My Story

I’ve always had mojo. At least I thought I did in my own mind. I never wanted to blend in. But I didn’t exactly want to stand out either. That’s what they call a conundrum! I did small things like wear weird ‘bicycle jeans’ when everyone else was wearing Levis. Or listen to “I’m a  Hog for Ya Baby” by the Siegel Schwall Band when others were listening to “Spiders and Snakes.”What a rebel!

But I chose practicality over my own essential self when I entered college and chose to attend business school. My parents didn’t push me either way – although I’m sure I heard a sigh of relief when I chose business courses.  But then came Dr. Reed, my Psych professor.  He called me on it when he wrote three little words on a paper.

So, do it!

I was minding my own business, studying business – accounting actually – and he pulled out of my paper a something I’d not even realized I’d written. I said I wished I’d pursued dance instead of business. This wasn’t something I’d been mulling over. Just something that flowed from my subconscious into Dr. Reed’s paper.

And he said “SO, DO IT!

Wow! Really?  Could I actually do that?  Well. OK. So, I did!  I walked across campus that day. Enrolled in Eddie Gasper’s “Dance for Stage” class and it changed my life. I auditioned for his new company and never looked back.

That decision seriously rebooted my mojo. I took a right turn into “the creative economy” – a world of performance, theatre, dance and loved it. I wasn’t drawn by the LIGHTS! CAMERA! ACTION of it all, but the creative process. The artists.  The imagination. The stories.

after working in several different jobs in “the industry” I eventually landed at the Film and Television Board. I was in my element! Creating community.  Advocating for creatives and commerce.  It was fabulous…But‚ wait! I forgot to get married! I forgot to have kids!

Screeching Halt.

So in 1995 I gave all that up married. I did what I thought I was supposed to do. I gave up my mojo and my essential self in the process.

(Now one BIG lesson learned is that there are amazing things that happen in these side trips.  I became a step mom to two fabulous kids. And a “sister mom” to their mom.  We created a community – an extended family that was very cool… but…)

Flash forward 10 years, 40 pounds, lots of depression & much poorer and in 2005 I found myself divorced and in the process of reinvention. I know I’m not alone in having experienced a “ring of fire” (Martha Beck’s term). A painful, growth-ful, never-want-to-go-through-it-again time of my life.  It’s something we all experience in some form or another. And these experiences are how we get to our right life..

And then one day…

Then one day, a couple of significant things happened.

I was doing what I thought I was supposed to do.  Interviewing for a J.O.B. which I knew was not for me when they told me they required all women to wear panty hose (!) NOOOO!

So I slinked away and, like a good digital nomad, I found a bookstore where I could work, drink coffee, and wander the aisles for inspiration. Perusing the fiction section, art books, business books, architectural books, spiritual books.  I love books.

My first nudge came when a phrase on the cover of an O Magazine popped out at me. It said  ‘We Should All Work Like Dogs, All the Time.’ The article was by Martha Beck whom I’d never heard of.  Her Rule #2 was to “do as dogs do.”

“…we should do what comes most naturally, reflexively, effortlessly‚… my first and last sales principle is this: Love sells better than hate. Find a way to package what you can’t stop doing‚…Use the work-like-a-dog principle to make your career and time-budgeting decisions. Should you? Only if it makes you salivate with desire.”  – Martha Beck O The Oprah Magazine

Great advice!

The next nudge was when I found THE CREATIVE ENTREPRENEUR.

Again, it jumped out at me. The spine of the book is orange and purple and the title combined the words ‘creative’ with ‘entrepreneur’ WOW!  The author’s methods for planning your business involved visual journaling. This is something I’ve been doing since I was sixteen. I’ve always kept journals. I have dozens of them.

In this book, author Lisa Sonora uses visual journaling and mixed media and other creative means as tools to plan your business.  Now that doesn’t sound like work, that sounds like play!

This started me thinking‚ visual journaling makes me “salivate with desire” – maybe there’s something to this.

I bought the book and O Magazine. I went home with my mind percolating.

How can I incorporate everything I love about the careers I’ve had and serve both myself and the world?

(Did I mention that I was in the middle of trying to sell my house? Yeah, it was 2008.)

So, as I was packing to move and percolating on what I’d  read, I found a folder “1998 Personal Coaching”  10 years ago!  Hmmm? What is that?

Google here I come, and guess who pops up as “the best life coach in America” and also has a training program starting in a month?? MARTHA BECK!!

OK, Universe! I’m listening!

I signed up for Martha’s next session and I was off.

And, Lisa Sonora was doing something called teaching “online” (whatever that meant!) So I started taking courses from her too.

12 Years Later.

Flash forward 12 years, I’m now a certified Martha Beck Coach and Lisa Sonora is a good friend.  (the photo below is my workspace at her creativity retreat just before the aha moment when I knew my calling was all about re-booting mojo.

So there you go!

Thanks, Martha! Thanks, Lisa! And thanks bookstores! Still my favorite place to go to percolate (my antonym for procrastinate!)”

