The Small Opportunity She Said Yes To

Job opportunities with a local chamber and Main Street organization shaped my entire career. It opened doors to relationships with businesses, community leaders, volunteers, and residents, and helped me discover that building relationships and bringing people together is one of my greatest strengths.

Balancing night shifts at the hospital and child care as a single mom of four taught me that life-changing opportunities often hide in exhaustion; what felt like an impossible juggle ended up revealing an inner resilience I never knew I had. I would do it all over again and not change anything.

Some of the biggest opportunities in my life started with a simple "yes" to something I wasn't sure would lead anywhere. I've learned that sometimes the smallest door opens into a room that you never imagined you'd be in.

Deciding to go to the support group. I met at least 1 lifelong friend there. Don't be ashamed to go and invest in your emotional health. It was one of the best things for me at the time.

I took the opportunity to participate in the Portage County Leadership program where I met some wonderful colleagues, got introduced to a lot of local program leaders, and learned a lot about my community. It gave me an internal drive to improve my community and come out of my shell.

Saying yes to a small opportunity to get more involved in my industry ended up changing the trajectory of my career. What began as simply showing up and building relationships grew into leadership opportunities, meaningful connections, and eventually the inspiration to create something of my own.

Not every conversation with someone is meant to be encouraging. Fortunately, I take criticism and examine it, even when it is meant as a put-down. I have always liked accountability, and that is part of why I analyze what people say about me, even when it comes from someone who isn't kind. In my early fifties, I graduated with my MBA and started my small business consulting firm. I was looking for a marketing and advertising company to hire for my firm so I could focus on business development, not content. Well, that didn't go well. I had met one of the directors of this marketing company when she did a chamber presentation on LinkedIn and how to set up your page. She seemed approachable, knowledgeable, and easy to work with, so I set up an appointment. This did not go well in one respect. When I sat down with her, my company was in its sixth month. She said, nose scrunched and her tone demeaning, "EVERYONE has an MBA; what makes you so special?" She did not mean this in a nice or encouraging way. I left her office feeling very discouraged. Then I processed the question and thought, "Challenge accepted." This set me on a journey of reading, researching, and weighing options that would set me apart and make me the most effective as a small business consultant. In the end, I became an Accredited Small Business Consultant®, which felt like getting my MBA all over again. At the time, I also became an Authorized Partner and Certified Practitioner for Everything DiSC® and The Five Behaviors®. Today, I am an Authorized Associate and Certified Practitioner for Everything DiSC® and The Five Behaviors®. These additions gave me, as a single business owner, the support I needed to work with small business owners. I will forever be grateful to the lady who was unkind. Because of her judgmental nature, questions, and overall attitude, she helped me solidify my resolve in who I was and what I was heading toward for my business. It also made me aware of my tone, facial expression, and body language, and how these three things can be encouraging or discouraging for the person you're talking to.

While working at an architecture firm, I became friends with an architect whose passion for writing led her to ask me to design and layout a coffee table book about a local lighthouse. Our collaboration resulted in two published books, proudly featuring my name on both!

I said yes to a modest opportunity simply by listening, talking and paying attention. It mattered far more than I expected: I learned who they were, and they found their voices.

I will say that it was kismet that I started my career in the health insurance industry. A young mother of three children (one a teenager), going through a divorce and needing to get a real job. I had never worked in the real business world, had a little trade school training but no experience and now I was headed out the door to find a job that could create a career. I interviewed with Nutura Systems and was immediately hired as a sales associate. I was so excited, actually loved helping people in their goal to lose weight but then out of the blue I got fired. Why? Because they didn't think I fit the body profile that would sell clients. HA! My other sales associates went to battle for me showing that I was the top sales associate in the clinic. They re-hired me and that gave me the confidence to land in an industry I had decided I really wanted to be in. And that is Health Insurance.