This article is adapted from Elan Keshan’s talk at the Product Marketing Summit in Toronto, 2022. Catch up on this talk, and others, using our OnDemand service. Since he gave this talk, Elan has taken on a new role as Product Marketing Lead at Magical. Congratulations, Elan!
When I was 20, I made a big life decision. I decided to come out of the closet. This was not an easy decision for me. I spent months and months thinking about how to tell my mom, my dad, and even my best friends who I had been lying to for years about who I was. I spent hours and hours working out how to frame this revelation and soften it for any family members who might not be so open to it.
Eventually, after months, I sat down and directly told them what was changing in my life, how it was changing, how it affected me and them, and what I was looking forward to in the future. I was so blessed to be welcomed with open arms.
The funniest thing is that as I reflected back on this conversation with my family, I realized I’d focused so much on this piece of my changing identity that I didn’t even talk about something else they really cared about, which was that I had also tried bacon – and as a Jewish person, that was a really big deal.
So why am I talking to you about this personal story? Because it’s about change – something I think we all can relate to. We’re all change experts. Over the past few years in particular, each and every one of us has experienced massive amounts of change and gone through tons of ups and downs.
Today I want to share some learnings from those changes and the frameworks I use to help position change in work and in my personal life.
