Female Founders_Soleil Magazine_Iss5

Gold Mac Ivor
Let’s start with where it all began. Tell me a little
about where you are from and how you grew
up?....
My parents were total hippies. Hence my name.
I grew up in Oregon, and eventually landed in
Colorado after my parents divorced. For many
years, my two brothers and I lived with our
father and because I was the female of the house,
I helped raise my bothers. I learned
responsibility at a very young age. I remember
growing up thinking that my parents wanted to
have children just so they had a free work force.
I was doing laundry, ironing, mowing lawns, and
cleaning our house from the time I was in elementary
school.
What was high school like for you? Did you
enjoy it?
High School was difficult for me. I went to five
different schools in a three-year time span.
Making friends was never an issue, but staying
out of trouble was, and that’s when I became a
parents’ worst nightmare. My dad said once I
discovered boys it was all over. I really hated high
school in Boulder, and ended switching to a
private school so that I could graduate a year
early. After that I joined the Marine Corps.
Wow, that’s quite a leap. Why the armed
forces?
I was so sick of school and wasn’t ready for
college right away. I was never one to be idle, so I
began searching for what I would do next. At the
time I was dating, well, maybe I should say I was
sleeping with a Marine, he told me a little about
the service and said that it was the toughest of
the U.S. Armed Forces. So, given my personality, I
obviously needed to do the toughest branch. I’ve
never been one to take the easy route.
Your honesty is refreshing. How was basic
training?
It was how you’d imagine it to be -- it sucked!
I was stationed at Camp Pendleton in North San
Diego and I remember sitting at my desk thinking
….What the hell did I just do!? Why didn’t I join
the Air Force? I sustained a pubic stress fracture
in basic training, which essentially was my free
ticket out, so 2 ½ years into my service I took an
honorable discharge from the Marine Corps.
What did you do next?
I married my boyfriend I was dating in high
school right after boot camp and we bought a
house in Temecula, CA. I started interviewing for
jobs and accepted a role as a financial
advisor. Looking back, it is really funny. I was
barely 20-years-old, and even though I couldn’t
legally drink, I would meet with clients twice my
age and ask them to write checks for hundreds
of thousands of dollars. And they did it! I worked
on 100% commission for 12 years and learned to
hustle at an early stage of my life.