, including self-publishing or traditional.  Also how much time and money it requires.  As a result, I developed a series of modules for workshops and keynotes and have been having a lot of fun with it.  Clients responded well to the differences, and I believe many of the managers I worked with are more effectively leading Millennials now.  As far as the book, I had to make the decision to put that on hold.  Primarily due to the time it was going to require, and the energy it consumes.  Since my husband is a stay-at-home dad, The Ermi Group supports us, so that is my primary focus, and I was blessed with new clients and very interesting work in the last year.   Secondly, I think I missed the window of relevance.  There are many books and articles out there on the subject, and I do not want to clutter the leadership book market with something that is a me-too.  And you never know what the universe has in store.  I look at my 6 year old and wonder what a book about her generation might look like in ten years and get very excited about the possibilities. 

This year however, the revelations and epiphanies I gleaned were not necessarily about what The Ermi Group should be focused on next, but what this Ermi girl is destined to become.  I have been on a pretty significant self-development/awareness journey these last couple of years, and I was able to articulate and embrace what appeal and draw Ogunquit, Maine has had for me these last 30 years. 

As I have shared, my mom died suddenly of a heart attack when I was 16, and when I discovered Ogunquit in 1982, the tranquility of the sea was a healing force for me, and when I moved here the summer of 1983, it was therapeutic in ways I hadn’t fully realized until this year.  I always said Ogunquit makes my soul happy, and in reality, as fabulous of a beach town it is, I think it is more of a healing place.  And a lot of the emotion that comes from grief and loss are conjured upon my return, and I am ready to move beyond that energy, and be a catalyst for generative possibilities. 

This is going to be my last summer in Ogunquit for a while.  I am saying goodbye to this little town after 30 years of loyal pilgrimages and what it has represented to me.  I may return some day as my daughter really loves it here, but it is time to explore some new venues.  This chapter is closing, or maybe this novel has come to a serendipitous finale. I am about to write another epic.