Don't Give Up! with Bridgette L. Smith

In this episode, Bridgette shares her impactful story of being unexpectedly fired in her 20s. Initially an assistant, she filled in for a VP during a medical leave, only to be fired upon the VP's return. Devastated but resilient, she leveraged her skills and network to transition into a successful journalism and PR career. Over time, Bridgette evolved into an entrepreneur and investor, underscoring the importance of resilience and staying true to oneself. Her encounter with her former boss years later provided unexpected closure to that chapter of her life. 

Transcript

Welcome to Time To Press Pause: A Podcast for CEOs by CEOs. I'm your host, Ellen Williams, CEO of The Salient Strategist and today I'm speaking with Bridgette L. Smith. Bridgette is a super-angel investor and entrepreneur. After retiring from Google, she became the Executive Chairman, CEO, and Founder of several enterprises; Purpose-led Ventures, Serenity and Sunshine Holdings, and founder Pitch Week all focused on supporting and investing in undercapitalized and underrepresented women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ founders. When she's not investing in diverse founders, she's an investment consultant at US Capital and a board advisor to multiple startup founders. Bridgette is a world-renowned journalist who has achieved more than 100 global media awards, including a Silver World Medal from the New York Film and Television Festival. Welcome Bridgette to Time To Press Pause. I'm really very, very happy you're here and excited to meet you. 

Bridgette: Nice to meet you too. 

Ellen: So as you know, Time To Press Pause is all about when CEOs have had an opportunity, or maybe it was thrust upon them. when they needed to press pause and really interested to hear your press pause story. 

Bridgette: Yeah, the one that comes to mind is when I was fired in my 20s. And I love to tell the story because I didn't press pause, someone else pressed pause on me. And it was a time where I was in a job. Definitely there's a difference between a job and a career. So I was in a job that I thought I was going to stay at forever. And I had worked my way up to the executive floor of the building, working for the only black female in the entire company. And so I was hired as her assistant. Everything she did, I did. Every meeting she went to I was there. I was her right hand. I knew everything about her workflow, who the clients were. I knew the names of, of husbands, of clients, and children, and schools. I knew everything. I memorized it all. I did, I emulated her. Well, she had had a stroke. And so she had to clearly, you know, take a medical leave. And again, I'm her assistant. And so she was a vice president. She reported to an SVP who then came to me and said, “Bridgette, can you please fill in for Charlotte while she's away?” because I knew so much. At the time I had no idea what that what the implications of that was. An assistant filling in for VP. Had no idea, didn't ask for a raise, didn't ask for any, you know, considerations. I just was doing the job of Charlotte until Charlotte returned. She was my role model. So, a couple of months have passed. I had crossed all the T's, dotted all the I’s, kept her up to date at her request while she was on medical leave from her home bed. And when she returned within five days, within one week of her returning, I was fired. And it hurt my soul. I cried hard for a week. I was so confused as to what happened and why. And what she had told me behind closed doors when she returned without witnesses, without any fanfare, she looked at me and she said, “You're beautiful. You're young. You'll find another job.” She said, “I can't have you doing my job.” So apparently, I had done it so well that when she returned there couldn't be two of us doing her work and I had... she eliminated me. I was a threat to her and she said it in her own words. I was a threat to her job. I didn't know anything about lawsuits or discrimination or any of those things. It just, it just blew my mind that I lost the job that I loved and