My Story
Building Solutions for Problems I Care About
Long before I founded companies, mentored entrepreneurs, or spoke on stages, I was a ten-year-old kid with a homemade logo, a stack of flyers, and a plan.
My first business back then was called Task Takers, and I did lawn care for families in my neighbourhood. Looking back, entrepreneurship was my first passion.
Ironically, education, the thing that would eventually shape my career, wasn't on my radar at all.
After leaving high school two credits short of graduating and spending several years working office jobs, one conversation changed everything. I decided to become a teacher.
The one thing I set out to do was become the type of teacher I would have needed back when I was in high school.
What I didn't know at the time was that this decision would set me on a path that combined my two greatest passions: education and entrepreneurship.
The Student I'll Never Forget
During my teaching practicum, a supervising teacher warned me about a particular student and told me not to expect very much from him. When it came time to hand in an assignment, he told me he hadn't finished it. The teacher shrugged and told me that was typical.
Instead of accepting that explanation, I sat down beside him and told him I knew he could do this and offered to help. He looked me in the eyes for a moment, then got up from his desk and left the room. A few moments later, he returned with a completed assignment. Not only had he finished it, he had done a perfectly good job.
That moment stayed with me. It reminded me how much can be hidden behind assumptions. Sometimes people don't need someone to lower the bar for them. They need someone to believe they can clear it.
From that point on, I knew I wanted to spend my career helping students who were being overlooked or slipping through the cracks.
Taking the Leap
Early in my career, I worked at a private school where I eventually became Head of Special Education. I loved my job. I loved helping students and supporting parents.
But the more I learned, the more I became aware of the gap between what was possible and what was actually happening. Too many students were never identified, and many who were identified never received effective intervention.
Eventually, I realized that if I wanted to make the impact I envisioned, I would need to step beyond the walls of my school office.
In 2013, I founded The Open Door Educational Services.
What began as a one-person tutoring business has grown into an organization supporting students across three continents, with a team of more than 50 tutors and thousands of tutoring sessions delivered each month.
Along the way, I discovered something unexpected. While education had become my purpose, building The Open Door helped me realize that my love of entrepreneurship had never really left me.
Beyond The Open Door
I discovered that helping students wasn't the only part of the work I loved. I also loved building the organization itself, creating systems, developing leaders, and finding ways to expand our impact. That passion led me to mentor entrepreneurs through organizations such as Invest Ottawa, the Ottawa Board of Trade, and the Women's Business Network, while also serving multiple terms as Chair of the Learning Disabilities Association of Ottawa-Carleton.
It also expanded my speaking beyond education into entrepreneurship and leadership, and eventually led me to launch Catch The Magic, a travel agency.
Alongside my work with The Open Door, I continue to support students, families, entrepreneurs, and leaders through my speaking, the SHINE framework, and the Founder's Retreat, a community created to help women entrepreneurs connect, learn, and grow together.
The Common Thread
People sometimes ask how education, entrepreneurship, speaking, mentoring, and personal growth all fit together. To me, they've never felt like separate paths.
The common thread is seeing a problem I care about and then building a solution.
I've never had my life mapped out ten steps ahead. In fact, some of the most important moments in my journey began with little more than curiosity, a conversation, and a problem I couldn't ignore.
You don't always need the whole plan before you begin. Sometimes you just need a worthwhile reason to take the next step.
Whether you're looking for a speaker, exploring a new idea, or searching for support in education or entrepreneurship, I'd love to connect.
