When Eulanda Shead Osagiede was 9, she started her first business. She sold perfume — made from flower petals from her front yard — at her daycare.
Now, Shead Osagiede is the co-founder of the popular travel blog hey! dip your toes in.
She was born in an Air Force base in Illinois and lived in the United States during her childhood.
She always had a strong interest in being creative and running her own business. She did small projects such as sewing ski hats and selling them in local ski shops. And called herself a “serial entrepreneur,” she bemused.
“I was passionate about the idea of being successful, about creating something,” she said.
Her parents fostered her love for creativity and for travel. They did not have a lot of money to enroll her in performing arts classes, but they took her to community programs. They would buy educational books from thrift stores so that she could learn about other cultures.
Before blogging, she worked in education with high school students for eight years and also taught at universities. She loved her career in education, but always felt like she couldn’t use her all of her creative skills in the classroom.
As a blogger, she is able to use her photography, design and entrepreneurial skills. Now, she is working her “accidental career” and she could not be happier, she said.
“When you find that area that really makes your heart sing, that taps into things that you could just do in your sleep, that you don’t have a problem doing morning and morning consistently,” Shead Osagiede said. “When you find that thing you need to hold on to it.”
Since she created the blog three years ago, she has found life to be exciting and fresh, she said.
“I’m in my stride now,” Shead Osagiede said.
Shead Osagiede moved to England to receive her master’s degree. She has always been educated in world cultures and has a “wanderlust gene,” she said.
“I felt like I needed to be brave and shake myself up a little bit,” Shead Osagiede said. “I just wanted to experience living abroad again.”
While there, she met her husband, Omo Osagiede, whom she met on an online dating website. When creating the profile, Shead Osagiede had one major stipulation: her partner must love traveling. This was lacking in previous relationships when she would feel “travel guilt,” she said.
“It was quite crippling for me,” Shead Osagiede said. “I always felt in a sense like I was caged.” Now, she enjoys traveling internationally and building her business that she shares with her husband.
Read part two and three of the series to find out more behind the story of hey! dip your toes in and its other founder, Omo Osagiade .
