By Amy Nielsen

When I graduated from my professional certification program I hadn’t finished the legal business part of starting a business. The course I took was specifically about the coaching part of the business.

My next step is to finish up business process. This is the part that scares the heck out of me.

What I mean to say is it makes me feel like a real live adult. With responsibilities. It means I have to step up to the plate and be seen. It means owning the good and the bad, because there will be mistakes along the way. It will take courage to make it through this next few steps. Courage, the root word means heart and the word entire means to live your story with your whole heart.

The whole process of starting a small business is nothing more than taking a microscope to your core personal beliefs and offering them up for others to discuss. Whether you are a hair stylist, accountant, or candlestick maker, your business must follow your core beliefs or it won’t last very long. If you are conflicted about what you are offering, your client base will be confused as well. Clarity in your vision is imperative.

Thus the being seen part. I have always made an excellent second. I can see another’s vision and get to the nitty gritty of the flow of it and make it relatable to other people. Which is to say, I am a great follower. I know what I believe in and I find people who tell that story well. I am good at clarifying other’s ideas. But being a follower means I don’t have to examine my story very hard if I use someone else’s voice to speak it.

These next formal legal business formation steps force me to speak my own story. I have to choose what narrative I want to live. I have lived a bit of an unbelievable life. I have been afforded some extraordinary opportunities. I have lived several narratives already. In some ways this new piece feels very much like a coming of age, a rite of passage, and a milestone of momentous proportions even among those experiences. I feel like this next narrative is somehow weightier than those before.

I come from a line of entrepreneurs, both successful and unsuccessful – though that never stopped ‘em. My family is full of CEOs, COOs, Chairmen (and women), Foundation Presidents, and all and sundry positions in every imaginable part of a not-for-profit one could imagine. Some of these are very large well known organizations, some are tiny little niche projects.

My dad even taught the subject for a large state university while I was in college. I have a long history from a very young age of volunteering and being voluntold to participate in these organizations. The vast majority of them were founded by said family members.

Yet, somehow, I haven’t the slightest idea how the business and organizations actually get started or run on a day-to-day basis. I feel like I am the worker bee who just can’t figure out how to get into the hive door. I feel like somehow I should just - know. By osmosis I guess. Somehow I feel like I wasn’t paying enough attention to the details. Of course I was busy growing up and stuff, but it’s a tape I hear play when I think about starting my own organization.

This weird “you should know” fear is so large that I have spent hours reading things online rather than seeking out actual human beings to ask for help. Because somehow from my history, I should know this stuff, right? I honestly don’t think I would feel this way if my family members worked for other people for their career paths. Sometimes living on the cultural fringe brings up strange reflexes.

This is the part where the universe says, girl, how much do you really want this? Are you a man or a mouse? Are you going to pout about all the fruit hanging in the high branches of the tree next door or are you going to dig deep and water your own roots?

My current convenient procrastination from jumping off the legal business cliff is my financial aid package for graduate school. This week I finalize the application for financial aid for my Master’s degree, another step closer to fitting the pieces of the larger business puzzle together. Part of my business plan involves needing credentials that stand up as the leader of the kind of organization I want to build. Taking the step to accept the admissions offer for this fall felt like the beginnings of a big step into being recognized, into being seen and heard for my own ideas.

Once I have that in place and know if I am going to school in the fall or if I will be less encumbered, then I can move forward with the business. I feel like it’s a bit of a procrastination to say I have to wait to hear from school, but I don’t want to expend the slim resources I have. Here’s where the library is going to come in handy.

When I turn to my community to search out all of the assistance I keep hearing about online and in advertisements, I find that our rural area only wants to talk to someone with larger aspirations than I have at this current juncture. I’m heading to the library to check out the “Small Business Start Ups for Dummies” book in hopes that finally I might find a starting point. Our library also offers occasional free classes on small business topics.

At some point I will have to face my story, decide my voice, and use it. Whether it is now or later, I feel the personal pressure to get this out to the world will outweigh the fears I have about how much I really don’t know about the business of business. I know that I will have to face this fear if I want to succeed in supporting those people I want to reach. Until then, I will start desensitizing myself to the idea by reading up on the subject. Preferably in the dark, under the covers, with a flashlight.

By Amy Nielsen

Never in a million years did I think I would be going to graduate school. But here I am, with an acceptance letter in my inbox and the FAFSA application open in the next tab over. Now what? How is this all going to fit in to the already topsy-turvey life we lead?

