Believe in your gut! How I ended up moving to London

I'm Lorena, I am the host of wake up and vibe. And to begin with, I just wanted to introduce myself to you, give you a little bit of background of who I am, and my own personal stories of having to overcome difficulties. And throughout the podcast series that are coming up, I'll be sharing a little bit of my own stories here and there. But since this podcast is basically to help us understand how to move on, and how to dig deep from the bottom of our heart to get up, again, and again, and again, after having pretty much felt defeat, I wanted to share some of my most recent stories of what you would call defeat and having to get up again. But before all of that, who am I? I am Lorena, I am currently living in London, London! in the middle of the second wave of lockdown of COVID. So it's been very interesting. And I am the current chief of staff and executive director at a management consulting firm. And I love what I do, I have to say that I've been a consultant my entire life for my entire career. I am you know, living in Europe, and it's, it's a dream that I always had, and something that I always wanted to do, but I never thought it was possible. For whatever reason, or when I thought it was it was possible. Other life plans came in the way. And so it was not until very later on that I actually ended up moving to London, where I'm speaking to you from today.

So, for you to understand a little bit about my story, we would kind of have to go through many, many years and what I call the different chapters of my life. But as a little bit of background, I am Colombian, I was born and raised in Bogota, Colombia, South America, with my parents, in the middle of the 80s, which was quite an interesting time to have been brought up in South America, or specifically in Colombia. And I would wake up every day and I would hear all of the different stories of just, you know, violence, and, you know, drug dealers, and you know, Pablo Escobar and those were kind of the things and the norm and as a regular Columbian, you just kind of get on with life. And don't think about it because there were so many other amazing things going on, and, and so many other amazing people that were much more worth of our attention. And but as you can imagine, I was I was raised speaking Spanish, I lived in Colombia, until I was at the age of 10, at which time, you know, my parents absolutely decided it was for the best interest of their kids to move to, to make a transition into another country that was a little bit more secure. And that could offer a little bit of a better future. Um, and then we ended up in the states A few years later. And as a kid that grew up speaking Spanish, I had to learn a new language at the age of 10. And I had to change my Colombian waves, if you will, to be a little bit more of an American Girl, if you will. So obviously, our culture changed. The people that were around this changed, everything that we did changed and everything that I knew once had to be relearned. And so, it was a very difficult period as a child, you know, when you're uprooted from everything that you know, I kind of felt like an outcast for the very first couple of years of living in in the States. Um, but as a quick kid, quick, quick learner. Um, as you can tell, I learned the language and became very much accustomed to the culture. Kind of fast forwarding A few years later, my family We, we needed to go back to South America. And I'll share with you in another podcast that that's another chapter on its own.

But long story short, I ended up living in, in the in back in Colombia from the age of 14 to the age of 18. With my father, just him and I, and that was another very difficult time in my life, I basically had to deal with all of the teenager years only with my dad. And while I love him, I better I wish it would have been my mom in some ways. You know, as a girl, just, she's, she's my confident and my best friend. Um, but again, moving forward to the next chapter of my life. Having felt like an outcast a couple of times, moves back to the states got my, my degrees and my master’s degree, moved to Florida with my family. And it felt like things were finally kind of getting settled all over again. And, and my American dream was becoming true. I remember very vividly, when I was a sophomore in college, I took my first trip outside of the United States and outside of an international scene other than Colombia and the United States, and I went to France. And I remember thinking to myself, someday, some day, I will live in Europe. But as life would have it, I, once I finished my MBA, in Chicago, actually, I went to become a consultant at the very tender age of 23. And I loved they absolutely loved consulting and everything that it had in my path. And it was just quite amazing, amazing a minority as a woman. I am also five foot tall. So I don't I'm not very intimidating. And just my years in my career, I was able to achieve a lot I was in, in the program for fast development for next generation leaders in the company. And it just seemed like, you know, all of the hurdles of being a minority of being a woman of having felt like an outcast, of having had to learn the culture of having had to learn the language had all just passed, and I was making my, my, my life come true. And this is where I in today, I just want to share, you know, just two stories of my very own failures, if you will, maybe they're not failures, but moments where I just, I just felt like everything had crumbled. And it was very difficult or moments where everybody said, it's impossible for you to do this. Well, I'm here to tell you, it's not.

So, I am at the age of 24, I was almost 25 I got engaged, and got married at the age of 26. And I had a quite amazing marriage, to be very honest. I was married to an American guy, who was by all accounts, quite cool. And just, you know, had his life together. And it was it was everything I had trunked off when I was a little girl. It was It was great. It was great to feel secure, to feel like home was in a single place. And that life was just coming together.

