The Roanoker March/April 2017 - 37

degree. I worked full time and went to school full time, and
lost a lot of sleep."
These days she finds housing for the homeless and helps get
them settled. It is a job she loves and she finds that "the change
in me has been exponential over these recent years. I attribute
this in part to my intensified study of Buddhism (have to have
down time and re-centering of myself), but also in realizing my
purpose in this career.
"I have become much more patient with people, and with
myself. I am able to experience being empathetic on a daily
basis, and this is highly rewarding, but also very productive for
my clients and for our community. I see myself, my parents, my
children, my loved ones, in every one of my clients ... At one of
the newspapers [where she worked], we wrote about feel good
stories of giving during the holidays, where people were affected
positively by someone's generosity. Those were nice stories, but
I get to live those every day now."

Pam Golden

KATIE Clifton
Queenpin

At 33, nearly 10 years ago, Katie Clifton found her way
through the Next Chapter: "From the pieces of my
smashed 'should life'  I rebuilt a life with no limits. That
included going to graduate school and starting my business. My private practice opened in October 2013, a year
into it I started partnering with local businesses to host
classes and workshops, and then on November 1 opened
up Queenpin Herb Shop."
She'd been a private school teacher who ran into financial
hardship and needed an alternative career. Ultimately, after additional education and soul searching, she founded the Queenpin Family Wellness in Roanoke, which houses an acupuncture
clinic and herb shop, and also is host for retreats and workshops
on modern life management."
Her support system has been extensive and strong. "Big
Dreams require a whole anthill of support to function smoothly."
Clifton majored in history at Hollins and took a job teaching
in Tohatchi, New Mexico, on the Navajo Reservation in 1998.
She wound up at Community School in Roanoke, teaching for
10 years. "I loved my job teaching, but I became separated from
my kids' dad in 2007 and realized I would not be able to support my kids on a private school teaching salary."
While at Community School, she "watched my students'
parents look for a middle way in medical care for their children.
Something between no treatment and what they felt was too
much treatment. When I went home and told my husband at
the time that I thought I wanted to go to acupuncture school
he said 'no way.' We had two young kids and he was a real estate
agent during the real estate crash."
Divorce found her looking at "my dreams of how my life
should be totally smashed. I was 33 and realized that the picket
fence way of living was not for me."  
The decision was "completely worth it. I'm 42 and I think that
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the work I've done in the past nine years has been a great example
for my two kids. They built this business with me, and they've
seen that dreams take work, but are possible if you take the leap." 

PAM Golden
Glazed Bisque-It

Pam Golden's background was organic chemistry and her
Next Chapter was truly a large one. It started with being a
stay-at-home mother of two boys and segued into owning
Glazed Bisque-It, a "paint your own pottery store. I was a
customer of the business and always thought more could
be done with it. I had never owned a business, nor had I
ever made or fired pottery." She was 45 and it was 2007.
Golden's degree was in chemistry and she actually taught
organic chemistry at Gettysburg College before working as a
research chemist where she earned a patent. She worked for
more than 10 years in pharmaceutical sales.
She bought Glazed Bisque-It with the original intent that it
was to be "something for me to make some money but it has
become a career and has become a primary source of income,"
partly because of her divorce.
The diversity required in owning her business means "I wear
a marketing hat, a human resource hat, an operations hat, a sales
hat, a public relations hat and a financial hat among others. I
don't like the art part of my business-it is very difficult for me.
I am constantly learning art techniques to help customers create
a masterpiece." The varied components "motivate me every day."
Golden plans a mid-2017 move for the business to
Starkey Road in Roanoke County in order to reduce costs,
and she has opened a second Glazed Bisque-It at Smith
Mountain Lake at Bridgewater Plaza. I
MARCH/APRIL 2017 | 37
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