We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Elizabeth Thompson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Elizabeth below.

Elizabeth, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

Making A Way Housing was founded by my husband Rodney Bowles. It was Rodney’s dream to have a safe place for recovering addicts to go. What Rodney did not take into consideration was that for that dream to become a reality it took more then just his income. When I took over Making A Way in 2007 it was almost bankrupt, we had a big heart but just not enough funds to provide the caliber of services that we desired. The bills heavily outweighed the income. I remember going to all kinds of grant writing classes at the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta with my friend Wanda Snipes trying to save what we thought back then was a sinking business. We wrote grant after grant and got rejection after rejection. Then finally we wrote a successful grant and the World seemed a little bit brighter, now the challenge was to for fill that first grant, which we did. But with 60 units came 60 utility bills, water bills, maintenance and staff. For a long time there was never enough money to go around. Me and my assistant Juliet Harrison use to throw the bills up in there air and that’s how we chose which bills got paid. Many months I had to put my money in the business just to keep the doors open. Rodney always contributed every time I cried out and I will be eternally grateful to him for that. Family and friends made contributions because they realized how important this venture was to me. My staff hung in there with me and I’m eternally grateful for them. After years of sacrificing working day and night, no more throwing bills up in the air, we are right now financially stable, units are 99.9% occupied. Hard work pays off, sticking and staying pays off and defeat was not even a option, I am so grateful that on my 15 year journey with Making A way Housing, Inc I can say, I was never alone……….

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My life journey up to the present moment, I realized that who I am and where I am is not the result of a series of coincidences (I don’t believe in these) nor gilded in good luck, nor is it even the well-earned product of raw, hard work. It’s flow. My answer is flow.

Life calls and I follow.

I keep my doors, windows and heart wide open to new experiences. I let it all in. The good, the bad, the love, the hurt. Because, in fact, it is one and same. When you open yourself up to life, you open yourself up to a heightened sense of being. You open yourself up to everything you are capable of achieving. When you live with no limits you allow abundance to flow towards you and with it, the magic of pure potentiality.

A friend of mine once asked me how could I be so happy all of the time. I was stumped by his remark. I’d never considered myself an overly happy person, I wasn’t depressive, but I certainly wasn’t one of those bouncy, crying out for a kick in the teeth type either. I realized that what others experienced as “being happy” I experienced simply as “being”. I’d set happiness as my default state of existence and it is against this measure that I live my life.

I choose to be positive in every situation. I choose to surround myself with positive people. I choose to fill my mind with positive thoughts. Sure the niggling negatives swoop in daily but, rather than letting them settle, I sweep them out before they can gain momentum. Negativity feeds off negativity. Just as positivity feeds off positivity. I choose the latter.

I am myself. I am genuine. I treat others how I wish them to treat me and I give without expecting anything in return. I say thanks everyday for the life I have and the life I know lays before me. I learn from my mistakes, I learn from those I meet and I impart what wisdom I have freely to the world. I’m far from perfect but I strive to be a better human, every day a little bit more at a time.

My footsteps through from my past to my present wander here and there just as my future holds no set path. I’ll continue being who I am and see where life takes me, trusting in Rumi’s wise words:

“Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.”

Life called and I followed.

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

What come to my mind so vividly is all the close calls during the pandemic. The City of Atlanta was backlogged and had not paid our invoices for 9 months. We had to take out a personal line of credit just to keep the business going and the fear that we would not be able to continue once those funds was expended.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I was a real estate agent and Rodney Bowles co-founder was a real estate investor. Ramon Tookes had a real estate seminar where I was speaking on Broker price opinions. Rodney became one of my biggest clients and then my husband.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.makingawayhousing.org
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• Twitter: @makingawayhousing
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