I didn’t really set out to start my own shop but I was looking for work in 2020 and partnering with other freelancers. I realized I could help people that wanted to build their websites, create social media strategies, set up systems to support operations, and more generally help people going it alone feel like they were part of a team.

Let me start at the beginning. I was born in southern Missouri, the fifth child of two parents that fostered a sense of community, a love for non-conventional wisdom, and a work ethic required to support our farm.

My father soon left and my mother made due by working odd jobs as a special education teacher, janitor, factory worker, domestic, house painter, gardener, and really most things people didn’t want or know how to do. I grew up seeing the fruits of her work being just enough for us to get by and was determined to find more security in my adulthood.

Looking back, life was hard but in a school where most kids were also on “school breakfast and lunch” (meaning it was subsidized) I really didn’t know how bad things were. We eventually moved to the suburbs of Chicago when I was 10 so that my mother could care for her aging parents and it was there that I received a much better education and more opportunities.

In high school, I really wanted to pursue a career in art but worried I’d become a starving artist so I went to a local community college to take classes to become a massage therapist thinking that could pay for art school. The admissions officer explained to me that I couldn’t begin that program as a minor but I could take essential prerequisites to get my associates degree in the meantime. I soon realized the art school plan was not going to work and fell in love with my business classes like Economics, Statistics, and Accounting. I was also on full scholarship in the final year of my associate’s degree doing competitive speaking and despite never having won anything in high school came home with a Bronze Medal at nationals for Informational Speaking.

As luck would have it, my story of a poor girl growing up in a trailer without running water made for a compelling story and with straight A’s I got in to Washington University in St. Louis in the College of Arts & Sciences. Being a transfer student was hard but I made the most of every student group, activity, and interesting course I could find. In 2008 I studied abroad in France and my French vastly improved with such a rigorous immersion program. I also spoke at a leadership conference in South Korea.

By the time I graduated in 2009 with a BA in International Studies, I thought I’d have a career that would make the most of my divergent interests and love of travel. With a lagging economy, I took a leap and returned to South Korea for the summer where I taught English, tutored students, and planned for a leadership conference. This led to work in Washington D.C. and New York City as a Faculty Advisor and program Coordinator for leadership conferences I’d attended as a student.

What they don’t tell you about living in D.C. is that if you don’t have parents or a trust fund that will support you, a job there as a recent grad is virtually impossible to make a living. Eventually I gave up the hustle there and returned to WashU for a master’s degree in International Affairs. I also studied International Development for a summer semester at the University of Oslo in 2011. Again, I found myself really wanting a career that offered financial stability but also made a meaningful impact so I joined the development office making calls for fundraisers. It was easy asking potential donors for their time because I knew this work had been why I was able to get such a phenomenal education.

In 2015 I was languishing as an over-educated call farm workhorse and decided to take a sabbatical. I traveled to Europe to retrace my roots in Norway with my mother and aunts, study painting in the south of France, visit friends I’d met in various international programs, and consider what I wanted from life. This time of introspection was a gift and led to many more serendipitous connections.

When I returned stateside, I briefly worked at a local Fox News station as an AdExec and a summer collegiate baseball league before working four years at an insurance brokerage. Each of these roles we a combination of marketing, sales, communications, and operations. After the company I was working for was acquired, I decided to pursue a bit of freelance work while I looked for something that would at least use my degree.

Would I love to be part of a firm and work on things that scale? Absolutely. But I want my next move to make sense and be a part of something bigger. I look back at how important making ends meet was in my childhood and I will continue to pursue financial stability to support myself and a thriving community.