I recently completed a professional certification with the intent on following on with this master’s program. I specifically went through the certification so that I could do a follow on school through one of their many articulation agreements with institutes of higher learning who have complete online master’s programs to support my professional goals.

However, the state of New York made the decision to disallow online master’s programs for accreditation midway through my certification schooling. The institute I was to follow on to was such a program.

This left me hanging. I had to either find a program with a partial residency program that would accept my certification, continue on with my career plans and sort out a different solution to credentialing, or sit tight and wait for the illustrious state of New York to get its act together. In early June, the institute completed compilation and accreditation for a new partial residency program that meets New York States requirements.

HUZZAH! So when was it going to be open for us to apply? When were the residency dates? What courses of study were accepted into the partial residency program, since not all of the master’s programs met the requirements. Time to sit back and wait again.

I received an email from the institute’s registrar 16 days before the application due date. Nothing like making a fast decision about the next two years and a whole lotta debt to incur in a very short amount of time.

Luckily my husband was home when I opened and read the email and we were able to take a collective family breath and decided I had to go for it now and not defer. It means we will have two adult fulltime students in the house at the same time, but since we homeschool our kids, it means we all sit at the table and school together.

Once we made the decision that I would bite the bullet and apply I realize the logistical nightmare I had just waded into. I had done nothing yet to apply to this school as we had no idea when or if New York would ever accept this program.

Not to mention I needed transcripts and it was the Friday before July 4^th. Every office I needed to contact was operating on a different schedule.

In the end it was painless to apply to graduate school. When I last applied for college, you had to rip the application out of the book, type in the answers or – gasp - handwrite them, and then send it with three sealed letters of recommendation, sealed official high school transcripts, a typed essay, your SAT score reports ,and of course the money order deposit, in one package, in the mail.

Now, online autofill applications are a breeze. That is nothing to say for electronic official transcripts and letter of recommendation portals.

Within seventy-two hours of opening the letter I had a fully submitted application to a master program I wasn’t sure was ever going to be able to happen.

Within thirty-six hours of the application deadline, a week after submitting my application, I had my answer.

I’m going to graduate school for a master’s of science!

Now the real fun begins, because in the week that I was waiting to hear about my application, I met with the owner of a small studio space. I wanted to rent out time in her office to see my clients and hold small classes. She needs someone to use the space in the morning and my schedule preference is in the morning. It is a perfect fit - schedule wise. We hit it off great and have very similar philosophies in practice. I pick up my key next week and can begin seeing clients in the space the following week.

The universe just couldn’t leave well enough alone though.

Last night my darling husband messaged me that the long awaited and much anticipated schedule change at his place of employment is in fact really happening and our whole day, not to mention year, will need to be reworked to accommodate this new rotating schedule. That will begin next week.

Um.

I teach breathing - so breathe.

HUM.

Today I plan to finish writing this blog, fill out the FAFSA federal student loan application, try to understand this weird rotation thingy, then take a very long walk in the woods.

Tomorrow I will pull down the calendar, write out the new work schedule, which is always a moving target, and see where the chips fall.

Regardless, we have two adults in undergraduate or graduate school, two kids in elementary school and a business on the verge or tipping into something real if I can just hang on to the roller coaster.

So watch this space. A lot more is coming down the pike, and I think the breaks are out.  As my dear compass mentor taught me, “Sempre Gumbi” (Always be flexible).

By Amy Nielsen

I am beat. I spent all day yesterday cooking up nine and a half dozen cookies to sell at a bake sale today. I held the bake sale at our local community, monthly fundraiser Flea Market. The bake sale is part of a summer campaign for a large national not-for-profit started by a guy I think is really cool.

I have been searching for ways my business could support a few specific niche organizations that give back to my local, national, and global communities. I believe in putting your money where your mouth is and supporting organizations doing the work you get paid to do for those who can’t afford you. If that means volunteering as the Veterinarian on the Neuter Scooter if you are a Vet, or participating in the weekly Poker Runs wearing your business golf shirt, or planning a day a month to pick up trash in town with other area professionals. It means participating in Rotary or going to the Shrine Rodeo. It means participating in the charity work your business participates in.

The point is there are lots of ways in which to give back using your professional status. Yes, you. You have professional status if you operate a business no matter how small. Take pride in being able to give back even just a little bit, even if it is just you, your time, and your business name.

Earlier this year I started holding an information booth about topics in my field at the local Flea Market. This particular Flea Market is hosted by several town somebodies to support each-other’s community giving organizations. The first month our booth fees and 50 percent of the fifty-fifty raffle went to help buy the Firehouse equipment and this month the funds went to our new animal shelter. The vendors who participate are a mix of the textures of our rolling hills and back country crags. All and sundry stuff can be found from toothpaste to tires to our town lawyer selling her husband’s Harley at her yard sale.

