Author: linecrewteam

Emily Mobley, Gray Nutrition

Emily Mobley, Gray Nutrition

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When it comes to nutrition and eating right, Emily Mobley, a registered dietitian, believes there is no black and white. Every person has their own relationship with food, making it difficult to find a sustainable, one-size-fits-all fad diet. She helps people find a viable meal plan in the gray area, unique to each person. 

It made sense for Emily, who has always been into fitness and health, to find her passion with nutrition. After beginning her career as a dietitian at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Emily moved to Colorado to take a job at Denver Children’s Outpatient Clinic. She worked with kids diagnosed with chronic diseases, and a variety of dietary needs. Some were tube- fed or had developmental delays, others had food allergies or were extremely picky eaters. Emily helped parents navigate the obstacles with food, ensuring nutritional needs were met.

While in Colorado, Emily met her husband who was stationed there with the Army. She didn’t know it then, but Emily’s professional course was about to take several detours as they moved 4 times in 5 years, to Georgia, Tennessee, Massachusetts, and now Alexandria, Virginia. It was getting harder for her to imagine her future while continually applying for new jobs and licenses. She didn’t want to have to keep recreating her career. 

It was after they made their third move to Tennessee that Emily had an epiphany about starting her own business. Emily found a fitness center that needed a dietitian, and rented a room, quickly finding demand and building a client base. Emily witnessed how extreme diet regimens, immediate fixes that didn’t work in the long term, were negatively impacting people. 

Moving away from those extremes to find a happier place in the middle is the inspiration for the name Gray Nutrition. There are a variety of wellness packages that account for lifestyles, activity levels, work schedules, food preferences, and include grocery lists, app support, educational resources, meal plans, and daily support.

The attention and support Emily gives each person can’t be replicated. She gets to know each client and their goals with a free discovery call, and her limited client list allows her to create a very personalized program. She challenges beliefs her clients have held their whole lives , and transforms their relationship with food. The outcome is they never have to spend money on another diet ever again.

Lindsey O’Donnell

Lindsey O’Donnell

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Lindsey O’Donnell didn’t set out to have her own sewing business. In fact, she’s a licensed therapist, who was also a teacher, and now does part-time subbing. However, being a Coast Guard spouse means growing and adjusting through multiple evolutions. Anyone who has had to transfer a professional license from state to state knows it’s not an easy thing to do, and at times isn’t worth the time and money to obtain it for the limited duration in a new location. Which is why Lindsey has been fortunate to discover a more portable talent- sewing.

While living in Massachusetts, and new to being a mom, Lindsey watched a documentary about how clothes are made. What she learned about the fashion industry made her both angry and sad, but inspired her to start making her own clothes. Lindsey always liked working with her hands, and already had a sewing machine, but decided to also buy a serger. She began making clothes for her and her daughters. Her goal was to make clothes by using big t-shirts and old dresses, and producing little to no waste.

 

However, a move to Alaska meant limited opportunities for upcycling, so she transformed her new passion into making memory backpacks out of the uniforms of service members. The bags were popular, but there were emotional and financial obstacles that came along with making such personal mementos at such a high quality. 

Fortunately, she had cultivated her skills even more, and was able to pivot into alterations, tailoring, applying patches, and making custom clothing and active-wear for women. Lindsey had an understanding that women don’t fill a cookie-cutter mold for sizes and shapes, and started creating clothes to help friends feel good in clothes that are made-to-measure just for them. 

By the time her family got to San Diego, she was frequently asked, “Where did you get that?” When her response to one retail clerk was, “I made it,” she began getting attention from local clothing boutiques that featured hand-made clothing. With first-hand access to a variety of fabrics (like denim) coming in on cargo ships, Lindsey was able to expand her repertoire to include highly coveted custom jeans.

Lindsey’s creations cover a wide variety of wares, including headbands, accessories, quilts, pouches, clutches, handbags, dolls, head wraps, and clothes for both women and children. She has no intention of picking a lane; loving the versatility and creativity that flows from a life that guarantees change. 

Matt Geer, Harvest Rock Advisors

Matt Geer, Harvest Rock Advisors

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For Matt Geer, it’s always been about helping people. It’s the reason he was drawn to the Coast Guard’s mission. It’s the reason he has become a civic leader, and is so involved with his community. It’s also why he started his financial advising firm.

It wasn’t a direct route to get to where he is now. After graduating from the Coast Guard Academy in 1999, Matt Geer spent 5 years stationed in Cape May, NJ. It was while he was in Cape May he also married his wife, Gretchen, whom he’d met in high school, but didn’t begin dating until after college. In 2004, he decided to get out of the Coast Guard, and he began a new career endeavor as an intern at Morgan Stanley in Elmira, NY. 

Across the street from where he was interning was a trust company with a job opening, and Matt saw a new opportunity. He walked over and asked for an interview, and with that, landed a job at a bank back in his (and his wife’s!) home town of Troy, PA, where he gained financial experience for over another decade. 

