Meet The CEO
I didn’t know it then, but the little girl bouncing through a hay field in an oversized go cart was already learning how she would spend the rest of her life winning races she wasn’t supposed to enter.
One of my earliest memories looks a lot like the photo above. It was a weekend in Liberty, Missouri on a backyard go cart track where boys and men came to race. Engines roared, fuel hung in the air, and the starter rope snapped like a chainsaw bringing each cart to life.
I was five years old.
The cart I drove was my brother’s number 15, and it was far too big for me. My legs were too short to reach both the brake and the gas at the same time. So I made a decision.
I used the gas.
When the tight S curve came up too fast, I couldn’t slow down, so I cut through the hay field beside the track and bounced my way back onto the pavement ahead of everyone else. Lap after lap, the same thing happened, and somehow I kept winning.
Where the Lesson Started
If you look closely at that photo, you’ll see a man sitting on a railroad tie with a Schlitz beer in his hand.
That’s my father.
I was his right hand girl. All weekend long I heard the same thing:
“Sis, get me a wrench.”
“Sis, hold the steering wheel.”
“Sis, grab that tool.”
My father wasn’t the kind of dad who gave hugs or long speeches about encouragement. Instead, he gave me something far more valuable.
He expected me to do the job.
No special treatment. No shortcuts. No excuses.
That little race track taught me something that still guides me today.
When the path in front of you doesn’t work, you find another way around it.
The Race Looks Different Now
Today, decades later, I’m still racing.
Only now the track looks different.
As CEO of MySmartPlans, I lead a bootstrapped, multi million dollar company in an industry that has long been considered a man’s world.
Our clients are the drivers of massive projects, and we are the pit crew.
We catch problems before they reach the track. We make sure the systems and data running the project perform at their highest level. Because when you are building something that large, something that important, every turn counts and every detail matters.
I’m also the CEO who answers the phone. I work strategy directly with our clients and help design projects where owners, contractors, engineers, and communities all succeed.
Well… almost everyone.
The only people who don’t usually win are the lawyers sitting on standby hoping for disputes. Because when projects are built with clarity, communication, and the right systems in place, conflict doesn’t stand much of a chance.
Start Your Engines
Along the way I’ve heard plenty from the sidelines. The names people call a woman who competes in spaces where she wasn’t expected. The comments and assumptions meant to slow you down.
But those voices misunderstand something about me.
When I hear that noise, I don’t hear criticism.
I hear one thing.
Start your engines.
Because the moment someone doubts whether I belong in the race, I’m usually already halfway through the next turn.
And when our clients cross the finish line successfully, with their projects completed and their people going home safe to their families, we’ll be right there with them, holding the checkered flag and ready with the green flag for the next race.