By Brittany Cravatta
Let me begin by explaining where this all began. In November 2018, I was laid off in my very first career. It was heartbreaking for me. I understand that things like this happen all the time, but I didn’t think that I would experience something like this so soon. It turned out that the company that I had previously worked for was financially unstable and they tried to sweep it under the rug for months and hide it, not just from me, but from all the other employees there, too. Finally, the breaking point came when they told me that they no longer had enough money to pay me. Great…
I spent the next couple of months working a part-time job just trying to get some type of income while I tried to find an alternative. I didn’t find it until I met Kay Dunn in August of 2019 at a Pasco Chamber of Commerce meeting. During our 30-second commercials, I told everyone that I was a writer in search of a job position. Kay came up to me after the meeting and introduced herself and the paper. I told her that I have seen and read the paper before and that my father often brought home each monthly issue. After meeting Kay and her husband Mark at Panera Bread that same month, they told me what they were looking for when it came to the future of their business. They said that they were not specifically looking for writers, but for someone to take over the business. On the outside, I showed a calm expression but on the inside I was a nervous wreck. I have never had any business experience. I never took business classes in college and I have a very timid personality to be someone’s boss. Writing, editing, and interviewing people have always been my main strength. It’s all I did for years while studying journalism at school and it was all I did in my past job position.
It took me a while to really think about the opportunity that they were offering me. The last thing I wanted to do was to pretend that I was something that I clearly wasn’t, and my worst thought was that I would end up ruining the business that they created in honor of Jesus. But then Kay told me something over the phone. I was jumping ahead of myself as I usually do when I overthink things.
She said, “How do you know if you’re good at it if you don’t try it out? Spend some time with us and see how it goes.” And so I did.
It is now April 2020, and I am still in training with Kay on how to run a business. Of course, I still have a lot of room for improvement. I’m definitely not ready to call myself a top entrepreneur. However, I think that my eyes have been opened to many things. Kay has introduced me to various business owners who were once just like me. I have met so many great people and honestly, my fears and doubts slowly started to diminish the more that I interacted with people.
I can now have confidence in myself to schedule my very own appointments with clients and prospects. It has only been 6 months, and I feel that I have really grown as a person. I can’t help but feel God helped me with this. He took me out of my old job because He knew I wasn’t becoming the person that I was capable of being. God knew my fears and my lack of boldness.
And this was how He answered my prayers… even if it took a lot to be able to get out of my comfort zone. And I still have room for improvement! However, I’m definitely not the woman I was in November 2018.
Photo caption: Me and my 3 year old golden retriever Sophie!