After 21 years working for Amway Corporation, Deborah Johnson Wood left the company, losing an integral part of her personal identity along with her livelihood. She then went through a process of self-discovery and emerged as a freelance writer with her own business, Alpha2Omega Writing Services, LLC. Recently Wood spoke to me about her journey to that new career, the work she says she “is supposed to be doing.”
Tell me about your years at Amway.
I was hired at Amway in 1979. For the first 17 years I worked as a Customer Service Representative, helping the Independent Business Owners with orders. I enjoyed my work responsibilities and developed many friendships.
Eventually I needed a change and transferred to the Information Technology Department, where 90 people or so worked in four different sub-departments. My job included facilitating various social activities to foster camaraderie among the four groups. I planned a lot of event-type activities and organized employee perks. In IT I first learned to use a computer. I was asked to do a lot of writing in my position. Among other things, I wrote brochures, training books and manuals, and set up a detailed training program. People knew I could write and asked me to proofread their work and consulted with me about punctuation.
Cutbacks started at Amway in the late ‘90s and I watched as my friends and colleagues lost their jobs. In 2000 there were deeper cuts and my four bosses had their jobs dissolved. Without anyone for me to assist, my job was eliminated.
I was able to find another job in the company. It was located at the other end of the huge complex, however, literally a mile away from all the people I knew. I lost my friendships and became disillusioned. I tried to make it work, but soon made the tough decision to leave Amway, my home for 21 years.
What did you do next?
I took an Executive Secretary position with another large corporation in town, but couldn’t make the culture shift. Before long I decided to take six months off to reassess my future.
Over time I came to realize that watching my friends get laid off, having my job dissolve, making a shift within Amway, then trying a position at another company amounted to four traumatic events in eight months. I became very depressed and felt I had lost my identity. I didn’t know who I was, I didn’t know what I could do or what I could offer an employer.
My friend Dawn Longcore was a personal coach and I asked her to assess my skills. With her guidance I completed aptitude and ability tests and searched the job market. Dawn kept pulling me back to my writing, but I couldn’t see how anyone was going to hire me to write – I was 45 and had no college degree.
“You’re discounting your writing skills,” Dawn insisted. “You’re a communicator. That’s where you need to focus.”
Then Dawn asked me, “What would it take for you to start your own business?”
Terrified and worried that I would fail, I avoided her question for weeks. “What would you need to get started?” Dawn persisted.
We established that I would need a computer and a phone, both of which I had. Finally came a day when I was able to answer, “I would need some contacts.” That is the day I could begin to see that I could start my own writing enterprise. That was 2000.
How did you start Alpha2Omega Writing Services?
I set out to make those contacts. I took a class at Grand Rapids Opportunities for Women, then wrote website and brochure copy pro bono to build up my portfolio. Things blossomed from there. Ellie Frey, then Executive Director of Local First, appreciated the pro bono work I did for them and recommended me to Rapid Growth.
I met with Andy Guy, Rapid Growth’s founding editor, armed with a ton of story ideas. Also, I knew a lot about the City and its neighborhoods. I pitched those ideas to Andy. He didn’t care if I was formally educated or not – he knew I could write and knew the City.
I wrote a number of the neighborhood guides that are on RG’s website. I drove around and around the city, getting to know the neighborhoods and made many contacts. The timing was perfect so that when the Development News Editor left RG, I was experienced and confident enough to ask Andy for the position. I made out a list of contacts I had around town that was three pages long, single spaced. I wanted that job! Andy hired me for the position.
I wrote Development News for about a year, the news links and then RG expanded with the Innovation and Job News feature. Now I write between nine and 12 articles a week. That, coupled with my other responsibilities, makes it a full-time job.
Since you weren’t formally trained to be a writer, how did you learn the skills?
Growing up, I attended a three-room country school in Orleans, Michigan. My seventh grade teacher, Mr. Church, concentrated heavily on literature and creative writing and I really enjoyed it. He didn’t teach grammar, but somehow I absorbed it. Intuitively, I learned sentence structure.
About seven or eight years ago I joined Peninsula Writers, and I attend their four annual writing conferences. Journalists, freelance writers, novelists, textbook writers, and poets are all part of the group.
Locally, about eight of us meet monthly to share and critique each others’ writing. I keep working on my writing and getting better at it.
Do you have other writing work in addition to Rapid Growth?
I write regularly for Home Repair Services, a non-profit group that helps people fix up their homes. I write news releases and brochures. If someone needs a website, I can write the text.
I moved my office from my home to an office located at Ionia and Weston in April 2008. My credibility shot through the roof when I got an office downtown. Even my parents took me more seriously, as did people I know professionally. Someone said to me, “So now you have a real business.” I had a “real business” before! Psychologically, it’s interesting.
What are your goals for the immediate future?
My husband and I married right out of high school and we have one son who now has two young children of his own. We have set a goal to get healthy for our grandchildren. We want to be the grandparents who play ball, ride bikes and take camping trips. I am outlining a cookbook that will feature the healthy recipes I have developed while also chronicling our journey to weight loss and healthy living.
I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing. Writing is a thread that stretches through my years of work. Having my job dissolve was horrible, very traumatic. Still, it was the best thing that ever happened to me. It made me revaluate my career path. I would never have discovered what I was meant to do if I still had that safety net. I put in long hours and lots of work to get where I am today. I love it.
Deb Moore, a Grand Rapids resident, is a freelance writer, personal historian and contributor to Rapid Growth. She last wrote for Rapid Growth about Accents Gallery owner Patti Wisniewski.
Photos:
Debra Johnson Wood in her Heartside office with her dog Louie
The view from her 5th floor office
Louie
Photographs by Brian Kelly - All Rights Reserved