By WWS Blog Contributor Pattie Grimm
January 3, 2023
Note - This is the first of a six-part series on Pattie's near career and life ending crash and burn and path to recovery.
Part One - From Rock Star to Rock Bottom and Back
Imagine this … it is another cold, gray, and rainy day in October in Redmond, Washington, a small town outside of Seattle. There is a woman on the floor of her bathroom in a combination of tears, loud sobs, and sweat trying to get the energy to get off that cold floor to go to work at the job she used to love.
After an hour, she finally gets up, takes a shower and heads to work. She had a knot in her stomach the size of a basketball. She puts on her “happy face” as she walks in the door and greets her team. Throughout the day, she attends one meeting after another, eats lunch at her desk over her computer and somehow makes it through another day.
Well … that woman was me in October of 2013. After a year of struggling to figure out what was wrong with me, seeing five or six doctors, nurse practitioners, naturopaths, and other medical professionals, I was ready give up. Every medical professional was telling me I had anxiety, depression, and was suffering from extreme exhaustion. These medical professionals were prescribing multiple pills for depression, anxiety, and sleep and nothing was working.
Finally, my doctor sent me to see a psychologist who gave me a series of tests to find the cause of my problem. After about twenty minutes, she pulled out what I taught was a prescription pad and I yelled “no more pills.” She paused and looked at me and said, “Pattie, this is not a prescription for more pills this is a doctor required medical leave of absence because if you don’t take time off to get better, I’m afraid you’ll be dead in six months. You are not to go back to the office today or for the next three months. I’ll contact the company and tell them to take care of everything so you can get better!”
I cried all the way home and by the time I got home, I was a complete wreck. I was the main income earner for our family. I had a panic attack thinking we were going to be homeless and living on the streets of Seattle.
I tried to tell my husband and life partner, Ross what was wrong, but I was crying so hard, he could not understand what I was saying. I finally told him the doctor, put me on a medical leave of absence and he said, “Honey, we’ll figure this out.”
Before this happened to me, I was a high performing rock star on the fast-track to success with a major tech company. I was on the Executive Potential Program. I worked 70 – 80 hours a week including every night and most weekends. I traveled the world and I used to be one of those people who said, “sleep is overrated.”
How could I go from being the “energizer bunny” and fixer upper to now being the one who needed fixing? How could I go from being a “rock star” to “rock bottom” so fast? What caused me to fall in the first place and how could I recover faster and never let this happen to me again?
Before this happened to me, I was also one of the people who when someone told me they were depressed and needed some time off from work, I would recite a line from the movie Moonstruck that Cher said to Nicolas Cage when he confessed that he loved her. Cher responded, “snap out of it” and so did I.
For the probably the first time in my life, I followed my doctor’s orders and went to see her once a week for three months. I took her wise advice, did every exercise and read every book she recommended including -:” You Can Heal Your Life” by Louise Hayes and “Extreme Self Care” by Cheryl Richardson.
I even did Louise Hayes mirror work and sat on the floor in my bedroom in front of a full-length mirror and talked to my Mom who had passed away about the times she did something that hurt me, but I kept deep inside for years.
I put together a play list of inspiring songs like “This Girl is on Fire” and “What Doesn’t Kill Makes You Stronger” and listened to my music every morning as I walked our Pug Roxie in the forest next to the house. I am quite frankly surprised none of the neighbors called the police to complain about a crazy woman walking through the forest at 6:00 AM singing very poorly.
I also decided I needed to do something to help other women either avoid the kind of crash and burn I experienced or recognize the signs before they hit rock bottom. I started on a journey and quest to write a book for all women to Ignite Their Purpose with Passion. I decided to dedicate my life and make it my personal mission to “empower women and girls to be the best they can be in any endeavor they chose.”
I interviewed over 3250 people on what makes a strong, confident, and empowered woman. Through the interview process, I got more energized and inspired with each interview. Every time I talked to one person, they would tell me the names of two or three other people to talk to for my book.
As I was writing some clear themes or best practices started to emerge into clear categories. I discovered the five success secrets that extremely successful woman leaders had in common. These five secrets became the sections of the book.
For the rest of this series, I’ll cover each of these five success secrets in detail with examples and exercises you can apply to your life to ignite the fire within you to be the confident, strong, and empowered woman you know you can be! I’ll provide recommended books to read, Ted Talks to watch, links to some tools, videos, and presentations to watch along the way.
Here is a short preview of the five secrets:
1. Be Strong and Play to Your Strengths
2. Stand Up and Create a Personal Leadership Vision to Guide Your Life
3. Stand Out and be More Valuable, Visible, and Vocal
4. Put Yourself #1 on Your Things to Do List
5. Pay it Forward and Leave the World a Better Place
See you for Part Two – Be Strong and Play to Your Strengths
Biography - Pattie Grimm is a senior business leader with over twenty-five years of experience working in male dominated fields like Financial Service, Technology, and Healthcare. She worked for Fortune 50 companies like Microsoft, Johnson and Johnson, and VMware. Pattie started her career as one of the youngest female Vice Presidents for a large bank.
Pattie is also the author of the best-selling book “Quiet Women Never Changed History – Be Strong, Stand Up, and Stand Out – Let’s Go Kick Some Glass.” She is an international keynote speaker, workshop facilitator, and podcast guest. She’s also run her own consulting and training company three times.
Her mission is to empower women and girls to be the best they can be and to leave the world a better place for the next generation of women leaders. Pattie lives in Aubrey Texas with her soulmate and husband Ross with the world’s cutest pugs – Roxie, Mango, and Kiwi.
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