Knock, knock. You still there?

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 60^th 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

www.o-shells.com

www.red-dog-inn.com

on Facebook at @OshellsRedDog