The Keys to Happiness by Stephanie Pyrzynski 

Originally featured and published on LinkedIn.

My name is Stephanie Pyrzynski (née Jevtić), and I am 25 years old.

I am Vice President of Geoffresh Inc. and I'm entering my final year at Loyola University's School of Communications Masters program in digital media and storytelling.

This program is the first of its kind. I was actually with the first class to graduate from the program, however I have been self-financing my education and have only been able to be a part-time student. I came to communications, marketing, and public relations after I finished my undergraduate program. You could say that mine was a path filled with hesitation and fear. I started as an applied psychology major at the University of Illinois at Chicago. I finished with that major, as well as earning a minor in French. However, I graduated knowing that I had changed over the course of 4 years and my original plan of being the next influential psychologist had lost steam. What I did not know was where the key to my happiness had gone.

When you're young (say 5 years old) it seems we all know what makes us happy and then somewhere in adolescence we lose the key to our vehicle, so-to-speak. I think the root cause is fear and believing that if we don't follow a safe route we could lose everything we've worked for. For the longest time I had this cautious mentality, but being cautious always left me feeling amiss despite outwardly having it all together. If you don't make mistakes you lose yourself and become someone you think you should be. Whatever you're trying to achieve or project will be most successful if it comes from a place that others can feel is authentic and genuine. What I've learned in this business, and in life so far is that the key to your happiness lies in what fuels you, which inevitably is what you love.

I love my husband Geoff and I love being creative. When I decided to stop chickening out and be more than friends with him, it was after I figured myself out and worked in the real world for a while. I worked in healthcare with the public, and that position gave me something school could not, and that was self-knowledge. I learned more about myself outside of school. I think school is for those who know what their purpose is, so when I applied to Loyola it was with purpose and passion because I was ready to utilize school the right way. I never would've dreamed that I'd be able to apply my creativity and everything that I'm learning at school so quickly. Geoffresh Inc. gives me the creative outlet I was looking for, and I get to work with the love of my life.

Geoffresh Inc. was originally my husband's dream. Geoffrey Pyrzynski (who I just married about 2 months ago on the Disney Fantasy Cruise Line) started Geoffresh in 2007, back at our alma mater, the University of Illinois at Chicago. He was the guy who would help neighbors, friends, and whoever needed help with technology problems. Eventually it became where he would be the person that would help your cousin with his website, edit video for your uncle, transfer old videos to digital copies for your mother, etc. His parents, professors, and mentors encouraged him to take his entrepreneurial vision seriously. And so he took Geoffresh from a side business to an internet corporation in 5 years. Today we are an internet marketing corporation that specializes in web development, video production, brand strategy, and social media.

We have a fresh approach to marketing that is all about creating engaging and original content for people. Our clients are small businesses and large businesses. We believe in working with our clients directly, and no matter what their budget, our goal is to develop something that they love and that appeals to the human experience. As I said, whatever your trying to achieve or project will be most successful if it comes from a place that others can feel is authentic and genuine. That's our key to staying fresh here at Geoffresh.