I’ve had a flurry of “Congrats” emails thanks to LinkedIn,
so I decided it was time to bring everyone up to date on Mary Kaye O’Brien, via
a first post on my new blog. Note, this post often uses the plural pronoun, we, to include both parts of O’shells –
myself (O’) and my husband, Don Bushelle (shells).
My last day working for Zillow was April 15, 2019. My position was eliminated and after thinking
about it (for all of 2 seconds) I decided, I’m out of here! Enough of Seattle and corporate life, time to
devote myself full time to O’shells and Red Dog Inn.
On April 15, I also got a call from a previous neighbor (a
real estate agent) asking if we would talk to her about personally selling her our
house. She got my number (with
permission) from another neighbor who knew we were going to sell and leave
Seattle. I gave her a tour on April 16,
told her what I wanted and how I wanted the whole transaction to go down, and
April 17 we signed the paperwork to begin the process. Gee whiz!
Was that easy!
April 22, 2019, we were formally established as an LLC
with the State of Washington and opened Red Dog Inn! Yes, quite a whirlwind of an April last year!
Since then, we have literally been focused on Red Dog Inn –
both the physical structure as well as the marketing. We had a full house in July 2019, as we hosted
family from near and far to help celebrate (surprise celebration) my sister’s
60th birthday. We had a few
inquiries after that but didn’t have another guest until Labor Day weekend. Admittedly, that guest was our goddaughter
and her family, and we didn’t charge them.
So technically, Red Dog Inn didn’t make any money in 2019. Red Dog did learn lots of new tricks about
inn-keeping though. I began listing the
three guest rooms on Airbnb in January 2020.
We had one reservation in January, three in February, and then……….COVID-19.
O’shells really embodies and brings together the two sides
of me that always seemed to be at odds before – the consumer insights guru
(professional) with a passion for nature and hospitality (personal). To that end, I also did a little bit of
consulting in 2019. Since the hospitality
industry is still in some turmoil with the COVID-19 virus, I will likely spend
more time than planned to build out this part of O’shells for the remainder of
2020.
But I also wanted to take this opportunity of “semi-retirement”
to just do things I’ve always wanted to do but felt I never could because I was
always traveling between two homes – one in Seattle and one west of Port
Angeles, WA. I always had my toiletry
bag and suitcase packed. If I wasn’t
traveling between homes, I was traveling (usually flying) to some locale for
work.
So, in October (and following my love of theater), I tried
out to be part of a Speaker’s Theater at the Port Angeles Community Playhouse, “The
Laramie Project: Ten Years Later.” I
ended up having three very small roles, but I had a blast! More fun and exhilarating than any public
speaking I have ever done before.
I was
hooked. I started volunteering, helping
to distribute posters for upcoming plays, interviewing kids (and a few adults)
and creating bios for the Children’s Theater holiday production, and decorating
for the fundraising gala. In April, I
was honored to be asked to officially join the Board of Directors, and I am
also serving on the Marketing Committee.
It’s a challenging time for theater and I’m very excited about being
part of this team to continue to bring theater and arts to the Olympic
Peninsula. It’s a very exciting time for
arts in general here on the Peninsula, and just like getting in on the ground
level of a startup, I’m incredibly excited about the possibilities for all arts
on the North Olympic Peninsula.
That’s it in a nutshell.
I hope someday in the future you will stay at Red Dog Inn (contact me
about the “Friends & Family Discount”), or perhaps we will cross paths at
some conference, event, or trail. Until
then, stay safe, stay in contact.
I will be using this blog in the future to share blended
insights to both amuse and intrigue you.
I leave you with web site addresses for both O’shells and Red Dog
Inn. I will admit, they need tons and
tons of work. And if any of my friends are interested in providing a little pro bono site design and programming work, I would welcome it with open arms!
Cheers!
,MK
on Facebook at @OshellsRedDog
