Heather Boschke is a firestarter. When she meets someone, she wants to spark inspiration, curiosity or empowerment within them, so they leave her feeling lighter and more capable. As a successful teacher, artist, author and the founder of Little Birdie Buddies, where she “spreads joy one bird at a time,” she models for others that when you do what you love and love what you do, it feeds your soul and allows you to burn bright.

It is hard not to notice Heather’s radiance when you spend time with her. It becomes even stronger when she talks about the birds she draws, the books she’s written and the people she meets, especially children, at events.  She says if someone had told her four years ago what she would be doing today, she would not have believed them. But she is grateful for being where she is and doing what she is doing, because she worked in enough jobs that were soul-sucking, even though she was very good at them.

Needed Something Different

Heather grew up in Wisconsin, and if you read the bio on her website, as a kid, she loved birds and drawing. As she got older, she focused on her education and finding a good job that would be fulfilling and give her financial security to live a good life. At the University of Wisconsin, Madison, she planned to become a nurse practitioner, but in a marketing class she took a switch flipped within her that she didn’t even know she had. She was fascinated that it was a bridge between companies and their customers and thought it was fun. The fact that there were good jobs in marketing made it all the better.

As a marketing executive, Heather put more into her work than she got back. She was let go three times. The first two times, she picked herself up, polished up her resume and got another job. The third time she was let go was different. The job she was let go from was all-consuming with her working 70-hour weeks. Her body began to sound alarm bells when she developed a tick in her eye.  When she was let go, something within her broke. She couldn’t just polish up her resume and start looking for another one. She needed something different.

An Invitation to Let Go

It was 2019, and Heather felt the universe had given her an invitation to let go of other people’s expectations of her. She was done giving herself away in jobs that didn’t give her much in return. She took the summer off to do things she enjoyed and spend time with people she cared about. It made her realize that life is more than a job, and she was going to show up differently. Her next job was with a nonprofit membership organization. Once in her position, it became impossible not to see that what was right wasn’t happening. Also, her relationship with her boss wasn’t great. She came to realize that if she was let go again, she would be okay. She was terminated in 2021.

During the pandemic, Heather heard a voice that told her to start drawing. It was familiar to her, but this time it had an urgency to it. This voice had provided guidance to her at key moments in her life, including when she ended an engagement several years earlier. She trusted it, so she bought a sketchbook and pens and started drawing. The first thing she drew was a chubby chickadee. It was the start of her drawing Little Birdie Buddies.

Heather returned to drawing six months before she was let go from her job. She expected to find another one, but while doing that, she poured herself into her drawing and was intentional about getting out into nature. A lot of people were seeking her out to get help with their marketing needs, so rather than find another job, she started her own marketing company, Vogel Venture. Vogel means bird in German.

Enough

Running her own company allowed Heather to enjoy having time be more her own. She didn’t feel pressure to make more money than she needed, and she enjoyed having time to draw and go bird watching. She wasn’t driven to earn more but enough, so she and her husband could maintain their lifestyle. Time wealth had become more important to her than monetary wealth. 

Time allowed her to grow as an artist. Her dad asked her to draw him a Blue Jay, and Barry the Blue Jay was created. Soon other family and friends started requesting her birds on cards, prints and mugs. Little Birdie Buddies was the natural next step and provided the foundation she needed to take a leap of faith and write her first book. Teaching comes naturally to Heather. She teaches marketing as an adjunct faculty member at Metro State University. When she decided to write a book, she wanted to keep it simple by having facts about the birds and something about their personalities accompany each picture. She wanted readers to learn about species of birds that are all around them. Her first book, Little Birdie Buddies of Minnesota, is the number one seller at the Minnesota Zoo gift shop. She also has Little Birdie Buddies of Wisconsin and Little Birdie Babies.

It takes Heather about four hours to create one of her birds from start to finish. Her routine is to draw on Sunday mornings with Bruce Springsteen playing in the background. When she isn’t drawing, Heather is promoting her books and Little Birdie Buddies at events and serving as her own best sales rep. She also is busy doing T.V. and podcast interviews sharing her journey in the hope of igniting the fire in others to make space in their lives to do what they love and spread her message of enough. She also feeds her artistic talent by making time to watch birds that visit the feeders she and her husband have in their backyard or going to parks and trails around the Twin Cities to observe the variety of bird species that make this area their home. 

Heather is busier than ever, but she doesn’t feel busy or overwhelmed when everything she does feeds her energy, instead of draining it. She also has people around her that support and encourage her, especially her husband, who has been a constant source of support for her and Little Birdie Buddies. She is grateful to have had the opportunity to get real about what is true for her. She is not afraid of failing, because without it there is no growth, so she is going to keep drawing birds, figuring it out and burning bright.

Learn More

Visit Little Birdie Buddies to see some of Heather’s beautiful birds, learn about author visits and events, purchase her books and much more.

Three Great Ways to Help Ruthlessly Hopeful Grow

1. Financial support - It’s voluntary and any amount is appreciated.

2. Subscribe to Profiles In Hope (just scroll down)- It is free and will only cost you space in your inbox.

3. Share Ruthlessly Hopeful with people you know.