Posts Tagged: entrepreneurship

Meet Marilyn

I realized that I never did an introduction blog post about me.  So here it is; along with an announcement about some changes that are coming to the blog.

My name is Marilyn.  I am the creator of this blog and Marlo & Co.

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Photo credit: Acorns + Aperture

I am an aunt to a small tribe of nieces and nephews.  They keep me young and love to hang out with me.  I love creating memories with them.

I am a business owner of Marlo & Co.  I love to celebrate stories.  I identify myself as a photographer and storyteller.  I love to hear other people’s stories and love to capture them.  I believe that everyone has a story to tell and that their story matters.  My favorite way I do this is through my Rocking Chair Story Session.  This is a session where I get to sit down and listen to a senior’s story then capture it in a book that is created just for them.

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My love for seniors started at a young age.  My great grandparents lived with my grandparents.  I look back at the memories that we made and love that I got to spend time with them as a child.  Once of my memories is asking my great grandfather to hold a doll for us while we played.  He hated this doll.  We knew this and I think we did this to see the look of annoyance on his face.

If you have been following this blog for anytime, this blog talks about my faith and relationship with God.  This is one of the most important relationships that I have in my life.  I am grateful that the Creator of the universe wants to have a relationship with me through Jesus.  And that I do not have to do life alone.  If you want to know more about this, just ask me!

Talking about relationships, I love relationships! I have been created to be a very relational person and love to spend time with those around me.  If you ever meet me in person and or work with me, most likely we will become friends.  I believe we are all created for relationships and community with each other.

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This is one of my favorite people, Danielle, and myself at a concert in the middle of February.

In May 2019, I retired from the social work field.  I was in it for 10.5 years.  I loved every moment of it.  I left the social work field because of burnout.  I did not realize how real and intense burnout can be until I experienced it.  I am still recovering from it.  I have taken time off to just rest in God and to just be.  I am currently writing a blog series on my experience of burnout.  Here is the link for first post in my burnout series.

I am essentially starting all over in life right now.  It is a weird but exciting feeling to be doing this in my mid thirties.  I get to recreate what I want my life to look like.  This is something that not everyone gets the privilege to do so.  Or rather are too scared to do so because of the unknown.  Living in the unknown has its moments but I would not want to be in any other spot than this right now at this moment because God is teaching me valuable lessons that I will carry with me and share with others.

Fun facts about me:

Tacos are my love language!IMG_5208

I love red shoes and red lipstick.

Traveling and exploring new places is one of my favorite things to do. 

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Certified by state of Pennsylvania for floriculture and horticulture. 

My first language/dialect was PA Dutch not English. 

I have a hidden talent of sarcasm and silliness (only comes out when I am comfortable with you). 

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I bought my sister and her family a van for Christmas last year!

I am the oldest of 4 girls.

I am an introvert.

So…. here is my announcement!  I am going to be making some changes to this blog.  I will still write about my relationship with God and what I am learning along the way.  But I am going to add more content.  This content will show more of me as a whole rather than just one side of me.  It will include blog posts from my work as a photographer/storyteller and some fun personal things.  I will include more photos with the blog posts than I do now.  I am excited to share these topics with you!

I want you to do one thing so I can meet you!  Share a fun fact about yourself in the comments so I can get to know you!

 

Enough

Ever had God shows you a glimpse of where you are going next? And when He does this for us most of the time our response is to not step into it or even take steps towards it.  Because it is the unknown and most of the time we fear the unknown.  Fear has been my response.  And He has had to give me definite signs time and time again that there is the direction He wants me to go in the last two years.

One of the signs was in 2017, I applied for graduate school and did not get accepted in it.  Granted by the time that I got my answer I was hoping that I would not get accepted because I knew I needed to invest into an idea I had for my business.  Because I knew that if I did not see where it went that I was going to regret it.  In the the last year, I have had multiple opportunities where others invested in my business and me.  Each time it confirmed the direction that He had for me.

But through this all I still struggled with myself and the direction that God has called me to.  I struggled with myself because I love my career in social work and the community I work in.  And I love visual storytelling and photography especially with elderly.  There was this tension between the two because I felt that if I leave social work I am leaving a career that I have built and love for over 10 years.  And I was letting myself and others around me down by leaving social work.  But I knew that if I did not see where my business might go that I was going to regret that and I could not live with that. (I don’t live life with too many regrets.)  Last summer I realized that I could merge the two in my business.  I could do coaching and mentoring with other business owners especially with visual storytelling and photography.

Fear and feelings of inadequacy has been my next struggle when it comes to pursuing my business as a full time gig.  I have stability with my career in social work.  And leaving that stability scares me!  For those that don’t know, I am single.  That means that I am the only bread winner in my household.  I do not have a significant other to fall back on financially if the business would not work out.  So I need to make sure that I when make the transition from social work career to entrepreneurship that I must an revenue that can support me and my business.  When I think of the revenue that is needed for this, fear and inadequacy kicks in overdrive.  This will then paralyzes me to the point that I don’t do anything.  It is then that I realize that I am relying on my own independence (man, independence is a STRONG streak in me! Anyone else have this issue?) and that I am not relaying on Him.  I know that these are struggles that everyone goes through and can identify with.

The last 4 months has been a season that has challenged almost everything in every area of my life.  But the growth that I have had in this season has been tremendous and I am have the deepest relationship with God than I ever have had.  And it would be easy for me to not work on my business in this season because of everything that is going on.  But this season has also confirmed the direction that full time entrepreneurship is something I want and something He has for me in the future.

The other day I was journaling and God told me this “You may feel inadequate or that you are not good enough or that you do not know enough or imposter syndrome is kicking in but I knew all this and I still gave you this dream.  I still gave you a new purpose.  I am enough to conquer all fears, inadequacies and imposter syndrome.  Rely on me because I am enough.  They are all there when you started anything new in life especially in social work. But you relied on me, pushed through those things and did it scared.  Because I am enough it makes you enough to be able to do what I have called you to do next.”

“I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” – Philippians 4:13

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” – Jeremiah 29:11

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” – Joshua 1:9

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” – Romans 8:28

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” – 1 Peter 5:6-7

These verses show that God’s promised are true and that He wants His best for me.  And that I should not fear when He calls me to new places because He is walking the journey with me, He goes before me and that when I am walking in His purpose for me things will work out according to His will.

When you are called to new things, is your response okay lets go God or is it a response of fear?