Life & Work with Brenda Pearson of Wabasha

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brenda Pearson.

Hi Brenda, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Welcome Home! Yes, I left the Wabasha-Kellogg area in 1992 for Florida after completing my undergraduate and graduate work in Health Education: Corporate Fitness & Cardiac Rehabilitation. As a single parent, my young son and I moved to South Florida for 20 years, only to return and take over Turning Waters Bed, Breakfast, and Adventure. Two years later, I added Hoppy Girl Brewing to our 3-car garage in the backyard of the bed & breakfast. Was it my dream to own a B&B? No, however, I do love self-employment. I spent 20 years in Florida doing massage therapy as my own business. I started Referral Networking Solutions and spent 5 years hosting business networking events, from afternoon lunches to after-hours and a few business expos.

In 2011, my husband was an unemployed corporate attorney and wanted to open a brewery in my home area of Wabasha, MN. After moving back and eventually after a few years of working and living between Milwaukee, WI, Minneapolis, MN, and Wabasha, MN, the bed & breakfast kind of fell in my lap. On June 12, 2015, I became the owner of Turning Waters Bed, Breakfast & Adventure, an adventure it has been for 7 years. Hoppy Girl Brewing will celebrate 5 years on Thanksgiving! As the sole proprietor, I do the cooking, cleaning, marketing, gardening, bartender, hostess, and more. Luckily, my husband, Ford Pearson, is an amazing brewer, alongside his full-time job of working from home as a contract attorney.

Running a B&B has many pros and cons. However, the positives outweigh the pitfalls. Living in a 1902 home with original woodwork and all that comes with old homes can be challenging, but having the right handypersons, plumber, electricians, and all have helped me keep up. The bed and breakfast is a great way to meet and greet many from all walks of life. I have lifetime friends now that started as guests. Would I be able to do this forever? I don’t know, but taking it a day at a time through the past few pitfall years of 2020-2021 with shutdowns has both been challenging and rewarding.

I am thankful for the opportunity to be the local concierge and hostess and promote the local businesses that make for a great vacation for our guests. Making a hearty & healthy breakfast brings joy to me. I have learned through the years that I no longer have to work so hard to be successful. What my husband and I have created for Wabasha has been a blessing. I (we) will do this until it is time to create the next successful business in Wabasha. Come as our guests and leave as a family. Has held to those who have graciously chosen our home to stay in a while visiting the area.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Nothing is ever a smooth road! One can not grow unless faced with some challenges. Taking over the B&B on a weekend when all rooms were full was interesting. Luckily, intern innkeepers helped make breakfast the first weekend, and after that, it mostly is a repeat of the day before with new faces to greet.

When I added Hoppy Girl Brewing to our 3-car garage in 2016-2017, I can honestly say that being a contractor was not a job I enjoyed. Once the brewery pub opened, 17-hour days became the norm. That is one of the pitfalls of self-employment in the hospitality or overnight lodging and food & beverage industry. My husband brews such amazing beer, and I have the FOMO “dis-ease” – Fear of Missing Out, that it is hard to not overwork.

When Covid hit, and on March 20, 2020, the world changed overnight, I shut down both of my businesses. I didn’t technically shut the B&B. However, no one was traveling. I didn’t see my first guests until May 31, 2020, and the brewery was allowed to open, but only seating outside. Luckily, there is a huge outdoor patio, so we saw record sales in both businesses until winter hit, and the brewery was shut back down again for indoor seating. Nonetheless, my husband could work from home, where he has been able to stay since Covid started. The only other challenge is when we get booked up with our 5 rooms, and in peak months, we are turning 10-30 calls a weekend away. That serves up its challenges. However, I do my best to either find another B&B in the state or refer to another local lodging place so they can at least come and enjoy the brewery on weekends.
Life is good!

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Since I was 18, a single mom at the time, I made it my mission to get an education and find a career that paid enough so I could raise my son. I have always loved and excelled at health and wellness. Therefore I choose the professions of corporate fitness, cardiac rehabilitation, and eventually massage therapy to work in. That was a 20+ year profession, and I look forward to reconnecting with that passion in my next phase of life’s work.

Being an employee from age 14 taught me responsibilities and dedication to the task at hand that would grant me further opportunities to excel down the road. My first job at Kwik Trip, a local convenience store, also allowed me a job through college. Then I landed my “dream” job at the Winona YMCA, where I did everything from teaching aerobics, water fitness, and strength training to working in the kid’s programs and cleaning. I laugh every time I think about that job, where I was being paid $4.25/hour, and thought it was the best job ever. How does one make it on $4.25/hour? I did! That work took me to Florida for 20 years, where I started working in a hospital’s fitness and cardiac phase II program. Then I was launched to the next job in a large electric company’s corporate fitness program, to finally go to massage school and work a short time for a physical therapy business. I am proud to say that I was “fired” from each job because I stood up for patients and my rights. Each time that happened, it gave me more ambition to do my own thing, and that is when I started traveling to clients’ homes offering professional massage therapy services. Networking for that business then launched me into hosting and starting my own business of helping others find referrals and connections for the business.

I have been happily self-employed for over 28 years!!! My next goal is to open a holistic wellness center and local gift shop to help locals who make amazing hand-crafted gifts. From there, I may return to my roots and eventually retire working for Kwik Trip as they are an amazing privately owned company that has grown through multiple states and treat their employees well.

Who else deserves credit in your story?
Well, the Lord and my angels deserve all the credit! Treating others with respect and dignity while smiling and learning names has helped me in every aspect of my life. I was blessed with an amazing mentor in college at the YMCA, Kay was the director of fitness at the time, and she instilled in me that as long as you smile and learn someone’s name, you could mess up (the aerobics routine) and they would be forgiving. This has stayed with me my entire life. My mother and father have/had been huge contributors. My mom taught me that everyone deserves fairness and showed me to care for the “underdogs” in life. My dad, who had since passed, in April 2015, just before I purchased the B&B, was a hard-working German man. He went from farming and dairy cattle to starting his own excavating and blacktopping company, and ran for over 20 years until he retired. Both taught me many values in life. Many of my massage clients in Florida were my biggest cheerleaders. They taught me about business and life as I was in my early-mid-20s when I met them. I could go on and on, but now in life, my biggest advocate and supporter is my husband, Ford, who allows me to rant when I need to, but doesn’t fault me for it.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.turningwatersbandb.com www.hoppygirlbrewing.com
• Instagram: @turningwatersbba @hoppygirlbrews
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/turningwatersbandb www.facebook.com/hoppygirlbrewing
• Other: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g43601-d2519980-Reviews-Turning_Waters_Bed_Breakfast_and_Adventure-Wabasha_Minnesota.html
  TripAdvisor reviews page for Hoppy Girl Brewing: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g43601-d15636044-Reviews-Hoppy_Girl_Brewing-Wabasha_Minnesota.html#REVIEWS

Image Credits
Brenda Pearson