The Bee's Knees
So how did this cheerful woman get involved in the bee business?
"My dad was a beekeeper, so I was always around bees," says Emily.
Raising bees has taken Emily on some interesting adventures. Each year she usually orders bees (yes, apparently you can order insects), but one summer when she was a kid, her dad decided to drive the family down to Georgia to get their supply.
"It was pretty interesting, and scary, riding in the car with a swarm of bees in the back. You could hear the buzzing the entire ride."
Despite the crazy journey, Emily knew that having bees of her own was inevitable. Her father's hobby carried down into her family and her husband took a great interest in beekeeping. So the crazy adventures continued.
A Sticky Situation
But the first year Emily and her husband started raising their own bees was a near disaster.
"It was one of the hottest summers and the weather really agitated the bees. It was so hot that they didn't want to stay in their hive and they would swarm the garden," she explains. That year she got her first two bees stings. Surprisingly, she's only been stung on one other occasion.
The bee stings didn't scare her from her hobby though. While honey is a great sweetener for baked goods and tea, there are also several health benefits of honey. Emily's local, unpasteurized honey is great for people who suffer from allergies. It's said that one tablespoon of honey a day can help relieve allergy symptoms or soothe a cough if you're sick with a cold.
And the honey isn't the only benefit of having a hobby as a beekeeper. If you use a special comb, you can collect the wax on the outside of the honeycomb to make soaps and candles. When the honey and wax are out of the honeycomb, take a bite! This sweet treat is a favorite delicacy in her household.
Movin' On Up
Even Emily's career path is in line with her family. Her mom worked for a Lansing credit union and Emily looked forward to the annual Bring Your Child to Work Day. After high school, she got a job at the same credit union as her mother and worked there for a year and a half. Like every child, however, she soon decided that she wanted to make her own way in the world.
At the encouragement of her friend, she applied at State Employees Credit Union (what is now Lake Trust). Emily started as a pool teller, working in several departments of the credit union to fill in where needed. Her dynamic background and motivation later led to positions as a teller and loan officer at various locations around Lansing.
The Sweet Life
The success of Emily's hobby and her positive attitude are the result of a healthy work/life balance. Inspiried by the novel "The Dream Manager", Emily realized that an effective manager doesn't just delegate tasks to people, but helps them be successful. The idea is that taking an interest in staff will help them be more proactive at work. In order to do this, Emily took it upon herself to learn every job in the branch so she could understand the problems and questions that the group encounters each day.
She meets individually with the staff once a month and comes up with a development plan to get a better understanding of their goals. Emily makes a point to give everyone time to undergo professional development training once a month too. This time is important not just to help staff be effective at their current jobs, but to help them develop their skills to move into, and be successful in, future positions.
Emily's encouragement and ability to find the fun in everything makes her a key element on the Lake Trust team. She reminds us not to take ourselves too seriously and to find the joy in each day. And that's what makes this lady as sweet as honey.
SEE ALSO: The Faces of Lake Trust: AJ | Food for Thought: Day of Caring
