How to Stay Grounded when Your Career Takes Off
“Surround yourself with the right people. The ones who make you a better version of yourself. Who inspire, motivate and push you.” - We’ve all heard this.
I am so thankful to have been recently introduced to one such individual, Michelle Mekky. She is one of the strongest, most ambitious, inspiring women I’ve ever met. With more than 20 years of experience in Media & PR, Michelle is founder of Mekky Media. Beyond that she is a mother, a wife, a daughter, and a friend of many. She believes in the power of lifting other women and is a true testament to that.
In this interview, Michelle gets vulnerable and talks about some of the trials and tribulations life puts you through, as well as those we inflict upon ourselves. She talks about her struggles with self-confidence, being diagnosed with cancer and getting let go from a big career. You can either let those things engulf you and take hold of your life, or as in Michelle’s case, lift yourself up, work hard, and accomplish so many wonderful things.
If you’re looking for a little inspiration in your life, be sure to tune in to hear Michelle’s amazing story!
0:25 Tell us about your career path.
Mekky: I got my start as the editor-in-chief of my high school newspaper. My eyes were set on going to Northwestern. I never became derailed by my social life. I was very academic because I had a fire inside of myself to succeed. I think it’s because I looked at my parents, they were immigrants, and my dad really struggled.
I would ending up being the first person in my family to go to college because I wanted “a better life.” I didn’t want to struggle when it came to money. The irony of it all, is when I graduated Northwestern with a Master degree, I went into the world looking for a job as a reporter, and there were really none that I could find. My passion was really to be in front of the camera, but the job wasn’t there. I was an awkward girl with curly hair thinking “maybe I should just take a job in PR to make some money.”
One of my professors from Northwestern called me, “What are you doing? You already gave up? What’s wrong with you? You were my A+ student. You’ve got to stay on TV.”
My response, “I don’t know if I’m good enough.” The lack of confidence I’ve always struggled with, I think thats caused me to work harder and push myself to overcome the obstacles in my life.
1:56 What have been your biggest challenges?
Mekky: The lack of confidence was one of the biggest, ongoing difficulties in my career. But 2 others really stand out that shook me in my life and career.
The first, I was working a TON of hours and really putting off my health. After delaying seeing my gynecologist for a long time, I finally put it on the calendar to get a check up. I anxiously waited in the waiting room, and then in the patient room, playing on my phone, ready to get back to my day. The doctor came in, and did his check. He came back into the room and stated “Michelle, I’m going to recommend you see an oncologist, and not just any oncologist, but the best you can find.”
He never said the word “cancer” but I realized then that something major was about to happen, and I was going to need to slow down and pay attention.
It ended up being cancer, at which point I would spend the next 7 days in the hospital thinking I wasn’t going to live. In those days, more people visited me than I even thought I knew. After being discharged, the doctor called me 3 days later, “the pathology tests are back, it’s an absolute miracle, most people with ovarian cancer, it’s found much too late, but everything is negative. You’re stage 1, and Michelle, you are one of the luckiest women I have ever met.”
At that point, I thought to myself “I’m alive for a reason, now I need to find out why.”
After 5 weeks of recovering after the painful surgery, I returned to work and realized that this crazy, high stress life was not it. But that decision was made for me, the 2nd stand out challenge faced me. The company I was working for was going through some big changes, including management, and I was suddenly let go.
For the overachieving, Type A person that I am, to lose my job, took me to depths I couldn’t even explain. Even though people get let go all the time, that’s what my husband told me “Michelle, people get fired every day. They lose their jobs and they rebound. It happens.” but I assure you, I was not hearing him.
When you have cancer, they give you a paper of your prescriptions, when you take them, the doctors you visit and path you take to recovery. When you lose your job, it’s more of a “good luck.”
If you talk about the universe given you signs, those 2 moments together we like “Michelle, is it is. Do you want to apply to another agency and if so, is it going to be that different - OR do you want to actually shift your life?” And the way to truly shift my life was to start my own business. That’s where it all started to gel.