Oh how excited I am about you getting the chance to hear from someone I think the world of and truly admire – Yes, my Gran Ann. She’s one of the loveliest people who is selfless, constantly uplifting, always has my back, not afraid to tell it like it is and always prays for even her enemies.

She’s taught me about life, how to deal with people, friendships, relationships and of course educated me in numerous business decisions. Friends and family know her and want to be just like her (not to mention she’s literally Betty White’s twin we’re convinced!). You may have heard me talk about her and share quotes with you that she sends me each week in my email. So now you get to hear her up close and personal.

I can 100% say that I LOVE what I do and I am blessed beyond words to work side by side with some amazing people day in and day out. It’s projects like this that make the trials of small business totally worth it.

We got the chance to team up with our friends at Midway Church to create a new wall design for their Baptism area. They wanted to have a hint of clean rustic with a modern feel.

I’m convinced that if I had a dollar for every time I was asked the question, “How did you decide to be an entrepreneur and/or work in family business” I’d be mighty rich (totally kidding). I get asked this question by peers, those in the corporate world and even by random strangers which I still wonder how we ever get on the subject at times…

Here’s what I can tell you -I did not plan on doing anything close to what I’m doing now. I had grown up with many family members who ran their own businesses and were successful while also having failures along the way too so I got to see both sides. The day that I did start working with the family businesses right out of college there were times that they would let me make mistakes BUT they let me learn from them. They didn’t do everything for me, they pushed me to learn and even when I made a mistake I was able to learn from it for the future.

When I think of an “F” I go back to grade school thinking about getting a bad grade and not wanting to show mom the report (yes, I got one F in middle school and it was the last time I ever did thanks to mom!). So if you’re thinking like I am, I totally get you BUT the three F’s I’m talking about are Faith, Family and Friendships.

The past few years have been full of moments of –

• “What the….”
• “How did I get here?”
• “I didn’t think it could get any worse…”
• “What’s around the corner?”

As you get older you start to realize you’re not the first person who thought of all of these things. Leave it to Grandma to put you in your place if you think differently ha!

Faith

This has been the ultimate go to the past few years. You might think, “well why is it not a go to for many years?” You’re right, I’m guilty of many times that I pushed aside putting God first because things were going so smooth. I had a great life, I was in church, had amazing health, great friends and well you get the picture. I never had a moment in life where I didn’t pray or I wasn’t thankful but I got “comfortable.”