Changing The Internal Narrative

 We all have our internal narrative...actually many internal narratives. These are the voices in our head. The ones that go on and on talking to you about just about every subject under the sun. They are the ones who criticize you and chastise you for the behaviors your parents scolded you about a half a century ago. They are the voices that remind you of your failures. They are the voices are constantly judging you and everyone around you. 

We all have them, these internal narratives. In my path of yoga we call it the Monkey Brain. Never ceasing its chatter. However, we can exert control over these narratives. We can learn to let them come, say their words and leave. This is one of the prime tenants of meditation. We can also reprogram our narrative. This is purpose of such things as affirmations where we repeat either written or orally, and belief statement over and over. It is to reprogram the narrative.

Recently, I realized that I need to change the narrative in my own head concerning  the Theodora Project. 

For the longest time, the narrative in my head has been either apologetic or defensive. Seriously, when we started, the idea that you were going make professional administrative workers out of young African women, working in sex trade because they had no other alternatives, women whose education, culture, and language was massively different than the American work place, was almost ludicrous. And it was, in reality, incredibly difficult to achieve. There were so many times when I thought it was going to fail. So naturally you develop a narrative in your head that is almost apologetic, and defensive. In your mind, you feel you are constantly having to convince others that this will work while, at the same time, you are fearful it won't.

But, as I've posted frequently over the last 6 months, the breakthroughs achieved by our women have changed the reality. The reality is that we provide really good service to our clients and an incredible value. The reality is that we are now covering our costs. WE ARE BREAKING EVEN. If you are not engaged in the world of social impact you will not recognize what a big deal this is. And the rate of capability change is almost dizzying. Who would have imagined this in 2020/2021 when we were struggling just to do basic work and have a reasonable professional work environment. 

We are now facing a reality that we may reach a point where we are maxing out the capacity of our team. So it is time to add more people, to give more women the opportunity to transform their lives. Plus, the next phase in our plan is to prove we can scale (grow) this business and drive much greater social impact. That is requiring significant new funds. So I am back on the money raising trail. Only this time, I am gradually recognizing that people are reacting much differently to our story. That is because it is not just projection, it is actual fact. 

I am finding I need to change the narrative in my head. We are not this unproven concept. We have definitive accomplishments that are rare in the social impact world. Our story is not just hope. It is leveraging what we've proven can be done.

So I find myself working hard to reprogram my own personal narrative.

The Weeks of Wrath

 It began in mid-January just before I left for my Ghana trip. The physical agony. It was like every arthritic joint (which is basically all my major joints) was on fire. On top of that, I somehow managed to seriously hurt the rotator cuff in my right arm. I've had issues with the same muscle in my left arm for years but this was the first time I'd hurt the one in the right arm.

So I arrived in Ghana in pretty shit shape. The stress of travel, the bad air of the harmattan, the intense work, and the incessant pain from the arthritis and  led to serious lack of sleep. Stress, lack of sleep, pain, none of this is good for one's immune system

Sure enough, two days after arriving back in the U.S. I came down with Covid. I rapidly got Paxlovid prescribed and started my regime. Thankfully, I respond well to this drug (thank you Big Pharma!). But then other things started to happen all within a couple of days. 

• Wife gets Covid
• The Front Door won't open from the inside
• We have a power outage that affects us for most of a day
  
• Our garage door becomes uncoupled from the wall nearly falling on our cars!

Thankfully, as of today, Saturday the 17th, things have started to turn around. 

• Intense work doing rotator cuff strengthening exercises has alleviated most of that pain. 
• For whatever reason, the arthritic joints have calmed down.
• We got a repair person quickly to repair the garage door opener.
• We have a new front door assembly coming to us. 
• I have finally finished off the last remnants of Covid, even hiking today for the first time in ages.

Now we just need Wife to get better and we will be back on the positive trajectory.

8

 That is the number of hours I slept straight through on Saturday night/Sunday morning. 

