ABOUT ME

I grew up in Green, OH and played many sports throughout my youth, but my two true passions were figure skating and cheerleading. Once I got into high school, it became clear that I had to choose one, and cheerleading won. I cheered for the NEO All-Stars cheerleading team from 1994-2000, winning multiple national championships and performing at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. After getting accepted into my college of choice, Ohio State, I tried out for Ohio State’s cheerleading team in the spring of 2000. I was one of 6 incoming freshman girls to make the team.

During my years at Ohio State, I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted my career to be, but I knew I loved to cheer and I gave it everything I had. I was a 4-year Varsity member (2001-2005) as well as a 4-year member of the Nationals team, which was comprised of 6 girls and 10 boys. We competed in Orlando, FL at the UCA College Cheerleading Nationals. I also cheered at 4 bowl games, including the National Championship game in Tempe, Arizona where the Buckeyes won in a nail-biting victory over the University of Miami.

Once I turned 21, I became a bartender at several of the campus bars, which was quite an experience. I was a bartender from 2003-2007. During that time, I graduated from Ohio State (2005) and pursued a 244-hour Web Developer certification from Ohio State’s Continuing Education department. In 2007, I received my first Web Design and Email Marketing job. Shortly after, I was offered a job at a tech company called ICC (now named g2o). For the entire 5 years that I worked for ICC, I was contracted to work for Cardinal Health, a Fortune 50 company. I worked at their corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ohio from 2007-2008. Then, in September of 2008, I moved from Columbus to Wadsworth, OH and worked for Cardinal Health remotely from 2008-2012.

In 2010, I got married, which influenced my next career choice. I made so many personalized items for my wedding – everything from the invitations to the bridal party gifts – and received rave reviews. Multiple people told me that I should sell these items. So, I chose a business name, bought a domain name and Personalized Brides was born. I worked on the website every night after work. In 2012, I was able to work on the business full-time. By 2013, it had grown so large that I needed help, so my husband quit his job and started working for the company.

By 2014, we needed much more space, so we moved into a manufacturing facility. I also built our 2nd niche website, PersonalizedBabies.com. Since then, I have built PersonalizedSpiritwear.com and PersonalizedSkaters.com and created an umbrella company, Personalized Brands, that encompasses all of our niche businesses.

Since starting my business in 2010, I have worn dozens of different hats. I built each website, which included creating every product that appears on them. I have set up all of the hosting, payment gateways and analytics. I have been responsible for the SEO, marketing and advertising, which includes social media posts, Google Ads, Facebook Ads and Pinterest Ads. I am responsible for analyzing the analytics data to see what is working and what isn’t. I am responsible for inventory and purchasing – from both US companies as well as purchasing directly from manufacturers overseas, some of which are private label items. I also make all of the designs and decorate all of the apparel.

In 2023, I will be handing over many of my responsibilities in these businesses to return to my original passion, web design. With over 15 years of web design experience – both building and maintaining websites – I know that I would be able to help other companies with all of their web design needs.