In Chapter 15 of 15 in her 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, entrepreneur Audrey Parker French answers "How Are Your Personal Experiences Shaping Your Professional Aspirations? French shares how she has stepped out of a life mode living for a company's success and into one where she is focused on herself and her personal life, in particular family.
“The rest of my life I’m gonna be living in a healthy personal balance and my professional life will be something that’s helping to support and help my personal life thrive and not the other way around, it won’t be that my personal life has to support my professional life. ”
Audrey Parker French returns to CYF for her Year 3 interview after a one-year sabbatical from work and getting married. She co-founded CLEAResult, an energy management consulting firm. In 2010, CLEAResult ranked #144 in the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing private companies. In late 2010, CLEAResult was sold to General Catalyst Partners. She graduated from Wake Forest University.
Transcript:
Erik Michielsen: How are your personal experiences shaping your professional aspirations?
Audrey Parker French: My personal aspirations previously were within or separate from my professional aspirations, and that’s not so anymore. My personal frame of the health of my marriage, the health of the relationships in my life, the health of my family, those are things that before I – I would’ve liked to have said that I couldn’t or that I didn’t have time for them but the fact was that I didn’t make time because I was so committed to the career and to the company, and now having this time to really realize that my personal – my personal life and my personal values are actually more important to me and professional values need to sit within it, and really need to – I need to make sure – I want to make sure that they remain, perhaps an important or even very important part, but it’s only a part and I would just always – I hope to always stay very clear on that and that’s part of what this time of reflection and stillness is helping me do.
There was someone who asked me recently if I was bored and wanting to go back to work yet, and I said, “Well, actually no.” I kind of feel like I had an unhealthy balance before and I chose that and it was – when you can put a lot of energy into a growing company and have it really payoff before your eyes, there was a reason why I lived my life out of balance, and it’s something that I’m stepping out of, the rest of my life I’m gonna be living in a healthy personal balance and my professional life will be something that’s helping to support and help my personal life thrive and not the other way around, it won’t be that my personal life has to support my professional life.