I remember I was a consultant, and a lot of people in consulting seemed like they were getting divorced. And most of that happened because in consulting you travel, you travel a lot. And so, I had decided that I would quit my dreams of consulting and my fast-track program and all of those things because I believe in The power of love. And I believe that if I was to form a family, then somehow, I would find the right place in life. And I did, I quit. And I quit this job, which had a very clear career progression and rapid ascend to management. I left it to to be a financial analyst at FedEx.

And actually, before that, I left it to be a financial analyst for an air conditioning unit, a Japanese air conditioning unit. And by God, it was possibly the most boring job I ever had. And I missed consulting so much. But then I decided to move to FedEx. And, again, it was just so corporate, for me and for everything that I had known in just my very early years in my very early career, and I just, I knew that there was more out there for me. And I don't think I lasted more than six months in either job. So, I decided to one day, to give a phone call to an ex-colleague who had just become the CEO of a company.

Now, I hadn’t ever really worked with this person, I just knew of him and I knew that he knew who I was because of, you know, my background and who I was in my previous company. And, and lo and behold, I mean, it really only took picking up the phone, and just kind of scripting out what I wanted to say and saying, you know, I, I just wanted to congratulate you. And I wanted to wish you good luck in your new role as a CEO, in this new consulting company. I'm wondering if there's anything where I could be of assistance, however, I don't want to travel.

Now, if you know anything about consulting, it's all about travelling, you have to travel to the client site, you have to be on the ground, you have to be helping clients. And I, I was almost certain that he would say No, there's nothing I could do. And I was prepared for that rejection, but I was also prepared for not letting that moment and that opportunity passed me by. So, when I called them, and I and I said, You know, I would love to come back. However, my conditions are, I really don't want to travel because I am now married, I'm happily married. I'm three years into my marriage. Um, and he, to my very surprise, he said, you know, what, um, we are putting an entire knowledge management system in place. You know, it may not be as as exciting as being out on the field. But if you really want to come back to consulting, this might be a way. And why don't we meet? Why don't we grab a drink? And why don't we meet in Miami. And I did. And it was, it was letting go of the fear of rejection that actually really did it.

It was believing that I had worked really hard to get really not only reputation at my work, but for people to know that my work was really good. And that I really cared for, for what I did, and that I was darn good at it. And by doing that, and by and by not allowing that fear - and I was very fearful when I made that phone call because I thought maybe you're going to look foolish. But by leaving that aside, I was able to let go and just kind of believe that the universe was going to have my back and that everything was going to work out and that somehow, I was going to going to get back to consulting. And if it wasn't him that had a job, then it would probably be somebody else.

And I did go to Miami to meet this person. And right there and then it was pretty much you know, why? Why do you want to come back to consulting? And quite honestly, my, my honest answer is, every time anybody asks me why I am in consulting, my honest answer is always that I believe in my heart, that that's, that's what I that's what I really want to do in my life. I want to help people. I want to help companies; I want people to be better. And in the years that I was a consultant, I was able to help people learn new skills, which I think is the most rewarding part about my career, um, but in believing that and, then in telling him how much I really loved it, he believed so much in me that that he knew that if he would give me this job, I would make it work out. And so they hired me as a knowledge management and intellectual property direct director for the Americas. And I just could not have been happier. It was my dream! I was working from home, I I wasn't having to travel. And I was back in consulting, it was all the things that I wanted, and that everybody at one point said, ‘it's impossible, because if you want to be in consulting, you have to travel all the time. And you're just going to get back on a plane from Monday through Friday.’ And that was absolutely not what I wanted to do. So, I took the role, and I loved it.

The role progressed from being the intellectual property manager for the Americas to the also intellectual property manager for the Americas, and head of staffing and head of, you know, people selection for, for the jobs. And so, I gained a lot more responsibility, I was able to take a seat in the management table. And really, my career evolved in such a way, because when I was saying, in consulting, when I was on the ground when I was from project to project, which I was, and I started as a very low-level consultant, and I did learn a lot when I was on the field, I was never really previewed to the management discussions. Whereas now, if I hadn't left consulting, if I hadn't made the decision, very, you know, kind of painfully made the decision to leave. But knowing that that was the right thing to do at that time, and then having to, to force myself to reach back out three years later and ask if I could come back. And to let them know, it actually wasn't Three years later, it was only a year later. And ask them if I could come back. And I would have never leaped from where I was, which was a consultant delivering and doing project management of jobs, to having that place in that management table and progressing my career to a management level.