• Link to Martha’s Article
• Lisa Sonora is a member of Athena Village!
  • Lisa on Creative Rhythms
  • Lisa on our Talk2ThinkTV
• Link to a video I did in 2010 on visual journaling

“I have reinvented myself several times in my lifetime. So I kind of feel like I could write the book on “getting my groove back.”

 

Rock and Roll

In the 1980s, I sang lead in a pop/rock cover band. We traveled all over the US before getting booked to work overseas for two stints for the Department of Defense. It was thrilling – all of it! From playing at venues in Iowa, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Colorado (to name just a few), and then entertaining the troops at US military bases in the Philippines, Okinawa, Japan, and Germany. Even when I think about it now, I have to pinch myself. I got to spend nearly 10 years traveling the world doing something that a lot of people only dream of, actually make a living, entertaining people every day.

Move to Minnesota

In 1992, after spending 3 years as the Marketing Manager for a company in Chicago, I met and married my husband and moved to Minneapolis. The move was difficult at first because I looove Chicago. However, 28 years later, you’d have a hard time budging me from this beautiful, “City of Lakes” in Minnesota. I also started a career here, working with a company that designed and built the trade show displays for 3M. I was again in a job that had me traveling all over the US, which I loved. One of the things I did during this time, was to develop a program that my clients desperately wanted, which helped them measure return on investment (ROI) for their shows. It was from my success with those programs, that when I was downsized in 2005, I started Brauer Consulting Group, working as an Independent Event Manager which, 15 years later, is still up and running.

Dabbling in Writing

During all this time, I dabbled in writing (some bad poetry, short stories, and started my business traveler blog (biztravelerworld.com) mostly for my own entertainment. However, at some point, I realized that I truly loved it and began to take writing classes to hone my skills. I began to think that maybe writing was something that I’d like to do more of. I also decided that my niche would be Travel Writing. This would combine my love of traveling the world, with telling stories about the places I’ve been and sharing ideas and tips with fellow wanderers.

So, Do It!

So, I took a deep breath and made Travel Writing my “It” during one “So Do It” 13- week session with Kelly Pratt and a wonderful group of women. By naming my passion and sharing it with our group, I found myself able to get more focused on what I needed to do to make this writing dream a reality. As it continues to become more exciting and real (I’ve had several small pieces published so far), I’ve actually rolled it into my business model. I have also added in-person travelogue presentations to the mix.

Writing Days

I couldn’t be happier! I love waking up on my “Writing Days.”  I get my cup of coffee, pour over photos and notes from some of my travels, and tap away on my keyboard, reveling in the process of getting my stories and art

icles to take shape and form.

I’m still working as an event manager and love my work, but having my writing become a more significant part of my life has truly helped me “Get My Groove Back!”

Susan

Images:

• Minneapolis City Lake
• Santiago, Chile
• English Garden (Cotswolds)
• Paris, France

Meet Mary Kay Ziniewicz

Entrepreneur, Wife, Mother, Forever Learner and Scrappy Survivor.

We knew we didn’t want kids

I was certain I didn’t want to be a mom. My husband, Keith, didn’t want kids either. It was one of the things that made us a perfect match. And then the unexpected happened—we found out we were pregnant. We’d been vacationing in Costa Rica for a month, and when we returned home to Minnesota, got the surprising news. It completely caught us off guard. But when we saw our baby on the ultrasound for the first time, everything changed. In a split second, Keith and I fell in love with the tiny dot on the screen and couldn’t wait to meet our daughter and take on our new role as parents.

After Lily was born, we decided Keith would be a stay-at-home dad, while I worked in marketing and business development for two different Twin Cities law firms. Then, when Lily turned 10, Keith went back to work and I decided to work from home on the marketing consulting company I’d launched. As I waited with other moms at the bus stop, I began to notice one question the women were asking each other regularly:  “What are you doing today?”

Bus Stop Conversations

I quickly realized how different my situation was from the other mothers. I had a successful business and a fulfilling career. Many of the other moms were highly skilled professionals interested in working, but there were all kinds of barriers—family responsibilities, lack of support, scheduling constraints, guilt. I learned that more than 40 percent of women don’t return to the workforce after their first child is born. Those who do face all sorts of biases and misconceptions around availability, dependability, relevance and more. As I continued to do research, I realized the enormous impact that removing those barriers and stigmas could have on the economy. I began to dream of a business model that would allow moms flexibility to work when, how and where it made the most sense for them and their families. And that didn’t necessarily mean returning to the same type of work we did before having children.

The idea continued to grow

The idea bounced around in my head for a while. I thought I’d need funding to build a website and hire a team. Then I had coffee with a successful startup entrepreneur in Minneapolis who suggested there were ways to put my idea in motion without a lot of money. His encouragement was just the motivation I needed to take the leap. I began developing my new business concept in 2018 while I continued to work as a marketing consultant. This new venture pushed me outside of my comfort zone on an almost daily basis, and there were times I thought about giving up on the idea. That’s when then-12-year-old Lily stepped in and built the company website, and Bus Stop Mamas officially launched.

