my story

I am always inspired by other people’s stories. I hope mine can do the same for you, or someone you know. 

Since I can remember, I was always creating, building and thinking of business. I had a lemonade stand. I sold my used Nancy Drew books to the neighborhood children. I babysat as soon as I could. I worked as a waitress at a coffee shop. I learned that if I could convince the customer to order fries with his hotdog, I’d get a slightly larger tip. I worked after school during high school. I took two jobs in the summers. I knew I needed to control my own financial destiny. I did not want to ask for money. 

I graduated from a large public high school. My college list consisted of schools within a one-hour drive to skiing. None of the schools closest to the mountains wanted me. 

Wellesley College looked like a workable option – about ninety minutes from NH skiing and highly ranked – so I enrolled. I knew, obviously, it is a women’s college. I don’t think I fully understood the implication until early in my first semester when I realized I no longer had any male friends. There were no men in my classes!

Whether this fact was a factor in my college success, I cannot say. I did really well. I won awards, earned Phi Beta Kappa as a junior and graduated Magna Cum Laude. My socializing was reduced to 2-3 nights per week and I enjoyed the small classes and supportive faculty.

Selective consulting firms and prestigious investment banks all came to Wellesley back then to hire the requisite handful of women. Lucky for me. I took a lucrative job as a management consultant – where I travelled, stayed up late making decks, and used visi-calc for spreadsheets!

From there, the next stop was business school. 

Since I chose consulting first, I thought I would be an investment banker next. 

By the middle of my second year, I began wondering what I was doing there and why I wanted to go into finance.

Student loans and the allure of a fast-paced NYC lifestyle won out – and I became an investment banker after graduation.

Eventually, two years into my investment banking career, I realized (again) I was not doing what I wanted to be doing. 

Time to find something more meaningful and more tangible. I loved magazines and publishing and found a mentor who created an entrepreneurial position within his group at ABC. It was perfect! I loved it!!

Over the next several years I started and ran print businesses. I loved taking ideas through development and launch – nurturing and growing – to stand-alone enterprises. 

In 1994, online and other new media were emerging. Senior management selected individuals from across the company to form a new division. I was the lucky one selected from the Company’s publishing operations. 

This was one of the most exciting moments in my career. We were breaking new ground and experimenting with technologies and ideas well outside the everyday broadcasts and newspapers. 

We met with Steve Case to discuss how to leverage the broadcast network online. Executives in the corporate dining room whispered that we were chasing the next CB radio. 

We believed. We soldiered on. 

We met with Bill Gates in Redmond. Bob Iger accompanied us on the corporate jet - a career high for me!

Three months later I had my first child. I loved my job so much that I went back to work after only a few weeks. And every day I loved going to the office. 

We met with Oprah. We created Oprah Online.

We created a news and election joint venture with the Washington Post. 

We met with every interesting person doing every groundbreaking thing at the time. It was incredible. 

Along the way, I became pregnant with my second child. Disney bought ABC. Decisions that we used to make, meetings we used to have, and even content we used to develop were all handled by the Disney Strategic planning team. By the time I got back from maternity leave this time, my job had become bureaucratic and administrative. There was no excitement and nothing to be passionate about. I left shortly thereafter.

The next several years were a mixture of consulting and start-up work until I decided to step out fully on my own. 

In January 2000 I launched The Chelsea Paper Company, all stationery for all occasions. A few years later, I acquired Dempsey & Carroll and spent the next 20 years building this business. 

I look forward to sharing my experiences and my journey here. I hope I can inspire you or help you navigate your own challenges through my stories.