Managing Change, Once More with Feeling

Before I dive too deep into this blog post, two things: 

*  Yes, it really has been nearly 7 years since my last post. Shame on me.
*  But oddly, my last post is a nice intro to my next post…because once again, I’ve jumped into a big change.

So: Managing Change, Once More with Feeling.


I’ve moved. Packed up the condo, sold it, moved to Arizona. And that is the “in a nutshell” version. The full-on version, well, that will take a few more posts to get through the entire story.



But let’s start with that last blog post. It was indeed my “dream job,” Marketing & Communications Director of Downtown Santa Barbara. 


Working in an office I loved, I was suffused with a sense of pride, of history, and of pure joy, knowing I was working with great small businesses, non-profits, cultural venues and other members of the business improvement district.



As the daughter of a small business owner, I appreciate and support small businesses wholeheartedly.



So when I got dumped (no better word for it, I’ve tried), I was just a bit in shock, but not completely surprised. But it still hurt – how could it not? I’d like to think that it was true, I worked my butt off for that organization and its members. I went through FIVE executive directors in those 6 years, all very different people with different ways of doing things. And frankly, through thick and thin, ups and downs, fires and debris flows, parades and staff changes, I kept it all together. 


So it makes me sad that a small group of people – a VERY small group – decided to let me go. I could go on and on about how difficult 2018 was; how I was really the one person in the office keeping it all together that year, along with the much-appreciated help from an interim ED; how our signature events were just as awesome as ever, if not more so; how the staff was woefully underappreciated and unacknowledged that entire horrible, challenging year.



I could go on…but I won’t. At least not now – I signed an agreement, after all.

Suffice it to say, it was the shove I needed to finally make the move to AZ, to be close to family, to parlay the equity  in my condo into a fabulously perfect home here, with all the amenities (two-car garage! Backyard! Air conditioning! Full size washer/dryer!) I didn’t have in very expensive Santa Barbara. 

So, after 24 years in that city and 22 years in that beloved little condo, I made the leap – a leap of faith, as it turns out. (This is me at the front door of the beloved little condo, taken by Hugo, my realtor. I even bought a new welcome mat to impress potential buyers!)

But all that’s for another day and the next blog. Stay tuned!