Every major decision I’ve made in my life has come out of something traumatic. I guess it’s why I tell people: Trauma may have built you, but it doesn’t define you.
The biggest one was deciding to pivot the business I’ve spent almost 20 years building to focus on learning, or as I call it, schooling, because “coaching, eLearning, training and development” sounds like something a room full of corporates made up in a boardroom on the top floor of a building most of us would never be allowed entry into.
The last 3 years, I navigated an embezzlement that should’ve, could’ve ended my business and almost did my marriage. I had well-meaning friends (and therapists) tell me, “It’s time to call it Bode, this is too much for you, for anyone.”
Too much is something I am very familiar with, and my too much will see this world’s too much, and I’ll be the last motherfucker standing.
Bode 2.0
I had a front-row seat during the hell of those 3 years to a system full of big words and no humanity. It almost killed me.
But it didn’t.
Instead, I built Schools, where people and the stories they’re living are the foundation of everything we do, offer, and talk about.
There is a gap, a need not being met, and who better to build it than an entrepreneur, cause when we don’t see a solution, we build it ourselves.
Look at the phrases we use to describe the people behind them – workforce development, workplace etiquette, performance review, executive coaching, etc. When did we all start talking like robots? Don’t blame AI; these words have been in existence long before Bill Gates designed the first computer.
We’ve forgotten the entire reason for the existence of these words: people.
When you go through something traumatic, you realize how fragile life is; I knew I wanted the second part of my life and 8THIRTYFOUR 2.0 to focus on people and impact. It’s never been about profit to me. I started 8THIRTYFOUR to change the world, I lost sight of that for a while – nothing like a $265,000 embezzlement to put things in perspective.
