Karen Medford was a very successful leader in the corporate sector, but left it all behind to open a new business, the Sirius Day Spa – the best decision she ever made.
Karen spent years in the corporate sector working in the music and medical industry. Her position required her to constantly travel from one part of the country to the next. It was in these quiet moments in traveling where she began to reflect on her path in life – but felt unfulfilled and off balance.
With no business ownership experience but full of ambition and motivation, she decided to start a business. In 2018, she went all in, left her career behind, and opened Sirius Day Spa.
What started off as a scary endeavor turned into a successful business. Karen was well on her way to a better life balance and true happiness.
But then everything changed in a short amount of time in 2020.
“We’re in the service business, you touch people and when covid happened, no one could have ever predicted what had occurred. So, we were forced to shut down. I was worried at the time- ‘was that the end of my dream?’ But it turned out to be just the beginning,” Karen said.
Instead of giving up and going back to a 9 to 5, Karen doubled- down on her business venture and started to acquire more equipment to add to her spa even though they could not fully operate under the covid restrictions.
But by using her newfound business savvy and her gut instincts, she pushed on through. And the result was tremendous.
Karen Goes All In With Sirius Day Spa
“When we opened, it was literally floodgates. It was just wonderful. People couldn’t wait to be looking gorgeous again and feeling great,” Karen said.
One of the reasons Karen fell in love with business ownership is because of her base clientele. A large majority of her clients are women. She relates to them because she understands their challenges. By running a spa, she is in a professional position to help women and loves seeing them do well and be happy.
“I like that aspect of it. It’s less rigid and more giving. We are all about community,” Karen said.
In addition to empowering and supporting her clients, she helps the local community as well. Karen and her organization belong to several philanthropic groups. She periodically hosts fundraising events and turns the money raised to support local non-profit organizations.
“Some examples include Big Cat Habitat and the Circus Arts Conservatory. And we’re members of Sisterhood for Good that provides grants yearly to local non-profits,” Karen said.
With her professional and personal experience in the corporate sector and now from business ownership, her message to women everywhere is that you can do it, too.
“There are resources there, you can do it, don’t give up. And there is support all around you. That’s another benefit of being a woman – there’s so many women in business support groups that people will lift you up,” Karen said.
A very uplifting message.
To learn more about Karen and Sirius Day Spa go to https://www.siriusdayspas.com/
Have you read about these other Great American Women?
-Jen Satterly was on the brink of leaving her husband because of his PTSD, but decided to give up her career and dedicate her life to understand Post Traumatic Stress and later founded the All Secure Foundation.
-Carrie Beavers, Army veteran, is the COE/founder of a fast growing company, Soldier Girl Coffee Company. But she only found success after she confronted her PTSD.
Who is Trudy Jacobson?
Trudy is an entrepreneur and leader. Her path to success and entrepreneurialism started in the trucking industry decades ago. She encountered numerous obstacles in the male-dominated industry- like discrimination. She was even conned out of a lot of money in a fraudulent scheme. Despite all that, Trudy always fought hard and pushed forward. Once she realized she was capable of anything, she went on to start her own company and excelled. Now she empowers other women to do the same and to learn from her experience. Trudy now highlights their stories for the world to see in the Great American Women Series. Trudy wants women everywhere to know they can achieve their goals.