So it was the belief it was the complete surrendering, that led to, to me progressing my career in a very fast pace. The other thing that I haven't mentioned is that when I left consulting for the very first time, I was, I wasn't in a great salary. I mean, it was it was back in 2005. And but I wasn't in a great salary, but I was in a very decent salary for somebody that was 23. And when I left consulting, consulting is known as an industry to have high salaries. But when I left consulting, I decided that not only was I leaving consulting, which was my passion, because it was the right thing to do at that time for this relationship that I was in at that time. But I also took a massive paycheck cut. And I would say it was probably a 30% reduction. The last thing you want to achieve when you're in your, you know, mid 20s, in the prime of your establishment as a professional is to take a step back. But I knew that if I didn't do that, then I was going to put in jeopardy what was important to me at that moment, which was that relationship.

And I took it and I said to myself, I will get back to where I was. And then when I when I leapt from the air conditioning company to FedEx, I made a slight leap, where I actually did gain ground to almost make what I was making consulting. But then when I leave back from FedEx back into the consulting world, not only did I achieve exactly what I had made just a year ago, or a year and a half ago, I actually start passed it by quite a good amount. And I truly believe that you have to do what you know, in your heart at that moment, to be the right thing. And, and that thing may not last forever, and it may not be the thing that you will do forever. But knowing that with conviction that when you take a decision, it will all work out, then it will, because it's, it's what's you know, in your gut. So not only did I did I get the job that I wanted, again, which was I wanted to get back in consulting, I got even a better job. And I started to learn, and I started to have a conversation that was more refined, and I started to learn about everything about managing a consulting company, which, again, I wouldn't have done before. And I probably would have gotten had a different career path. And, and, and then I also increased my salary by quite a bit by quite a good amount. But all of that, none of that, all of that. And none of that would have happened without the real belief, the real belief that it was meant to be.

So that's one of my stories.  But many years later I was actually married, and I say I was married, I'm now divorced, I was actually married for eight and a half years. And a good almost nine years. And then with the divorce and everything else, it was an It was a long time is a very long relationship. And I had made up my entire life around not only this person, but this life in South Florida, where I call home even though I now live in London, but when I got divorce, and I'll tell you more about that chapter in my life in another podcast, but when I got divorced, and I went through that entire process, which is tremendously difficult - and kudos to anybody that has gone through that, because it was absolutely the hardest thing I ever had to do or had to deal with.

I haven't had to deal with a major family member loss, which I think is probably would be just as difficult. It was like a death basically and having to deal with that death. But it's part of my healing process. I, I remember, I had many, many sessions with a therapist who was absolutely fantastic. And we did a lot of going back to forgiving my inner child and talking to my inner child and going back in life and just kind of thinking and a lot of discussions. And at one point, I remember thinking, ‘I'm now (I was) 34.’ And probably any other woman that is in her mid-30s, was thinking about having a family and all of those things got just kind of swept away for me at that time, and, and I remember just thinking in some of those chats and remembering who I really was, and remembering who I really wanted to be.  I remember when I went to that Paris trip, when I was a freshman in college, and even when I was a child, when I was when I was only 10 years old. I remember saying, “I want to go to school for international business because I want to live an international life.” And I did!, I got my college degrees in International Business and Economics. And, and then when I went to Paris, I just knew I wanted to live in Europe. And then when I got divorced, and when I had all of these chats with my therapist, she made me remember what I really wanted to do in life, and what I really wanted to do in life.

And as a 34-year-old woman going into 35, recently divorced, having gone through that emotional destruction I had nothing to lose. I had everything to lose, and I didn't know where to go. I didn't know what to do next. And I went through a series of finding Myself moments at the age of 34, even though I had progressed in my career and my life and while I was doing big things with my career it was at that moment, when everything was so sad, and so dark, I decided that I needed to get back to me, and what made me be, and something that would make me excited, even though I loved my career and what my life was before the major change.  So, I went to a couple of trips to Europe by myself, I celebrated my 35th birthday by myself, in Europe. And I wouldn't have had it any other way.  It was, it was sad, but it was also very emotional, and moment of triumph for me.

And in those trips, on that year of my divorce, I met a lot of people from London. And they were all so friendly, and so lovely. And I felt this immediate connection to these people that I thought was amazing. And I had worked in, in the UK, in my first stint as a, as a junior consultant. And I remember how beautiful it was. And I thought, I went back to home after one of these trips. And I was sitting in my office at my home office after meditation, and I think it was through meditation, honestly, that I came to the realization that I was going to move, I was going to move, and I was going to move to Europe. And that was it.

