Cindy W. Morrison

Girlfriends 2.0 Reboot and Upgrade Your Girlfriends NOW!

I’ll never forget the words my News Director said in January 2009 that would change my world forever,

“We don’t know if we can renew your contract. It depends on the economy.”

What?

I remember being numb. He can’t mean me! In my mind, I rationalized a lot of things:

1. I’ve done the 5 p.m. news here for almost twelve years and have won awards! (Just look,… they’re on my mantel!)
2. Most viewers love me! (Those are the only ones I chose to listen to anyway.)
3. I constantly work twenty years’ worth of contacts in Oklahoma to bring our station exclusive stories (that single word alone usually brings goose bumps to any News Director).
4. I make more appearances than any other anchor here! (Well, that’s mainly because I can’t say “no,” but it still counts!)
5. I even help mentor our young, green journalists! (Oh, God, have I trained my replacement?)

Deep down, I knew before I heard those words from my News Director that things weren’t all roses at the TV station where I worked. Viewership at stations across the country has declined over the last ten years or so. We have competition from all those dang cable stations and the internet — which I call insta-net news. Fewer TV viewers mean the stations make less advertising money to pay salaries, etc., and then add the fact advertisers aren’t spending as much because of the state of the current economy. It’s tough times in TV newsland, let me tell you.

But honestly, I didn’t think that affected me (see my rationalizations #1-5 above). In fact, the week before the somber meeting with my News Director, I was having the most fab spending spree with two of my best Girlfriends in Vegas. One morning during that vacay, I got a call about a second round of layoffs at my station. More? How is that possible? That makes a total of twenty-five people laid off from our Tulsa, Oklahoma, station in a matter of three months. That’s about a fourth or fifth of our staff! On top of that, the co-worker who called me in Vegas then told me there were “voluntary” pay cuts (gulp!) and the company would stop matching our 401ks (ouch!). But hey, I still felt semi-safe. I mean, I had a contract, right? (That’s what I rationalized when I bought a new Jimmy Choo bag in Vegas on sale.) The problem with my mindset at the time was what I chose to overlook (Read: ignore): my contract was up in only five months (July 1, 2009). If the economy didn’t get better, my twenty-year career in TV news would be over. Just like that. All the awards in the world couldn’t save me.

Wow….

More on my very public lay-off and a few other surprises a bit later, but basically, I knew from that moment sitting in my News Director’s office that I had five months to reinvent myself. However, did I know how to be anything but a newscaster? I had majored in journalism, not business! Tragedy can strike, and I can ad-lib from the news set with ease or write an award-winning story that will rip your heart apart, but ask me to do a simple business plan (or simple math, for that matter) and I get cold and clammy. Now I had to reinvent myself at mid-life? I wasn’t sure I had the strength.

Luckily, over the next five months, my family and Girlfriends picked me up like Humpty Dumpty and put me back together again (unfortunately, there wasn’t a dang plastic surgeon among them, but I digress). Here’s where my Girlfriends weren’t some old 1.0 version who just helped me find a job. My 2.0 Girlfriends changed my mindset and helped me to not only survive but to thrive! You see, before the meeting with my News Director, my life was like a current television ad running for AT&T. In the commercial, people are walking in a field (a herd of sheep, basically) saying “bah bah bah,” when two guys decide to jump the fence and take the better deal with AT&T. I totally identified with that commercial because that was me! I was happy being a sheep, getting my paycheck, and staying with the herd (bah…!). Well, when my life suddenly changed because of the economy, it was my 2.0 Girlfriends who showed me it’s okay to find my new place outside the herd because, apparently, Corporate America is having lamb chops for dinner!

Does something in your life threaten to serve you up as the next meal? Is there a fence you need to jump? Don’t wait. You may not be able to pick your parents, you may or may not have picked your spouse very well, but you can pick wonderful and supportive Girlfriends right now. This is a book about rebooting, upgrading, and building a support group so you can survive, and even thrive, anything difficult that comes your way in this changing time—a death, a divorce, and even a very public lay-off.

1. CHAPTER ONE
   NINE BRIDESMAIDS?!
2. CHAPTER TWO
   DUMP THE WANNA-BEs
3. CHAPTER THREE
   DON’T WEAR THAT!
4. CHAPTER FOUR
   GIRLFRIEND VACAYS ARE A MUST
5. CHAPTER FIVE
   WHY GUYS JUST DON’T GET IT
6. CHAPTER SIX
   GUYFRIENDS ARE THE NEW GIRLFRIEND
7. CHAPTER SEVEN
   SERIOUSLY?…
8. CHAPTER EIGHT
   THANK GOD YOU LOVE ME… IN SPITE OF ME
9. CHAPTER NINE
   DIDN’T YOU USED TO BE SOMEBODY?
10. CHAPTER TEN
    WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU GRAPEFRUITS… YOU NEED TO BRING YOUR GIRLFRIENDS AS WELL AS YOUR “A” GAME
11. CHAPTER ELEVEN
    THE POWER OF A SECOND CHANCE