We had the good fortune of connecting with Kristen Wilson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kristen, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
My parents were self employed, very blue collar, my dad owned a well drilling business for 30 + Years. Entrepreneurship was ingrained in me as a child along with a strong work ethic. I understood, at a very young age, what you put into your work, you get out of it. I also understood it comes with many sacrifices, but the flexibility is what rooted into my soul.

I suppose my business ownership or entrepreneur practices started in my early 20’s, as a full time teaching tennis professional. The harder I worked, the more money I made. While I didn’t get “paid vacation” I learned the more I grinded during peak season, the more I could play and rest during off season. I loved knowing I was in control of how much money I made. I didn’t have a logo, or even a business name at the time, I was my own brand. My teaching style, my work ethic, and my patience are what grew my client list. The process was very rewarding.

After I got married and we started to have children, MY goals evolved into OUR goals, and I knew it was time to exercise my entrepreneurial spirit in a different direction, one that better suited the season of life we were in and the passions that made us tick. After having kids, time quickly became more important than money, especially as we faced medical challenges for our youngest child. We wanted to monetize on a dream that would create more time with our growing family, offer a path to healing from the medical journey we had been on, and shine light and love to others. I suppose the thought process was simply being in control of our outcome, Good or bad, while at the same time not over thinking but rather istening to our God given intuitions.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My titles have changed many times over the last 22 years, Prevention Specialist, Camp Director, Tennis Pro, Wife, Mom, Director of Tennis, Homeschool Mom, Yoga Guide, health advocate, Reiki Practitioner, Bed and Breakfast Owner, Community Tennis Association President, Hobby Farmer. Sometimes it feels comical to be stretched in so many directions and in the next breath, it all makes perfect sense. All of these roles have prepared me perfectly for where I am in this exact moment; professionally and personally.

Each of these titles and positions have helped lay the foundation for the next. My greatest accomplishment is the work in process of motherhood, wife and homemaker. I am overwhelmingly grateful I can tie in an home based business and community tennis program to the work of raising our little humans and guiding them how to create a life they love rooted in simplicity and celebrated through nature. Our businesses have been built around what is most important to us, family, faith, health and nature.

Our children are every bit a part of our Bed and Breakfast as we are. And now, my oldest daughter is a teaching assistant on the tennis court right alongside me, with our son to soon be joining as well. We are a family business at our very core. My husband has his own business as well, and the kids help him as needed, always with pride and joy. It is exciting to think how the next generation might want to build on what we have started, if they choose to do so, and how this little slice Northern Michigan heaven we have laid claim to binds future generations to come.

The road hasn’t been easy, or pretty, but it has been all ours. It took hitting rocking bottom, in a hospital room, facing fear right in it’s face to muster up the courage and go after our dreams. We are so thankful and proud to have work that we love and thrive in. We hope that when guests stay with us, they take a moment to connect with their own dreams and find their selves grounded just a little deeper in what really matters.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Favorite spots:

So many gems, some hidden and some right on the beaten path. Here is a highlight reel of our favs.
Food: Hop Lot, Fiddle Heads, Farm Club, The Cove
Beaches: Vans, Suttons Bay Marina, Empire Beach, Good Harbor
Hikes: Empire Bluff, Whale Back, Houdak Dunes
Random Favorites: Sleeping Bear National Park, Fish Town, Northport Light House, Shady Lane Winery, Hive Coffee Shop, Inland Seas Sailing.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There are so many people, places and events that have helped guide the path we are on. Our life stories really are just a series of stepping stones. Even the tumbles have been instrumental to where we are now. Our tumbles are probably some of the biggest catalysits to starting Rōming Roost.

I was raised by a tennis community in a small, rural farming town filled with Victorian Bed and Breakfasts and an olden day charm. It’s like my entire childhood was laying roots for the dreams I didn’t even yet know I had. I had a tennis coach in my youth that challenged me and introduced a lifelong passion as well as career. With out him and our small town tennis program, my tennis career and business, Leelanau Love Tennis, would be non existent. I also had a couple incredible mentor’s/boss’s in the tennis world who helped me see the value of what I had to offer and breath confidence into myself as a teaching professional and young adult. I will forever be grateful to them both.

As for our Bed and Breakfast, whispers of that dream were floating in our hearts since we moved to Traverse City in 2013 and started our homesteading and sustainable living journey.

We love where we live deeply, and have a passion for teaching our children a more sustainable and unplugged way of living. We are a homeschool family, and felt convicted to include our kids in our daily lives as much as possible. The idea of some sort of retreat or B&B was floating around for years.

However, it was when our youngest (who is now 5) was born that life really was shaken up. What we thought were priorities were thrown out the window, her health challenges were a doorway for us into a more pure and intentional way of living. She, along with our other two children are hands down the reason we made the leap and finally chased the dream.

Website: https://www.romingroost.com

Instagram: @romingroost @leelanaulovetennisprograms

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Romingroost

Image Credits
Allen Kent Photography

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