I never meant to be a business owner. I like to call myself an “accidental entrepreneur.”

In fact, when I went to college at the University of Northern Iowa, I entered on a scholarship but with an undeclared major.

I had multiple interests, I was a high achiever, and I was struggling to land on one single career choice for the next 60 years of my life (a story for another day is putting this expectation and debt on 18-year-olds, but I digress).

An Undeclared Major (and a Firm “No” to Economics)

My freshman year, I dabbled in a lot of gen ed course work. I even went to an exploratory meeting at the UNI College of Business to learn about a potential career in marketing at one point. BUT when I saw Microeconomics and Macroeconomics on the required course list, 19-year-old me was like “absolutely not.”

After taking a personality profile in the spring of 2006, it determined that I would make a great high school teacher. “Genius!” I loved reading, I was a good writer/speaker, and I loved working with people and seeing their eyes light up when they had a lightbulb moment.

Finding My Calling in the Classroom

So off I went into the world of education to pursue a degree in English/Language Arts Teaching (again, NOT ever thinking I’d own my own business).

I began my teaching career filling long-term substitute positions and then accepted a job at our local private school teaching reading, math, social studies, and religion. After a position opened up at our public school, I was hired and I taught reading/language arts for two years.

What Teaching Taught Me

A few things I learned and loved about teaching:

1. I lived for the lightbulb moment.
2. I loved making the content relatable and modern for the students.
3. I wanted the kids to understand learning doesn’t just happen in a classroom; we are at our best when we are lifelong learners.
4. When you show up to the job, you might not have all the answers. But you can find them with a growth mindset and critical thinking.
5. Your energy and outlook influence the people and projects at hand.
6. The importance of time management and reading a room.

Most importantly, I learned it’s okay to step away from things you love. You see, after just three years of full-time classroom experience, I was pregnant with our third child in four years, and even in 2014, the math just wasn’t mathing for daycare and a teacher’s salary.

Stepping Away: The Stay-at-Home Mom Years

So I became a stay-at-home mom.

Those days are honestly a blur in my mind. Today, I often catch myself going back in time via my iPhone photos so I can remember their pudgy little toddler hands and hear their high-pitched lisps.

We spent our days doing the regular things: naps, coloring, playing toys, laundry, bottles, snuggles, etc. I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to have this time at home with my kids in their early years. It is not lost on me that was a privilege not every parent gets to enjoy.

The Pull Toward Something More

After two years as a stay at home mom and another bundle of joy, I felt that familiar pull toward something else. I needed a goal again. I wanted to stretch my professional legs, if you will, and let’s be honest, a family of four could use two-parent income.

The problem: I didn’t really know what I wanted career-wise. *See the opening line of yesterday’s post about not knowing what I wanted to “be” when I grew up.

At that time, my dad and cousin had started a small manufacturing business in our hometown, and they needed help with the administrative side of the business.

It checked a lot of my boxes: I could stay home with the kids, I could utilize a lot of the skills I learned leading a classroom (time management, making content relatable, problem solving, communications), I could name my own price ($15/hr, which in 2016 was a BIG deal especially to work from home), I had creative freedom to make this look however I wanted.

So….I said I would step in and grow this role.

What I wasn’t expecting was that it would turn out to be a happy little accident that would open doors and lead to opportunities I never imagined.

Enter: Facebook

Within a few months of starting administrative duties for my dad’s business, we discovered that many marketing methods employed by small businesses were out of date, and didn’t offer the owner much control over the budget, placement, or data behind their advertising campaigns.

During my years as a teacher and stay at home mom, I learned how to leverage this social media tool to rally people in the community and connect them on causes they cared about. Whether it was helping me add over 200 books to my classroom library or raising over $1 million for our community daycare, storytelling through videos and social media posts helped me realize that this was a skill not everyone possessed…and not many businesses used yet in our area in 2016.

So once we started bringing this concept to my dad and cousin’s business, it got people paying attention to what we were doing behind the scenes at this industrial company.

I began sharing before and after project transformations, color and texture options of our products, customer testimonials, “meet the team” bios, and videos of our machinery in action. While all that sounds rudimentary in 2025 digital marketing standards, a decade ago it was revolutionary.

Businesses were still using primarily local newspaper ads, radio spots, the yellow pages, and new signage to gain traction in that time. So to be able to post whenever we wanted, whatever photos and videos we wanted, with minimal budget, anytime editing, and access to the number of people it reached and engaged??? It was amazing.

And it got results.

When Word Got Around

Not just for my dad’s business…but for me.

Other local small businesses started paying attention to what I was doing with this business, inquiring if I could help them too. And before long I had a client roster that I never even meant to have.

Those first few months were a lot of trial and error, following my creative urges, and a lot of trust by the small business owners who contracted me to run their Facebook pages.

Pretty soon it became clear that I needed to do something more than just fly under the radar. I needed to put my name and face to this business I had accidentally built (no matter how much that really freaked me out…don’t you need a business degree or something to own and operate a business???)

Molly Knuth Media Is Born

And so, in the winter of 2017, Molly Knuth Media was formalized. And I was open to help small businesses market better online.

It felt like the biggest risk I had ever taken in my life…declaring myself open for business.

Within just a few months of this endeavor, I had a full client roster and filed for my LLC as Molly Knuth Media.

Next installment coming soon…

The Circuitous Path

Did I ever see myself as a business owner? No. But could I imagine myself doing anything else now? Not at all.

For those of you who read this far, did you intend to be in the role you are currently in today? Or do you, like me, have a more circuitous path?