Robert Graves wrote “there’s one story and one story only” and in Joseph Campbell’s famous work that explored stories through the ages, he discovered this as well, that there was one archetypal story of a scared and reluctant hero entering an unknown time and a frightening world, facing the biggest challenge of her life, but through it, emerging on the other side changed, but victorious.
As we, too, face unprecedented challenges, we wanted to bring together the voices of those reluctant heroes that have overcome adversity, (in their business and in their personal lives), drawing out the essential lessons for us that helped shape their journey.
You’ll hear some familiar words like “unthinkable” and “unprecedented” and detect familiar emotions, like a world shifting beneath you, these are the stories of those who found their footing and discovered a way through adversity, arriving new solutions and new ways of being, to thriving on the other side.
Our first story is from Joan Landorf, Executive Vice President and Partner at Axis Promotions in New York City. Axis is one of the most successful distributors in the business, a Top 40 distributor 5 years in a row and recipient of numerous awards including over 20 pyramid awards. Joan is from Pittsburgh, earned her MBA in marketing from NYU Stern school of business, and honed her marketing skills at Clairol before starting her distributorship, Corporate Visions. Joan and Axis were friendly competitors for 10 years before they merged and now Joan, with sixteen years at Axis, is in a vital role providing sales mentorship for rising stars in their operation.
Joan shares her story of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, what business looked like before and after 9/11, and its effects on her and her team and the leadership lessons she learned through adversity. Joan also shares with us how the Axis team is responding to the current crisis and how to think beyond the crisis, to a positive future.