Meet Heather Campbell

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Heather Campbell a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Heather, thank you so much for agreeing to open up about a sensitive and personal topic like being fired or laid-off. Unfortunately, there has been a rise in layoffs recently and so your insight and experience with overcoming being let go is relevant to so many in the community.

I walked into my boss’ office and said, “the acoustics are so great out there, I can’t stop signing in the halls!” He responded, “Close the door, you aren’t going to want to sing.” When I saw how distraught he was I thought he was about to tell me he was dying! Then I thought maybe he’d been fired? I almost laughed when I finally started listening to his words and realized it was me who was canned.

Laid off, fired, restructured; it doesn’t matter what they call it, it hurts! Both emotionally and financially. I’m hoping my story helps people get over some of the hurt and move onto new great adventures.

First, I took good notes during the conversation. Not at first, because I was in shock. When I finally realized I should be taking notes and asked if I could, I wrote: Take notes. Write something dammit. When I snapped out of it I wrote down the good stuff that felt like lies (you’re great and we appreciate how you’ve done XYZ, it’s just the company doesn’t need someone with your skills) and the logistical stuff. I wrote it all down and it was very helpful later.

I got out of the room and away from everyone at the office as quickly as I could. I had a nice long train ride to change my space and take some deep breaths. I spent most of the ride consciously breathing and talking with my husband. There was the emotional side and the logistical side to deal with during this time, but I didn’t want to deal with either of them right away. I wanted to just say, it’s fine! All good! But it wasn’t. I was angry, embarrassed, and scared. But I was also relieved because it really wasn’t the place for me. I had to name all the emotions so I could deal with them. On the anger side, at one point, I took images of the company’s logos and threw rocks at them. It felt both childish and really good. For embarrassment, I talked with people I respected at the company and who respected me and my work. They validated my feelings and that felt good. I trusted them and worked hard to focus on their assessments of me rather than others who I didn’t think really knew my work. The scary side was real and possibly the hardest part.

I attacked my fear by building structure and support. I reached out to people who love me but weren’t personally affected by my being restructured. They let me tell my story and even wallow a bit. I let them tell me the truth that everyone needs to hear in those moments – that I was amazing, that the company sucked, and that I would be okay. That felt great. And then I went to those same friends and others to build a structure for finding what was next. I knew I needed to fill the silence that happens when I wasn’t in a day-to-day job with things I could do to find the next one. There were lots of check-in video calls, coffees, and informational interviews with people who inspired me and moved me forward to new beginnings. I joined a weekly coaching call that created accountability.

Losing my job was out of my control, but dealing with it wasn’t. I had to remind myself of that over and over and over again. But with focus and the support of others, I can look back at my time in the job with pride and the time since with even more. Because leaving that role brought me to Ready Set Recover! Now I bring a framework of control and action to anyone who is having any type of surgery – another time when everything feels out of your control.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

When I found out I needed to have surgery, I was like 92% of people who have surgeries – I was scared and stressed. I googled what I could do and all that came up was “take pain meds” and “do PT”. Not helpful! I wanted to play a role in getting better now, before surgery, to set myself up to succeed. So I created my own program. I borrowed elements from other wellness programs I had done in the past and thought about what would be specific to this moment. After surgery, when my doctor was excitedly going over the fact that I had healed so well without pain meds or PT, he said that he wished all of his patients could be like me. He wanted them to be positive participants. Ready Set Recover was born!

Doctors focus on the medical side of surgery – we empower patients to take control of the “human side”; i.e. How people talk about their surgery, ask for/say no to help, set up their homes for recovery, meditation, sleep etc. It’s both holistic and logistic. It benefits anyone having any type of surgery (it’s not surgery specific). We’ve taken the gold standards of stress reduction and cognitive behavior therapy that have been studied and proven effective and melded them into an easy and fun to use online program. It’s accessible from any internet connected device (smartphones, tablets, laptops, or desktops) and helps people who are stressed about their procedure as well as those who are already feeling confident. In both instances there’s tremendous value in using Ready Set Recover’s structured framework to put positive actions into practice.

Hearing from participants has been humbling. They say it has changed their lives: The calm I felt yesterday waiting to have surgery was not at all like when I had another surgery years ago. The series of thoughts and exercises truly prepared me to face something I knew would be painful. Thank you for a life changing experience. -Tim

I’m so thankful we can provide this support!

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I am very lucky to know my purpose in life. It’s to make people be seen, heard, and celebrated. And those would be the three qualities that have been most impactful in my journey.

Seeing: I engage my peripheral vision constantly. I’m watching for opportunities and seeing how things are playing out all around me and figuring out ways to engage. What connections can be made between all the dots?

Hearing: And then, as I’ve gathered the information, I’m assessing by listening to myself and others on what to do with it.

Celebrating: This is the fun stuff. Taking moments, all over the place, to celebrate. I use words like Extravaganza (much to the chagrin of one boss) to make moments more impactful! I bake and bring cookies as thank you’s anytime I can.

For people just starting out, how can you take what you see, assess it, and then celebrate it? Share your enthusiasm with others and let them celebrate it too!

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

As a constant connector I’m always looking for people to partner and collaborate with.

For Ready Set Recover, I’m eager to talk with medical teams (administrators, patient advocates, surgeons, etc) who recognize that patient engagement and stress can affect outcomes and would like to partner with companies that have solutions that not only help the patient, but also change the emotional and financial outcomes for the medical teams for the better. Less stressed, more compliant patients benefit EVERYONE!

Additionally – as a strategic, motivational speaker I am always excited to talk with others about how to live a life that’s good and celebrate that incredible accomplishment!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://readysetrecover.com
• Instagram: Ready_set_recover
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-a-campbell/