22-Jul-26

Today for the 1st time since July 9th, I was on one of my daily team calls at my job.

I was literally overwhelmed at the outpouring of love and support from everyone I spoke to. Hearing from my coworkers that they missed me gave me such a feeling of gratitude that it filled my heart. They were all so lovely and made me feel special and I’ll be honest, I couldn’t get through it without crying.

Then I had 1:1 calls with some special friends and also then posted to the whole company about the plans and giving them information on this blog.

To say how loved I felt is an understatement. When I started with my company – the reason I took the job was because I wanted to make an impact. It was a “start-up” in NA; a “scale-up” globally and I wanted a challenge. I was hired as the #02 in NA and #25 overall. I spent my first 2 years working basically about 16 hours a day while we grew the business. I say that not to be weird, but to show my commitment to my team, the product and the business as a whole. I LOVED every minute of it. I LOVED every person I worked with. I LOVED what I contributed and how truly fulfilled it made me feel.

Recently my role changed and I’ve moved on to other aspects of the company. We’ve grown incredibly fast and now what used to be 5 people is now 50. To think that I was #25 overall and now we’re close to 300 is INSANE! But the reality is that we’re just getting MORE incredible and while we grow – one of the things that I’ve been doing currently is onboarding all new employees with our “fundamentals”. I am training and teaching most of the new folks joining us in both NA and EMEA. It’s been so rewarding and I truly love it.

So today – whilst on my calls – it occurred to me that I helped onboard so many of them in different ways. I have incredible connections with my teammates. When so many of them reached out privately afterward it made me feel ALL the feelings, because it showed that I touched them somehow, some way.

Some of my besties even started a Slack channel called Karen’s Good Vibes Feed. It’s meant to raise my spirits and have something not work related that just helps me feel good – but still apart of them all. So far it’s been pictures of Dogs, Cats and Alexander Skarsgard. Apparently, my team know what I like!

I am beyond blessed and lucky to have my work family rally around me as they have. They’ve covered for me, taken over my workload and given me such a feeling of love and support, I truly couldn’t ask for me.

For all of you out there – I love you. I am amazed that I get to work with such BRILLAINT people (truly mean that) that support this old chick like you do.

And a HUGE special shoutout to ALL my colleagues that have reached out. It’s been such a journey with all of you and to know that you are out there cheering me on means more than I can express. To get texts from folks when they hear about me – is beyond comforting.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart. And if when my liver grows back and I DO get a superpower – I’ll protect you all with it!

BIG LOVE!!