My first introduction into the life of a businesswoman came in the form of a late 80’s

Monday night TV show, Murphy Brown. Each week I would curl up on the couch with

my mom and watch as Candice Bergen, with sass and smarts earned the respect of her

male co-anchors.

But actually before that, I had a far greater role model. My mother. She was a single mom

for many years, working long hours at a mortgage company. Some nights she would pick

me up from daycare across town and together we would drive back to her office, where

she would kick off her heels and spend hours, after everyone else had gone home,

surrounded by piles of paperwork and her calculator.

Her work ethic was strong and she, with her early years living in a children’s home and

with only a high school education, was smarter than most.

Of course it’s not shattering glass ceilings that matter but rather pencil skirts and blazers,

pantyhose, pearls and make-up that makes a hardworking mom a hero to her little girl.

Childhood influences aside, my life never was on a path for business.

As a pre-teen I was determined to become an artist. My father would take me to galleries

on our weekends together, my mom and step-dad sent me to evening art classes. I spent

hours tucked away in my bedroom painting large canvases, certain I would make New

York City my home someday. In fact, my favorite tee shirt read “Real art won’t match

your sofa.”

My role model in those years was my 8th grade art teacher. She was in her mid-fifties,

had wild blonde curly hair and a golden tan. By day she taught art but she spent her

evenings teaching yoga and modern dance . To me she was the epitome of elegance and

grace with a touch of unpredictability. She was someone who lived a really full, creative

life that wasn’t framed by a college degree and a job offer from a school board.

And then when I was fifteen I went on a mission’s trip to Papua New Guinea for six

weeks and that’s where my journey had its first big bend in the road.

Those days and weeks in the rugged mountains of a third world country shaped my heart

beyond what my own desires had been up to that point. No longer was life about pursuing

my own goals, but I was given that precious gift of learning that life isn’t about what I

can gain or what I stand to lose. Life is about others and the impact that my life choices

can have on their journey if I allow it.

During that summer, I spent hours in the kitchen with a missionary named Linda Wood.

Her role in my life proved remarkably poignant.

Each morning she woke up before the sun rose and made breakfast for a crew of 20

hungry high school and college students. She was a nurturer, a listener, a gracious host, a

mother hen and a friend. Her warmth drew everyone close. While we’d all pile into pick

up trucks and head out to the village for the day to work, she’d make meals, do laundry

and mentor the one’s that stayed behind for the day. I found myself studying her ways

over the course of those weeks. Watching how she listened intently to others, laughed at

teenage boys corny jokes, rubbed her husband’s back during evening devotions. I paid

attention as she talked about raising her kids, the struggles and successes. I eagerly

volunteered for kitchen duty so I could glean wisdom and insight from her while making

pans of casseroles and doing piles of dirty dishes. For this 15 year old girl, a summer with

Linda Wood cultivated traits and habits in me that would last a lifetime. To this day, it

influences the way I relate to and value others. It gave me a strong foundation for the

emphasis I put on family. And it inspired the way I mentor women each and every day.

And just when I thought my course was set for a life in a jungle hut, I met my husband

when I was 18. Although according to him, it wasn’t until two years later that I

acknowledged his existence. Together we planned a course as a family. Travel,

volunteering, humanitarian work, changing the world… It was a great life. Until the

money ran out. And then we had a beautiful baby boy named Canaan and we decided to

set roots in Lexington.

Funny enough, life in Kentucky actually proved even more difficult than missionary life.

Go figure.

Because vision and mission in life, not money, guide us~ and that continually proves to

be a double edged sword.

The biggest reason for moving to Kentucky 10 years ago was to be closer to my

husband’s childhood home of Eastern Kentucky. With his father’s sudden passing just

after we married, we wanted to make sure our son…eventually sons, would have the

chance to experience weekends in the mountains with their grandmother, JoeAnne. Over

the next decade, those times would prove to be yet another chance for me to draw

alongside another wise woman. My mother-in-law. Tucked away in Doty Creek Holler,

became for me~ a chance to discover simplicity. Joe Anne taught me to sew at her kitchen

table. We made pie together and look through old timey cookbooks she had collected

over the years. We would explore little mountain shops and I’d listen in on conversations

about the week’s happenings in the tight knit community.

She is anything but calm and reserved as my role models previously had been…and so I

learned a lot about spunk, spark and independence. But more than anything, I watched

her ability to move forward in the face of tragedy. To find strength in those absolutely life

altering moments that pull the rug out from under any hope or dream or plan we had in

life.

She still reminds me that someday I will have the clean house when the kids are gone to

college. For now, leave the crumbs on the floor and enjoy deeper hugs, longer dinner

times and memorable bed time routines.

Over the last 10 years, my creative life and business mind have blossomed in a way I

never imagined possible. My humble little blog, started in our tiny duplex on UK campus

now has over 75,000 readers a month.

And this girl that never earned a college degree has now written for dozens of

publications nationwide, started and ran four successful small businesses and helped

consult on half a dozen more. Life over the past decade has been anything but easy

though. We have struggled enormously.

When we brought our second son home from the hospital, still under mountains of debt

from our time in missions work, we couldn’t even pay our gas bill. Which meant we had

no hot water in the days following his birth. Which for a new mom and baby is doable,

but definitely not ideal.

