Why I Started Lucky Bee

For me, entrepreneurship began with a series of experiments.

One of my first creative ventures, The Family Gazette, was a newsletter I started “publishing” at age 10. After designing it in Microsoft Publisher, I filled it with everything from my family’s TV viewing schedule (Hi, Desperate Housewives) to updates on my rosy-cheeked baby sister and our weekly dinner menus. It was my first foray into reporting and I loved it.

In high school, my attention shifted. I began translating my years of gluing photos and glitter onto scrapbooks into a skill essential for a yearbook editor: layout design. My teacher, Mrs. Cole, taught me how to create a yearbook theme from scratch, which I realize now is essentially branding a year in review. I added photoshopping people out of backgrounds, triple-checking my work (why are some names so hard to spell?) and mastering the Adobe Suite into my toolset.

During my senior year, I was offered a scholarship to the University of Minnesota’s College of Design. At the time, I didn’t trust myself; the indecisive, 18-year-old me didn’t believe I’d still love design after four years. I enrolled at UW-Madison instead and was accepted into the journalism school’s strategic communications program. It was everything I wanted: editing experiments, advertising experiments, design experiments. The analytical, strategic side of my brain was happily dancing with the creative side, and I was creating work that I could add to my post-grad portfolio. I even double-majored in Spanish and learned some website coding along the way.

This was all wonderful, but the experiment that affected my life’s trajectory the most was Souvenirs. During my last year at UW-Madison, I was offered the editor-in-chief position of the university’s travel magazine. It was the first time I was responsible for a project of such a large scope, as well as finding and managing a staff. Not to mention I was simultaneously the production editor for a fancy magazine class called Curb, another large undertaking.

These opportunities gave me a chance to realize a few things about myself, and these insights would eventually lead me to where I am today:

1. Me at my best is me pursuing several projects at the same time.

I get bored when I’m working on the same thing, day after day. Before Lucky Bee, I worked on a small communications team at an higher ed nonprofit. I wore many hats, but working for one organization drained my creativity. This is when I began freelancing after work. It gave me an outlet to learn new ways to do marketing and explore other creative pursuits.

2. I’m most creative when I feel free.

My mind is a hamster wheel of “yes, and what if I try this…ok, and this…”

Sometimes these experiments don’t work the way I want them to, but more often than not these ideas spiral into a giant snowball that I’m proud of. If I worked for one organization, I wouldn’t have the chance to test these new solutions all the time, nor would I be learning as much as I am today. That’s why I work for a wide range of organizations; in turn, an idea for one company is often translated into something bigger and better for another brand. The flexibility I have to work where and when I want also replaces my “sunday scaries” with passion to control my life.

3. I’m passionate about what I do — I will never give you low-quality work.

I can promise you that I will not publish something until I believe it’s my best work. The perfectionist side of me is slowly being whittled down as my time to scrutinize tiny details is shrinking, but I’m too proud to not give you my best ideas.

Ultimately, entrepreneurship has been high-risk, but high-reward. I’m happy to have found myself in a series of never-ending, exciting projects. I feel that I’m right where I’m supposed to be, and I only hope to expand my offerings as the years roll on.

So, cheers. Cheers to what led me to you, Lucky Bee.

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