She was sitting in her English capstone course, complaining about her current job when one of her classmates mentioned Parkville Coffee was hiring. Six years and many titles later, Kristin Helling would be signing the papers to own it.

Helling graduated from Park in 2012 with a bachelor’s degree in English writing. She was working as a bank teller throughout her time in college, but realized one day how exhausted it left her creative mind. She knew she would have to leave financial services if she wanted to pursue her writing. She left class one day, walked to the coffee shop, applied and got the job. Little did she know at the time, but Parkville Coffee would eventually become hers.

She never actually saw herself owning a coffee shop, but when the opportunity arose she couldn’t say no. She fell in love with the coffee business and worked her way up the ladder. She started as a barista, then a shift leader, to assistant store manager before finally landing the title of store manager, and that was as high as she could climb… or so you would think.

She approached the shop owner at the time and asked if he would consider bringing her on as a partner after only a year of being the store manager, and that’s when it all started coming together. The previous owner mentioned how he was actually on his way out and planned on selling the company. After months of negotiations and preparations, she took the reins and jumped into owning her own small business.

Aside from the coffee shop, Helling still gets to express herself through writing. She has published four books, Capsule, a soft sci-fi thriller, was her first. Her psychological thriller series followed, where her background and minor in psychology paid off by allowing her to get into other people’s minds and create these characters. She is also a part-owner of a publishing company, Wordwraith Books, under which her debut novel was published.

When asked for her advice to aspiring writers, she said to just not lose hope. She dreamed of the day she would see her work published, but that didn’t happen until after she graduated from college. With the stress from homework and work itself, it’s easy to lose sight of your goals, she said.

What started out as a transitional job right out of college turned into a lifetime career. Finally reaching the top and officially nabbing the highest title in the business world, owner, there was one title she still wanted: mother. Kristin and her husband Austin are expecting their first child in August, so while her planner is already full of scribbles and post-it notes, it’s just going to get more colorful. The past year has been a whirlwind, in more ways than one, but Helling appears just as bright and bubbly as ever.