About Me
I am a humanist, an optimist, and a strategist.
I have always carried with me the arrogance to say that I can outwork anyone, and the stubbornness to prove it.
I grew up 50% below the poverty line in what is called Deep Poverty in the Deep South, in two worlds. My parents house on the rough side of town and my grandma’s house, a subsistence farm on 5 acres. My grandmother raised a lot of us as her own, including me, and I learned so much from her. She grew up in the Great Depression as a sharecropper in northwest Arkansas.
Grandma and Grandaddy taught me practicality, unconditional kindness, how to make the most of anything you have even if it is very little, how to not be wasteful. We gardened and canned and gave away so many vegetables. In middle school, I resolved to get out of poverty as quickly as possible; in high school I added “and to take as many people as I can with me” and that was due to my grandmother’s influence. My father and grandfather owned a paint and body shop. They worked six days a week, and they taught me entrepreneurship and the value of hard work.
Hard work served me well as a young woman, when I served in the Volunteer Fire Department and attained the rank of Lieutenant, as a Public Information and Education Officer.
Left, Grandaddy teaching me how rabbits like to be pet. Practical but gentle, animals only ever had one bad day on his farm.
Right, I allegedly got caught trying to climb the chimney grandaddy built. My first stitches came from falling off of this chimney into the trash can.
Entrepreneurship served me well when my ex-husband’s career brought us to Kansas. I had started working at 14, and by the time we got here, I had 7 years of customer service experience including as a journalist and the manager of a small law firm and 5 years of management experience, including as a Lieutenant in the volunteer fire service. My education was lacking— I started college at Stetson University with a very generous scholarship, but recognized in Freshman year that I’d never pay off $40,000 in debt with a journalism degree, so I decided not to finish. Because of the mismatch between education and experience, I had a hard time finding a job. Eventually, I said, “You know what? If nobody’s going to hire me, I’m going to hire myself.”
Good Witch Cleaning Services started in my laundry room, with $100 I had saved up from my grocery budget, the vacuum from my house, and my blood, sweat, and tears.
I have been in business for 8 years now. I am a living wage employer who has contributed over a million dollars in payroll and benefits to this community. I steer a team of ten amazing women now and have a location on Houston Street, where we host the Free Store, a place where people can “shop” for good quality donations at my favorite price—zero dollars—seven days a week.
I have been featured in Business Insider and Entrepreneur for how I approach leadership and because I am one of only two Master Textile Cleaners in the residential cleaning industry.
I am deeply in love with Manhattan, especially Northview, where I live in community with so many of my neighbors.