Recently I received an email from a national, professional, not-for-profit organization I have belonged to since I went to culinary school. It detailed the summer fundraising campaign. The campaign is a national bake sale to raise funds to help feed hungry kids.

BINGO! I teach health and wellness education with a focus on kids. This was a perfect match and I knew exactly where to hold the bake sale; at the monthly community Junk in the Trunk.

Today was a very successful day. While we didn’t sell out of cookies, we did make a right smart penny to remit. Many would consider our total paltry, not even breaking three figures, but for our community that is a bang up haul. I made as much in cookie money as the fifty-fifty raffle donated to the animal shelter.

Seeing as we have a few bags of cookies left, I promptly sent out a Facebook missive to my Tribe about extra cookies. Within ten minutes, all but four bags are spoken for by far flung friends with promises of donations including shipping via the donation link I posted. GEESH but I love technology.

Charitable giving is easy these days. It is as simple as googling your profession. Someone somewhere has started a 501(c)3 for underwater basket weavers and you too can join to help your fellow artisans spread awareness. Paypal, gofundme.com, and so many others are out there to make simple to create a campaign, target an audience, and collect funds.

Specifically because it is so easy to produce a slick professional looking campaign, it is also equally important to look carefully into the charitable organization you are putting your hard earned dollars, your limited time, and your professional reputation behind. There are many tools to be able to check out a purported not-for-profit, the first being ask to see a copy of their charitable organization paperwork. If they can’t produce it or they are too small to have it, perhaps think about a larger organization for the first community project you do.

Some of the organizations I support are only loosely tied to my profession and others are directly supportive. The breadth of those organizations helps to define my business’ place in the larger professional sphere. It is some of what helps set me apart from my peers. Who and what a business supports what tell you about the soul of a business rather than the practice of the business.

So as you are building your business start thinking about what you want to support and why. Do you want to support the organization on a professional level because it ties well with your mission or perhaps it is better to support from a personal level? I feel it is important to participate professionally inasmuch as possible on a local, reginal, national, and global scale. We are all on this one marble together and it behooves us to act as such by participating.

I hear you out there; but I don’t have time to donate time to anyone else but my burgeoning business. I can’t make my cash flow let alone give any of it to anyone else.  I am too small a fish to join a global pond. No, you are not. Every big fish started out as a small fish. So seek out who and what you want to support and join those organizations.

I sincerely believe that grace, gratitude and abundance beget grace, gratitude and abundance. By which I mean, if one is sincerely grateful and abundantly give of that which they have to give, that grace and abundance will return in due time. Using ones business clout to support others gives a business depth and deeper purpose and in the end I feel makes them more successful because they are more connected to the pulse of the local, regional and global field.

Anyone want some cookies?

By Amy Nielsen

My business is based on the premise that wellness is really three systems of care: body, mind, and spirit. I work in a holistic practice that honors the intersection of western and indigenous philosophies. A large part of indigenous teachings involve plants. So I began a formal study of herbology.

I am a middle class, white girl from the ‘burbs. When I started this journey a few years ago, I could barely tell you what a dandelion was, let alone that you could eat it. If you told me it was one of the most useful plants we have in our basic herbal tool kit, I would have told you they are bitter, the sap gives my uncle hives, and the seed heads are fun; but the word useful might be pushing it. Somedays, even now, I feel very much like a fish out of water in large gatherings of my peers. They all seem to have grown up with this knowledge in their cells.

Herbs are becoming so prevalent in our day to day lives that I need to understand how they play a role in becoming us and how they interact with each other and everything else if I am going to serve the best interest of my clients.

I am not training to become a clinical herbalist. I know so many amazing clinical herbalists that I would rather support them than learn the whole shabang myself. But because so many people are turning to herbs, I need to be able to have a good working knowledge of the basics if for no other reason than so that my clients have a safe sounding board for their ideas.

I recently returned from an internationally attended herbal conference, held at a small liberal arts college on a stunning campus filled with beautiful botanical specimens. The organizers are all bigwigs on the international scene - founding members of large conservation organizations, principle formulators of well-known corporations, teachers from renowned schools.

However, it was an intimate conference of only about 500 participants. The schedule was jam packed with heavy duty science content classes, up to the minute, personal accounts of boots on the ground conservation efforts, and deeply moving community ceremony.

