About
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Hilairy Begley is one of the creative minds behind Legacy Connection. Her passion and vision for building the Community have no barriers. A graduate of the University of Cincinnati College of Business...
Hilairy brings a lot of experience to the mix. Fresh out of college and full of energy she took on the role as a fundraising manager for a national non-profit. Assigned to her was a mixed batch of new, existing, and in-process events, none of which she had ever experienced first-hand. Talk about overwhelming! By embracing the challenge she essentially got her first taste of entrepreneurship. Coordinating fundraising events for a non-profit is like running a business. Managing volunteers, marketing (securing sponsorships, sales, advertising...), logistics, and finance and accounting (including budgets) are just the beginning of the amount of preparation required to pull off a successful event. Although she hadn't realized it yet, that experience was just the beginning of her future as an entrepreneur.
After leaving the non-profit sector to raise her family, Hilairy began working as an office manager for a truck equipment company. Stretching even further outside her comfort zone, she took on the role of sales manager and quickly learned about the world of snow plows, dump trucks, service bodies, and tool boxes. With fierce competition in the market she helped market the company as a place where clients could customize their trucks to fit a specific need. Earning the respect of her (mostly male) clients, she worked diligently to provide quality at a competitive price - all while building a close relationship between her vendors and her clients. In a sinking construction economy the customized designs became a luxury that most contractors could not afford and eventually the company was forced into bankruptcy.
With no place to go and six months of unemployment benefits coming her way Hilairy started to realize her potential as an entrepreneur. With no solid business idea and her interest in law she decided the next logical step was to take courses at a Community College and earned a Paralegal Certificate. With contracts and straight A's behind her she accepted a position to manage a branch of an executive office suite. Through fate (and thanks to the company for sponsoring an event at Legacy Connection) Hilairy was introduced to the Community.
"Community" is a very powerful word in the networking world.