Real estate is my career and I've been so blessed to have worked with amazing clients, learning invaluable ways to serve and grow my business from the heart. The firm that I joined in Texas, @properties® | Christie's International Real Estate, stands behind my passion to serve widows/widowers. I had a plan...just like everyone else. But, life didn't unfold at all how I thought it would. As a matter of fact, I don't believe I've ever met anyone whose plan did turn out exactly like they envisioned. Marriage, to someone I never expected, many corporate transfers and a few different jobs in finance took me on a ten-year journey far bigger than my original dreams. After leaving my financial services role, I had the opportunity to reinvent myself professionally. Through a lot of soul searching I found that the creative side of me needed to be utilized again. I became a certified stylist, working with affluent clients in St. Louis and the Dallas-Fort Worth. It was so rewarding to help women realize their unique style and let go of unreasonable expectations. I developed a program based on personality and body type, which reveals a woman's personal style and helps her understand how to apply that style to her specific body type. I expanded the business into a retail space where women could work through the program and choose styles for herself with confidence. We grew so quickly that we had to move to a larger space within six months. Another expansion brought in home goods also categorized to correlate to personality type. While owning the store I began with a local developer to stage his residential projects. He taught me so much about what goes into buying, designing and creating livable space out of historic commercial buildings. That's what launched my interest in the real estate industry. Another transfer took us to Charlotte, NC and I began staging single family homes for real estate firms. It was just after the recession and Charlotte was hit particularly hard. Selling a home required pulling out all the stops. After working with agents for four years, I got my real estate license.  The most profound experience of my life has been losing my husband. He had a fatal heart attack in 2019. Grief and healing gave me a burning passion to do more to help women after loss. I've recently discovered the need to help educate women about the "business" of widowhood before it's too late. Most people don't understand how complicated it is to lose a spouse. ​ My path has been anything but linear to get to this point, but I truly believe every one of my experiences were meant to put me in a position to make a difference for woman. Whether I am working one on one with a widow or speaking to a group of hundreds, my professional and personal experience help me deliver important messages that just might change a life.