It’s safe to say that The Rising Tide Society has had perhaps the greatest impact on me in 2019 as far as my weekday 9-to-5 life goes. It has been the biggest surprise to my world and has made me grow so much as a person and as a businessperson.

Let’s rewind just a bit before we get back to 2019…

RTS was co-founded by my friend Natalie Franke Hayes who wanted a community of creatives that delivered education, support and took away competition and comparison. RTS is two parts — an online community of nearly 78,000 people from across the world and monthly in-person meetings (called Tuesdays Together) where creatives can meet face-to-face to discuss a monthly topic related to business and entrepreneurship.

I actually started a chapter of Tuesdays Together when my family and I lived in Rochester, New York for two years. I made some incredible connections and became a much more successful business owner from that time and those monthly meetings. Getting out of my comfort zone as an introverted observer was so powerful, too, as I had to lead discussions, organize meetings and rally around others. When it was time to leave Rochester, I knew I wanted to stay involved with Rising Tide and so I volunteered to be a moderator for the RTS facebook group page. With so many thousands of members, the RTS moderating team ensures that posts and comments are kind, helpful, supportive and in line with the community guidelines.

Last December, after two years as a moderator, I was asked to help cover the maternity leave of RTS’s Community Support Manager, Kait Masters. What was supposed to be a three-month temporary gig got extended multiple times to keep me as an independent contractor for RTS and its parent company of HoneyBook, with a pending extension through 2020.

My work this year for RTS as the Head of Community Moderation has included overseeing the team of moderators and tweaking their process and our guidelines. I’ve also been the first point of contact for the main RTS email inbox. I get to work with Kait to support her as she creates amazing projects and events for the RTS community, too. My weekly video syncs with her are part-therapy and part-meeting of the minds.

I’m grateful to Kait and Natalie both for supporting my ideas, embracing tiny changes here and there and helping me help the incredible moderators that I work with every day. It doesn’t even feel like work.

If you had asked me years ago if I would ever lead an in-person group of business owners, I would have called you crazy. And if you had told me I’d be working for a company I believe in and who equally believe in me, I would have said that was impossible.

This year with the Rising Tide Society has made me a better leader, a stronger businessperson, a happier and more fulfilled person and someone that can inspire her children to try new things and give her work her all.

I’m not sure how long RTS will keep me around, but I do know that I’m incredibly grateful for every day and every week that I get to help others.