Kris Anne Gustavson's Career/Life Story

Kris Anne will be participating in the "Using Your Management Skills for Service" Panel. 

I went to BYU in 1970 and graduated in Recreation Education in 1974.  I met my husband, Paul Gustavson, my senior year in college and we married the summer of 1974.  He then went to graduate school at BYU and I worked to put him through.  After that we both took jobs at Amoco Oil Indiana in Chicago, Illinois.  I was an assistant to a chemical engineer, where I worked for 2 years, then when was pregnant with our first child, I quit to be a stay-at-home mom.  I essentially have stayed home since then, and have dabbled in the professional world in a few different ways.  When my husband started his own management consulting company in 1985,  I did all the office work.  We had an office in our home, (actually, in our bedroom, to begin with). I also did some Team Building/Outward Bound type workshops for some of our clients, using my Recreation Degree knowledge tied in with business principles.  I became aware of an organization that taught about the right brain/left brain and became certified in that, the Herrmann Brain Dominance Theory.  Then I began giving workshops around that, usually to my husband's clients.  We have worked together in many different settings throughout the last 25 years, me dealing with brain dominance and teaching and learning and team building.  I never worked 40 hours a week for a whole year, but was gone sometimes for a whole week at a time doing workshops across the country.  When my last child was in high school, I stayed home with him and didn't do much work during those 2 years.

When I was 20 years old, I wanted to be a stay-home mom.  I pretty much lived the dream, although that dream was just a dream and life gives you things you would NEVER dream of.  My mother helped my father in his career as a veterinarian doing the books, being the nurse, etc., so maybe that's why I ended up supporting my husband in his work.  I think more than that, we are a team in marriage and in life and it was natural to help him get his own company started and we have worked together ever since.  I also had a tremendous interest in his field of work and regret not applying for the same program at the same time as he did to get a masters in Organization Behavior along with him.

I found that doing part-time work was satisfying and still allowed me to be the kind of mother that I wanted to be, which has been the most fulfilling experience so far in my life.  I'm looking at my 8 grandchildren and thinking that this may be more fulfilling.

On the other hand, teaching is very fulfilling and as I have done workshops to help people understand their brain dominance, I delight in the times when life changing experiences happen to people.  Of course, teaching is a skill that can benefit the church in many different ways.  I also was camp director for 5 years at an amazing camp in the Sierras, Camp Ritchie.  My education and experience in the work field was invaluable in that calling.

In 2007, my husband and I were called on a part-time service mission to serve in the HR department of the church.  We kind of invented our mission.  The HR department wanted to use our skills, but we didn't want to charge the church our regular fees, so we suggested that it be a mission.  The mission department, our bishop and stake president didn't know how to handle the call and the paper work, as it didn't fit into their protocol.  But we finally got it all figured out and were soon working for the church for free, living in our home in California, serving in the Church Office Building in Salt Lake.  I did most of my work from my house,  doing telephone interviews with individuals who were applying for paid jobs at the church and did a few workshops for different departments.  Paul gave half of his working time to the church, mostly at the Church office building, but we did go to Germany, England, Russia, Nebraska and Hawaii for various reasons on our mission.  

Even though we are not on our mission any more, we still provide professional services for the church.  Some of it we are paid for, some of it not.  Most recently, we are developing a training program for the mission president in our area to help teach the missionaries skills he is concerned about. 

Casey Hurley's Career/Life Story

Casey Hurley will be participating in the "Develop (and Determine) A Career Path Despite Uncertainty" Panel. 

I loved growing up in a big family and always wanted my own. As a single law student, I looked forward to the day when I would hang my diplomas in my kitchen and my 12 children would know that all my years of schooling had been dedicated to preparing for my ultimate endeavor: raising them. Of course I was realistic enough to know that I might never get married, so I studied hard to prepare for the fabulous career I would have if I stayed single. When I grew up I would become either a brilliant supermom or a wildly successful career woman.

