We all start somewhere…

My REAL journey to entrepreneurship started back in 2004, but I was really just trying to find my way to owning my own business – at the age of 17.

Before websites and social media, I began navigating my way through working for myself way back in 1998 – before I had even graduated high school. My first ever “business” was with Mary Kay. I thought it would be enough to pay for school at a horse training college.

This is the long version of how I ended up in marketing, entrepreneurship and running multiple six figure companies.

Me in early 2000 with my niece. MLM makeup and all.

Plans change…

I planned to go to college to learn how to train horses. Three weeks before I was suppose to leave to school, their entire facility was under water due to a flood. That was my plan A, I didn’t realize I needed a plan B and didn’t have any sage wisdom coming my way from the adults in my life. That led to staying at my $7 an hour job for the next year.

The bank…

Working in retail for nearly four years through high school was enough on the resume for me to land a job at the local bank. Still making just over $7 an hour, it wasn’t much, but I still didn’t have a plan B and had just gotten engaged. The year I spent at the bank led to a temporary job at an asset management company, which led to a job in their marketing department. And that is where I found my love of marketing and all things strategy and data.

Picture is from the company black tie company Christmas party I helped plan in 2003.

 

Four Years in corporate

I loved my corporate marketing job. I loved the VP of Marketing too. I was now working 40 hours a week, married and going to college full time. My schedule was to get up at 5am to go to the gym, be at work by 8am, be at college by 6pm, get home around 11pm and do it all again the next day.

What I didn’t love was that I was told that I didn’t deserve a raise because the VPs daughter had already graduated college and wasn’t making much more than me. I was making $12 an hour. I was putting in the work and the VP had nearly three months a year of vacation time. At that point I was the only person working in the marketing department while she was gone on her trips. She was bringing home half my years salary every month. Imagine being 23 year old, making $24k a year and running the entire marketing department of a $400MM company by yourself while your boss took six weeks trips to Alaska or Europe.

I quit in 2004 and was still only bringing in $28k a year. The company went under the following year.

Graduating from Franklin University in 2007.

College…

I graduated from Franklin University in 2007 with an 18 month old and a 12 day old. I was the first in my family to graduate college. I earned two Bachelors Degrees in Marketing & Business Administration with a PR focus.

By time I graduated I had already launched a marketing firm of my own and had clients all over the world.

 

We now…

have four kids and will celebrate 20 years of marriage in October of 2020. We have built multiple six figure businesses including a marketing agency, an apparel company, a subscription box and a house cleaning service while traveling the country and homeschooling our four kiddos.

 

I have never taught what I know

Aside from a blog post on this blog here and there, I have never stepped out to create content on how I have done what I have done while homeschooling four kids. Even when courses were first becoming popular, I never stepped out to do it.  Launch. Scale. Grow. will be my first effort to teach people how they can build businesses around their hectic lives – from start to finish – while raising kids and pursuing their goals.

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