For 15 years we have never been able to afford a true family vacation so we have

embraced small day trips and overnight camping trips as our vacations, slowly adding

coins to a jar we as a family have deemed our “boat money” to someday take a cruise.

Both my husband and I work hard, but the setbacks we have faced have been great and

we aren’t immune to asking that big unknown of “why us.”

But I know why.

I know why we have hit rock bottom financially and emotionally.

I know why we’ve struggled to hold our marriage together at points and why we

sometimes can’t find out footing to take the next step forward.

I know why people and circumstances have come across our paths that have been both

good and bad for our growth.

I know why we just recently came through a grueling 2 year layoff where we would have

to skip meals so that the boys could have theirs.

I know why.

Because this is where I learned ingenuity.

It was the breeding ground for gumption.

This has been the birth place of inventiveness.

The road from Murphy Brown to right now, in this moment, was absolutely necessary to

birth the brand of CAKE&WHISKEY and set my life trajectory on the path of both large

vision and big business.

Those hours tucked away in my room painting and sketching has given me an eye for

design and creativity that has become a crowning feature of the magazine.

My years of overseas travels have given me global perspective for this publication,

always bucking the idea that we should start out locally. Meeting coffee growers in New

Guinea and seeing women, with babies strapped to their back sell their handmade crafts

at markets in Africa didn’t just impact me as a young adult, it shaped the way I see the

journey of a businesswoman and how I want to teach others to see it as well.

Hundreds of hours of blogging and self-taught writing prepared me to become an editor~

with a keen sense of understanding of how to shape stories that have heart, depth and

realness~ not just a journalistic approach.

Giving myself freedom to push into the fear and doubt and risk was crucial and the

success of CAKE&WHISKEY didn’t happen overnight. It was preceded by hundreds of

ideas fleshed out on road trips with pencil and paper and a sounding board of a husband

beside me. It was preceded by dozens of failed business attempts~ each one becoming

another stepping stone along the pathway.

Years of financial struggle has given me the gift of resourcefulness. Give me a penny and

I’ll give you back $100. Give me a grocery budget for a single person and I’ll make a

weeks worth of dinners for family and friends. Give me a kitchen table with no start-up

capital, an unemployed spouse and three kids underfoot and I’ll give you an international

publication.

When Sharon Ison and Cathy Stafford took me out for coffee a few months ago and told

me I would be winning this award, I was completely shocked. Honestly I thought they

were meeting with me to see if CAKE&WHISKEY would advertise!

Because truly, most days I don’t consider myself a businesswoman. Because I still see

myself as a missionary. And actually, I am. Just not in a jungle. Instead I am on a mission

to champion the strides of other women. I am a girl on a mission to ignite passion and

purpose in others. I am compelled to remind those who have forgotten, that no matter

how mundane their career journey may seem at the time, it serves a purpose in the

journey of their life.

I’m not the smartest woman in this room by a long shot. Nor am I the most well spoken.

Nor the savviest businesswoman you’ll ever meet. I detest excel spreadsheets and I am

not likely to be the one seeking the most ROI. But I do have a clear vision and I have a

knack for taking an idea and making it blossom.

A portion of our manifesto is simply this:

CAKE&WHISKEY magazine is devoted to women in all stages of their business

journey.It seeks to motivate and spark women to dream bigger, reach higher, and

achieve greater things.

No matter our successes, the accolades that come our way, the awards we receive or the

growth we experience our manifesto continues to remain the same…and always will.

I want to take just a few moments to say ‘thank you’ to those in my life who have made

this part of my journey possible.

Thanks to my Aunt Barbie who traveled from Colorado to be here today. She knows me

better than anyone in life and has been a source of strength for me over the years. Thank

you Aunt Barbie for reminding me that life is far too short for mundane.

Thanks so Phoebe Wood.

From day one of launching CAKE&WHISKEY I remained firm that we wouldn’t accept

just any investment money….only the absolute best for us. Phoebe Wood came on as our

first investor this year and I couldn’t have conjured up with three jeanie wishes anyone

more perfect for me and for the growth of this brand. She has become not only a valuable

part of where CAKE&WHISKEY is headed next, she has become a patient mentor and

friend.

Thanks to my three sons; Canaan, Ezra and Otto. Thanks for letting me slack on home

cooked meals this year and talking softly during my conference calls from the dining

room table. Thanks for making me laugh everyday, for dancing alongside me after dinner,

for taking off your shoes at the door so I can sweep less and for being not only amazing

kids but some of my greatest friends.

And finally, thanks to my incredible husband, Mike. He has fought for this dream when I

was out of fight. He has encouraged me when I had to face some of my biggest fears head

on. He has cheered me on at every success and rallied around me at every failure. He has

been the only person in my life to listen to absolutely every idea I have brainstormed and

say, ‘go for it.’ He believes in me…even more than I sometimes believe in myself.

Thank you for this award. Its mind-blowing to be standing here in front of you today.

Something I remind myself of often and want to leave you with is~ We are the authors of

every next moment.

It’s the foundation of who I am. Someone who makes every twist and turn, every

friendship and connection, every obstacle and advancement in the journey count.