The herbal community is an interesting group of people. All are deeply passionate about, driven by, and focused on the plants. What path that takes can vary as wildly as an urban vertical hydroponic farmer, a licensed Appalachian forager, a naturopathic doctor working with cancer patients, a native elder recently back from Standing Rock, a shamanic healer from South America, and people like me. These, by the way, were my lunch companions yesterday. We talked about bad 80’s movies.

I found myself swimming with a somewhat regular group of other attendees following a similar tract through the classes. I made sure to get the contact information for those whose comments and questions I found pertinent to my interests and research lines.

As we rambled from class to class, two questions kept coming up for me as I watched the community of my elders, peers, and friends;

First, what do I have in common with these amazing souls? Learn to follow the leads of those compassionate joyful spirits as best you can.

And second, who let me in the club? Someone really didn’t check my creds well enough.

In one hardcore class, which I found particularly fascinating, I also felt like I should be looking to see when they were going to tell me I wasn’t allowed because I wasn’t advanced enough. It was my own little demon on my shoulder, no one in the class made me feel that way. I just couldn’t believe that lil’ ole me was given the opportunity to have an hour long, peer-to-peer conversation with some of my idol teachers about something I have been studying as an amateur for the last three years.

But that is the point of attending this type of event. My going to this was somewhat akin to a sophomore walking into a graduate level seminar, but I think I stood my ground and held my own well enough. Basically I was too scared stiff most of the time to open my mouth. I learned much more and I had less chance of stuffing my foot in there up to the knee.

The point is that I stretched myself. I took a leap, a somewhat flying leap, but I took it. That I actually landed on the other edge with only a little bit of pinwheel arms is only somewhat surprising. I knew this conference would be a stretch for my current knowledge base and level of community involvement for this leg of my practice stool.

I needed to push myself to step up to be what I say I want to be These experiences help me hone exactly what my practice looks like now and will look like in the future. But I also know that if I had attended last year I would have been totally overwhelmed.

So, while my going to this conference was driven partly by the content of the classes, it was almost more driven by the need to measure myself against the gold standards. To see where I feel comfortable sitting in the circle.

I know that I have a lot of work to do and a lot of knowledge to pursue, but I also know that where I am is a good place to begin working this for real. I have a solid platform of basics to work from. I have a working knowledge of the middle levels of this practice. I can begin to understand how the actions of those who are way out on the end of the spectrum might play a part. I know who to ask for specific systems now and I know the basic triage for them to have a solid foundation to build on.

Now it’s time to finish the final lessons and send them out so I can hold my head up high next time I see these teachers and we can all laugh about my other sophomoric mistake - sending the same cover letter to two different entities, then have them realize it while speaking to me over reishi and chocolate pudding.

By Amy Nielsen

While I was in school I was introduced to the concept of the side hustle. Now, I am of an age where that term is somewhat shady so it took me a while to reframe the idea into one I could embrace. The word job scares the heck out of me but a side hustle as I discovered, is something right up my alley. Pun intended.

One of the guest lecturers at my school was Nick Loper from SideHustleNation.com. The idea of a side hustle is to use your passions and your strengths, in the in-between time you are spending doing your other work of life, to build a business that supports your fun; and possibly, eventually, if you want – you could parlay it into something full time.

My biggest stumbling block in this whole journey has been my inability to coalesce a cohesive business concept. I like to do a whole lot of different things. I like to teach about the intersection of your cells, your energy, and your environment. I like to teach cooking, meditation, movement, red tent journeying, and so much more. I like to preform given a loose script to follow. I like public interaction. I must travel, even if it is just between areas of the same city every day.

What I do have is a theme that is developing. I am working very hard to make sure I don’t get ahead of myself and jump into sophomoric mistakes of a newly graduated student and fledgling business owner. I am very well aware that I am in that phase of business building where the shiny object that might pay the bills could out weight the common sense of negative cash flow. Every decision I make needs to go back to that theme. As I dig deeper into my post graduate studies and complete the other certificates I am working on, the theme will become more focused.

Yesterday I participated in my second local community market day and flea market. I live in a rural county that seems to at the same time both shun and hold dear our rankings near the bottom of the state lists in just about everything. It is a stunningly beautiful part of the country, rich in natural and anthropologic history. The people are a mix of deep mountain hearts and newly arrived city shine. Sometimes they mix well off the bat, sometimes the nuts are harder to crack. This market day is a true, grassroots, hometown kind of event. I adore it.

