Blashack Strahan grew up on her family’s farm in rural Minnesota during the 1960s, where she was inspired by her father’s work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit. Following her high school graduation, Blashack Strahan set off to college, but after an unsettled year at the University of Minnesota-Morris, she moved back home and enrolled at Alexandria Technical College (ATC), uncertain of her career and life direction. However, this would soon change.

As an ATC project, Blashack Strahan developed a state award-winning business plan, leading her to discover her passion: business – more specifically, entrepreneurship. After graduating from ATC in 1979, Blashack Strahan began managing her father’s local cafŽ and in 1989 opened her first entrepreneurial effort: a retail gift basket shop.

In 1993, she liquidated her retail business but continued to sell gift baskets to corporate and direct-mail clients. Blashack Strahan then got an opportunity to promote these baskets in a holiday crafters’ home tour. She set out samples of gourmet food items and experienced remarkable sales. When the same results occurred later, she realized the power of sampling and the idea for Tastefully Simple was born.

In 1995, Tastefully Simple became the original national taste-testing party company offering convenient gourmet foods. It wasn’t a simple start. Blashack Strahan and her young family had no money to risk on such a venture. Determined, she bootstrapped the business with personal savings, a $20,000 Small Business Administration loan and an investment from acquaintance Joani Nielson, who became Blashack Strahan’s silent partner.

Blashack Strahan spent the first year juggling the responsibilities of home, motherhood and entrepreneur — managing business tasks by day and holding taste-testing parties by night. She operated out of Nielson’s 1,200 square-foot shed with no running water, packing orders on a pool table.

Just three years into developing the company, Blashack Strahan and Nielson were beginning to see the potential of Tastefully Simple. However, that same year, Blashack Strahan was rocked by tragedy. Her brother was killed in a fall and only a few months later, her husband died suddenly. Blashack Strahan was faced with raising her 5-year-old son and the decision of whether (and how) to continue a business that engulfed most of her time, energy and resources. She chose to persevere, using the deaths of those she loved as inspiration to live her dreams.

Today Tastefully Simple is a multiple award-winning $144 million company with more than 350 employees and some 28,000 independent consultants. Blashack Strahan is recognized as an exceptional CEO, having won numerous awards for her achievements and unique philosophies of positivity and abundance. Blashack Strahan recently published a book about her life lessons and inspirational journey with Tastefully Simple called Simply Shine: Stories That Stirred the Fire.

Blashack Strahan is an inspiration to thousands of women across the country and is taking her stories and lessons on the road as a professional speaker in 2009. Her down-to-earth nature and charismatic approach make her someone women believe in, and most importantly — someone who enables them to believe in themselves.