Pitiful or Powerful? You can't be both!

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By Heather Driscoll

If someone had told me back in 1994 when I was a single mom at 17 years old, that I would own and be managing a million dollar successful commercial tree company at the age of 39, I would never have believed them. From the young girl who doubted she was capable of being a mom at such an early age, to the woman who is now in charge of twelve men, the road to getting here was not easy. Not only are my employees all men, but they are blue-collar, heavily muscled, tree hanging guys!

It all started in 2003 when my husband and I decided to start a small landscaping and tree company. He had just gotten his BA in Biology, and there were no jobs available to support our growing family. My daughter Meg was eight, and I was pregnant with my daughter Riley. My husband was an Arborist, the trade he had been in since he was sixteen. He went to school with the hopes of getting a job that used his brain instead of his body, but the money he could make from doing tree work was hard to ignore. With tree work in the top 5 of the most dangerous lines of work, I always worried about him. But he is 6’4” and 240 pounds of lean muscle! Nothing would stop him. So when he approached me with the idea of helping him, I knew he wasn’t going to forget the idea, so I joined him. I helped him with everything; marketing the business, doing the books and the actual physical, hard labor of tree work and landscaping. Together we learned the ins and outs of the business end, as well as the production side.

In 2008 the American economy took a turn for the worse, and no one was paying for services that they didn’t really “need” anymore. Our business slowly started to crumble. I had to get an office job working for someone else to make extra money, and I hated every moment of it. Every day I would write affirmations. I would visualize taking over the sales and marketing for our company again.

In the spring of 2010, I took a layoff from the job I was at… but I saw this as a positive! This was my exit. Everything that I had been visualizing and affirming was starting to take shape. 

Up to that point, my husband always did the estimates, but he really isn’t a ‘people person’ which is important when you’re selling! So I took over.

Within one year I had doubled our company’s worth. Within two years I had tripled it. ‘Sales and people’, I discovered, ‘were my thing’. 

I connected with people on a level where I met them where they were. I ended up getting every job I bid on, and my husband was in awe. “I love people,” I would tell him “and they feel it when I talk to them!”

I started to believe in myself!

Over the past thirteen years, I have turned the direction of our company into a powerhouse commercial enterprise, where we have significant contracts with the State of Connecticut, as well as the electric company for all of New England. I manage twelve, big burly men, who respect me and always hang out after work to ‘talk with the bosses.’ We let them know their worth and how valuable they are to us and that makes them feel special. In turn, they want to work hard and do a good job for us.  I’m not saying there aren’t bumps in the road because there have been many. We have worked incredibly hard, but it has been so worth it.

Two years ago, I knew a change was coming. I could feel my soul was on a journey. I told my husband I was going to be in this company for another two to three years and then I was starting another business!

Last summer, I decided I had to join the S.W.A.T. Institute to become an empowerment coach! My heart and soul have yearned to help people in transition for as long as I can remember. People are drawn to me; they come to me with their problems.

I have almost finished my studies with the Personal Empowerment Coach Certification, and I’ve signed up for the Master Empowerment Program, as well! Yes, I didn’t just do one empowerment coach certification, I’m doing both! I love it that much!

I have recently decided to finish writing the book I’ve always wanted to write, and I am finally working with an editor to complete it! Plus, I’m in the process of opening a Spiritual Retreat Center, with my mother as my business sidekick.  We are ready for new and exciting things.

My soul is a builder, and I must honor that. 

When I was a young single mom down on my luck and so depressed, a wise woman said to me: “Heather, you can be pitiful, or you can be powerful, but you can’t be both.”

Which one do you think I chose?

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Heather Driscoll is the owner and manager of two successful businesses and is working on starting her third.  She is married to Dan, co-owner of their businesses, and together they have three children, Megan, Riley and Gavin.

Heather believes in the power of creative visualization and has seen her life unfold in exciting ways as a result.  She believes in her Self, as well as in others, and yearns to encourage and empower them.

She is presently enrolled in the S.W.A.T. Institute and is almost finished with the Personal Empowerment Certification and working toward her Master Empowerment certification as well.

Heather lives in Connecticut and can be reached at driscoll.h@gmail.com

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