Giving thanks 🙏 and paying it forward ➡️

Lessons I've learned and why I keep giving

Happy Thanksgiving 🍁🦃 🧡🧡🧡🧡 I’m thankful for everyone around me in my life and at theCrea8ve.com who are not only paying it forward for me but also for others. Living in Karma country right now.

Shout out to each and every one of you that has been following me on my journey with my favorite side hustle, theCrea8ve. Heading into Thanksgiving 🍁 here in the States, it’s a time to gather, give thanks and ‘break bread’ so to speak. Though Americans way prefer 🦃 Turkey. I, on the other hand, like to make some kind of 🥦 veggie sculpture of a turkey and leave the birds alone. But I digress. What I’m writing about today is thankfulness, more in the lines of paying it forward. 

I don’t know if you know much about my year of 2023 but it’s had some tremendous 🙌highs and real rock bottom 😭lows. And in those lows I’ve had some true 😇 angels by my side lifting me up. Even in my darkest hours I’ve also been giving it my best shot to help others as well. That’s why I launched theCrea8ve. To help others. 

2023 has been a shocker for retrenchments especially in the Tech industry. And I’ve been lucky to be part of an amazing Xoogler tribe, which are ex-Google employees and leaders. Paying it forward for me has been offering free career mentoring to them and others shook by the economic craziness, and that’s felt extremely satisfying. I’ve even helped my past direct reports and colleagues land amazing jobs. That feels so good to me. I’ve been giving free one-on-one workshops all year for folks who are looking for jobs, and of course writing as many motivational blog posts, recording podcasts and creating videos to keep our chins up, and ❤️ hearts alive.  I hope you are all liking them!

And I’m doing another Career Bootcamp next week too.

No matter my circumstances, I am always in the mode of paying it forward.  You never know how it might help you in the long run but the best kind of giving is just giving to give. Not expecting the return. Yes Karma and all that works. True. But the art of giving is a gift in itself 🎁.

When the shit hits the fan, it’s important to know who your friends are and for others, to be their guiding light.

My mother passed away in April from an aggressive form of Pancreatic Cancer. This month it will be 7 months since she left us. We thought she had at least 5 more years but she was gone in 8 months from diagnosis. So many friends have surrounded us with love and light, it’s absolutely incredible. To those of you,…. and you know who you are,… thank you. 🙏 

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 These are my kids. They are growing like weeds. I’m extremely grateful for my family. My husband is the best kind of giver. He is a great Dad (now I’m giving g back today by sharing his awesome businesses www.rhymecology.com and www.pendulumink.com)

🔥 Recently I had an amazing trip to Miami where I got the chance to speak to a large audience of Female Leaders at the Channel Futures Leadership Conference. What was incredible is not just I who was talking, but so many others were giving their time, whether on stage or in person to each other, inspiring and uplifting each other. And this kind of giving pays it forward, because you never know what connections you may receive in return in the future.

But it’s subtle. It’s not an obvious exchange, paying it forward.

I remember when I first came to Los Angeles, I knew nobody and I did not know how to get into the music industry, which was my passion at the time. And I just remember so many people giving their free time to me because they wanted to help. I couldn’t give them anything in return at the time. I was a broke Artist with not even a dollar to spare, and a dream in my pocket. But I know that in the years followed I did my very best to continue to either give back with those folks, or to others that were up-and-coming in the industry. I spent a lot of time, nurturing younger artists, who were getting into the business and I created nonprofit organization, songsalive.org to help with that, which I am still a volunteer to this day after 20 years. Why? Because it needs to happen. Because I need to do it. And this part of me is my mission to do something higher than myself and for other people. When we can attribute a mission to our dreams and our work, we receive thricefold, not necessarily today, but definitely down the line.

I hope as you go about your day today you turn to the person you love or the person next to you and say “Happy Thanksgiving. How can I help you today?”

Xo

Gilli

P.S  While next week’s Career makeover Bootcamp is not completely free, it’s a nominal amount just to avoid no shows check it out below or pay it forward and share it with someone who could benefit!

https://hub.thecrea8ve.com/career-crushin-it-bootcamp

Or read on below