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Beth Shinkle – A Mindset of Persistence

Jim Correll, director Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College, Independence Kansas 

Beth Shinkle has learned to be persistent in pursuing her life’s journey. After at least two major life-changing experiences, she’s had to become persistent and her participation in a recent Entrepreneurial Mindset class has helped her renew her focus on finding her path. 

Life Changers; College, Marriage and Fire 

Growing up in Edna, graduating from Labette County high school in 2012Beth became the first in her family to finish college. Beth’s path to a college degree wasn’t quick and it wasn’t easy. Beth always liked science and math so a major in biology seemed to make sense until the end of her third year at Pittsburg State University (PSU) when it became clear that biology “wasn’t her thing.” Friends and other instructors recommended she speak with someone in the communications department named Gil Cooper. That became a life changing experience. Mr. Cooper helped her realize that communications was a field in which she could excel. Beth entered her fourth year in college as a freshman communications major, graduating in 2018. She remains passionate about communications and public relations today. 

Two more life-changing events happened for Beth. She married her husband, Mike, on October 1, 2016, a shotgun wedding during Dalton Defender Days in Coffeyville. On December 18, 2019 a devastating house fire took everything they had. Beth persisted with rebuilding her life. She muses that people often say, “I just don’t know if I could go on if something like that happened to me.” She says she often wants to say, but doesn’t, “Of course you would go on. What are you going to do, crawl in a hole and die?” 

First Job After College-Real Learning Begins 

Her first job after college was with Julie Eisele, owner/broker of Midwest Real Estate in the Independence office. Julie is one or our favorite entrepreneurs and has done an exceptional job with Midwest after taking ownership in 2009. Beth credits Julie in giving her the opportunity to grow and become involved with the community including Leadership Independence, class of 2019-20. (BTW, Julie, who openly admits to trusting her gut instinct, once told me that she knew Beth was the right one to help run the real estate office during their first meeting.) 

There was a lot to learn about how to help run a busy real estate brokerage office. As is typical with entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial thinkers, Beth dove in, learning what she needed to know when she needed to know. The company web site needed redesign and she volunteered to take on the web project even though she’d never had any former web design training. She figured it out using Internet resources. Through all of this, Beth learned that she had a “creative streak” in her that she didn’t know about. 

Using Internal Locus of Control 

In early January 2020, after the house fire in December 2019, Julie Eisele contacted me about getting Beth involved in the Entrepreneurial Mindset class that was to start mid-January. Through our Women 4 Women initiative we were able to provide a scholarship to cover most of the registration costs. The class, through the self-reflection at the end of each of eight life’s lessons, helped Beth have the persistence to move forward. She learned that the way she thinks is not common but shared by entrepreneurial thinkers around the United States and in our area. She learned of internal vs. external locus of control. Those with an external locus of control feel they are a victim of their circumstances and they have little control over what happens to them. Those with internal locus of control realize it’s their choices, not their circumstances that control the outcomes of their lives. Beth learned that her internal locus of control will help her continue to grow as she continues her life’s journey. 

The next leg of the journey is not yet clear as she awaits the next opportunity. In the meantime, she continues her work at Midwest Real Estate and has hung out her design shingle on the side. Contact her at Beth& creative designsbethcreativedesigns@gmail.com. 

The next Entrepreneurial Mindset class starts January 28, running Thursday evenings through May 13 from 6 PM to 8 PM. Class will meet at Fab Lab ICC (COVID protocols observed), but there is a virtual option available using “enhanced” Zoom for those not comfortable attending in person. More info at www.fablabicc.org 

Jim Correll is the director of Fab Lab ICC at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship on the campus of Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349 or by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu. Archive columns and podcasts at www.fablabicc.org.  


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