coveted, and I had worked there for eight years. So I truly thought this was my home. The people I worked with was my family. That's how I looked at things at that time. It was an eye-opener. So, to cut to how that impacted my world is after crying hard for a week, I pretended to go to work with my husband at the time, would go to work. I got dressed, showered, got my child ready, and pretended to leave when he left. But I didn't go anywhere. I literally sat on the sofa and cried hard for a week and then at some point my energy shifted to survival. How? What are we gonna do about money? How are we going to get - how am I going to get back on my feet? I was too embarrassed to tell my husband what had happened because I was the primary breadwinner at that time and I was in shock. So, I got on my feet. At the time, there were these things called Rolodexes. Back in the day, there was a paper Rolodex with these white things that you would plop in and write a person's name on it, or stapled their business card. I went through my Rolodex, keep in mind, I knew everybody Charlotte knew. I started going through all my Rolodex cards. And I started calling people and asking for work. Now the the part of the story that I didn't mention earlier is I had just started my journalism journey at the same time that I was on this eight-year career path at this company. And so, I was in journalism school, so I had just started news reporting, news, news stories for a business journal. Right. So, I was a reporter, freelance reporter for this publication. I was always making front-page headlines. All of my stories always ended up on the front page. So that was a huge blessing. So, I was just starting to get into journalism. So, I so. So that's important too. My, my, how that shifted my whole career, my whole life. So, I opened the Rolodex, I started going through. I heard no so many times. “Sorry, no.” “Sorry, this happened to you.” “No, can't help you.” One person. And that's all it takes is one person. One person said yes, I will never ever forget Steve Johnstone. He owned a PR firm. Again, I was working in journalism at the time. I also, important part of the story, I was an intern at ABC News at the time working weekends. I was doing my little side hustle in journalism while I worked this full-time gig building in for Charlotte. So, my media world is starting to develop, but I'm still kind of early in the in the early stages. So Steve Johnstone was in my PR world, public relations firm. He knew me from my television work. He knew me from my journalism work and he said, “Bridgette, come on in and I'd love to chat with you.” He gave me the first opportunity to write to, to do work in PR. I wrote press releases. I knew how to write. I knew communication. And so that was the beginning, I would say, of a hard pause that literally changed my career trajectory. So I never, ever, ever went back to corporate America until much later in life. So, I started this journey of being an entrepreneur. And I didn't even know it was an accidental entrepreneur. I wasn't trying to start a company, but Steve had hired me as a consultant. Others started to hire me. My journalism career took off because I had more time for it at that point, and I started doing television news, on-air reporting, talk show host.  I even produced my own television show in my local market, a talk show format as well. And then I started working for other big clients it, you know, Toyota, Walmart, you know, huge clients were hiring me to do PR. And so that's the one story I wanted to share. There's so many stories on my journey, but that is the one that truly was a hard stop, a hard pause, that changed my whole life into a new direction. As I sit and talk to you now. I've done many hard stops, many hard pauses along the way, and I'm now at the point where I am an investor. I now invest in companies and help those companies to grow. So, there are many, many journeys and steps and milestones to life. And so that that was the one, the beginning that changed the entire path that I was on. So that's the story I wanted to share with you. 

