A Humanistic Perspective Ep. 6 A Mother, An Owner, A Real Estate Agent

Join us today as we interview the wonderful Christy Shultz.

Christy Schultz:

I was born in Sandwich, IL in 1973 and spent nearly my whole childhood there with my younger siblings. I began my first regular part-time job in high school at McDonald’s to begin saving money for whatever I had coming in my near future. I graduated from high school soon after in Sandwich at age 17 and left to live on my own upon graduation.

My first full-time job as an Administrative Assistant was with Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in Aurora. From here I moved on to work with The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company & their franchise, Just Tires. I stayed with the company for 13 years. I had several positions within the company over the years. It eventually led to where I met my husband, Chris who also worked for the same company. Goodyear provided a college education and great opportunities for both of us for our future.

After being together a few years, Chris and I got married. Chris had always wanted to eventually own his own automotive business. Together we bought into another auto chain in which he worked at while I continued to work for Goodyear. We had planned to have Chris kick off our first franchise purchase of the auto retail repair chain, Merlin 200,000 Mile Shops. I continued to work separately as we had begun to plan for having children, then I would stay home to be a full-time mother. In the meantime, Goodyear was providing my full college tuition towards my Bachelor's Degree from DePaul University.  

After five years of marriage, we had our firstborn son, Layne. I left my work to stay home with him as a baby. Layne has Down Syndrome and Chris and I had not known or expected this could be the case before he was born. He has grown to be the most amazing young man who is smart, loving, helpful, athletic, fun, and happy 99% of the time! It turns out that he became the big brother of 3 girls to complete our family. Mykenzie, Jaidyn, and Gracyn are all two years apart and Mykenzie was born two years after Layne.  The kids are currently, Layne - 17 (counting the days to 18), Mykenzie 16, Jaidyn 13, and Gracyn is 12.

Since before Chris and I were married, we bought our first house together in Woodridge. We moved closer to our auto shop in Montgomery about seven years later. We were there for about ten years until 12 years ago we found the house we currently live in. In between Woodridge and Montgomery, Chris and I purchased several Merlin Shops, worked at them, and eventually sold them except…our first purchase which was in 1998. Just over 20 years after we began our first Merlin shop, we left Merlin and joined a brand new franchise, Mike More Miles. My husband is a leader in his industry and will eventually be the likely next president of this corporation. 

While we lived in Montgomery I was a stay at home mom most of the time. There were gaps of time that I worked in the shops with Chris although working in auto shops was not a passion, it was work. Good work, hard work, something for me to do outside the house was work that helped us where we are today. I had an interest in real estate. Since the first house we bought together I had grown my interest and eventually pursued it as a part-time career. I am a licensed real estate broker still today and practice for referrals, family, and friends. 

Since having kids and managing their education and activities, we narrowed it all down to what made my girls most happy together (didn’t want all the kids doing four different activities, ahh!).  This was dance. From the time my girls were age 2 they were taking dance classes and have grown to make it part of their lives every day. We eventually bought a piece of land in Yorkville and built a building that has come to be VIM Dance Studio. I am now in the middle of my fifth year in this business. We have become very well known in the dance industry and have a great family business. 

As a mother, a business owner, and a real estate agent, it made the most sense to create Virtues In Motion Dance Studio. This is a business where my kids have a passion for, that makes them happy, and one in which I enjoy the work. All of our family participates in the business and my kids have some plans to be a part of the dance industry into their futures. I am happy to help them along the way or empower them to follow whatever passion they have, regardless if it is dance or not. 

Our plans from today forward are to prepare for our near future with a fairly soon, semi-retirement. When our youngest daughter graduates from high school, my husband and I want to be ready to settle down in work and add more life to enjoy. We are now beginning our five-year plan to sell our businesses to our managers and our home to the next large family to enjoy for the years when it's needed the most.