During those years, Matt’s guidance navigated the many restrictions placed on larger banks that forced those institutions to be more conservative, at times avoiding decisions that might be in the client’s best interest. Matt wanted to provide better support and advice to his clients, so he decided to pursue the freedom of doing his own thing, and opened up his own business doing financial advising. 

Harvest Rock Advisors is a boutique shop…where instead of trying to serve over 3000 clients, he can focus on fewer than 200. He enjoys having a small operation where he can give individuals a very personalized financial plan. 

With his certifications, he can be a broker and is licensed to give financial advice. He is connected with other financial advisors through his firm, and is able to work with people living in multiple states (currently as many as 15). 

The military teaches you is to make the most of any place you call home. Matt has done just that. He spends his time coaching track and field and playing in the town marching band, where he plays “anything and everything.” He’s currently the President of the Troy High School Foundation, which gives grants to teachers and scholarships to students. Matt is also the Treasurer of Kids Can’t Fight Cancer Alone. Which raises money for families with children who have pediatric cancer. Gifts range from gift cards, help with treatment costs, celebrating birthdays, and bereavement.

One of the reasons Matt joined the Coast Guard over other services was to be able to help people. He’s still finding ways to do that, whether it’s through his community or by helping clients through potentially difficult financial situations.

“In the Coast Guard, the mission was saving people. and there is no cooler feeling than helping someone who is in trouble.”

Kristen Trexler

Kristen Trexler

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Kristen Trexler, an “Army brat” turned Coast Guard spouse, has been moving her entire life. She can claim changing location eight times in eight years – a major feat for even the most seasoned military family. Kristen feels like she’s from nowhere and everywhere at the same time.

Each new community becomes a home to Kristen. She finds jobs where she can -a phlebotomist, a pediatric nurse, a nutrition counselor, a physical fitness instructor (to name a few) – all related to her degree in exercise science, her medical background, and her passion for serving people.

While Kristen and her family enjoy the adventures, there have been a few complications along the way, both professionally (keeping current with references and qualifications in each state), and personally (growing her family). With that, Kristen needed something to occupy her mental space. She had always been a hands-on, motivated person. So Kristen taught herself to sew, and sewing became her therapy. 

Kristen would sit, sew and make gifts for people. Every season and duty station had a different niche and opened up more opportunities to grow her art. She made bedding, curtains, costumes, aprons, and super-hero capes. 

Friends began asking whether Kristen could help add striping or sew a patch onto a uniform, particularly dress uniforms. Those needed special attention to detail when it came to alterations, buttons, and hemming, and local seamstresses didn’t always know how to do it. Kristen was particularly good at it, but also added a personal touch. Her skill, flexible work hours, and willingness to come to people’s homes, led to an overwhelming demand. She started Sew-Called Therapy; aptly named for the remedy it was providing to her and other women.

Soon, sewing began to serve another purpose for Kristen and her community. Women were asking for lessons, and Kristen started teaching classes to individuals, groups, and even kids. Kristen provided the material kits with zippers, buttons and stuffing, and taught different techniques. Ladies would bring their sewing machines, sometimes taking it out of the box for the very first time, and Kristen would start them on simple projects. Women were meeting women and strengthening relationships between mothers, daughters, sisters and friends.

Raquel M., Fenestronic Studios

Raquel M., Fenestronic Studios

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A native Puerto Rican, Raquel met her husband, a Coast Guard helicopter pilot, while both of them were living in Miami, FL. As many military spouses have found, her marriage meant several moves over the course of their 12 years together. Raquel’s primary profession is as an actress, which meant facing a variety of opportunities, but also many challenges, in maintaining continuity in her career as they changed locations.

Raquel and her husband were living in the D.C. area, which has proved to be the least compatible with her acting pursuits. So Raquel combined her experience in visual arts with her growing interest in her husband’s passion for filming their travels, and officially began a videography business. The company’s name, Fenestronic Studios, is a play on the Latin word Fenestra, meaning window or aperture, as well as the type of tail rotor for the helicopter flown by her husband. The two of them now enjoy spending their weekends creating short films for weddings and other social experiences.

Raquel has a natural talent for the creation of these films. Her experience as an actor allows her to absorb a scene quickly and capture emotion and movement. She doesn’t get caught up in scripts or set pieces of the wedding day. Their clients note that she instantly establishes trust and rapport, and works really well with the couple, particularly the bride. Raquel’s eye for the picture is balanced by her husband’s keen interest in audio and editing skills. He weaves a narrative thread into their documentary-style films by finding special sentiments in the vows and the toasts. The results are fresh and impactful.

Even though they were based in D.C. the last few years, the majority of the weddings they’ve filmed have been in other destinations. Travel is easy for them, and they enjoy shooting films in a variety of places. Being versatile helps them to be more creative in capturing the authenticity and joyfulness of the events. 

This summer they moved again, to Jacksonville, FL. Raquel anticipates that marketing themselves in the wedding industry, where established relationships and networks can be critical, will provide another unique hurdle. Having relied primarily on word-of-mouth so far, LineCrew is a welcome support for them to generate more clients.