And I had so much belief and conviction about it. I was I was going to move, and that was it. And, and I remember telling a couple of people, I made a couple of phone calls, I tapped into my network as they typically do. And a lot of people said, you know, that's really impossible, you need a visa, and they're going through Brexit. And, you know, maybe what, what you need to do is just if you really want to go there, and if you really want to leave this awesome job that pays you really, really, really well for your age and for your stage in your career, well just quit and move to London and become a bartender, or, you know, become a waitress in a restaurant, and then try and figure it out. And I was like, “No!, no, I'm going to move with a job. And I'm going to move with a visa. And I'm going to do it right!”

And every time I told somebody, they would say something like, “Oh, you just need to quit and find a job that pays you $50,000 a year. And that's it.” And I just refused to believe that because I somehow knew in my gut that that that wasn't going to be the case. And so, I started calling people and I went through my entire LinkedIn, and I found anybody who was anybody that either lived in the UK, or had connections in the UK, and I was sending them my resume. And I just believed that something would come through. And I would pray I would pray so much every morning, that that this change would happen and that it would take me out of my very deep and dark depression that was in.

So many people, I can't even tell you hundreds of people said it's impossible. Well, one day out of nowhere. I remember receiving a call from a plus 4-4 number, which meant the UK and I got so excited and I picked up the phone It was like a Thursday at. I don't know, it was like 10 o'clock AM. And it was this woman. With this accent, I couldn't recognize the accent, I just knew she had an accent. And it was this woman who called and said, “Hey, Lorena, I am the CEO of this consulting company. And I heard you're, you're looking for a job and I've checked your references. I've talked to people and you have very good reputation in in the industry, people know you, they know you work hard. And I really need help. I need someone that is an executer, who can do things who could make things happen. And I heard I hear that’s you. I've also heard that you, you want to move to Europe, and our headquarters is in London, is that true, would you want to move to London?”

Now this is a condensed version of the phone call we had; I was actually on the phone with this woman who is now my boss for like an hour, hour and a half. And she even asked me, ‘Do you want to consider it.’ And before she even I could hang up the phone, I knew there was nothing to consider, I knew that this was a this was this was the universe handing me that hand that I so much wanted so that I could live my real dream and the real thing in my gut that I knew that I had to do. And I from the moment that I made up my mind to move to the UK. It was September, it was the middle of September of 2018. And I basically had a job, a job offer in November. And! I was I was offered, the same salary that I had in the States in my in my position and a visa.

I couldn't believe it. But I knew that it was the belief and the prayer and the meditation and truly believing and truly following your what is right for you. You know, when people tell you, it's not possible, you can't do it. You shouldn’t not do it. Don't listen to what everybody else has to say. Listen to what your heart tells you. If your heart tells you go for it, by all will go for it because it will happen. I mean in two months I was I had a head job offer.

I came to London three different times to find a house I won't even tell you the story of coming to booking a flight to London and then the travel agency making a mistake and booking a one-way flight as a round trip. So, I actually got a second trip to London basically for free. And which I took as a blessing to come and look for houses. I even without a job I got my job offer.  I got my job offer in January to start in February, and to move in April, or at the end of April.

I did three trips to London because I was so convinced that I was not only going to get my job offer and my visa and everything sorted out. Every time I came over I would come over with two big luggages full of all of my clothes. And some of those people that I had met in my trips from before were kind enough to hold my luggage. God bless them!. I didn't even know if I was going to get the job and here's half of my wardrobe.  At one moment in time, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, what if I don't get the job? Like, I don't have any clothes, everything is in London.’ I will point I did think ‘what if I? What if something goes wrong? What if the visa doesn't happen? What if the job doesn't happen? What if they back out, and then all of my clothes are in London, that would be horrific.’ But it all ended up working out. And I did get my visa and, and it was also surreal. Nobody could believe it. I mean, people thought it was the most impossible thing to do, to go from living in the States, in my job, to just finding someone out of the blue that would call me.

I didn't even call this woman, I did send her a message when I did my entire LinkedIn review.  I asked if she knew if anybody I never asked her for a job but asked if she knew of somebody. And I never thought she would call me to offer me a job. But when she did, it was validation that it was what I needed to do that it was the universe telling me that all the pieces were fitting together because that was what was meant to be.

