Background

I grew up on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation. My mother was a elementary school teacher and my father a musician. I was drawn to anything where I could be creative. I belonged to different gifted and talented programs for art and music from elementary through high school. When I turned 21 years old, I moved to the Fargo-Moorhead area to pursue a career as an MMA fighter and Jiu-Jitsu competitor. I was good. I won tournaments and fought for belts. I had a loyal fan base and even had branded merchandise. The first brand I truly built was myself. This is where I found myself discovering the world of business or being a business. I loved every moment of that time in my life, but it wasn’t my calling. Eventually, I found employment running other people’s businesses. Through business I found marketing. The success I had in business was due to my ability to market to my audience. Learning what people want, how to influence their journey through an excellent customer experience, and how to engage them into taking that experience in the first place. After recognizing the much bigger impact I could have as a pure marketer, I enrolled into Minnesota Community and Technical College and received an associate degree in digital marketing in May of 2023.

In-Depth Career Background

I started my journey is the world of business by running a small coffee shop located inside of the Turtle Mountain community college. There I learned about direct competition, informing the market of your offerings, and how we differ from our competition. This is also where I discovered the importance of building relationships within the community of which you do business. After moving to Fargo, ND in 2007, I worked various jobs until I got back into the business world by becoming the assistant manager of a Royal Liquors in 2013. I held that position for only 2 months before they offered me the position of general manager of which I held for 5 years. My time there offered me experience in building community relationships, merchandising, customer experience, website building, social media presence, buyers’ journey, external collaboration, and content creation. In 2018, I made a change and became a manager at Custom Express Car Wash (Now Tommy’s Express). That is where I really got to dive into content creation, social media management, marketing campaigns, and PR activities. Just under 2 years at that company, I decided to leave and start my own business offering maintenance, lawn care, and snow removal services to property management companies. The pandemic arrived a few months after launch and shut me down. With some reflection, I realized I wanted to continue my education and I enrolled into a digital marketing program at MState in Moorhead, MN. While attending college, I launched the Goin’ Indigenous Blog. Which is aimed at educating and creating conversation around Native American experiences. After graduating I seen marketing for non-profits as a way to do good within our communities. Helping people that help people engage with their audience to have a greater impact is something I am passionate about.