Rediscovering Home and Opportunity in Greater Des Moines (DSM)

Leaving and Returning to Des Moines

I left Des Moines for a few years and embraced river life in another city. My husband and I enjoyed quaint downtown shops and even bought a boat to make the most of our empty-nesting years. I lasted a few years away before returning to Des Moines, and I’m so happy to be back. I moved to a townhouse in Urbandale, and as I was putting away my things into my new home, I felt like a wandering alien that had finally had a chance to return home. It just felt right.

Building My Career in Des Moines

I have been a professional speaker for fifteen years, and for most of those years, I called Des Moines my home. In reflection, Des Moines has served as a wild and challenging ride of professional development, networking magic and a place to invest in the deepest of friendships. Sometimes you don’t know what you have until you don’t have it for a minute. That is my story in a nutshell.

The Beginning of My Journey

I’m originally from the Twin Cities. Not the city-city. I grew up in a sleepy suburb, just a quick walk from a shared neighborhood beach on Turtle Lake. When I moved to Des Moines, it was kind of an unbelievable dream, both to me and those I grew up with. Growing up, Iowa was the butt of many jokes, thought to be a remote place lined with cornfields and rabid Hawkeye fanatics as far as the eye could see. A place you go to live if you can’t handle the sharp flavors of the city. I recall a moment of homesickness in my first months in the city, tears rolling down my face as I drove by yet another cornfield. I called my best friend from back home. “I’m driving by a farm to get to the mall! I’m literally in the middle of nowhere.”

Despite my culture shock, I recall mostly positive events happening while I lived in Des Moines. I raised twin boys (now thirty) and started my master’s at Drake University, where I met my now husband of 25 years. I began my professional career at GuideOne Insurance and learned some new “business analyst”-type skills. A few years later, I moved to a new position at ING and was managed by the best boss I’ve ever had. My husband and I got to know the city, sharing snacks at The Library or catching a movie at the Varsity Cinema. Things took a downturn when I was laid off from a mortgage technology job right when the mortgage industry imploded. The day I was laid off, I drove to Fredericks in Johnston and settled into a little coffee table, surrounded by the chatter of people networking and getting to know each other. It was just in that moment I decided I was not going back to find another job. Instead, I would fulfill a lifelong dream to be a professional speaker.

I’d always dreamt of standing on stage, gripping a microphone, making people think and laugh. As I looked around, I felt I was part of a movement of entrepreneurs crowded in the coffee shop, and that moment seemed like the perfect time for me to start this crazy journey. I rolled up my proverbial sleeves and dug in, working on ideas for topics. A man sat near me and caught my eye, smiling encouragingly. We started talking, and in the flow of chatter, he asked the inevitable question: “What do you do?”

Becoming a Speaker

I took a chance and answered with my soul’s honesty, my truth that didn’t quite match the events of the day. “I’m a speaker, a public speaker.” I half expected him to respond in disbelief and demand that I produce some sort of proof, but instead he said, “Oh how interesting. What do you speak about?” He believed me, so I postulated I should believe myself. Well, this is another way of figuring out my list of topics, I thought. It was my first personal networking experience in the metro and what I realized since is the sheer freedom of networking that is typical of Des Moines. It’s a place to announce your intentions and test your ideas. I haven’t stopped since. The mortgage crisis was a dark moment in the history of the country, people being foreclosed on while the leaders and pundits scratching their heads in confusion. But for me, it was the beginning of one of the most magical times of my life.

Claiming the Title Before the Stage

Promoting yourself as a speaker is all about letting people know you are a speaker and I hoped after planting the idea, they would hire me for their next event. But that was the challenge I faced. How do I casually let people know I’m a speaker when I didn’t have any real experience on stage? At the time, Des Moines was teeming with entrepreneurs, bloggers and dreamers. I only needed to go to the nearest Starbucks or Panera where I could count on pretty fast Wi-Fi and I would meet a person who had the perfect connection for me. For example, in the early weeks of my new business, someone suggested I should check out a bookstore down the road that had five or six classrooms attached. “Go there and see how much it would cost to rent a room. I don’t think they charge very much for rental.”  Turns out my blogger friend was right, it wasn’t very much. I was able to rent a 100-person classroom for $50/week, and I was able to lower the price tag to even less by renting the space for a few months once a week.