And so, in the middle of March of 2019, I moved to London, to live in London full time as the chief of staff to the CEO and executive director at one of the most well-known, if not the oldest, management consulting firms that are considered a boutique. And I want not only was my dream to move to Europe, but my dream also since I've been a little girl has been to be the CEO of a company.

And so, I would never have had this job. If I had never decided back in 2008 to leave my job as a project manager. But if I would have never left that job, which had a clear transition and a clear projection to someday becoming management, but someday, didn't really know when but I was I was in the path. If I would have never left that job to follow my gut, to do the things which were right for me at that time. Maybe it didn't work out at the end with my partner. But if I never had met him, I would have never met left that job. And if I would have never left that job, I would have never jumped ahead and gotten back into consulting a few levels above from where I had left.  And I would have never gotten a seat at the management table, I would have never learned all of the lessons all of the things about consulting, that I got to learn very early on in my career.

And then that I applied with diligence for years and years and years. You know, for eight, nine years of working in management at a management level, working directly with the leadership team of these companies. I would have never gotten that experience. And if I would have never gotten that experience, I would have never gotten the opportunity and the rules to implement and to understand all of the pieces of consulting. And you know what, when I went back after, after getting my first consulting job after I left my second consulting job many years later, seven years later, as an as a senior director at this small boutique management consulting firm, I took care of everything. I took care of finances, I was doing marketing, I was doing recruiting, I looked after sales, I looked after budgeting, I looked after it, I looked after every part of the organization. And typically, I would have never gotten that experience, and to understand how it all works. If I had never made those decisions back in the day, I would have never learned all those things, which at the end of the day, have gotten me to where I am today. And where I am today is: I live in which was my dream since I was a kid.

I have learned a tremendous amount from my fantastic, phenomenal, amazing boss; a woman by the name of Pamela Hackett, Proudfoot of CEO. Now, my dream was not only of living in Europe. But now, my dream of someday becoming a CEO, something is even that much closer to becoming a reality. I'm not saying that I'm going to be the CEO of any company at any time soon but what I am saying is, I am working every day with a CEO, learning from an award-winning CEO, and who is tremendously creative, tremendously passionate. And this opportunity that I'm living in my life right now would also not have happened if I wouldn't have had a divorce, and the breakthrough, and the breakdown, and the heartache, and the anxiety and the depression. And it was up to me to find the strength.

And the things that I used, if you will, it was a lot of gut feel, a lot of talking to my therapist and going back to who am I?  And who do I want to be in my life? What do I want to be known for? I would I be courageous enough to follow the dreams that I had forever?

And, and that is just two stories of my life. I have many of many, and I can't wait to share them on this podcast. But as I conclude the tips that I just wanted to share through those two stories of just kind of defeat and defiance of all the things that were maybe shaky out one point maybe it seemed like I wasn't sure if I was making the right decision in both occasions. When I left my job for in consulting for the first time, I knew it was the right thing to do, even if I was going to take a pay cut. And even if I wasn't going to be doing what I really wanted to do because I knew in my heart that it was going to work out. And so, I did it. And then again when I wanted to move to London, I just knew I knew I had to leave it all behind. I knew I had to sell my condo in Florida. I knew it would be difficult for my mom, but she would understand that I was moving across the ocean and it would be difficult for me I mean I didn't know anybody in London I just picked up and left for job and I said you know what, I will make it and I have an I love it. And if it weren’t for COVID I would be travelling all over Europe but still, I have met some amazing, courageous other woman who have just moved here without knowing anybody. And and the stories are always follow your gut, follow what makes you happy. And this is, this is my story. And this is one of them, follow your gut, knowing your heart, that if you're going to make a decision, no matter how many times you hear that, it's impossible, then if you know it's the right thing for you, then it's the right thing for you.  And you should do it.

I hope you enjoyed those two stories. I will be sharing a lot more throughout the course of this podcast, and I will be having a lot of interviews with other woman and hearing about their stories.  I just want to showcase and I want to show you, there's so many amazing, fascinating stories of woman all over the world who have made it and stories that we don't hear about on the radio or in books or on the TV.

There's a lot of us out there doing fantastic, phenomenal things that are proud that we should be proud of, and that should be celebrated. So, I can't wait to celebrate you. I hope you got something out of this podcast this episode. I can't wait to share more. And if you have any questions, any comments, if you want to be part of the podcast, please contact me. You can reach me at www dot wakeup and vibe.com thank you very much and I can't wait to share some other stories of myself and also of some of my guests.

Till next time.