About

Shelly Peterson– Mom, Daughter, Sister, Entrepreneur, Female in Construction, Community Member

I am a single mom of teenage twins, Aaron and Samantha. My daughter Megan was a preterm stillborn and is my guardian angel. I struggled with infertility and high-risk pregnancy and could write an entire book on that subject alone.

I am a third-generation construction professional, and I have spent the last 25 years working my way up to the executive leadership level. I was the first female executive in The Boldt Company’s history to ever run an Operating Group. I am very passionate about Women in Construction. I have had to work very hard to gain acceptance and credibility in an industry absent of women, especially in Northern Minnesota. I recently left my full-time executive construction career and started my own business, Promoting Me, LLC. I help people identify their unique skills and build their personal brand. I also work with companies to humanize their businesses by celebrating and highlighting their people versus projects, services, technology and products. When you highlight the people, they will sell the projects, services, products, and technology. I like to say, let personalities sell! My entrepreneurial spirit has empowered me to own eight other businesses during my professional construction career. To learn more about my professional career, accomplishments, and businesses, you can check out http://www.shellygouldpeterson.com.

I grew up in the small town of Grand Rapids, in northern Minnesota, spent most of my career in the small town of Cloquet, Minnesota and moved to Florida for a business opportunity in 2018. I wanted to escape the cold and live a different lifestyle. This was one of the best experiences of my lifetime; however, the business opportunity did not work out, and internal leadership struggles at the executive level pulled this opportunity away from me. My kids hated Florida and missed family. It was great when we came back to Minnesota to visit every six weeks or so, but they missed the company I used to work for, the one they grew up in, and they missed family and their friends. Therefore, we packed up and moved back to Minnesota during the peak of COVID. I still have a business in Florida and many great friends and business colleagues. Currently, I share time between Minnesota and Florida.

I have had the honor to experience great love in my life. Love that changed as life changed. I married my high school sweetheart, divorced after 25 years together, three beautiful children, and many lessons on growing up and growing apart. I also had the honor to fall in love again, this time with another construction professional which I worked with. We were passionate about business and challenging the status quo in constructability and financial models. We had very different people skills and leadership philosophies. We learned many lessons as we packed up our family and moved 1700 miles across the country with blended families, change in careers and different communication styles, and treatment of people. The stresses of life and loss of acceptance, understanding, appreciation, respect, compassion, coupled with lack of communication and a desire of commons wants and needs, lead to my boyfriends abuse of alcohol, which led to his depression and ultimate deceit, resulting in the end of our long term relationship. I am very grateful for the many loving friendships and support I have from so many actively participating in my life. I will find love again and find someone amazing to share my life with.

I enjoy spending time in the great outdoors, especially being on the water. I love to boat, fish, swim, snorkel and look for sea shells. I like to hike, ice skate, snowmobile and go four-wheeling in the woods. I love to travel and explore. Some of my favorites are Colorado, Hawaii, South Carolina and obviously, Florida. I have seen some of the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets all over the nation. Nothing beats sitting around a great big fire surrounded with good friends and great stories.

I hope you will find my stories to bring some inspiration and understanding that life is a gift. It offers us the privileged opportunity and responsibility to give something back to others and become more.