Tears are not the way youd expect Katie Jeanes career to start.
The insanely motivated and decorated 24-year-old had soared at UBC, quickly earning accolades for her work with UBC Rec directing the largest league at the university (soccer) by age 19 while serving as VP of the Human Kinetics Undergrad Society and teaching snowboarding with Vancouver Adaptive Snow Sports in her spare time. Ha.
Through winning the inaugural Outstanding Student Award to being nominated as a Paralympic torchbearer, shes was marching towards a PhD in neuroscience.
A recession-era graduate, Jeanes tackled 2009 with an open mind and a bachelors degree, vacillating between plans to continue studying and starting her own do-good business. But life had some tough lessons in store.
She found a job with a Vancouver company, Elated News, that wanted to bring positive news to the people in print form a seemingly perfect fit. But work at the social start-up disappeared as the company flamed out and she suddenly found herself behind the counter of a bike rental shop with her little brother.
It was like, Im going to be a neuroscientist! Im going to be a ballin entrepreneur! I ... work at a bike rental store. Shit.
One of the good things to come out of her job with Elated News was a chance to attend a CRAVE conference, complete with a coaching session with three Vancouver businesswomen.
I was so nervous. Heather (White) is a goddess of business, plus everyone at the conference was telling me I had to meet Arpen (Thandi) and the other coach, Felicia (Lee). Theyre amazing! ... I was like, Oh God, what have I done?
As she described her crumbling pedestal to the gurus, she found no sympathy.
I burst into tears. I was so embarrassed. They must have wondered, Who is this little wimp from North Van?
Jeanes is still in regular contact with all three yodas for her work as CEO of A Little More Good, the social start-up she finally had the guts to found.
I had ridiculous dreams like being on the cover of Fast Company. I knew I wanted to have my own company and Elated News was kind of it but not really, and all the women at the conference were like, You can do this.
Taking on its current form in 2011, A Little More Good is a group of Vancouver 20-somethings trying to make it easy to do, well, a little more good.
Daily web articles are curated to inspire change by promoting positive homegrown causes, companies and ideas. The organization also plans monthly fundraising events for chosen charities: March 18 is Curling for Covenant House a charmingly geeky way to raise funds for the youth organization.
Jeanes hasnt lost her busy gene her Twitter feed reads like a Whos Who of amazing people and causes shes involved with and she is expanding A Little More Good to other Canadian cities.
Get hooked on her simple strategy for making a difference by signing up for More Good in the Hood, an eBook she dreamed up to tick off 100 ways you can do good every day. That and more at ALittleMoreGood.com.
Editors note Kelsey Klassen occasionally writes for A Little More Good and is on the planning team for their charity events.
