We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Charles Chan Massey a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Charles, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
“You always had the power, my dear; you just had to learn it for yourself.” This quote from Glinda, the Good Witch from “The Wizard of Oz,” has stuck with me since I first saw the movie as a child.
Coming from a long line of entrepreneurs and small business owners it was probably a given that I would eventually also start my own business, but I had to learn how to do it for myself, which took some time. Luckily, I had some valuable mentors and several great bosses during the course of my journey.
I also had a few horrible bosses and several thankless jobs along the way. Now that I am approaching the end of my career and have transitioned into helping others through The Personal Stories Project, our non-profit organization that serves the LGBTQ+ community and our allies, I am grateful for everything I experienced during my career, including the good, the bad, and the ugly.
I guess that’s the long way of saying that rather than me finding my purpose, it’s more like my purpose found me.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
Everyone has a story. What’s yours? That has been our tagline from the beginning of The Personal Stories Project.
We are a 501c3 non-profit story archive that serves as a platform for members of the LGBTQ+ community and our allies. We are also an indirect fundraising conduit for other community-serving non-profit organizations. I have the privilege to work alongside my husband Joseph and an amazing team of volunteers and together we help people share their stories.
The Personal Stories Project began more than 10 years ago as an idea, almost a “spark,” when I ran across the story of a young man who had lost his partner in a tragic accident. Although I was raised in a faith-based household, I hadn’t been exactly the most spiritual person for a number of years, but over the next several months I received several “signs,” I’ll call them, that I felt called me to action and after some early social media outreach and discussions with folks in my wider network what was eventually to become The Personal Stories Project was born.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Tenacity, creativity, and passion, not necessarily in that order.
I inherited my passion for community service from my father. I remember as a kid he was always doing volunteer work, serving on boards, and generally giving back to the community. It took me a bit to find my own “tribe,” but once I found it, I knew I needed to help them. It just took me a little longer than some folks to learn how to do that, I suppose.
To put things into context, my family ran a local hardware store in a small town called Mt. Holly in North Carolina. It had evolved from an earlier family business that had been essentially a general store run by my father’s ancestors and at the time my father, his older brother, and a cousin by marriage were the principal owners and operators.
When it was time for me to get a job, it was only natural that I would work there, and at some point, I’m certain it was presumed that my cousins and myself would take over the business because that was how it was done. It didn’t exactly happen that way.
Although I worked there for a while, after school and during the summer, I eventually became bored selling paint, screws, and window glass and decided to look for something else, a job that I could lay claim to and call my own. So, when I saw that the local theme park was hiring, I jumped at the chance and landed a position selling tickets at the front gate. This was the first job I got on my own.
From there I built a career in front line customer service, eventually transferring to a position in the park’s Guest Relations department, and once I went off to college that pattern continued. I became a bellman at a historic hotel, then was promoted to front desk, and later went to work in a similar position for a smaller boutique hotel.
After college I tried a few different jobs, including working as an administrator for an engineering firm – truly one of the most boring jobs I ever had – and from there I went into management with a chain of video stores. That was a fun job for a while, and the best part was I was able to transfer from Atlanta to Los Angeles, which had been a dream of mine for years.
I really got on well with my first boss. He seemed to appreciate my out of the box creativity and essentially left me alone as long as my numbers were good. Eventually there was a realignment within the region and my store was transferred to the realm of a newly hired district manager, who proved to be a poor leader and a bit of a tyrant to work for. It was then that I realized that tenacity was one of my latent skills. While my tenacity eventually led to my resignation, it did get me through the next several horrible months before I made the wise decision that it was time to leave.
From there I ventured back into hospitality, working in reservations and inside sales at a family run hotel in Santa Monica then getting my first job in outside sales by applying to a blind ad in the Los Angeles times. I was young and didn’t know exactly what I was doing but my creativity allowed me to learn as I went.
Over the next several years I held a number of jobs in both sales and operations in the hotel industry, and joined a professional association that helped me learn about the other side of the industry, allowing me to eventually start my own business as a professional meeting and event planner.
Looking back over my career I now see that my tenacity, my creativity, and my passion got me though the twists and turns, allowing me to succeed overall and most importantly helped me develop other skills that are invaluable as the team leader of a small non-profit.
Okay, so before we go, we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
Our personal stories are the most powerful tool we have to erase fear, give hope, and unite people. They have the power to change hearts, minds, and lives. I know this to be true because stories have changed my own life in ways I could never have imagined.
As an all-volunteer organization we welcome potential team members to contact us regarding current opportunities. From helping us source potential stories, to fundraising and development, to back office administrative support there are many opportunities to help us help others.
We’re always looking for folks from the LGBTQ+ community and our allies who want to share their own personal stories through our platform. We have a dedicated page on our website to help folks share their written stories. Check out https://personalstoriesproject.org/whats-your-story/ for more information. We also hold video shoots in cities throughout the US several times throughout the year.
Please send an e-mail to charles@personalstoriesproject.org if you’d like more information about these opportunities.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://personalstoriesproject.org/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PersonalStoriesProject
- Other:Charles Chan Massey, Executive Director, The Personal Stories Project. Pronouns: he, him, his.charles@
personalstoriesproject.org
Image Credits
Image credits Charles Chan Massey, The Personal Stories Project
