{photo from the AL to LA journey}

Heroines, what’s your story in business? What in your experiences and background propelled to where you are now? Will you share with me?

I’ll go first!

I drove across the country from Alabama to LA in late July 2011 to follow a boy and embrace the idea of a new city. Fresh out of college (2 months to be exact), I was still cold-calling PR firms on the drive out here to ask if they were hiring and if they would be willing to meet with me.

Luckily, I secured three interviews before I parked my car and myself in Venice Beach, and one week later I had three job offers. (AKA: The best possible scenario for a new kid in a big new city.)

Four days later I began my first career in a corporate PR setting. I was eager, curious and enthusiastic – ready to prove that a sweet southern girl could hang with the big LA boys (and ladies).

My eagerness, however, was not met with critical thinking tasks, creative projects or any level of work that I felt was allowing me to contribute what I had to offer. And so, that almost achey feeling of “I can so totally give more!!” combined with the infamous soul-sucking commute to and from the office led me to leave the corporate world after a short ten months.

I know what might be thinking… Wtf? You had a secure corporate job and just decided it wasn’t fun enough? Don’t you understand you need to put in your time and work your way up?? You’re an example of why your generation is a bunch of ungrateful over-deserving elitists”… That one was a little harsh, but you get the idea.

But one skill I had developed was not only learning what to do from other people, but learning what NOT to do from other people. And if ten months was too long in an unfulfilling environment, then I sure as hell wasn’t going to waste any more of my time, skills, joy and life for any longer.

So there I was, 23 and jobless, because of my choice.

I pursued a couple of other interests – modeling for about a year, traveling overseas and eventually came back to working with a coverage monitoring team part-time. But there was something missing, something unfulfilled that I knew had to show itself sooner or later. (And hopefully sooner, as I was struggling at this point to know where to go next.)

So I did what anyone would do when trying to fulfill their innermost lackings and satisfy what was missing…. I got on Craigslist. And after some careful sifting I came across a internship posting that promised the excitement of traditional media with a new focus on a movement in business.

Enter, Business Heroine Magazine.

Two Skype dates and some email exchange later, I had stepped into a role alongside the founder, Anne Perry, which would open my eyes, heart and soul to a world of women and entrepreneurship that I honestly didn’t know existed.

A year later I am still learning and growing and feeling fulfilled from this world. And I’m able to use my own story and experiences of not wanting to settle and choosing to follow my passions to give back to the Business Heroine mission.

This was my divinely timed journey and story to where I am today, and I’m stickin’ to it.

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April Issue 2014