When I was named a Women in Consumer Technology Woman to Watch in 2021, I was the Director of Business Development and Sales at Admit One Home Systems. I had only been in the consumer technology industry for a few years and was still learning where I could make the biggest impact.

At the time, Aurora One didn’t exist.

We didn’t have a lighting showroom. We weren’t known as lighting experts. We certainly weren’t generating 75% of our leads through a part of the business that hadn’t even been created yet.

A lot can happen in five years.

I still lead sales for Admit One today, but my role has expanded considerably. One of the biggest changes has been helping create and grow Aurora One, a new brand focused on environmental design through architectural lighting, controls, automated window treatments and integration with automated windows.

What started as an idea has grown to nearly 50% of our company’s revenue.

I’m incredibly proud of that number, but it’s not actually the number that excites me most.

The Number I Care About Is 75%

Today, roughly 75% of our leads originate through Aurora One.

For me, that number represents something much bigger than sales.

It means we’re getting into projects earlier. It means architects and builders are coming to us for our expertise. We’re having conversations with firms we couldn’t get meetings with five years ago.

We built a new showroom where clients and trade partners can experience lighting, shading and controls rather than trying to understand them from plans and specifications.

We became students of lighting and then experts in it.

And somewhere along the way, the way our market viewed us began to change.

We went from trying to get a seat at certain tables to being invited to them.

That may be the accomplishment I’m most proud of over the past five years.

Then We Had to Build the Team

Of course, opening doors creates another problem. You have to be ready to walk through them.

We’ve invested heavily in building the team and expertise to support that growth.

We’ve added another in house lighting designer, an electrical engineer who serves as a project manager and controls expert, a project coordinator and a warehouse manager. We’re also training technicians specifically in lighting and shades, including measuring, planning, installation and troubleshooting.

Most recently, we hired a Chief Marketing and Growth Officer to help us answer a question we’re spending a lot of time thinking about right now: Where do we go from here?

I don’t have that entire answer yet.

Five years ago, I didn’t have this entire answer either.

I’ve become much more comfortable with that.

My Own Seat at the Table Has Changed Too

While the business was growing, something else happened. I went from being one of the people asking a lot of questions about lighting to being someone others started asking.

I’ve returned to Light Can Help You as a mentor, and I now mentor people around the country in lighting design and the business of lighting.

I also serve on the ProSource Lighting and Shading Committee, which gives me the opportunity to help influence where our buying group goes next in these categories.

That feels especially meaningful when I think about where I was when I received the Woman to Watch award.

I was relatively new to consumer technology. I didn’t have decades of technical experience. I had relationships, business development experience, curiosity and a willingness to learn.

Five years later, I’m still learning. I hope I never stop.

I just get to teach some things now too.

And Life Happened

It hasn’t all been work.

I got married. My husband and I somehow became known as “the Iceland Couple.” We moved to the middle of nowhere and remodeled a house that, based on current evidence, we will be remodeling for the rest of our lives.

When I’m not working, you’ll usually find me outside with the dogs, in the garden, baking sourdough or spending time with family.

So yes, quite a bit has changed since 2021.

When I received the Woman to Watch award, I couldn’t have predicted Aurora One, the showroom, the team we’ve built or the opportunities that would come from any of it.

I couldn’t have predicted that something we hadn’t even started yet would one day represent nearly half of our revenue and generate three quarters of our leads.

And I definitely couldn’t have predicted that I would go from learning an entirely new part of this industry to mentoring others and having a voice in where it goes next.

Maybe that’s the best part about being named a Woman to Watch.

Eventually, you get to look back and see what happened.

I’m incredibly proud of what happened over these last five years.

As for the next five?

We’ve assembled an incredible team and recently added new leadership specifically focused on helping us shape what comes next.

I don’t know exactly what it will look like yet.

But I know it will be bright.