One of my favourite “off menu” gigs to undertake is working alongside founders to examine their brand health. I live for bringing teams together as I guide them to investigate current processes, build more efficient frameworks, and work toward increased performance metrics that push their companies to scale. Whether virtually or through carefully created lunch-and-learns, I help them find the right flow to better ideate, organize, and execute their goals. But while these are skills that feel second nature to me today, this wasn’t always the case. In fact, it took one major failure in the early stages of my career to change everything completely.
During my days as an executive assistant, I was privy to stakeholder meetings and attended them often, at times in place of my boss, the company CEO. I had my role down to a science (or so I thought), and breezed through his every request, sometimes even anticipating his needs. That is, until one morning when he called me while driving into the office and asked me to walk him through the latest sales report. Staring blankly at my computer screen, phone in hand, I sat there frozen. For numerous years, I’d delivered a stellar performance…until that moment. As unease crept throughout my body. “Is there something wrong? How are the figures looking?” But I had no idea. Despite my familiarity with the room, or rather the people in it, I’d somehow stagnated myself by never expanding my knowledge well beyond what was initially listed on the job description I’d applied for.
At no point had I maximized my access to colleagues through cross-organizational collaboration in an effort to grow my own areas of expertise. The realization quite literally knocked the wind out of me, and you can best believe I never made that mistake again. As someone who was building the foundation of her own company at the time, and despite how skilled and all-knowing I thought myself to be, I was clearly in need of a major mindset shift. Whether I was an employee or the head of my own company, if someone had a question about sales, key metrics, or KPIs, from that day, I made a promise to myself to always have a proper breakdown ready for them. I’d never get caught slipping again.
Today, I like to use this experience to educate founders and companies on how to do the same. When I sit with teams, my goal is to help them see beyond the tasks assigned to the title they wear. Companies and individuals who made waves in any industry are able to do so because they first found a way to master the water they were thrown into. In my case, to help maintain my business acumen, I take on what I like to call “stretch projects” that shift me from the comforts of running a company to testing my methods out in the world. Some of those projects include:
Teaching business communications at a local college; a part-time role that allows me to transfer my knowledge well into a comprehensive curriculum aimed to help students learn to read, write, and communicate with impact. Though this is something that’s easy for me to do, it’s much harder to teach.
Offering Mentor Monday one-on-one calls; an opportunity to open my virtual doors to folks with questions. For years, I’ve looked forward to spending time with you, and my peers who may need deeper insight or guidance when exploring major career shifts and milestones.
Presenting lunch-and-learn workshops; a curated space to help individuals and teams think bigger and more strategically when exploring short and long-term company goals.
Recently, I was booked to deliver a presentation. A company I’m quite fond of asked me to come in to challenge their team to think deeper and more strategically about their 2026 planning. While I look forward to bringing many of my tried and true methods, my main goal is to help them recognize the value in stretching their skills by seeing how they can be repurposed in other more creative and collaborative ways. I want them to recognize that the knowledge we often need isn’t always gained by working harder, but through taking audit of the skills available to us from the ones we sit beside everyday.
When we get curious about the world taking shape around us, it helps us better investigate how you can contribute to its continued success. By embracing a holistic view and understanding of whatever “off-menu” task that’s thrown your way, only then can you recognize the importance of broadening your knowledge wells through strategic thinking and, of course, peer collaboration.
Remember, when we create in silos, we stifle the possibility of what we can learn, and thus, limit the lengths of how far we can go.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A BIT ABOUT ME: Hi! My name is Pauleanna Reid. I’m the founder and chief storyteller at WritersBlok where I lead an all-women of color team of celebrity ghostwriters. As a collective, we help industry leaders and doers who are shaping the future turn their personal stories into brand assets so they can stay relevant in a noisy world, communicate to their audience at scale, and turn any conversation into a meaningful and profitable lead. Clients truly trust me with their reputations and their legacies. In fact, when they want to speak up on a hot topic and shake the room, I’m the woman they call. Many of them have me on speed dial, why don’t you?