After finishing a journalism degree at BYU, I attended the Wake Forest University School of Law in North Carolina. I was a little nervous about moving to a place with only about 4 young single LDS men in the whole city; but though the odds weren't great, I figured I couldn't really date any less than I had a BYU. A few friends in my ward found husbands in fantastically miraculous ways, but I didn't. After school, I accepted a position with a law firm in Portland, Oregon practicing corporate finance law. Working long hours to make lots of money turned out not to be especially inspiring, though I enjoyed many aspects of my work--especially the people. I started looking for more gratifying work, and felt called, really, to teach at BYU-Idaho. The week before I interviewed at BYU-Idaho, I attended my family ward's Enrichment Meeting where a police officer (not LDS) was the presenter. About a month later he was baptized, another month and we were married, one more month and we moved to Idaho where I began my teaching career.

It was five years later that our son finally arrived on the scene. I went on maternity leave for a semester; then returned to work on a 75% contract. I would have quit my job to stay home if I could have. When my son was two, my husband quit his job to stay home with our son and work on some schooling. I went back to a 100% teaching contract. My son turned three about the same time our daughter was born nine months ago. 

So I find myself with about 10 less kids than I'd hoped for, though the two I've got make up for it in cuteness and genius. I'm hardly a supermom: my daughter eats food and other soft items off my dirty floors while my son plays house with his stuffed animals whose lion mom always has to work on her computer before she can play with the lion kids. Meanwhile, I'm trying to talk to a student on the phone who is wondering why there are lions roaring in the background followed by baby screams. My job is challenging, rewarding, and quite flexible: I teach and meet with students on campus, but do my prep, grading, and emailing from home. But working at home while I mother means working whenever I'm not mothering to make up for the gaps in my work day. It generally feels like a crazy mess. At times I cry over the time I spend at work away from my children. Other times I wish I could give more undivided time to my students. But I occasionally get a heartfelt note from a student saying I made a difference, and I regularly get a hug and a kiss and a "mom, I love you" or "ma-ma-ma-ma." And I can't help but smile and cry a little just thinking about it. 

Athelia "CK" LeSueur's Career/Life Story

Athelia "CK" LeSueur (previously noted as CK Woolley - I'm a bit behind the times) will be participating in the "Up & Running: Starting Your Own Business Panel." She shares some of her career story below. (CK is at right in the picture below, with her sister-in-law and husband)

I recently found a ‘what I would be doing when I was 30’ list in a set of old Goals of mine. I wrote it when I was eight.  It read:

1)     I would be married

2)     I would have three children

3)     I would live in Salt Lake City

Of course, at that time, I firmly believed that 30 would never come.  Yet, 30 DID come and at that time:

1)     I was single

2)     I had no children

3)     I lived in New York City

This list of goals I found was one of many that I’ve made in my life. I love goals.  When I was 20, my goals were not too much different from when I was 8. I thought I would be a dancer for a few years, get married and have children.  With this objective in mind, I spent my college summers dancing and my college years eagerly expecting to meet ‘the one’.  Freshman, Sophomore, Junior and Senior years came and went and somehow ‘the one’ didn’t show.  Shocked, I followed my plan of becoming a dancer. However, after a year, health problems forced me to change course again.  Still thinking marriage would come early, I enrolled in a Master of Social Work program.  I thought that I would marry while in graduate school and then work part-time.  Working in business never actually occurred to me.  Not only did business matters seem uninteresting, they also seemed intimidating. 

And yet, after my master’s program, my life hit another snag.  Health issues forced me to move home with my parents in Salt Lake City. While there, I realized that social work was not a good fit for me. I like and need lots of change in my work. I also love to organize and build and grow things.  Social work doesn’t do this.  I also LOVE clothing.  In the eighth grade, I put down on a career test that I wanted to be a clothing designer.  Thinking that I would never have a real career, however, I soon abandoned the idea.  But somehow, living with my parents gave me the time and bandwidth to remember my eighth grade dream.  I bought a book called ‘Fashion Design for Beginners’ and literally followed the instructions.

And . . .

I learned that building a company is hard.  Very hard. Yet, I also learned that I thrived from the challenge.  I learned that business isn’t just about making money. It’s about solving problems.  Most importantly, I learned some things about myself.  I no longer had to wait for ‘the one’ to come into my life to change my life.  I liked my life as it was.  I am now married and expecting my first child.  I am excited to embark upon this new challenge but don’t plan to leave my working life behind me.  I am so glad that I learned to love my life and career on my own first. Now I am grateful that marriage and family are wonderful additions to my life!

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.