Carla Meine's Career/Life Story

Carla Meine is participating in the Women in Business Conference on the "Up & Running: Starting Your Own Business" panel. Here she shares some of her story. This is the first in a hopefully long series on career/life stories. We hope that by sharing these stories, we can showcase a wide array of life/career choices and provide ideas as each of us pursue our own journeys. If you would like to share your story, please leave on a comment on this post with your name & email address, or email Kristy at kristy.rae.williams (at) gmail (dot) com.

It’s an interesting experience looking back on your life at 53 and thinking, “ Is this how I thought my life would be at 20?” I’m not really sure where I thought I would be but I can definitely say I didn’t think I would take this path to get where I’m at today.

After I graduated from college I got a job managing a restaurant in my hometown in Bellevue, WA. I married my high school sweetheart and shortly after had my first son. Life was a struggle balancing work and home but it was good. In 1981 I took a job with a restaurant chain called Sea Galley and spent 7 years working my way up from Assistant Manager to District Manager. During this time I had two more sons. The winds of change came calling and I took a job as District Manager with Godfathers Pizza. Two years later I was offered a Regional Manager position that put me in charge of over 50 stores in 5 states. This was for Mrs. Fields Cookies. Debbie asked me if I would move to Utah and take over the position of Director of Operations for her new concept. We decided to make the move.

Moving to Utah was a turning point in my career and my relationship. The job was a lot of traveling and made it very difficult to manage my home life. My husband left me and I found myself a single mom with 3 boys ages 3-12. If I thought life was challenging before it was about to get very difficult. Fortunately for me I met David Neeleman on an airplane and he offered me a job as Director of Operations for Morris Air so I was able to stop traveling. It was a great job and gave me the flexibility I needed to work and be a single mom. Then Morris Air sold to Southwest Airlines and so I was left without a job unless I wanted to move to Texas.

I decided against another move and took my stock and sold it to start my own company. That’s how O’Currance Teleservices was started. My concept was to take what I had developed at Morris Air with home agents taking inbound calls and create a whole call center that did that. I started in 1994 and grew it to 600 agents before selling it to a private equity firm in 2007. During this time I met and married my husband David Meine. Together we have 7 children and 9 grand children so life is full.

We also started a family business together called IdealShape. We help people transform their mind and body by using brain training, nutrition and exercise to lose weight and achieve their ideal shape. It’s an internet business that is finally taking off by using social media and Google Ad words. Three of our children work in the business with us and that makes it especially rewarding.

I love my life now. I’m married for eternity to a wonderful man. I have a large and happy family around me. I have business relationships that I have built over many years that have become great friends. I have a thriving business where I love to go to work each day. Would I have liked it to be a different journey? Yes. Would I change where I’m at? No. I love this quote from Marjorie Pay Hinckley "Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, “ Wow what a ride!" I feel like I could say that already and hopefully I’m a long way from the end.