Meet Michelle Owen | Artist, Program Manager and Dog Rescuer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Michelle Owen and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Michelle, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking.
I have always like to think of myself as a “risk taker” – one of my favorite sayings is “you only live once!” There have been more than a handful of times where I regretted taking the risk but even more times where I looked back on a certain situation and was glad I just jumped in with both feet. Many opportunities literally do just come once in a lifetime, and if you wait around to find out if it’s one of them, it’s probably too late.

Many of my “risks” have been “no choicers” and by that I mean there really wasn’t a good alternative, so I just needed to do it. There was no option but to make it work. Which, in turn, taught me how to meet deadlines, follow through on commitments, make choices in a quick and decisive way, and try not to say “should’ve, could’ve, would’ve”. Once you take a risk, it’s water under the bridge. At that point you can only enjoy the good outcome, improve upon the outcome, or take note of the outcome, learn by the experience and never do it again.

I have reinvented myself numerous times because of the ebb and flow of life circumstances. I started as a graphic designer which was my college education of choice. After marriage and the birth of children, I became a full-time mom (and still dabbled in design on a freelance basis). I reinvented myself after taking cake decorating classes and turned that into a small business when then turned into a bakery storefront. It was my way of surviving a divorce and becoming a lone breadwinner for my children and myself.

After the years of the storefront bakery lease were over, I went back to working for myself from home, but I seemed to long for something more. I reinvented myself yet again and pursued my other passion, which is working with older adults. I turned into a full-time case manager for a nonprofit that serves seniors of Collin County. It was during this time that I also became a dog rescuer. Every time you adopt a stray dog, it is taking a risk. Will it fit into the pack? When a dog is set to be euthanized, you do not have the luxury of time. You just rescue it and hope it works.

So, I’ve come full circle with the risk taking. I now have a very full life that incudes ALL OF IT. I kept my creative outlet of designing amazing cakes, I love my job that serves senior citizens, and I currently have six rescue dogs (have had 11 in total). Risk taking can be scary, but it also teaches you to make the very most out of your life.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
As a graphic designer, I feel like my college education really allowed me to do well in the jobs I performed during the first half of my professional career. I had great mentors and worked at companies that allowed me to flourish as a graphic designer. By the time I had children (I was 33 when I started my family), I eventually decided that was my priority at that moment. Every young mother has to make that choice and I was so lucky to be able to afford to stay at home with my children the first few years of their lives. But a few years off in a technology-related field might as well be a decade given all of the updates and changes to software and equipment. That, in tandem with a divorce with two young children, required me to think fast and create a new way of supporting my family. In a couple of years, I turned a few casual cake decorating classes into an at-home business that turned into a storefront bakery. At that point, I just needed a way to make a living to support myself and my two kids.

After the 4-year commercial lease ended, and the 100-hour weeks that the storefront required, I was ready for a break from the long hours, painful feet from standing so long and the sheer energy drain that running a bakery had become. The other passion of mine (I debated whether my college education should be graphic design or gerontology) was working with seniors. I’d done some volunteering in the past at some nursing homes visiting with the residents or doing manicures for the ladies, but it seemed like maybe that would be a great second career.

I started working at the nonprofit Wellness Center for Older Adults and have been there for over six years. I coordinate a volunteer-based program that assists seniors with home help and transportation after a hospitalization or some type of health decline, through until they are back to functioning independently. It is such an amazing way to fuel my interest in helping senior citizens and get paid to do it! And the volunteers are such incredibly giving and generous people, that it often doesn’t feel like work.

Now I can do that wonderful job, and I also get to help with design and print production for the Wellness Center as well. It’s a win-win! I’m convinced that if you have enough passion for something, you can be good at it. I’m so thankful that the Wellness Center gave me a chance, after having a mostly creative job history, to prove that my passion will absolutely be what makes me so good at this job. The advice I would give is to turn your passion into a career so that you will truly LOVE what you do.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
The Fort Worth Stockyards and Rodeo has always been a favorite of mine. I’ve had memberships to the Dallas Zoo, the Perot Museum, the Dallas Aquarium and The Science Museum at Fair Park. Another great visitor destination is the 6th Floor Museum in downtown Dallas.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There really are too many people to list for shoutouts. I’m not too proud to say that any success I enjoy is because others have supported me through it all. My parents would probably be the best place to start. I was fortunate enough to be one of those kids whose parents were supportive, attentive and let me be independent. Having lost both my mother and father over a decade ago, my stepfather, Joe Masterson, has always been the unconditional buoy that I could cling to when I felt like I was drowning. Even when I’d take the risk and it didn’t work out – he was always there to assist with the aftermath if it was an epic failure, or to congratulation me on the success when the risk turned out to be a great choice.

Website: https://www.handsoncakes.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063572861609