Be a Boss: Make Fetch Happen

In my sophomore year at Penn State, my girlfriends and I could be found in the dining hall yelling out “You can’t sit with us” or asking each other “is butter is a carb?” Our weekly sorority meetings were filled with “Mean Girls” quotes and I even had my boyfriend saying a line or two. The friendships, the boyfriends and thankfully the classes have come and gone but I can promise you one thing, I never stopped quoting “Mean Girls”.

My girlfriends now and I are in our early 30s and are still quoting this movie, in fact telling people “but you love Ladysmith Black Mambazo” falls out of my mouth as easily as my new favorite unit of measurement “AF”. And with the recent announcement of Mean Girls the Musical coming to Broadway this spring, it only made sense to rewatch the movie this past weekend while nursing the plague of a lifetime.

Watching the movie back, I reaffirmed my original thought: Lindsay Lohan was robbed of an Oscar for her performance. I also realized how I truly bad felt for our little heiress of the Toaster Strudel Fortune, Gretchen Wieners. Poor little, diamond-hooped-earring-wearing-girl just wanted to make fetch happen and no one would let her.

A few months back one of my closest friends, Beth, and I grabbed an afternoon coffee and were talking about that scene when broken-hearted Gretchen gets yelled at by her supposed best friend. Beth had just come from closing on another house and reminded me of how just a few, short years ago she felt she was swimming against the current in her job and couldn’t get ahead and felt like her job was HER Regina George.

We all felt the corporate struggle in our twenties between the happy hours, the awkward first dates and more. However, for Beth, despite her efforts, she just couldn’t find her passion and eventually left the company our entire friend group worked for and went off to Real Estate school. We loaded her up with pens, notebooks, flash cards and more to wish her luck! Passing the Real Estate exam is pretty difficult, and for the girl who went to school for Theater, Beth made it look like she had studied all of her life. With a passing score and a champagne to celebrate, her new adventure was off!

But as she put it to me that one day in Starbucks “I had to find my fetch and make it happen.” We both looked at each other wide-eyed and had a full-on Oprah moment. Holy Shit, you CAN make fetch happen, you just have to find your fetch and go for it.

We as women, friends, and lovers of “Mean Girls” like to use one of the movie’s classic lines as a kind way to tell a friend her shirt doesn’t look cute on her, or to stop texting the boy she is crushing on after a few glasses of wine. But, what if we take the line back and actually…make it fetch and work for us? How do we do this?

Find your Fetch:

What are your passions? What wakes you up every morning and puts your feet on the ground?

Go through your day/week/month aware of the things around you, how you react to them and what gets your pulse pounding. Think about the things that come easily to you and those things that you’re passionate about.

When Beth was thinking of leaving our company she knew she had a knack for people; talking to people and helping them with their problems. Ultimately, wanting to help them find their dream home came out of a lot of internal dialogue.

Tell people your Fetch:

When I realized that I wanted to move on from my communications role in my company I told people. I wanted people to know that I felt my communication background would ultimately make me a successful Project Manager. I knew that this would set me apart from others so I told mentors, previous leaders and colleagues in departments I had an interest in. I knew what my fetch was so I went out on a limb.

When a job was available, someone who knew about my desired career shift took a chance on me. Five and a half years later, I’m still a Project Manager and the number one piece of feedback I get is how great it is to have a Project Manager on the team who understand the ins and outs of all things…communication.

Dog your Fetch:

On top of telling people about this new goal, or a new passion project in your life, work on it to the point where it is a part-time job for you.

Last year I started my blog and while I told my family and friends about it I spent a lot of time researching what it would take. I made sure that I read a lot of ‘how-to’s’ and watched a lot of YouTube videos on how to make a website, joined Facebook groups and more. I wanted my blog to rock so I had to dog it. The same goes for the podcast, Podcast Rewind, that I just started with my friend Amie. We spent time figuring out our niche, show flow and how you even do the darn thing! We even dedicate a day/time each week to recording. It’s a job (non-paying that is) and you have to treat your fetch with that kind of respect.

Move your Fetch:

Once you are able to achieve your fetch, it’s ok to move it. I worked really hard to land a role in the communications department at my company and after a few years knew it was time to move on. It’s ok to change your passions and it’s ok to realize that they may not always be career based.

Maybe you want to get certified as a Pilates Trainer just to say you did it. Or maybe you really want to learn to play golf because it could be a fun way to make friends and maybe even meet a guy in the process. Whatever your fetch is, it’s yours and don’t let any Regina George’s take it away! You go, Glen Coco.

So tell me…What is your fetch? How did you make it happen? Do you wear pink on Wednesdays? Should we start wearing it on Monday’s too? And yes, I totally agree…I think you’re really pretty.