She Started by Cleaning the Office

Amy Yonkman’s journey at CatchMark is a reminder that growth does not begin with a title. It begins with a willingness to work, learn, and keep saying yes.

Amy Yonkman started at CatchMark by cleaning our office.

That is where her story with us began.

She did not arrive with an impressive title, a carefully defined career path, or a position designed around everything she would eventually become. She started by doing work that needed to be done and doing it well.

There is nothing insignificant about honest work. There is also something revealing about how a person approaches a role that may not come with much recognition.

Amy showed up.

She took responsibility.

She cared about doing the job correctly.

And then, little by little, she became capable of doing so much more.

She Never Stayed Where She Started

Some people allow their first role to define them.

Amy never did.

As CatchMark changed, Amy changed with it. When there was something new to learn, she learned it. When we needed help in a different area, she stepped into it. When an opportunity was placed in front of her, she did not wait until she felt completely prepared before accepting it.

She took the challenge and figured it out.

Over time, she developed skills in marketing, content, social media, website management, print materials, community media, project coordination, and countless other areas that were not part of the job she originally came here to do.

Her responsibilities grew because her abilities grew.

More importantly, her abilities grew because she was willing to be challenged.

That distinction matters.

Organizations often talk about developing people, but development is not something that can be done to someone. A company can provide opportunities, training, encouragement, and support. But the individual still has to accept the discomfort that comes with becoming something they have never been before.

Amy accepted it.

Not every new responsibility was easy. Not every project came with perfect instructions. There were situations where she had to learn as she went, solve problems she had never encountered, and become comfortable doing things that once felt unfamiliar.

She kept moving forward anyway.

That is how real growth happens.

It rarely arrives as one dramatic transformation. It happens through hundreds of small decisions to try, learn, adjust, and try again.

Amy made those decisions repeatedly.

She Became Someone We Could Depend On

Skills matter, but they are not what I will remember most about Amy’s time at CatchMark.

I will remember the kind of teammate she became.

Amy cared about the work, but she also cared about the people around her. She understood that being a good teammate means thinking beyond your own list of responsibilities.

Being a great teammate is demonstrated in the small moments. It is doing the work ahead of time so someone else is not left scrambling. It is sharing what you know instead of protecting it. It is noticing what needs to happen and taking care of it without needing recognition.

Amy did those things.

She helped wherever she could. She accepted work that did not always fit neatly inside a job description. She became one of those people we knew we could turn to when something needed attention.

Every organization needs people like that.

People who are willing to say, “I will help.”

People who do not respond to every request by explaining why it belongs to someone else.

People who understand that the team’s success matters more than protecting the boundaries of their own role.

Amy became that kind of person.

Why This One Hurts

I am devastated to see Amy leave CatchMark.

I do not use that word lightly.

There is a professional loss when someone with her knowledge and experience leaves. She understands our systems, our history, our voice, our community, and the strange collection of responsibilities that develop inside a growing company.

Those things are difficult to replace.

But this is more than the loss of an employee.

Amy has been part of CatchMark for years. She has grown with us. She has experienced the changes, challenges, successes, mistakes, transitions, and growing pains that helped shape the company we are today.

She did not simply watch that growth happen.

She contributed to it.

It is difficult to imagine CatchMark without her because, for a long time, we have not had to.

Her leaving creates a real hole in our team. There is no honest way for me to pretend otherwise.

I am sad.

I am disappointed that we will no longer see her every day.

I am going to miss her presence, her contribution, her reliability, and the history we share.

But leadership requires us to hold two emotions at the same time.

I can be devastated that she is leaving and incredibly proud that she is ready to go.

The Hard Part of Believing in Growth

It is easy for leaders to say they want people to grow when that growth continues to benefit the organization.

It is much harder when someone’s development eventually carries them somewhere else.

But we cannot claim to believe in people and then resent them when they become capable of pursuing a new opportunity.

We cannot encourage someone to take challenges, build skills, expand their confidence, and become more valuable, and then be surprised when the world notices.

Growth changes what a person believes is possible.

It should.

Amy is leaving CatchMark as a very different person from the one who first walked through our doors to clean the office.

That is something worth celebrating.

Her departure does not erase what she gave to CatchMark. It proves what she built while she was here.

She earned this next opportunity through years of work, learning, discomfort, persistence, and responsibility. The skills she will carry with her were not handed to her. She developed them one challenge at a time.

That is why I am so proud of her.

More Than a Job

The best employment relationships should leave both sides better than they were when they began.

CatchMark is better because Amy was here.

I hope Amy leaves believing she is better because she was here too.

I hope she recognizes just how much she has grown. I hope she understands that the confidence and ability she carries into her next opportunity were built through all the moments when she was uncertain but moved forward anyway.

Most of all, I hope she knows how much she has meant to us.

Amy, thank you for every role you filled, including the ones that never came with a title.

Thank you for accepting challenges before you were certain you were ready.

Thank you for continuing to learn.

Thank you for caring about the details.

Thank you for helping build CatchMark Community and for becoming such an important part of our marketing work.

Thank you for preparing others, supporting the team, and doing the small things that made everyone around you more successful.

Thank you for being a great teammate.

You started at CatchMark by cleaning the office.

You leave as someone who helped shape the company.

I am devastated to see you leave.

And I am amazingly proud to see you go.