Now I had a plan, an answer to my lack of experience as a speaker. I invited everyone I knew to that first session. This way they could experience a live speaking event with me. I imagined after hearing how skilled I was behind the podium, they would hire me. That was my plan. To prepare for that first event, I carefully chose my speaking topic and built my PowerPoint presentation. I created handouts to put in folders and I placed a folder at each chair. In those folders I placed the invitation to the next event. I took the little money I had to Hy-Vee, much to my husband’s chagrin and bought a tray of meats, cheeses and crackers. I dreamt my guests would have fantastic snacks and leave with their stomachs and their souls full.

Come to My Event

The first event had twenty people. I was thrilled and deemed my plan a success. This was going to work. There were ten more than that the next week. Over the weeks that followed, the event would ebb and flow with pretty stable attendance. One week, only two people attended. I wanted to cancel until I found out they had driven over two hours to get to my event. I stayed and gave them the best presentation I could give. News of events in Des Moines crisscrossed the state.

The Spark of a Vision Board

Early on in my business, I created a vision board. I wanted to test the process to see if it really worked. I purposely pushed the envelope of possibilities, placing things on the vision board I had always wanted or things I really didn’t have any business wanting because I had no experience doing whatever it was. I envisioned a radio show, hosting a television show, authoring a book and launching a coaching business, all the while speaking every few weeks. I put one statement at the core of all my wishes, something that would give me permission to be so selfish. Because that is how I felt, admitting I wanted such fanciful things. This one statement let me off the hook: “Helping others succeed will help me succeed.” I just needed to be in the business of lifting others up. And honestly, Des Moines seemed to be the easiest place to do it.

Did the Vision Board Work?

One by one, each wish came true in the strangest of ways. I met a radio personality while volunteering for a Coaches vs Cancer Gala event. Larry Cotlar and I went to a networking lunch at The Tavern in West Des Moines. “How did you get into radio?” I asked. He responded with a long answer that would be impossible for me to achieve without a degree in broadcasting.

“Do you want to come down and visit me at the station and meet my boss?” he said. I eagerly took him up on his offer. The very next week, I walked the corridors of WHO, imagining myself switching places with the radio hosts I saw working the microphones. Larry introduced me to the program manager, Van Harden. “So, do you want to be on the radio, Liz? What would you talk about?”

I had played around with a few ideas which I had typed up on a sheet of paper and tucked in my purse in the hopes someone would ask this question. “I have a few thoughts right here,” and I nonchalantly pulled out that paper and handed it to Van. He read through it, face looking thoughtful. “Would you be willing to jump on as a guest host?” I nodded eagerly, as if I knew what I was saying yes to. Van had something in mind and the very next week, I found myself with another list of topics I would cover as I subbed for the most listened-to radio show in Iowa. Only a month into my vision board and one vision was already accomplished.

Honestly, I didn’t like being on the radio much. I had a dream of being the next Oprah on television. I was doing some serving and connecting at the Northwest Rotary. I kind of felt like I was a little young to be part of that group but during our assigned time to express our goals for our careers, Gene Gabus caught on I was looking for a sponsor for a television show. He asked for a meeting. “Come over to the dealership and let’s talk more about it.” I confess I was kind of dismissive. How could a car dealership owner possibly help get me on television? But Gene had an idea. “You can shoot your show while you promote the dealership in the commercials.” I was thrilled. The core statement in my vision board was coming to pass. While attending the service-based rotary group, I had somehow scored a television show! I sourced a producer from a nearby town and I was off to the races. To celebrate my accomplishment, I had my friends over for breakfast and we watched the pilot episode and celebrated together.

I continued hosting “Life Dare” for several years, working on making the most of the exposure I got from the television show and fulfilling my goal of speaking once a week. The thing I loved about speaking was to get into the guts of the organization and getting to know the people who worked there. I enjoyed the seemingly natural inclusive culture and desire to do better and go bigger. It was a pleasure to see the proverbial insides of the Des Moines area. It had come to pass. I built a professional career in Des Moines, got laid off and took that opportunity to build something of my own. I felt confident and bold.