Ellen: And that was an incredible story. And you had so many different pieces of information there. So first I want to say you said you were in your 20s and you thought you were going to stay there for forever. Right? And that happens. I think that happens less with the generation now that's in their 20s. There's a lot of job hopping. But your reference to Rolodex, you know, definitely reminded me of my past. And you know, I remember in my 20s, yeah, you think this is it? I got my job. This is it forever. Really valuable information and at the same time really. I hate to use the word horrible, but that's the only word I could think of. The way that it all sort of rolled out at the end there. So, you said it was a hard pause because everything stopped, but I would imagine that also means it was a very difficult pause. 

Bridgette: Absolutely. You know, and an interesting story. So, people always ask me, “What happened to Charlotte? Did I ever see Charlotte again?” and the answer is I did. So, as I started my PR journey, I ended up representing the mayor of my city. So, I was on TV every single day talking on his behalf about taxes and schools and road closures and reform of all types. I was on a campaign stop with the mayor, and I couldn't see past the audience the lights were so bright. So many media cameras. And as I was, as we were exiting from the center stage and exiting, walking down the aisle, someone had tugged my arm and I looked. And it was Charlotte's face. And in the back of my mind, like when it happened to me when she fired me years and years ago, I had a whole lot of thoughts about what, what I would do with Charlotte when I saw Charlotte again. But as I matured and grew out of that pain, I was healed. And so I. But I had never gotten an apology. That was the one thing I was hoping for but didn't know if I'd ever get. So, I was walking down this aisle and she tugged my arm and I looked, and it was her face. And the security was right in front of me. And they said, “Bridgette, we have to go.” And I said, “5 minutes, just give me 5 minutes.” So,  Charlotte asked me to meet her in the hallway. I met her in the hallway. And without much fanfare, without much, you know, explanation. Her words that came out of her mouth. The first thing she said was, “Bridgette, I'm sorry.” Can you imagine? Years had passed and I had already forgiven her. But the fact that she, I saw her again in that one moment. 5 minutes was all we had and she said, “Bridgette, I'm sorry.” She said, “We are so proud of you.” And I assumed she was talking about her husband and her family. She said, “We are so proud of you. Keep up the good work. I knew you would do great things and I just wanted to say I'm sorry.” And I looked at her and she had aged in the face. She was still immaculate in terms of like, I could just tell she was in good health and all that. But she had aged a little bit in the face and I just said, “Thank you.” I said, “Thank you,” and that was it. And I've never seen Charlotte again. I see her on LinkedIn and she's still alive and well and kicking it. That was the first time I had to heal somebody who hurt me so, so deep. And it was, it was a life hard stop. It was a pivot. Financial hardship was real. But again, that one person who said yes is the story I really the story itself is what people may have all kinds of pauses and stops and challenges in life. But when you are resilient. When you are resilient and you are prayerful, your path doors will open. Windows will open. Opportunities will find you as long as you stay true to who you are and know who you who you are and where you're going. And I didn't know where I was going to be clear. I just knew that I had gifts and talents. And my gifts and talents were communication and writing. And I had one person say yes to me, not 2, not 3, just one. And then that door opened up other doors. So, it is important when you have a hard stop or a pause to not give up. I was on my back for a week and I lived a lie with my past husband for only 5 days and then when I got back on my feet he didn't even notice that I wasn't even at the corporate office anymore because things had, things were kind of normal back to normal, if you will. Cuz I kept getting dressed, taking our son to daycare. And going to wherever I needed to go to write my press releases. I did it. So at the end of the day, the hard stop, the pause was a blessing because it totally - I probably would have stated that company as long as -  Oh my goodness, I can't even imagine the life I would have had had I stayed at this company and been a 30-40 year employee. 

Ellen: Yeah. 

Bridgette: Like I couldn't imagine what that would look like for me. 

Ellen: I couldn't imagine that that would have been your past. You were already interning. And your journalism. And I think although you didn't expect the pause from what you said in your story, I think it would have happened eventually anyway. That you would make that pivot. So, I totally agree. Staying true to yourself is key to every aspect of your life. And sometimes just being true to yourself, is something that could cause you to press pause when things don't really feel like they're a good fit anymore, which I know is not your case. But I also love the fact that you said, you know, you had matured and you had done healing, and that's a lot of what I'm hearing also on the podcast. When you do press pause and you have that time to reflect. So I'm so thrilled that you did get the apology, but maybe I don't know. Can you tell me, did it have the impact you thought it would when you finally heard those words? 

Bridgette: It fell flat. It did. I never thought I'd ever see her again. And it was a complete surprise to see her in that moment while I'm in this new space, I'm flourishing. I'm doing what I love every day at that, at that time in my life and career. So, to see a person from my past who had deeply cut me, and it felt like being cut by a knife at that time. I had the wounds had healed, you know, they had already been massaged over. They had already. I had. She had drifted into not like, I just,  she's just a part of my history. She's not a part of my now. And so to see her and for her to say, “I am sorry.” It was. I don't know. It was probably the closure to that chapter, but it didn't. Whether she had said I'm sorry or not, I would have still been me. I would have still flourished. I would have still continued on. So it was a nice closure, but if so, I appreciate her saying it. But if she had never approached me, I would have still been OK as well. 

Ellen: Yeah, I love that she was a part of your history, not a part of your now. And I know, you know, over time, we all have people that are parts of our history. And the more we drag them into our present, doesn't necessarily do us any benefits. So that's you have a lot of a lot of great lessons in your story and I'm so thankful for you sharing it and you've gotten, you've given a lot of advice to things to think about to reaching out to your network, it only takes one, you know it takes time to heal, be true to yourself, all wrapped up in a in a difficult but really great story to be able to tell. Especially how you have flourished on the other side of it. So, thank you again, Bridgette, for your words of wisdom. Thank you for sharing your story. And I'm thrilled that you were here with me on Time To Press Pause.  

Bridgette: Oh, it's been my pleasure.  

Ellen: Thank you for listening to this episode of Time To Press Pause. To learn more about Bridgette L. Smith, visit her LinkedIn page. To learn more about me, go to thesalientstrategist.com and be sure to join us again wherever you listen to your podcast.