When was the last time I slept 8 hours in a night? It is beyond my memory. I was so shocked, I had to look at the clock two or three times. 

I've written before about my long-term sleeping patterns and the fact I rarely sleep more than 5 to 5.5 hours a night. So why suddenly did I sleep a 'normal' person's sleep?

Prior to my recent Ghana trip, I had been sleeping very poorly due to arthritis pain issues plus injuring my rotator cuff in my right arm. This sleep disruption continued all the way through the two + weeks I was in Ghana. In addition, I mentioned how bad the air quality was. So right after I got home, I came down with Covid. Not a big surprise considering how rundown I was. Fortunately, I respond well to Paxlovid and recovered very fast. Also last week I was finally dealing with my arm pain as well. So I believe the massive sleep was a result of a need to recuperate.

Key Theodora Achievements in 2023

So much has been and is going on at Theodora, it is hard sometimes to keep up with it. But if you think of your child growing and growing in its capability and maturity that is exactly what we are seeing with this project. The list below is something I sent off to my Boards of Director members today. It will give you a good picture.

Personal Growth – Change in attitude from ‘faking it’, from ‘tell me what to do’ to ‘I will (genuinely) figure out how to do it-.

This has led to an expansion of capability far beyond what I estimated was possible. Examples include using AI tools to improve quality of writing, and develop content, learning how to promote clients via podcast scheduling, executing and getting results from lead generation systems such as email drip programs. Further there is a maturity on the part of all team. Whereas in 2022, there was no shortage of ‘drama’ between various team members, as well as an us versus them attitude between the initial group and the second group, now there is a true sense of team and joint effort and support. I think this is captured by two of our senior members who both told me of their lives being so calm, their enjoying just going home, relaxing, gaining their energy, so they could come back to work.

 

Ownership Attitude – Change from the typical employer/employee attitude to beginning to gain an understanding that their efforts and performance are what will provide the well-being and reward they seek.

 

Examples include their coming up with a fair, overall compensation reduction plan in early 2023 to get expenses in line with revenue. Also coming up with a program to reduce occupancy expense short-term by increasing virtual work while maintaining a system of physical meeting to keep collaboration and team building going. (Note: this proposal was initially challenged by key Ghana advisors Jonas Ayi and Todd Holcombe. However, the team convinced them both of the logic behind the decision.)

 

Capability Growth Leading to More Focused Sales Referrals – Through the attitude change mentioned above combined with new volunteer training, and client demands, we have seen a surge in the capability we are offering, particularly in the areas of e-marketing, social media, and lead generation.

 

The application of this new capability is producing definitive results for clients. This, in turn, is causing clients to refer more business to us. And the business they refer tends to be very specific in terms of the prospects’ needs based upon the experience of the referring client. The team is getting more and more confident in their abilities in this area. They will be more proactive with clients, even pushing back if clients are not willing to use what they (the team) are recognizing as proven best practices.

 

Achieving Breakeven and Profitability – The combination of all the above has led to a surge in new business.

 

We covered all our expenses and made a small profit in January. We were even able to return a small amount of money to Podolny Group International. Based upon the business we are scheduled to close over the next two weeks, we should have similar numbers in February and March.

 

Potential for New Major New Business – We’ve been given three opportunities, anyone of which has the potential dramatically increase Theodora’s standing in the competitive world of virtual work.

 

One is a new CRM product rolling out that is requesting that we become their outsourced customer training and service arm. A second is an AI firm developing customizable training avatars. It also wants us to become their customer training and service arm. The third is a start-up cyber security firm that is looking to hire up to three FTE based upon our ability to provide very high standards of service turnaround and business development.

Visiting Ghana - What de-I Eats #8- Justina and M'Poto M'Poto

 My last time with the team and meal with them before flying back Friday night. I'm having one of my favorites, M'poto M'poto (when pronounced you drop the second 'M'). The place we are buying our lunches doesn't have it on the menu. So one of the women in the team made it for us!