My first foray at a booth last month was a success in that I made it to the event, set up, and ran the whole day. I even got a couple of people to stop and talk to me. I may have only gotten two conversations and one email that first day, but I counted it as a huge success because of the amount I actually made it.

I went home, regrouped, made plans and researched a better mouse trap.

To focus myself I decided to use the theme of joyful movement, a topic I want to develop a class around. I changed up my booth structure, added some trinkets to purchase that were on my theme of the day and decided to add some movement oriented toys for kids to play with as they passed by. Enter the hula hoop.

I made my table a mix of parts and pieces of all of the things I like to teach and put out flyers for the class I have already scheduled to start soon. Prominent was the email sign-up sheet. I prefilled the top two slots with my past emails and names of favorite book characters. To my surprise, someone actually knew one of the names and got a chuckle out of it.

Yesterday the weather was not the greatest, but not a complete wash out. The rain sprinkled a bit and I only had to cover the tables once. Once we got set up, I started hoopin’.

I have developed a reputation as being a “walking smile with the white hat” as I am generally friendly and free with joy and always wear my white hat when out. I know the organizer of the event well and she is also not a laid back wall flower. Together we laugh up a storm, calling from booth to booth, working to keep the banter fun and the event light.

My hula hooping became the second hot topic of the day behind the adorable, adoptable puppies running around. People watched me hoop a simple round pattern, nothing showy or fancy, just hula hooping and laughing, pretty much non-stop all day long. How long is she going to hoop for? I used to be able to hoop. Look at the little kid learning to hoop! Is she still hooping? She’s going to be tired tomorrow. Oh the boy can hoop too!

So what did I accomplish by hula hooping all day long - other than one hell of a core workout? Everyone was talking about me. I brought a smile to a whole lot of lips. They will remember the gal in the white hat, hula hoopin’ all day. More people stopped to talk to me. I only collected three new email addresses, but I handed out many more class flyers and personal brochures. I counted twelve conversations that lasted longer than three minutes. Overall, I had many more meaningful interactions with the public.

Success. I collected three new emails. Success. I had more conversations. Success. I worked on more and new language to promote myself and my brand, for lack of a better more elegant term. So the day was positive, even if the only items I sold were the Ugg clogs and one party dress from the batch of yard sale stuff I had brought for good measure. What I collected in data about my community was worth the twenty five dollar booth fee.

Next month I hustle on with another booth - new topic, new mouse trap.

By Amy Nielsen

I have been waiting for my dream job to post so I can apply for it. I heard about the position from someone who works in the same office a few weeks ago. Over the last weeks, the funding has been frozen as the fiscal year changed over.

I have been checking the postings every few days. Today the new openings went up finally. When I saw it, I nearly hyperventilated.

I have been working hard to put myself in the right places to find out what kinds of opportunities are going to be coming available over the next few months. I spent the late winter months learning everything I could about the agencies and organizations in our community who do similar work to what I want to do. I have been going to all sundry events that have anything to do with health and wellness. I have been trying to meet as many of the movers and shakers as I could.

 I am not in a rush to find a job. I have a lot of slices on my plate with family, teaching, and volunteer commitments. Rather, I am really interested in finding the right job. The research time I put in over the winter is beginning to pay off as I meet more people and am able to put faces to names.

I started this journey with the intention of opening my own business. I have determined over the last year that I am just too fundamentally lazy for that to work. Working by myself is like playing ping pong alone.  Coworkers fire me up and keep me motivated. I like to work as part of a team with independence to do my piece.

I have the luxury right now to not have to be employed immediately upon graduating from school. Being an adult student with a family, I have other sources of support. I’m not trying to pay the rent with this new career. I can take the time to work my way carefully into the community.

Finding the right fit will take time. I live in a rural area with limited opportunities. Those that do come up are fiercely fought for and hard earned when awarded. Ours is a small community in the corner of the state.  The big universities are far enough away that those students are not interested in applying for positions here unless they come from here to begin with.

Agencies and organizations don’t have a lot of turnover at the levels I am applying for. Those employees that do move on usually do so to other positions within the local area. It’s a small circle of passionate people who have been paying a lot of dues for a lot of years here. A hard circle to break into and hold one’s own. Some days it feels a bit like feeding my toes to the piranha.

So I applied. I sent in my resume and cover letter. Just to be sure I sent it correctly, as I am not the most savvy at filling in these online forms, I sent a note to the two women I have been most in contact with about this specific organization. Both are employees who have been encouraging me to keep my eyes open for just this opportunity. I know that as employees they cannot specifically direct my application, but I am hoping they can at least watch out for it.

