I’m so glad you’re here

You’ll currently find me living the digital nomad life with my laser machine in tow, finding creative inspiration in my surroundings as I’m binging the latest podcast and planning my next adventure. I didn’t exactly expect to be single and childless in my mid-thirties, but in the words of my sweet niece, “Lizzie, it’s like, you’re freee!”

Perspective really is everything.

I also didn’t grow up expecting to become an artist or designer. In fact, if you had told me just a few years ago that I’d be creating a full-time income from laser files, I would have said, “Um, what’s a laser file?” and probably, “Does this mean I can quit grad school?” with a little too much enthusiasm. But as I look back on my entrepreneurship journey and all the crossroads I’ve encountered, I’ve seen over and over again that risking to name what you want and follow what you enjoy will take you to places you want to be—even if it’s not where you expected!

Maybe you find yourself stuck, unsure of the next steps to take with your business, trying to make sense of a journey that feels jumbled and confusing. I’ve been there. Or maybe you’re excited to learn a new skill, add a stream of revenue to your growing business, and create time and financial flexibility for yourself and others. I’ve got just the thing. Wherever you are in your creative journey, I’m here to be the friend that says, “Go for it, you’ve got this!”

my roundabout business journey

GO FOR IT: the early years

I will never forget making my first sale as a five-year old. While traveling with my parents for their work, my little sister and I took it upon ourselves to sell crayon drawings to passersby in the lobby of a conference center. We charged 11 cents per masterpiece and made over $40 that weekend (pretty good for the early '90s!) and a creative entrepreneurship dream was born.

Throughout my childhood, my parents consistently responded to my *sometimes crazy* business ideas with a “Sure, go for it!” mentality that gave me the confidence to explore my creativity and try new things. They were crazy enough to move me and my five siblings from the Midwest to Eastern Europe before GPS was a thing, and I credit their adventurous spirit for much of where I am today.

FOLLOW WHAT YOU ENJOY: it adds up

In my first job out of college, I worked at a teen girls’ group home and started a Business Skills class to help the girls create and market their products on a popular new website called Etsy. Did I have the experience to be teaching about business? That’s negotiable, but it sounded like fun so I just went for it and learned along the way.

While working various other jobs throughout the years (nannying, anyone?) I continued to learn the ins and outs of online selling and each year I set out to learn one new business skill that sounded fun to me—like wholesaling, selling at markets, or woodworking basics. Looking back on those years, each of these acquired skills added up to serve me in huge ways in the future. But first:

MY MESSY MIDDLE: learning to name my wants

I was halfway through my twenties and my life was not turning out like I expected. One warm spring day I decided to go on a walk and get honest about what I actually wanted. At the top of the list: 1. Start a business with a sibling (but no one lived near me), 2. Host events in a home that I owned (yeah, right), and 3. Afford the move for grad school (not even tuition, just the funds to get me there). Then I took a deep breath, prayed about it, and put the list away. 

Little did I know that in just over a year’s time my team and I would be shipping products from a home that I owned, because of a business I started with a sibling, while going to grad school that I could easily pay for. But before all of that, I had to learn the lessons that can only be taught during a very messy-feeling middle, and life was about to get harder.

THE BELA BRAND WAS BORN: 2016

Shortly after making my wants list, my teenage brother was diagnosed with a rare, inoperable brain tumor (miraculously, after planning his funeral and saying our goodbyes, today he’s defying the odds and living a very full life). I was spending as much time with my family as possible, and the same sister I sold my drawings with when we were little suggested the two of us start a jewelry business together—we spotted a trending product, thought we could make it better, and Googled our way to manufacturing our own designs. 

Because of my previous Etsy and wholesaling experience, we were able to scale pretty quickly—in that first year we shipped over 40,000 products from my little home office in St. Louis. We landed on the brand name “Bela” which is a common Hungarian name meaning bravery or courage and is a nod to our time living in Budapest. It fit our season well, and the name lives on in my current Etsy store.

LEARNING AND PIVOTING: 2017-2020

While continuing to run our jewelry brand as the trend inevitably slowed (and we learned some hard lessons about unfriendly competition—that’s a whole other story!), I spent a month in Central Asia, teaching business skills with the Afghan refugee community and partnering to develop a brand under the Bela Collective umbrella. Good lessons were learned and I will forever cherish my time with the families I worked with.

I was also working to complete my Master’s in Counseling during these years, and knowing how powerfully art and design can influence therapy, I applied some of my acquired woodworking skills to developing a toy therapy brand. In early 2020, I purchased a laser machine to help grow the business, but we all know what happens next…

UNEXPECTED ENDINGS & BEGINNINGS: 2020-2023

While the world was shutting down, I caught an early case of Covid and my work came to a complete stop as my body struggled to barely function. For the next two years I learned to cope with a new, low-functioning version of myself while dealing with the effects of Long Covid. 

When I was able to work again, I knew I needed to find something that I could do on my own time and from my bed as needed. As I stared at my laser that went virtually untouched for a year, an idea for a file collection started brewing and I decided to go for it. In January 2021, while learning Adobe Illustrator along the way, I posted my first SVG files on Etsy and haven’t looked back!