Bonnie Vande Velde

I know that success is possible because of the amazing people in my life. I came from a family of entrepreneurs - I had an uncle who owned a Ford dealership, one that was a CPA with his own insurance agency, a cousin who was owner of an advertising agency. My aunts all had cleaning businesses with people working for them, or like my mom, were supervisors in department stores. My mom was in charge of 6 different locations as a supervisor and manager of a gift wrap department and was featured in the Minneapolis newspaper many times for her gifts and talents and her ability to wrap gifts beautifully and her creativeness. I had great examples to follow that showed me you could do or be whatever you wanted to be. My dad and my godfather probably influenced me the most because back in the 1960s, you didn't hand your little girl a hammer, and a screwdriver, and a saw - you just didn't do that. But my dad did, and my godfather continued it. After my dad passed away, my godfather constantly reinforced the thought process that you can do or be whatever you want to do or be because you're walking with the Lord and living your life right and doing good for others, and you'll be fine and be successful. My uncle who worked for Honeywell took me to work with him on weekends sometimes, and that was back before the internet ever existed - there was something called the ARPA net. All of the kids who came to visit from foreign countries whose parents were engineers working with my uncle, I was always included so that the kids would have someone to converse with, and that was a way that I could continue communication with those kids back and forth. That was a great catalyst for growth in my young life.

The best advice I received came from my godfather, who after my dad passed away, constantly reinforced the thought process that you can do or be whatever you want to do or be because you're walking with the Lord and living your life right and doing good for others, and you'll be fine and be successful. My dad and godfather were the ones who influenced me the most because back in the 1960s, you didn't hand your little girl a hammer, and a screwdriver, and a saw - you just didn't do that. But my dad did, and my godfather continued it, constantly pushing me and encouraging me to be what I wanted to be in life. They taught me that I could achieve all of my dreams as long as I walked with the Lord and lived my life on the right path doing good for others.

When I started out in this field, there were no women in it, and so I adapted and I did business the way men do business. Now there are many women in business and it's so nice to see, especially young women. I love to mentor young women business owners, and there's been such a difference today in the acceptance of my advice. Obviously, time and experience has a lot to do with that. I do very little advertising - my business that comes in that's new, practically all of it is from word of mouth. The biggest thing that I can say to young women is make a plan, believe in yourself, and then put blinders on and don't let anybody tell you you can't. As long as you believe in yourself and you believe you can, you absolutely can do anything. If you put out good, good will come back to you.

In the ever-changing landscape of cybersecurity, it is always a daily challenge to keep our clients protected from cyber threats, email threats, and text threats. We have to monitor their devices constantly, and I'm alerted if ever there is a potential threat so we can get with that end user as close to immediately as we can to make sure their devices are secured and not infected. The biggest opportunity right now is in building AI agents for clients so that they can operate more efficiently in today's shrinking workforce. It's hard to find people who are capable of multitasking and discernment to do the work that needs to be done. Wherever we can automate things for our clients, we do that, and that saves them money and time - they can do more in less time and become more efficient.

The values that are most important to me are truthfulness, honesty, and dependability. There is no question - when you are intimately involved in somebody's business process, they absolutely have to be able to trust you. You have to be able to be honest with them and tell them the truth. You have to be there for them because that's scary for them. In my personal life, I have 3 grown children and 3 grandchildren with another on the way, and that's where I want to spend my time. My hobbies and what I call my mental health release is building and remodeling things in my home - cutting up wood, making sawdust, driving a screw, pounding a nail - great therapy. Most importantly, my faith and the good Lord above has kept me safe my entire life. It has molded my children and my grandchildren, and I hope that I will at some point leave a legacy that will make a difference in the world.