The Big Reach: Powerful ‘Parent-preneur’
I know Terra Missildine of Haydenville in so many varying capacities.
For a time, she and her husband, David, and I wrote together in a tiny little writing group that included only one other person. Her fiction is eclectic and dynamic and a bit racy.
I know Terra too as an artist who creates items from nightlights made out of stone to greeting cards that are whimsical and full of flair.
I also know Terra as business owner and fellow member of the Mill River chapter of BNI, a networking group. In that capacity, she is organized, professional, crisp.
Terra and I are also barter partners. Her business, Beloved Earth, takes care of cleaning my home, and in turn, I oversee her marketing and communications efforts. She is hard to keep up with as she’s a whirlwind of ideas and activity, and she and David have a new baby daughter who keeps her busy as well!
Last month, Terra was one of the speakers at Business West’s Western Mass Business Expo, offering a seminar called “The Hero’s Journey: Your Personality Archetype in Business.” She takes this particular workshop on the road often; it helps business owners understand how timeless mythology of archetypes and universal personality traits can be used to leverage values, performance and brand to authentically build business with more ease and fun.
That’s Terra, combining her whimsy and fantasy with business. She combines marriage with business successfully as well.
After attending classes in sustainability at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, David and Terra became passionate about environmental stewardship. They launched Beloved Earth, the Pioneer Valley’s first “green” cleaning company in 2005 and became adept at cleaning homes and offices in a way that protects those that inhabit them – as well as the earth.
Offering eco-friendly and non-toxic options to residential and commercial clients in Northampton and the wider region wasn’t enough for the husband-and-wife team, though. They wanted to become an engine for creating a cleaner world, and they’ve done this through sharing their knowledge and expanding the circle of environmentally-conscious entrepreneurs.
Their passion is contagious. Many entrepreneurs and individuals have partnered with them for change – because Valley residents get that their actions are collective, that individual behaviors make a lasting difference.
While she saves the planet, raises her daughter, runs her business, helps other business owners and develops creative pursuits, Terra is also working toward a bachelor’s degree in sustainable entrepreneurship through the University Without Walls at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
She is a successful entrepreneur and creative business coach who loves helping other passionate small business owners to build and refine their businesses or projects.
Email her at terramissildine@gmail.com to get on her enewsletter list so you can keep track of her workshop offerings and attend one. You’ll learn something that will pique more than one interest, I’m sure.