The job posting reads like it was written for me. My credentials line up perfectly with the requested certifications. I am already very familiar with the materials I would be presenting on a daily basis. I enjoy teaching the kinds of students the program attracts. Even my extracurricular talents work in favor to make my presentations that much more valuable for the organization.

My biggest fear in this whole process is whether I filled out the online application correctly so the autobot that reads the algorithm doesn’t kick my resume out for being incorrectly categorized. I am sure that I have missed job opportunities because I haven’t filled out the online application correctly. There is often times no way to know if what I clicked is clear because the applicable answer to the question isn’t there.

For example, I hold a bachelors degree technical theater. When the form asks for higher education level, I click bachelors of arts. When it asks for the subject of my degree, there is no option for theater. I have to click arts/undefined. But this is not the same thing at all and doesn’t convey the same kind of training I have had. Rarely can I list my post graduate certificates in culinary arts, holistic nutrition, and herbalism as there are never spaces for them. Yet they are very relevant training to what I will be teaching in the jobs I am applying for.

Unless I can get myself in front of a human being and have a conversation about my wild and crazy ride, the autobot is not going put my resume in the hire pile. I just don’t fit in little boxes like that. That is part of the reason these kinds of organizations want to hire someone like me. If they can find us. If we can get in the door in the first place.

Now I wait and hope that the boxes were clicked properly and that I am in fact in the right place at the right time. I have seized my day. I have grabbed the tiger by the tail. I have applied for my dream job. I even wished on the candles on my birthday cake for this job. So now it has to happen. Right?

Want to determine your hours? Your own work load? Be your own boss?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released a list of occupations that in 2016, had a large number of self-employed workers. They are:

• Animal trainers
• Door-to-door sales, street vendors
• Farmers and agriculture
• Artists
• Fishermen and hunters
• Hairdressers and cosmetologists
• Massage therapists
• Musicians and singers
• Photographers
• Dressmakers and tailors
• Writers and authors

Among these jobs, farm and agriculture rated the highest income at an annual average of $66,000. Animal trainers were at the bottom of the list with a mere $22,000 annually. Each of the other jobs fell between the two.

 What may appeal to many job seekers is that for these careers, on the job training is often more essential than professional schooling. Those that do require certification, such as hairdressers and massage therapists can finish school in a matter of months, rather than years.

The downside, you are responsible for everything – paying taxes, finding insurance, advertising your business and dealing with difficult customers.

The U.S. Small Business Administration has a webpage to introduce people to the world of self-employment and business ownership. Find it here:

https://www.sba.gov/starting-business/how-start-business/business-types/self-employed-independent-contractors

To learn more about salary and hiring outlook for specific industries, visit https://www.bls.gov/oes/

By Amy Nelson

This past weekend, I attended a midsize conference for the vocational training school I am currently enrolled in. I was not quite sure what to expect.

In the past, I have attended more than a few conferences, of various sizes, in many different industries. Since I have worked the logistical side of a conference before, that gave me the confidence to attend as a participant. But academic conferences can be a different ball of wax altogether. However, being a for-profit school, this wasn’t exactly an academic conference, as such.

This conference was billed as an academic and networking conference for currently enrolled students and recent graduates. There were about 1,500 participants, primarily female. Most were either mid-career switching or post-children, workforce re-entry age. The audience was vastly international with 50 countries represented. Of the participants from the United States, all but six states were represented.

This conference turned out to be, in part, extended lectures - filmed for future courses. Part of the conference was hands-on, peer-to-peer training, mostly in a large group setting, with partnered exercises and role playing. The last part of the conference was the inevitable sales pitch for advanced programs that the school offers.

The interesting part about this school is that it is vocational training, steeped in deep, current, peer-reviewed, evidence-based, scientific research. But, it is also, in part, an entrepreneurial business school. The topics on the agenda were very wide ranging. It made the conference feel a bit jarring to me. I had a hard time switching gears from deep science talk about herbal remedies and support for women’s health to working the side hustle and developing this business as a business not a hobby. We swayed from a blissful, high energy, meditation to hard core, in-depth, financial topics about investing and portfolio management. I wish they had planned an academic day and a business school day instead of jumbling the topics all together.

In all, I took away a lot from the conference because I let it be what it was going to be. Going to this conference was a big leap of faith. I was stepping out on my own, literally, as I went alone with only a few contacts I had met through our online class interactions. I was stepping up into this new career space and owning it as mine. It was a time to put a lot of my personal package to the test for those who are also working through this part of the process; to see if this new identity fits me and if not, what I need to change to make it fit well.

