Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura Stewart.
Laura, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I grew up in a small town in Southeast Texas and moved to Baton Rouge, LA after high school to attend LSU (Geaux Tigers!!). I was passionate about helping people achieve optimum health and wellness, so I majored in Dietetics and ended up getting my Master’s Degree in Nutrition, although I have only briefly worked in that field. Eventually, I moved back to Texas, Fort Worth to be exact, as I always said I was a Texas girl and that was where I belonged until I visited Sedona. When I was 34 I started thinking that I had never taken a solo vacation so I started looking for places to go and Sedona caught my eye, so in April 2017 I booked a flight and an Airbnb and the rest is history. I fell in love the moment I caught my first glimpse of the red rocks driving in on 179. I had never experienced the outdoors like I did here and never experienced true passion until that time. I went back to Texas certain that I needed to move. Two years later I finally decided to leap. I told myself that I would move if I could find a job. I began applying and three weeks later, in August 2018, I was moving to Phoenix. Not only did I find a job, but I hit the jackpot. I work in Business Development for a Clinical Research company and in October 2018 the entire Business Development team was transitioned to working from home. This past May I moved from Phoenix to Sedona and have never felt more at home. I have an incredible job, work with an incredible group of people and, at the end of the day, get to step outside my front door and explore the beautiful red rocks of Sedona.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Not! Ha, has anyone’s life been a smooth road? Where do I begin? When I was a kid I had a speech impediment that I got made fun of for a lot, so I was really quiet and shy. I also had a boy in 1st grade tell me that I was ugly because I had big eyes, so I grew up with very little self confidence which led to years of just being lost and not knowing who I was, what was important to me, or what I wanted out of life, which led to some poor choices and failed relationships. I remember crying on my 34th birthday because all I could think of were all of the things that I wasn’t that society said I should be by that age (married, a mother, successful career, etc.). That’s when things kind of started to turn around for me and I decided that I would start doing things that I wanted to do. Fun story, the first thing was going to a Garth Brooks concert.
Growing up in TX I loved him and always told myself that if he ever toured again I would go see him. Sure enough, his tour came to Dallas and I almost talked myself out of it but remembered that I promised myself I would stop missing out on things because circumstances weren’t perfect. A friend and I went and had the worst seats we could have, but to make a long story short, Garth’s sound and lighting engineer came and found us before the concert and gave us better seats – right in the middle of the second row. After that, I decided that if there was something I wanted to do, rather than justifying NOT doing it, I would just go for it!
Please tell us about your company.
The company I work for owns 14 clinical research sites across the country, basically from Las Vegas and Tempe to Miami. We conduct clinical trials in a variety of therapeutic areas and have some of the most successful and well known Principal Investigators in the country. We have streamlined many of our processes to make it easier on companies to work with us, for example, if several of our sites are chosen to conduct a study we can offer one contract and budget for all the sites, minimizing the amount of work that has to be done during study start-up.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Over the years I’ve seen a variety of people’s definitions of success in action and it has helped to shape mine. My idea of success is living a life that you enjoy and that, in some way or another, enriches others as well. Success is often totally defined professionally, but I’ve seen some of the most successful professionals who are completely miserable outside of the office or just don’t have time for anything outside of the office, and that’s just not me. Work-Life balance is extremely important to me, so having a career in which I feel successful and accomplished, yet still have time to do the things outside of work that makes me come alive (like getting outside) is what defines success for me.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.amrllc.com
- Instagram: @_laurajstewart_
Image Credit:
Lars Romig
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