When you hear about people going off on their own, it’s often followed by an event, a “tipping point” so to speak. Something happens, something clicks that finally pushes them off the ledge of “what if” and head-first into the dive of starting a business. Whether it’s a job they despised, a routine or lifestyle they got sick of, or they just believed so courageously in their idea that they couldn’t wait any longer to begin.

Yeah… that didn’t quite happen for me. In fact, almost the opposite of all that happened.

2024 P.B. (Pre-Business)

Let’s start at the beginning. I was born on a sunny day in 2002… just kidding, not THAT far back. May 2024, that’s where we’ll start. I was living in Miami, Florida, 5 months into working a remote job for an e-commerce brand that I adored. The people were amazing, the work culture was phenomenal. I felt supported both in my career growth and personal growth. Sounds pretty great, right? As far as first jobs post-graduation go, it was amazing.

It took me 6 months to find a full-time position after graduating in May 2023, and let me tell ya, that first job felt like I landed on the moon. I got to stay in a location I loved, I didn’t need to make new friends, and, most importantly, I had my weekends free. No homework deadlines hanging over my head, no freelance projects due on a Monday, and the endless LinkedIn-scroll-of-doom was finally over.

I was feeling confident, my creativity was coming back in full swing (after years of burnout), and I was comfortable. I imagined this would be my life for the next couple of years… PSYCH!

You may be wondering: Caragan, why did you start a business if you were so content?

What a great question. Continuing this story in May of 2024, I was on a trip to Wisconsin, visiting my family, and we went up to Door County for the weekend. I was born and raised in Green Bay and spent a lot of my summers in Door County, so this wasn’t anything unusual.

We spent the days walking around town, getting coffee, and popping in and out of shops, nothing unusual. We walked down streets we hadn’t for a while, noticed houses freshly on the market, and retail locations for rent. My family has always been fascinated with real estate, so again really nothing out of the ordinary. What was unusual about this trip was that as we walked down Cedar Court in Fish Creek, and my brother pointed out the two cottage-style retail locations for rent, speculating how much the monthly rent would be, I said something.

Something along the lines of “I could open such a cool, coastal-inspired shop there. It would be the type of shop I always wished I had in Door County growing up. It would be colorful, fun, and all the 21-year-old girls like me would be obsessed,” (I hadn’t yet turned 22).

That was the unusual event, me sharing my ideas out loud. My reborn confidence also meant confidence in my ideas and the confidence to articulate them.

So, why now?

I always had the idea of opening a store. The Pinterest board was first started when I was in high school, and I have receipts to prove it. The notebook sketches I had of logos and store names had been there for months, if not years. But so had so many other business ideas. To say that starting June Landing was my sole, lifelong dream would be a lie. It was one of the masses. Nonetheless, it was something I believed in wholeheartedly.

There was really no rhyme or reason to opening June Landing in July 2024. The idea wasn’t even fully fleshed yet by the time I signed the lease (to be honest, I don’t think it felt fully fleshed out for me until May 2025). Yet I signed the lease on June 22nd, moved out of Miami on June 27th, and a month later opened June Landing on July 27th.

Would I recommend someone else to take the same approach I did to starting a business? No. Was it very true to me and how I function? Absolutely. For me, the more I think and ponder about all the what-ifs in the world, the less likely I’ll be to go after what I want. I’m my worst critic, and I’m highly aware of that... now. (Discovering that and learning how to get over it is a story for another time.)

Long story short…

Fast forward to now, October 2025, I’m more than a year into running my business and about to complete my second season with a retail location in Door County. While going off on my own and opening a business was only a matter of when and not a matter of if for me, it still was not the career path I thought I would be taking so quickly post-graduation. 

Theme of my life so far: I don’t keep myself in comfortable situations (for good or bad). Real talk, I think being in those icky feelings of instability, uncertainty, wondering what the heck you’re doing, and taking your life and turning it upside down has helped me to grow so much more than staying comfortable ever would.

Xoxo,
Caragan