Milestones are a wonderful time for reflection. I am on a plane returning from speaking at a conference and I met a couple in the airport celebrating their 50th anniversary. Wow! The airline I flew is celebrating their 100th anniversary in aviation. It made me think about my own milestone: I am half-way through the 20th anniversary celebration of forming Creter Group.
How did this all begin?
I am the daughter of young parents, who had me before it was legal for them to have a glass of wine. They just celebrated their own milestone: their 50th anniversary! They are some of the most hard-working people I have ever known. They worked to provide, they worked to communicate, and they worked to be able to spend time with family and friends. They also valued jobs that provided benefits and salary and consistency.
They were proud of me when I landed a job half-way through my senior year of undergrad with Anderson Consulting (now Accenture). They were proud when I moved to the world’s largest corporate production company several years later and quickly achieved success there.
But when I told them I was going to put everything on hold and move to Greece in 2003 to produce the Olympics Opening and Closing Ceremonies, they asked if this was a good idea for my career. Was this stable? Would I be able to pay the bills?
Taking that risk and pausing my stable career to move to another country and try something completely new sounded crazy. The truth is that it was the best move I could have made for the trajectory of my life.
When I wrapped the Olympics in 2004, I did not return to my “stable” job. Instead, I established my own company, Creter Group, Inc., in 2005.
I was told I was crazy, risk-taking, that I might not be able to support myself. Normally I would have internalized these comments. However, for whatever reason, I was confident I could create the environment and culture I wanted, while doing some innovative work for clients who were willing to take me on.
As a serial over-thinker, I am still amazed that I had the peace of mind to move forward with what most were telling me was crazy.
Building from the ground up
I tapped into my network and started with one project, then another. I donated my time to non-profits, founding the first ever youth-focused TEDx talk and a summit for global young leaders with the We Are Family Foundation. I was asked to do training for two different Super Bowl half-time shows (Paul McCartney and Prince, if you’re curious).
Meanwhile, clients started asking for bigger and bigger projects, allowing me to sub-contract people and deliver some incredible projects for wonderful clients with teams of hard-working people.
Besides the professional steady growth, many wonderful things happened personally in the last 20 years that bolstered my passion to keep Creter Group current and successful. I bought my first apartment in the Bronx, got married, bought a house in Connecticut and had my son. I also volunteered with non-profits and traveled to some fantastic places, all while doing more and more interesting work around the world supporting organizations to help their employees learn and grow.
Surviving, then thriving
Just like my parents surviving their 50 years together, I had to dig deep to navigate some difficult times in the last two decades.
For starters, I launched a company in one of the worst economies in recent history and had to get creative to minimize overhead. I decided Creter Group would be a virtual organization, which was NOT popular at the time. Virtual connectivity was new, but I was willing to experiment and learn new tools and processes for collaboration and connectivity. For many years though, I never mentioned to clients that we didn’t have brick and mortar. These clients likely wouldn’t have taken us as seriously.
In my early days of business ownership, I took on a minority business partner for a period of time. This did not go well, and as a result, I had to fight when I discovered I was being taken advantage of.
Later, we navigated COVID. We dropped our prices to keep people working and provide services to organizations that needed help. Our agility and skills in virtual operations helped many corporations and non-profits to pivot and embrace the virtual environment. We were now popular for our virtual effectiveness!
On the personal side, my son was born with a chronic health condition/disability – 20 anaphylactic food allergies as well as several non-IgE-mediated food allergic conditions. Navigating this world where food can be deadly has made us all appreciate experiences and embrace adaptability at a level I never thought was possible.
When he was in grammar school, my son and I survived a macroburst (essentially a straight-line tornado) in my car, which devastated my community and took months to recover from. Ours was also the community that endured the Sandy Hook massacre, which affects us to this day. We relied on neighbors and friends and supported each other through these tragedies. Human connection was the very foundation of surviving these horrible experiences.
We (still) live in interesting times
Now we face the introduction of AI, the reduction in federal funds and tariffs which challenge our clients, and an overall uncertainty that haunts decision-making across industries.
What I have learned is that as a business owner, the personal and professional are interconnected. The same is true for every individual who works for or with me, as well as our clients.
We are all human. We are all imperfect. We need and value connection and learning.
Helping our teams through the emotional ups and downs and living through my own emotional ups and downs point to the real lesson of navigating 20 years in business. Understanding that our clients are navigating these same challenges and giving grace helps us all survive.
I’ve learned that if we rely on our flexibility, adaptability, hope and grace, success is guaranteed – it just may not take the form we expect.
My 20th year in business isn’t the easiest. But what I now know is that nothing is easy. And everything is survivable.
With gratitude,
Chris