I chose to toss my practiced scripts aside to see what came out of my mouth every time I introduced myself to someone. I wanted to see how the other students presented themselves. I went to make connections and get inspired to bring my commitment back to my community. I had all of these things planned out and decided to let the flow go and try new iterations as I went along. What words fit in my mouth best when asked, “So what is your intention with this program?”

I found myself falling to several specific phrases and causes when answering that question. When I tried to interject a different one, it sounded fun, but rang hollow. Some of my answers didn’t engender the same vibration in my belly. I worked hard to feel the impact of my words and how they made me feel inside.

One of the presenters spoke about energy healing and how, in the Western world, we have something called the placebo effect and how it is summarily dismissed by most Western medicine as not helpful. His discussion held that in Eastern medicine the placebo effect doesn’t exist as a concept because it is understood that thought influences the physical being as much, or more so, than any substance one can ingest or absorb from the outside environment. The same thing follows with that spark of right intention, of joyful felt sense of emotion. Once that feeling can be intentionally recreated, one can then practice that intention and, eventually, fan that spark into a giant beacon of healing.

The most valuable thing I learned to understand was what a felt sense of an emotion means and how to capture that spark in myself. I learned what words I speak, that spark that warm physical sense of joyful and peaceful emotion. I can do anything with this new career, but I needed to find out what I have to do. Learning that physical, felt sense of emotion - that sense of energetic vibrational spark of joy and forward motion - when I said those specific words was invaluable. Now I know what I need to do, what spark to fan into that beacon of healing light for my community.

My main complaints about the conference itself are mostly logistical in nature. For example, the floor of the building we were meeting on is an internationally renowned concert hall. However it was labeled on the documents we were emailed prior to the event by the least common of all of its names. If the location had been labeled by the famous name it would have been much easier to find. As it was, there was absolutely no signage or ambassadors anywhere else in the building except the floor we were meeting on to indicate where we were supposed to go, and as it was listed by a different name, none of the building staff knew what we were asking for.

This conference has the potential to be so much more than it was for the participants and it frustrated the past event professional in me that there wasn’t more to it. I also know that my felt sense of joyful forward emotion says - let another event professional take the conference to the next level, my work is elsewhere. I’ll enjoy the fruits of their labor while celebrating my own at next years’ conference.

By Jenna Moede

I have heard military spouses say that they don’t feel qualified to find a job or start school. Some say they didn’t do well in high school. Others say that they have been out of school for so long they’ve forgotten how to do well.

I think that these awesome spouses have forgotten that high school is in the past. And since then, they may have gained some really valuable skills by being a military spouse.

In my case, I mastered multi-tasking pretty quickly while trying to juggle my husband’s ever-changing schedule, my own work schedule, my house, my pets - the list goes on. Many of my friends feel exactly the same. I think we all feel like master multi-taskers sometimes.

And  multi-tasking is a great skill for a student to have. Not only will you have to handle everything from your normal life, but you will also need to add in time to study, take exams and write papers. While it seems like a lot to handle, already having the ability to mult-itask will help you add in the new work.

Employers love having a staff who can multi-task as well. When I worked at a law firm as a paralegal, I not only had to deal with matters related to our cases, but because the firm didn’t have a lot of employees, I often found myself filling in gaps by answering phones while reviewing documents or making copies or while writing a letter to the court clerks.

Having the ability to tackle several things at once will really help you stand out and become an asset to your company.

Additionally, as a military spouse, you may find that you have developed your interpersonal skills.

Military spouses gain this valuable skill by constantly meeting new people, going new places and doing things out of our comfort zones.

And the military's busy event schedule, flight BBQs, promotion ceremonies and annual balls demand that that spouses are thrown into a variety of different situations and learn to cope, quickly.

This will definitely not be a wasted skill when you return to college. Interpersonal skills will give you a leg up when you attemp to make connections in your classes and learn from other students.

This skill will help you form valuable relationships with fellow students and build networks.

Likewise, employers often value this skill as well. In many positions employees come in contact with clients, customers, and other business people throughout the day. An employee who has the ability to converse with all of them effectively and efficiently will perform their job well.

If I haven’t convinced you yet that some skills we gain as military spouses come in handy, let me give you two more examples.

I can bet that many military spouses have learned how to organize their life into a way that makes sense and works for them. This doesn’t look the same for everyone, but as spouses we most often schedule appointments, plan time off and vacations, keep a calendar of work and events, and keep our lives on track.

