My Story

It started with cupcakes.

If you ask anyone who’s known me for more than 10 years, they would tell you I’ve had at least 4 businesses since they met me. My interest in business started when I was very young. I sold fitness memberships, cars, houses, and snacks. (The vending machine industry was not it for me.) The common thread through all my many businesses — operations. It was always about wanting to make business work and understanding how to keep it working.

I studied Hospitality Operations Management at Kennesaw State University (Hootie-hoo!) and fell in love with ops and the roles it took to run successful companies. I thought I’d end up managing a large hotel chain or restaurant, but surprisingly I ended up in retail grocery. After knocking an internship outta the park, I graduated with a full-time district manager role with Aldi.

01

From shambles to success stories

After graduating from Aldi’s training program in just one year, I was given my own district to manage. My district was comprised of 5 super high sales volume stores in the north metro Atlanta area that were essentially in shambles. I took some time to observe and understand why turnover was high, theft was through the roof, managers were logging tons of overtime, and the teams were just unhappy.

Two months in, it hit me — the managers of these stores were good at the work they did, but they didn’t know how to lead OTHER people. So what did I do? I learned to lead too. I got in the trenches with my managers. We created systems and KPIs, we made mistakes and cried together a couple times.

02

Creating my exit plan

Over the course of 4 years, all of my stores and store managers rose from the ashes. We fired people, hired people (about 100 total in my career there), underwent full store remodels, and got better every single day. Our customer service scores went up, my managers were able to work less, and we became one of the best districts in the division. (Pretty sure my face is still on some of the marketing materials…)

But the entrepreneur in me was BUZZING and looking for an out. Being a DM was very demanding, even though I was really good at it. So, I created my exit plan and in August of 2019, I quit my $120k salary and benefits with just over $9,000 to my name.

03

The full circle moment

It took me a few months to find my footing in entrepreneurship. I tried a few niches before I realizing how to perfectly package my operations experience into the delegation and leadership training the online space didn’t know they needed.

I started with VIP Days helping coaches and agency owners refine their operations, map out their team structure, create metrics to measure success, and master a dynamic hiring process — in just 6 hours.

The crowd went crazyyyyy *roaring applause*

After 90 days, I’d grown to $20-$30k months with VIP days, and knew I was onto something.

04

The birth of my baby: Grindaholics Anonymous

In October of 2020, I started working on a solution to allow me to serve more people on a much deeper level than just a one day intensive. I started working with an instructional designer to put the curriculum together and in January of 2021 we launched my baby, Grindaholics Anonymous: a six month program designed to support entrepreneurs through creating structure in their operations, a solid team to support them, and learning the foundations of what it means to be a leader.

05

75+ students later we’re still going strong!

Growing the brand more, expanding into corporate and government opportunities, and expanding our suite of offers to include a minimind to support business owners more towards the beginning of their hiring journey.

By the end of 2022, we will have generated more than $1M since the company’s creation. All because I decided to bring a sprinkle of corporate over to the online space & they ate that shit up lol

06 It started with cupcakes.

If you ask anyone who’s known me for more than 10 years, they would tell you I’ve had at least 4 businesses since they met me. My interest in business started when I was very young. I sold fitness memberships, cars, houses, and snacks. (The vending machine industry was not it for me.) The common thread through all my many businesses — operations. It was always about wanting to make business work and understanding how to keep it working.

I studied Hospitality Operations Management at Kennesaw State University (Hootie-hoo!) and fell in love with ops and the roles it took to run successful companies. I thought I’d end up managing a large hotel chain or restaurant, but surprisingly I ended up in retail grocery. After knocking an internship outta the park, I graduated with a full-time district manager role with Aldi.

01

02

From shambles to success stories

After graduating from Aldi’s training program in just one year, I was given my own district to manage. My district was comprised of 5 super high sales volume stores in the north metro Atlanta area that were essentially in shambles. I took some time to observe and understand why turnover was high, theft was through the roof, managers were logging tons of overtime, and the teams were just unhappy.

Two months in, it hit me — the managers of these stores were good at the work they did, but they didn’t know how to lead OTHER people. So what did I do? I learned to lead too. I got in the trenches with my managers. We created systems and KPIs, we made mistakes and cried together a couple times.

Creating my exit plan

Over the course of 4 years, all of my stores and store managers rose from the ashes. We fired people, hired people (about 100 total in my career there), underwent full store remodels, and got better every single day. Our customer service scores went up, my managers were able to work less, and we became one of the best districts in the division. (Pretty sure my face is still on some of the marketing materials…)

But the entrepreneur in me was BUZZING and looking for an out. Being a DM was very demanding, even though I was really good at it. So, I created my exit plan and in August of 2019, I quit my $120k salary and benefits with just over $9,000 to my name.

03

04

The full circle moment

It took me a few months to find my footing in entrepreneurship. I tried a few niches before I realizing how to perfectly package my operations experience into the delegation and leadership training the online space didn’t know they needed.

I started with VIP Days helping coaches and agency owners refine their operations, map out their team structure, create metrics to measure success, and master a dynamic hiring process — in just 6 hours.

The crowd went crazyyyyy *roaring applause*

After 90 days, I’d grown to $20-$30k months with VIP days, and knew I was onto something.

The birth of my baby: Grindaholics Anonymous

In October of 2020, I started working on a solution to allow me to serve more people on a much deeper level than just a one day intensive. I started working with an instructional designer to put the curriculum together and in January of 2021 we launched my baby,

Grindaholics Anonymous: a six month program designed to support entrepreneurs through creating structure in their operations, a solid team to support them, and learning the foundations of what it means to be a leader.

05

75+ students later we’re still going strong! Growing the brand more, expanding into corporate and government opportunities, and expanding our suite of offers to include a minimind to support business owners more towards the beginning of their hiring journey.

By the end of 2022, we will have generated more than $1M since the company’s creation. All because I decided to bring a sprinkle of corporate over to the online space & they ate that shit up lol