We had the good fortune of connecting with Jennifer “Mariposa” Young and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jennifer “Mariposa”, other than deciding to work for yourself, what else do you think played a pivotal role in your story?
Surrounding myself with high-quality people and not compromising on that has been the best decision I’ve made for both my nonprofit and my spiritual business. From recruiting talented and passionate nonprofit board members to carefully selecting clients for big events, seeking out professionalism and caring people have been vital to my success. I might be my own boss but I can’t do business without a community.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’ve had a long career in education. I’ve been an HS English teacher, a GED Instructor, and the director/founder of a nonprofit vocational school for adults focused on construction trades. My nonprofit is called BEATSchool. Serving populations with significant educational/vocational obstacles has always been a passion of mine. Throughout my career as an educator, I came to believe that I could do “this” better. Also, since my husband is a plumber, I saw a huge need and opportunity for a lucrative career in the trades. Those are the reasons I started my own nonprofit. Yet, there have been substantial obstacles to delivering vocational training and apprenticeship placement to people over the last four years and all these obstacles have energized me rather than demoralized me like I experienced when I worked for someone else’s school. This year is a big year for BEATSchool in which we will go after some big funding streams like government grants that we are finally eligible for. In addition, I come from a family of metaphysical readers and spiritual business owners. I started charging money for palm readings, astrology readings, and card readings in my late teens. In my 20s, I started doing corporate gigs where I was a speaker and reader. During the pandemic, I started exploring how to offer readings online instead of in person, which I had exclusively done in person before. I am now 50 years old and I’m quite happy with this side hustle/passion project role I have as a metaphysical reader. I’ve always explored new ways to show up and offer readings but I’ve never wanted to make it a full-time pursuit. If I ever retire from education-land, I’ll then only be a reader but even then, I will do it for fun and not for financial success.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’ve done this a few times with visiting folks! We would definitely check out some bigger sights like: Pikes Peak, preferably on the cog railway, Cave of the Winds, Garden of the Gods park, and the Penny Arcade in Manitou Springs.
Some local food spots I love and share with visitors are: Poor Richard’s, Caffeinated Cow, COATI, and Saigon Cafe.

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?
The Colorado Nonprofit Association really got me orientated and educated about how to run a nonprofit. The Body Mind Spirit Expos really helped me be “known” in the community as well as network with other spiritual business owners.

Website: https://beatschoolinc.com and https://mariposayoung.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/90660496/admin/feed/posts/

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