The Road to Entrepreneurism

In 1997 I was a co-founding partner in a venture backed technology start up in the Triangle and once funded we started on the long trek of making ourselves known in the world.  Part of the equation for our success model was hiring a public relations (PR for short) firm to propel our ompany brand and product offering into view of our target markets.  Choosing the right firm to work with was very important to me but having our PR team treat us like we were their only client was more important to me.  As fate would have it, Shawn Ramsey walked in our door as a PR Consultant with Brodeur Worldwide.  I was immediately struck by Shawn’s calm demeanor, her desire and enthusiasm for what our company was creating as if she were one of our founding members.   I was more impressed by the questions she asked, the time she took to understand our business and her ability to quickly grasp our business and communicate that to others.  We eventually contracted with Brodeur and off we went down a formulated path to achieve worldwide acceptance and awareness. 

Within a few short months another member of the Brodeur PR staff, Kristi Lee, would take on our account joining Shawn as our core PR team.    I remember thinking even then these two very young professional women were a dynamo match.  Little did I know in 1997, that our paths would continue to cross several times over the years turning our working relationship into a friendship of supporting each other’s personal and professional goals.    

Shawn and Kristi eventually left Brodeur and joined a technology start-up as the company’s internal PR team.  Together their press initiatives contributed to the successful launch of this young start-up which led to a highly successful acquisition of the company.  It would be three additional such scenarios (one after the other launch and sale, launch and sale) before Shawn would stand outside the door of all the successes looking back thinking “it’s time for me to go out on my own.  It was a scary feeling, I remember it so well! But I put the fear aside knowing my husband of nine years would be there to support my efforts as I had done for him in past.”   The inseparable duo, Shawn and Kristi , separated their career paths; Shawn, beginning down the path of starting a company and Kristi joining another young company to lead their PR initiatives. 

“Keep A’Goin” (One of my favorite poems by an unknown author)

Within the first two months of Shawn’s new life as founder of her own public relations firm her life took an unexpected turn.  “I never imagined my husband not being here for me and having to build my business and rebuild my life at the same time.  One day I came home and he simply said he wasn’t sure he wanted to be married anymore. That led to a separation and divorce. It was all so unimaginable.”   Even though more than four years have now passed, as Kristi, Shawn and I talk in their quaint downtown Raleigh office, I can see the moments of memory pain sneak in on her typically positive facial expressions.  I feel this

moment with her.  So my expected question was of course, what did you do? How did you “Keep A’goin” as the poem I love so playfully moves us through the pains of life.   “It took some regrouping time.  I’d put money aside throughout my career while working so I had a small reserve to fall back on. I choose to dive in fully into the business but the decision was scary.” Shawn recalls with Kristi and me.  “I had two choices, stop and let the hardness of the situation take me over or take my business and run with it!  I chose the business and I dug in, intently focusing on creating the best public relations firm possible.”   That focus is paying off for Shawn.   It was not long after that Shawn would be faced with another crossroad in her path.  “I quickly realized after the first few contracted clients I could not do all the work on my own.  In order to build the company out and to serve the clients like I wanted to serve them I would have to add staff.” 

“Kristi Lee was my rock during the time of my separation.  She was my rock while I was starting my business and she was the first person I turned to when I realized I couldn’t build this business alone. So I asked her to join me as my partner & President of Crossroads Public Relations.”   Shawn continues her story to say, “It was hard knowing I would be responsible for someone else’s financial wellbeing.”  Kristi now jumps “it was a difficult choice to make leaving the safety of a career to join the unknown.  We would be responsible for ourselves and others as we hired additional staff.”  But Kristi did join Shawn and the two have been on a successful path for more than four years.  They are like sisters supporting each other’s lives not just their business.

Over the course of the next few years life takes its toll on both women! Just last year Shawn experienced loss of her mother and Kristi just months later loss of her father.   The unfortunate losses were counterbalanced by the great fortune of the support they have from the all woman (and this was not by design, it just happened) team they’ve built over the past few years (eight women including one in California).  The staff kicked into high gear taking over while life balanced out for first Shawn then Kristi.  “It’s been an amazing experience building this company, our team is very supportive and we are all so passionate about each other as well as our business.” notes Kristi.  Passionate seems to come up a number of times during our conversation.  At one point, both women agreed the key ingredient to starting a successful business is your passion surrounding the business.