About Kelly

Just a girl trying to impact the world

I grew up as an Army brat moving around a lot. We lived in Tacoma briefly – back in the day, before the Tacoma Mall had its remodel – after that it was Lacey, Olympia, Oregon, Texas, and back to settle in Washington in 1999. School came easy for me. At least the academic part. I wrote short stories and, later, research papers that I’m still proud of. However, I wasn’t athletic and didn’t do many extra-curriculars. My worst grades were in gym class. But that’s OK. In high school I found out I was good at business. It changed my life! I participated in DECA, which is a business and marketing club. I helped run the student store as VP of Sales and Marketing and even went to a national DECA competition.

Business school was next for me at the University of Washington in Tacoma. I knew I wanted to own my own business someday, I just didn’t know exactly what kind. I decided on the General Business major instead of focusing on one specialty such as marketing or accounting. They said that was the best for future entrepreneurs, and I loved it because it meant I got to custom tailor my education. Every class I took was a useful one. From creating a business plan to learning Visual Basic (coding programs in Microsoft Excel.) I feel like Liam Neeson in the movie Taken: I have a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career (not really that long). Skills that make me a nightmare for micromanagers and desk jobs (ok that’s just me).

After graduating college in 2011, I had one full time salary job that lasted about a year. Insurance. What a soul-killer. I felt accomplished, checked off the boxes of going to college and getting a job. But I always wanted to do more than I was allowed to do. Entrepreneurship followed shortly after, with some fun temp jobs in the mix to get me started. September 1, 2012 was the beginning of the rest of my self-employed life. Thanks to a lot of volunteering and pro-bono work, I was able to grow my business via word of mouth. I stay busy and have yet to do paid advertising, which is such a blessing. As I write this it’s almost the end of 2016. I have an office now and I’m planning for many changes to come in 2017.

What began as a marketing business, turned into more of a bookkeeping business, and I do a little writing on the side too, all under the umbrella term of “consultant” and it’s just crazy. So, my plan for 2017 is to split things up, operate each focus as separate entities, and do my first hiring to help these businesses all grow separately.

At my core, I’ve always wanted to help people. And I’m still on a journey of figuring out the best ways to do that. I think I’ve had a pretty good start. Marketing and finance are two pillars of business that must be strong for success. I’ve helped people start businesses, and I’ve helped an existing business mature and quadruple sales.

It turns out, me living my dream is helping other people live theirs. But I think I can do more. I would like to write more. Write a book on a business topic or maybe even a collection of poems. The end goal is to be able to travel more, and work while doing it. I’m not too far off. Let’s see what’s next!