By doing this, many spouses gain the skill of maintaining a schedule. We not only plan the appointments, but we make sure they all get kept with all the necessary paperwork or equipment.

Similarly, during the college years, this skill helps students. Organization helps students stay on top of their school schedules and know their assignment due dates, when exams will happen and what they need to complete for financial aid and other school related deadlines.

After college, organization will benefit you as an employee. You might end up in a position you never expected, like when I started as a paralegal, but having the ability to keep organized helps keep you more relaxed.

Because I already understood how to schedule appointments, I could easily schedule meetings. Because I knew how to plan deadlines, I didn’t have any trouble docketing court dates. I found that the little skills that I had never recognized before helped me become a useful employee.

Lastly, many spouses know how to handle their personal finances. While this might not ring true in every case, for most of the friends I have made, it does.

Personal finances help set you up for success both in college and future employment. The benefits seem obvious if you plan to go for a business or financial specific degree, but it will also help you as a student in general.

While your courses might not focus on those skills, you will need to familiarize yourself with the financial policies of your school and your financial aid. Having financial knowledge will help you navigate this tricky part of college.

Likewise, it will help you as an employee because, as I mentioned, you might end up where you never expected. I paid minor bills for my previous employers, wrote checks and maintained a check register.

Knowing how to handle these items really helped me, and I found that these activities came really easily to me because I did similar things at home.

If you feel like you can’t go to school because you think you don’t think you have the skills, think about all the things you do and all the skills you have because of the life you live, the life of a military spouse.

You might be more prepared than you thought.

By Amy Nielsen

When you own your own business, you are the only one in charge of the whole shebang. Even if you have employees. The businesses’ success is all about your efforts and your commitment to the cause. If you waver or dissemble, the business will fail. Period.

If you waver before getting out of the gate, before you get your first client, you have already failed and your business will go no further than your dreams.

This is what I am dealing with right now.

Here’s my big dilemma this week. My husband’s employer is taking all employees into the big city to see a Broadway show as an employee appreciation event. This week, I found out about a local conference that I need to attend. The presenters are movers and shakers in the greater community and people I should get to know.

Both events are on the same day.

I have wanted to see this Broadway show since it debuted 20 or so years ago. We purchased tickets through the employee group, have seats on the bus and dinner plans with friends after the show. My former industry is theater, specifically big budget events and shows. Going to see this show would be like a giant hug for me from my past life. Not to mention the joy of seeing our 8- and 6- year old experience it.

The conference I should attend is being sponsored by a new and upcoming, not-for-profit, in our community. Their mission is to move our county from the bottom of the state list for health and wellness to the top. It is a grassroots, nitty gritty, local effort that has had good success this last year. To help them gain traction and keep improving the community is exactly where I want to position my business.

It doesn’t sound like much of a toss-up. I mean, fun with family or business, on a weekend, right? But when you are the business, it is huge. Coupled with having young children, the choice becomes even more difficult.

My Mama brain says go have fun with family, memories are made in these times. The adventure alone is worth the tickets. My small business owner brain says if I don’t go to this conference, I will miss a huge opportunity  to network and become part of the community I want to work within.

I know that I can always contact the presenters at a later date to meet up with them. I know I could send emails of introduction. I know that I can get a transcript of the presentations after the fact and still know what is coming in the future.

But, there is no substitute for being there in person and shaking a hand.

The opportunity to spend the day solo, and focus on my business with like-minded individuals, is a treat for a stay-at-home Mama like me. If I spend the day focusing on my future, that will benefit my family in the long run. But, missing the family fun is frustrating and annoying, but not insurmountable. I do spend every day, all day, with my kids while we homeschool.

I feel like I sound like a whiny teen who wants to go to the pool party instead of finishing the science fair project due in the morning.

This is where my friends say, “Amy, put on your big girl panties and deal.” The show will still be there later this year. If I make this new career work, I can get tickets again and go see it at a later date. It’s been playing for 22 years, it’s not going anywhere soon.

This conference is only one day. The presenters are local to the region. In this day and age, when things move at the speed of light, if you are not in the right place at the right time, you miss out. I am in a somewhat precarious position in my business. If it doesn’t get moving soon, it won’t get moving at all, I fear.

So I will suck it up, be the adult, and go to the conference. I know I will have a great time, learn a lot, meet interesting exciting people who all do what I do, but I will miss out on family fun. Sacrifices are what building a business is all about. Rarely does a small business thrive immediately upon concept.

It takes work, dedication and sacrifice.