Heather Monahan - Overcome Your Villains: Mastering Your Beliefs, Actions, and Knowledge to Conquer Any Adversity

2021 Heather Monahan

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ISBN 978-1-4002-2558-3 (eBook)

ISBN 978-1-4002-2557-6 (HC)

Epub Edition September 2021 9781400225583

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021942686

Printed in Italy

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Ebook Instructions

In this ebook edition, please use your devices note-taking function to record your thoughts wherever you see the bracketed instructions [Your Notes] or [Your Response]. Use your devices highlighting function to record your response whenever you are asked to checkmark, circle, underline, or otherwise indicate your answer(s).

To my son, Dylan, who is my biggest champion,

cheerleader, and example.

Every time I doubted myself,

I only had to look to you.

I am eternally grateful for your support

and belief in me.

Thank you for taking the time to read this book. I hope it helps you in some way. If there is any chance you can share it with someone who can benefit from it and leave a review, it would mean the world to me! No one succeeds alone, and that includes me. I am grateful for your help!

Heather Monahan

I got fired.

Three words I never imagined I would say.

Three words I was too embarrassed to say to my family and friends.

Three words that changed my lifeforeverin ways I had no way of predicting.

Some people describe being fired as a humbling experience. Thats not how I would describe it. Maddening, shocking, psychotic are all words that instantly come to mind when I look back on that terrible moment.

And what made it all that and more was how it all went down.

It might be a little easier to understand if I give you some backstory first. I grew up poor. My childhood was not one I like to sit around and reminisce about. In some ways this has been a blessing, because I learned to be driven like no other. But in other ways, this has been a holdback. For much of my life, I was driven to chase a paycheck more than anything. All I knew was I didnt want to be poorI didnt want to struggle. I didnt want the kids I dreamed I would have someday to grow up in a trailer, as I did.

That feeling of standing in the grocery checkout line and realizing you would have to put back half of the items on the belt because you didnt have enough money pained me. Oddly, some people would have no problem with that. For some reason, however, when it happened to me, it ripped my heart out. The shame I felt thinking others were looking down on me, realizing I couldnt buy what I wanted and had to operate differently, was long-lasting.

Once you feel like that, theres a really good chance you will do anything in your power to never feel that way again. And thats exactly how I responded.

I started delivering newspapers at ten years old, then busing tables at a diner, then working the front counter and drive-thru windows at fast-food restaurants, then waiting tables and eventually bartending my way through college. My dream was to graduate and join a sales team. To be completely honest, I didnt just dream of joining a sales teamI desperately wanted to join a sales team. Not because I felt a passion or excitement to work for a business, but because I quickly learned that the owners of the nicest cars in the parking lot where I slung drinks were always salespeople.

They were the ones who left the biggest tips. They were the ones who had the nicest houses. They were the ones who had enough money to buy the most expensive suits, dresses, and shoes.

And they never had to put their groceries back.

I joined a top winerys sales team as soon as I graduated, and I flat outworked everyone elseeven the old-timers. It didnt take long before I became the top salesperson and was promoted to brand manager.

It also didnt take long after getting promoted that my new boss started sexually harassing me. I was too afraid to take on the company, too afraid to fight for what I knew was right, so I quit. I aggressively put myself out there looking for another sales job while bartending on the side.

At a networking event a couple of weeks later, I met a man who stood out from the rest of the crowd, and I decided to chat him up. He told me I should go to work for him, and I told him he wouldnt be able to afford me. When he asked me how much I expected to be paid, I told him $75,000never imagining he would pay anyone he just met at a networking event that kind of salary.

You start in the morning, he told me.

I was of course excited by this stroke of good fortuneI walked into the event a part-time bartender and walked out newly employed with a $75,000 salary. What I didnt realize at the time was that I had left a lot of money on the table. I had undersold myself. This was something I would do again many times in my career.

I later learned that this man was worth many millions of dollars, and he saw potential in me. I quickly became his top seller, and he groomed me to become his partner. In my early twenties, I moved by myself across the country to take his $25 million property and turn it into a $55 million property in just under three years. I finally had some money. I had established a reputation for generating revenue like few others in the industry.

Still, I wasnt satisfied. Growing up poor had lit a fire in me that grew and grew until it consumed me. I needed more revenues, more room for growth, a higher ladder to climb, a bigger salary, more commissions.

I took my cash and my reputation and moved to Florida to go to work for a publicly traded radio company. It was a bigger company than the one I had been working for, with more revenues and far more upside potential. I pitched myself for a job that didnt exist and was awarded VP of Sales. Based on my performance, I was quickly promoted two more times and ultimately named chief revenue officer.

I was one of only two women on the executive team, and I was as proud as I could be. I had finally arrived. There was just one problem: the other woman on the executive team seemed to despise meand she was the CEOs daughter.

Instead of engaging this woman in battle, I decided to ignore the office politics and focus on growing revenues, which I did by leaps and bounds. When I started at the company, we were billing $100 million annually. Two and a half years after I was named chief revenue officer, that number had doubled to more than $200 million annually. Much of this increase was the direct result of my own efforts.

I had the house, the car, the nice clothes, the fat cushion of cash in my bank account. I had made my dream come true. I had it all.