We were lucky to catch up with Katie Retterath Martin recently and have shared our conversation below.

Katie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

I think about this question weekly, and it’s something I really struggled with early on when deciding whether or not I should start Raedial. I would say that I am happier as a business owner, but I can honestly say that the feelings are complicated. I know it sounds odd for me to say that, but I am still working on building my confidence and believing in myself.

One of my biggest fears as a business owner isn’t that I will fail; it’s that I will be successful. When I’ve talked about this with my family and friends, they all seem confused until I explain: if I fail, all I have to do is find a “regular job.” Yes, I would have to go back to working for someone else, meeting their deadlines, have to fit back into the 9-5 schedule, and a lot of other things I’ve grown out of since working for myself. But, there’s a certain security in that for me. However, if I keep succeeding in my business, I have to keep challenging myself, adapting, and pushing myself out of my comfort zone. I’ve gone through a lot of periods of growth in my life, but the biggest changes I’ve seen have been in the last year and a half since starting Raedial. The network I’ve developed, the mentors who’ve guided me, and the lessons I’ve learned working for myself are something I couldn’t have achieved working a “regular job.”

Given the circumstances, I could technically be happy in either situation, but the happiness is different. It’s not that I wasn’t passionate about my work when I had a “regular job,” but the passion, commitment, and pride I feel working for myself is so much more rewarding. The work and expectations I put on myself are 1,000 times greater, but I would much rather work toward my goals and mission than someone else’s.

Katie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Katie, and my story is somewhat unconventional. My first job out of college was as a custom framer. The work itself was fine, but the environment was not ideal. After working there for about eight months, I found myself thinking about what I wanted from life on my way home one day. It had been a particularly bad day at work, and I had an hour-long commute. So, each time I would pass a different building, I thought about what it would be like to work there and pictured how my life would look. Nothing stuck out to me until I was about a mile from my house. I passed by my local library, and I was excited by the idea of what it might be like to work as a librarian. With my background in art, and some research I did on how to become a librarian, I discovered that I could open a whole new world of opportunities.

Fast forwarding two years, I was in a class for database management while pursuing my Master of Library and Information Science degree. I signed up for the class because I thought it would teach me some practical skills, but I wasn’t interested in the topic itself. Little did I know, this class would change my life. It was in this class that I and one of my classmates began to develop the product that led to me building my business, Raedial. The inspiration came from several places, but, overall, it came from the idea that librarians were (and still are) trying to find better ways to identify and catalog diverse books. However, everyone does it differently, and a lot of the problems in the book industry are talked about from theoretical perspectives. As a student, I was frustrated when my professors and classmates would talk about “how bad” things were, but, when I asked what was being done to change it, no one could give me an answer. As a final project for our database management class, my classmate and I decided to build a database to identify characters in diverse books more thoroughly.

Today, Raedial is a social enterprise focused on literary accessibility in the book industry. We work with database management vendors, publishers, librarians, and booksellers to enhance the discoverability of characters with diverse and intersectional experiences. While our main database product is still in development, our goal is to change the way the book industry makes diverse books accessible to their readers. We currently host a free book fair event in July that gathers diverse and independent booksellers and literary organizations from around Minnesota, and we have started hosting educational webinars for literary professionals to promote user-centered cataloging practices. We aim to have our database product available for public use by 2025.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

If I could only recommend one book to other entrepreneurs, it would be “The Soul of an Entrepreneur: Work and Life Beyond the Startup Myth” by David Sax. This book changed my life and really settled my heart when it came to hustle culture and entrepreneurship. Having no background in business, marketing, or entrepreneurship, I felt very lost at the beginning of my journey as a business owner. I was fortunate to have been selected as a FINN Fellow through a Twin Cities accelerator program, but even that experience took me a lot of time to adjust to. I read this book about a year ago at the start of my fellowship program, and, after reading it, I felt so much better about all of the changes I was going through.

This book taught me that the Silicon Valley startup scene and the hustle culture that’s often promoted in entrepreneurship isn’t the right fit for everyone. Sax’s interviews with entrepreneurs featured a wide variety of life stories, experiences, and journey’s that were beautifully unique. After reading about each of them, I felt so much better about stepping away from the hustle culture to embrace myself, my needs, and my business in a way that will support the life I desire. Work-life balance as an entrepreneur hits differently when you are running your own business, and this book did an amazing job of illustrating that.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I think this ties in nicely with my book recommendation, but the biggest lesson I had to unlearn was being a workaholic and, in general, hustle culture. I come from a family of workaholics, and many of them are also entrepreneurs. Both of my parents have their own small businesses, and many of my extended family members have also started businesses. Growing up, however, I have seen the toll it takes on the body, mind, and family when a person’s work life takes over.

Throughout my young adult years, I also became a workaholic. I exhausted myself in school, working multiple jobs and internships at the same time, trying to find time for hobbies, staying connected with friends and family, etc. My physical and mental health was greatly compromised because I worked beyond my working hours, became overenthusiastic about the things that needed to get done, and wanted to do everything in my power to make my bosses happy. Any time there was a chance to go above and beyond, I took it.

Through building my business and working for myself, I had to unlearn my workaholic tendencies because they became even more magnified. Although I was aware of it before starting Raedial, it became very apparent to me that I needed to change when I finally had the opportunity to create my own work schedule. I noticed whenever Monday came around, I would be tired, didn’t want to work, and often found myself having breakdowns. I was frustrated by this because I had in my head, “Monday is a work day,” and I was disappointed in myself for not being able to even respond to emails the first day of the work week. It didn’t take me long to realize that I was so exhausted on Mondays because I worked most Saturdays and Sundays. Because I didn’t take a “weekend” and rest like I was used to, my mind and body chose another day to rest.

This unlearning and shift in my perspective took a lot to work through, and it came with a lot of boundaries I had to place on my time. It taught me a lot about listening more to my body, and I had to let go of what “working hours/days” means to the majority of people. Unlearning my workaholic tendencies doesn’t mean I don’t push myself or work a lot for my business. It just means I’m more gracious with myself and developed a deeper sense of respect for myself and my time.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.raedialreads.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/raedialreads/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/raedialreads/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-retterath-martin-mlis-5863a715a/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/raedialreads

Image Credits
Jessica Knighton Photography