Bus Stop Mamas is Launched

With Lily as my chief technology officer, and the additional support of a dedicated team of volunteers I call Super Mamas, I developed a network of moms with a variety of skills and backgrounds. Those moms have filled a critical need for hundreds of small to midsize business owners seeking workers in all kinds of positions—temporary, part-time, full-time and more. I calls it the #9to3movement, because I believe work needs to look different in the 21st century. Providing moms with the flexibility to meet family obligations—like being at the bus stop—would advance equality in business practices exponentially.

Bus Stop Mamas is not a staffing or recruiting company that uses keywords and algorithms to match candidates and employers. I’m all about putting people first. The process for connecting moms and businesses is straightforward—businesses post any job opening to the network as long as it offers flexibility—and moms select opportunities that appeal to them. I and my team make introductions and the business owners and moms take it from there. The businesses pay a referral fee to Bus Stop Mamas. Women pay nothing to join the network, which is currently more than 1,000 moms who all heard about Bus Stop Mamas via word of mouth.

Bus Stop Mamas is growing quickly and has attracted the attention of the Twin Cities startup community. I have shuttered my consulting business and now devotes 100 percent of my time to what has become my second baby. I credit my first baby, Lily, and my husband for making the new business possible. Though I may not have planned to be a mom, it’s the best thing that ever happened to me. If I hadn’t experienced motherhood, I would never have had those bus stop conversations or recognized the need to elevate the extraordinary talent of a huge and underutilized segment of the population.

Mary Kay

More About Mary Kay

For over 20 years, I’ve transcended business cultures internally and externally. My footprint is seen in law firms around the country. Most recently, I launched Bus Stop Mamas, a digital platform, that instantly introduces super businesses with super people–moms and dads. We’re called Bus Stop Mamas for obvious reasons–mom tends to interrupt her career for her family. Not always, just mostly–over 40% of women exit their career after their first child is born. Bus Stop Mamas believes mom knows best in what works for her family. That’s why we let her decide. Check us out. You will find an opportunity that works for you and your family schedule too.

Follow Mary Kay

• Mary Kay Ziniewicz in Athena Village
• Bus Stop Mamas.com
• Instagram @bus_stop_mamas
• Linkedin: Mary Kay
• Facebook.com: BusStopMamas
• Facebook.com: marykay.ziniewicz
• Linkedin.com: busstopmamas

Nature heals and inspires. I know this truth from personal experience. My purpose in life is connecting people with the healing power of nature – even more important today as we all must cope with the fear and uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Through my classes, you can experience different places and perspectives through movement, meditation and all of your senses. You will learn about phrenology, the seasonal changes taking place right before your eyes and the history of the place. Artists will encourage us to “see” in new ways. And we will celebrate picnics‚Äî-find your perfect spot on my map featuring 20 scenic locations overlooking the river gorge in downtown Saint Paul. Picnics are memorable because all your senses are alive!

Here’s the story of how I got my groove back, and you can, too. Warning, it may make you laugh out loud at the end:

The simple act of taking a walk around the lake every day – sometimes twice a day – helped me put my life back together after devastating loss.
Newly divorced, I lost my job just weeks after my 14 year-old son was killed in a car crash. Here I was, at midlife, all alone again, starting over one more time.

My walks got me out of the house (and my head), even though at first I just concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. Eventually, I noticed other people on the path, who became familiar faces. The fresh winter air cleared my head and breathed life into my lungs. The physical activity strengthen muscles and the grit I would need for the challenges ahead.

And, soon, the weather warmed and melted the snow. The ice left the lake and the ducks and sailboats returned. The rose garden bloomed again and I found a new job, friends and a sense of peace.

That’s the thing about nature…it’s alive, always there, reliable…you are never truly alone. We were born to live among the trees, flowers and birds, along the rivers and lakes. Nature‚Äôs beauty inspires us with an overwhelming sense of awe. We want, and need, to protect her for future generations. Nature teaches us about the inevitability of change, loss, the cycle of life. Nature heals.

Some years later, my grief bubbled up again. I lost my mother who was the family’s keeper of my son’s memory. I finally went to my high school class reunion and all everyone wanted to talk about was their darling grandchildren. None for me.

A friend introduced me to Kelly Pratt, the visionary force behind this amazing Athena Village, and I joined her salon. I felt alone, stuck, empty and sad. Dead inside. But finding that other women were feeling the same way  – even for different reasons – made me feel connected. I started to feel energized learning my strengths through the Kolbe assessment and began studying trees. And, then POW! it happened.

Researching trees on the internet, I found old photographs of women in trees. Yes, women actually sitting on branches in trees! Many photographs, books of photographs: Women in Trees, More Women in Trees. How? When? Why?
I was hooked.

The answer is that when the Brownie personal camera was invented in 1900, it was a very big deal! For the first time, the magic of photography was available to everyone. It was very easy to use, just point and shoot.

The guys, natch, because of their innate technological ability, would photograph their lover, their partner. And the most romantic place was the forest.

The woman would climb the tree, in her best clothes, and arrange herself the best she could on the branches. Often the look on her face is loving, alluring, but a few women look uncomfortable, like they are thinking “Get me down from here, now!”

The old black and whites made me laugh out loud, want to share them, wonder about the couple and reinforced the spiritual significance of nature for me.

Nature inspires and heals us. Try it and you’ll see.