Finding My Way Back to Des Moines

With all the success I had in Des Moines, I expected more of the same when we moved to Le Claire, the idea around every corner, there was a networking opportunity to uncover. I believed every business had a welcome sign at their front door. Then, I hit another challenge. On my way home from my daughter’s basketball game in Milwaukee, a nagging feeling of indigestion sent me to the hospital. After some investigation, the medical team determined I would need heart surgery to prevent an ascending aortic dissection. In the middle of the surgery, my heart stopped for 15 minutes. The surgeon resuscitated me, but my brain was deprived of oxygen for 15 minutes, resulting in 20 strokes and ultimately, a brain injury. I spent several weeks in the hospital in recovery and the next seven months in rehab. If it was slow before, promoting my business almost came to a stand-still on the east side of the state. I extended the same effort I did in Des Moines, making the phone calls I had before and arranging a few networking meetings. A few. I promise you; I did the work. I couldn’t work at the same speed as I did prior to my health incident, but over time, I could see what was happening. There was a small bit of movement in response to my efforts. Really, when I tracked the results of my actions, the way I had in Des Moines, I didn’t see much growth. I pushed harder. More phone calls, more requests for networking connection, but sadly the result was the same. Nothing.

When I returned to Des Moines for speaking engagements and other business events, the question would inevitably come up. “When are you moving back to Des Moines?” I quickly responded with “Never! I left Des Moines. I’m not going back.” Disappointed, they would move on, but the requests were repeated and hung out there like unresolved business. I resolved to never return to Des Moines.

What happened next was kind of serendipity, and it brought me back to Des Moines. My daughter had witnessed my fruitless efforts to promote my business in another city and pulled me aside for a mother-daughter talk. “Mom, I’ve seen you work this hard, but I’ve never seen your business this quiet. Do you remember Monday night dinners we had with your best friend? Do you remember the television show, the radio spots, your first presentations? They happened in the perfect city for you and your business. Every time you pushed, the results came. And as a kid, I admired what you could do. It was cool to go to school and tell everyone you were hosting a television show! I think you should move back to Des Moines and continue the fight to come back in your life and business. I think you are doing all the right things. You just need to do it in the right place. I think you should go back to Des Moines.”

I wanted to resist but I heard her out. Like her, I recalled the history of Des Moines in our lives, exactly the way she painted the picture. I don’t think she presented an overblown experience of connection. It’s simply what I could expect when I went back into a city built for entrepreneurs, responsive networking and plenty of exactly what you needed to make your dreams happen. It was hard enough to come back from my health incident. I needed the kind of help only Des Moines could give.

She had made her point and after that, it didn’t take me long to pull the trigger. I shared my thoughts with my husband who also had fond memories of the Des Moines connection machine and he agreed to work together to find a home back in Des Moines. He had the idea my efforts to revive my business could go better in a different location. We put our notice in to the management company to leave the apartment we were renting, and we came back to Des Moines a few times to see what was on the market. Just a few months later we found a sweet little townhouse with an open floor plan in Urbandale and we found ourselves packing up a U-Haul truck and making the road trip back. I had my first networking appointment the following Monday after we moved in November and another one the day after that. I estimate I’ve had around 200 meetings since that day. We reconnected with our friends and expanded our empty nesting time by enjoying live music at the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden and meandering through the halls at the Des Moines Art Center. We grilled steaks at Rubes and tried a new restaurant in Dallas Center. There was no end to fun events to attend and people to meet with to expand my business. Des Moines was the missing piece to the life we thought we would have in a different city.

New Horizons

I’m expanding my dreams, adding to my visions of healing and recovery and growing my business. I’ve gotten a few speaking engagements in Des Moines and just accepted a gig in Boston! I’m exploring and expanding; I up for the Culinary School at DMAAC. I don’t know how this adventure fits into my career plans, but I believe it will all fit together perfectly. 

I don’t know if I will stay in Des Moines forever, but I do know the metro is part of my healing and growing. For over 15 years, the events keep coming and the creativity is inspired. I’m constantly amazed at the opportunities for education and connection in Des Moines. My husband and I just celebrated our 25th anniversary and we popped into Alba for a quick celebration and a yummy meal. We toasted our move back to the metro and affirmed our love for each other. We made the right move, and it has surely begun to pay off for each of us. For over 25 years, Des Moines has been a fun place to live and there are endless opportunities for Nead Inspiration to thrive. I believe it continues to be a well of inspiration. The journey in my new life continues and I know I’m in the right place for my dreams to come true. All it would take was effort and a little imagination.

Liz Nead is a motivational speaker, life coach and author who inspires others through her powerful story of resilience and adventure. After surviving a life-threatening health crisis, she rebuilt her life and now helps people lead with purpose, balance and courage. Liz shares practical tools and inspiring stories through her coaching, speaking engagements and podcast. To learn more, visit liznead.com.

Are you interested in moving to Greater Des Moines (DSM)? Relocation Guides offer information on everything from neighborhoods and shopping to parks and local attractions. Or, kick start your career by checking out these job openings within the Greater DSM USA Career Center.