Meet Becky Ahlstrom

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Becky Ahlstrom a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Becky, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.

A work in progress! This has been an interesting journey for me, because I am transitioning to a new career in mid life, in an industry that fascinates and delights me… but one that I’ve never actually worked in. I’ve spent 25+ years working in every healthcare job imaginable – most recently as a geriatric nurse practitioner, owning a small practice for the last seven years. Over the past five years, I’ve also been working with my husband to open two restaurants, and have had the opportunity to explore so many parts of this food/beverage/hospitality landscape – it’s been incredible, but I’ve definitely felt like an imposter at many points along the way. I’ve found it most helpful for me to unapologetically embrace my personal areas of strength and areas of growth; turns out, no one actually needs me to make drinks, but they do appreciate that I can see the bigger picture, pivot quickly, and work behind the scenes to build our restaurant communities!

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

This fall, along with my husband and our incredible teams, I am celebrating the five year anniversary of our first restaurant, Margie’s, and the one year anniversary of our second restaurant, Grackle. I have such enormous pride in these two spaces – family owned and operated, incredible local teams serving up great food, drinks, and hospitality, with meaningful community ties that only get stronger as time goes on… seeing it all come together does feel a little magical. At the moment, I am personally focused on aligning our team so we can face the upcoming busy restaurant season with confidence; this is exciting to me because I know on the other end of that process lies the creative work of growing our special events, live music, and community partnerships – what I want to spend all of my time and energy on!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Curiosity – stay committed to being a lifelong learner.
Honesty – be true to yourself and others.
Enthusiasm – keep your spirit joyful in both the exciting endeavors and the mundane.

My best advice to those who are early on the journey is to routinely take time to sit with yourself and your thoughts, and allow your own inner voice to speak and guide you. The world is pretty noisy at the moment, and if you only take your cues from external sources, there’s a good chance you could end up living someone else’s life, instead of your own!

Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?

My kids. Parenting my three children has been the joy of my lifetime, and I could never have dreamed how much they would teach me. They are all such wildly unique, brilliant creatures, and watching them navigate the world has given me tremendous insight into how humans interact with each other, solve problems, find joy… it’s been a complete education. Also, all three of my kids have worked for me in our restaurants in various capacities (along with most of their friends!), and I have so much hope for the future, spending time with all kinds of fantastic young humans.

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