Shelby Holland

I would say my success comes from the experience that all first started when I did a DNA test because I didn't know anything about my father's side, my paternal side, and I didn't know anything about my father or rarely about my mother. I did an ancestry test and started going down the rabbit hole in 2014, was on that for years, and then I did 23andMe and built up all this tree. In 2019, I connected with a family member who said 'oh my gosh, we need to speak, we need to find out whose daughter you are.' I found like cousins and aunts - I mean, like a whole bunch of them. So I flew from Washington all the way to Florida and met my dad in person for the first time. It was crazy and it was amazing. I spent Christmas with them and saw my first palm tree on Christmas. That's when I met my grandmother, and she told me 'you need to do this for a business.' She's no longer with us, but she saw that light in me and said this is what you need to do. That personal experience of discovering my own family and building those relationships - that's what drives everything I do now and inspired me to help other people have that same incredible experience of connecting with their family history.

The best career advice I received came from my grandmother, Sally Raddis. After I met her during that trip to Florida and we bonded, I did a whole bunch of genealogy work for her. She told me 'genealogy is your passion, well why don't you take it and put it into a career?' I was like, Grandma, I didn't even think about that. I mean, I thought about it, but I never got like a swift kick in the rear to do it. She's the whole reason I went into this business. She saw that this was something I was passionate about and pushed me to turn it into my career path. Another important piece of advice came from my brother, who has his own business in advertisement and marketing. He told me that to make money, it costs money, which I didn't think was correct at the time. But now that I'm doing the whole advertisement and marketing thing myself, I'm like 'oh man, to make money, it does cost money.' I learned the hard way that making money in business costs money, particularly for advertising and marketing.

For the younger generation I'm 32 now and I've been doing this since my early 20s with over 10 years of experience - I would say do your research and try to get your foot out there. It took me a while to understand what it would take. One of the biggest things I learned, which my brother told me and I didn't think was correct at the time, is that to make money, it costs money. He has a business of his own in advertisement and marketing, and now that I'm doing the whole advertisement and marketing thing, I realize he was right. So understand that making money in business costs money, especially for advertising and marketing. Try and have a lot of feet on the ground, do the research, and try to get your foot out there. And most importantly, find people that support you - having that support system is really important.

One of the biggest opportunities in genealogy right now is the ability to leverage technology and digital platforms, like Bark.com and generative AI tools, to connect with clients and uncover detailed family histories that were previously difficult to access. At the same time, the field presents challenges, such as navigating sensitive research topics, including enslaved ancestors, and managing client expectations while maintaining accuracy and compassion. I approach these challenges by combining patience, honesty, and a commitment to personalized service, ensuring each project is handled thoughtfully. Achieving my Washington State LLC certification and building my business from the ground up has shown me the value of perseverance, strategic research, and strong client relationships, and I see every new project as an opportunity to make meaningful connections for the families I serve.

The values that are most important to me would be honesty and patience. You have to be definitely honest because you can't lie about the facts that you have when you're working with people. And patience and customer service are crucial because I'm pretty much helping people. You gotta be good with looking through documents and everything. Some people don't like being told no, so when you're working with people, it's not your job to technically say they're wrong. You gotta find a different way to swim through it together - present the correct facts while still acknowledging what they have could be right, but this is my job to tell you what the facts are. You need to find a way to communicate with them in a way that they'll understand without offending them, especially since you're working with people about sensitive subject matter regarding their own past. So it's important to be compassionate, honest, and truly relate to them and their stories. In my personal life, I mainly spend a lot of time with my family and my dog. I love spending time with my family and with Kona, my rescue dog - she's a Pomeranian mix. I named her after the Kona coffee bean because I used to work at a coffee shop.