Amelia Bartlett is #MadeForKnoxville.
For as long as she can remember, Amelia has loved stories, especially in the form of film. At the age of 10 when she first watched “Rent,” she realized that movies could act as a portal into a bigger world, broadening the mindsets of viewers. In her career and creative pursuits, Amelia has embraced her neurodistinct mind and leveraged it to teach people how to broaden their mindsets regarding business.
Since graduating with a degree in Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Amelia has been working with individuals and teams to create strong organizational infrastructure that fights against burnout. She is an experienced writer and creative storyteller who excels at pitchcraft – the art of idea enrollment. Amelia also leads workshops to help people formulate custom “budgets” that conserve and spend their time, resources, and attention in an effective manner. She offers consulting services using her own self-constructed architecture to equip teams and individuals in crafting a life and career that works for them. Her work has centered around helping others build sustainable careers and organizations; and in her next creative chapter, she intends to combine her skills and passion for creative storytelling to make an impact as a filmmaker.
“I stopped looking externally and focused on what part I could play not in the theatre of employment, but in the spirit of contribution to my community. Entrepreneurship has carried me ever since.”
In Their Own Words…
It seemed like every adult I knew growing up was an entrepreneur. My dad lived his dream as a full-time antique dealer; my neighbor (auntie) worked odd jobs and flipped designer bags on eBay so she could focus on gardening and slow living; my friends’ parents owned painting businesses and were *always* around for their kids; another neighbor known as “Junk Mike” made nautical wall art from reclaimed metal sourced from my stepdad’s computer recycling efforts…
Only when I grew up and ‘got my own bills’ did it sink in that entrepreneurship is the only way for a lot of people in this world — and that entrepreneurs are vital to our economy. I grew up surrounded by adults who were happy, present, and full of creativity. Going out to find jobs, I never found what they had.
I stopped looking externally and focused on what part I could play not in the theatre of employment, but in the spirit of contribution to my community. Entrepreneurship has carried me ever since.
I teach my “biggest lesson” at the core of my workshop: Boundaries Start with Budgets.
The entrepreneur (truly, the human being) has three budgets: Time, Resources (including money), and Attention.
When these go unchecked, we overspend. We get overwhelmed, we start to lose track of our reason for being, and we burn out. Worst of all, those big dreams and big plans we know in our hearts are right around the corner… they don’t have the fuel they need to materialize.
Maintaining the three budgets makes us aware of:
- How much we have to give to any situation, demand, or plan
- How much we want / need to save for ourselves
- Where we can flex when life inevitably goes off the rails
I keep track of these budgets using a completely self-constructed architecture that works for *my neurodistinct brain* and even though no one system can fit even the ‘majority,’ I can teach you how to create a system that will.
Bonus: the second biggest lesson I’ve learned in entrepreneurship is that if you’re paying attention, everyone is teaching you for free. Pay it forward in-kind.
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Here’s the TLDR:
I’m a neurodistinct full-time entrepreneur and low-key writer who is transitioning to become a full-time filmmaker. I came to Knoxville from St Petersburg, Florida to transform a school bus into a tiny house (check), fell in love with the region (seasons: swoon), and am finally learning to trust that everything I learned in business can carry me into my next (creative) chapter.
Before I knew I wanted to make movies, I knew I needed them — they were my lifeline to the greater world from what was then a small, sleepy town. I first saw ‘Rent’ when I was ten. It was the first time I’d seen queer joy and my first learning of the AIDS crisis. I said to my (very Catholic) parents, “There should be more movies like Rent. Big and entertaining that tons of people see but that also make you think about things, maybe things you never knew.” I’m writing to help people experience more of life through the universal language of film.
Onto the business:
Amelia Bartlett works with leaders, managers, and teams to create strong organizational infrastructure through facilitation, coaching, consulting, and hands-on workshops. She brings a lifetime of experience in entrepreneurship and creative storytelling to the boardroom table, solving sustainability challenges like employee working experience, operational systems and processes, and business innovation with a humanistic approach. Her journey includes multiple operations and strategy lead roles, two years as a nonprofit chief of staff, consulting for the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center and The Maker City, over one hundred published articles, and one school bus transformed into a tiny house (called The Slow Rolling Home).
Amelia built a career during the ‘freelancer’ heyday, opting to pursue skills and experience over the traditional employment pathway. She holds a B.S. in Entrepreneurship & Innovation from the University of South Florida, is a trained FourSight and Creative Problem Solving (CPS) facilitator, and incorporates both design thinking and management design thinking methodologies into her practice. She also holds numerous HubSpot platform and Inbound marketing certifications, is a former (recovering) Microsoft Sharepoint architect, and has built more websites than she cares to admit on WordPress, Shopify, and Squarespace.
Amelia maintains a vibrant Knoxville community calendar, serving as the strategy and logistics lead for The Rooted East Collective, recently pitching for an winning the United Way Food Security Hackathon, teaching workshops like Vision Casting and Boundaries Start with Budgets through the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center, and as a staff writer for Blank Newspaper. She translates her combined business and writing experience into consulting new startups and nonprofits on pitchcraft — the art of idea enrollment — through presentations, speeches, and live storytelling.
When she isn’t working with humans to make business more (human) sustainable, profitable, and generous, Amelia is likely playing with her adventure pup, tending far too many houseplants, working out at the indoor rock climbing gym, or driving scenic backroads in her 1974 Jeep CJ5.
Interested in sharing your “Made for Knoxville” story? Submit here!
