Last July, Cadre celebrated its 25th anniversary. Team Cadre celebrated the milestone event with great food, fantastic live music by The Bomb, and a surprise fireworks display, courtesy of my wonderful husband!

2019 continued and ended on a high note. On the home front, our daughter married just after Christmas, which brought my entire family together – a rarity, due to distance – for the Christmas holiday and the wedding.

It was a magical year!

And with 25 years under my belt and an amazing team with 100% staff retention for the year, I couldn’t wait to take on 2020! After all, 2020 was going to be the year of clarity!

AND.THEN.CAME.2020…

It started out like a normal year, or so we thought. COVID-19 was in the headlines but it wasn’t “here”, so it didn’t feel “real”. Until suddenly it was very “real”. My husband and I were in Florida and cut our trip short as it was easier to navigate the rapid changes from home base.

I went into the office on Monday, March 16, and beginning Tuesday, March 17, all of Team Cadre began working remotely.

A week later, my father passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. Not only was my family shocked and devastated, but because he lived out of state, there was nothing we could do, as Michigan was a COVID-19 hot spot and we could not travel. My brothers and I remained in a weird, frozen place in time for 11 weeks until we could travel and handle his affairs.

In a blink of an eye, we are over halfway through 2020.

Given all that has happened thus far – each of us has our own 2020 story – one might think that things will never “be good again”. But the reality is, they’ve never STOPPED being good! Yes, we have all had many obstacles thrown at us. Bad things do happen, but it does not mean LIFE is bad. We can either focus on the bad, or we can focus on the good. The choice is up to us.

My entrepreneurial spirit has not waned; in fact, it is running at full speed! I won’t lie and say that the wind wasn’t knocked out of me for a brief moment in time, but I am excited to continue to lead and navigate these uncharted waters for many years to come!

Crisis = Opportunity.