From determined mother to purpose-driven founder

When Crystalee Beck was laid off from her marketing job, she faced a crossroads. With a one-year-old on her hip and another baby on the way, she could have gone back to corporate life. Instead, she chose to rewrite her story.

“If someone else was paying the company for my skill set, they could also pay me directly,” she thought. That single realization led to the launch of Comma Copywriters, a Utah-based content agency built on freedom, flexibility, and family.

Nearly a decade later, Comma is one of Utah’s fastest-growing companies, earning recognition on the Utah 100, Utah Business 40 Under 40, and Best of State lists. But for Crystalee, the real success is building a business that supports both her team and their lives beyond work.

A Business Born from “Why”

Crystalee’s journey began with the desire to be there for her children while continuing to do the work she loved. “I refused to miss their childhood,” she said. “A determined mother cannot be stopped.”

That determination became the foundation of Comma Copywriters. What started as a one-woman freelance operation quickly evolved into a team of professional writers and editors serving global brands like Microsoft, HP, and Google. Crystalee focused on long-form content like blogs, case studies, and white papers that help companies communicate authentically, while building a reputation for reliability and brand voice precision.

Today, Comma operates as a remote team serving mid-sized businesses with lean marketing departments. Beck explained that most of her clients have one to five marketers who handle strategy but need help executing their content goals. “It’s almost humanly impossible to keep up with everything they need to create,” she said.

Falling Down and Learning Forward

Nine and a half years later, Crystalee is quick to acknowledge that her path hasn’t been easy.
“I’ve fallen on my face so many times,” she admitted. “You need to have a strong enough why that it can pull you through your darkest, hardest moments.”

Some of her hardest lessons came through people decisions, particularly learning not to hire friends or family. “I care very deeply about my people and my friends,” she said, “and sometimes you have to make business decisions to protect the whole team. Those can be painful.”

Another defining lesson came from walking away from clients that didn’t support her company values. When a potential client demanded her team work all weekend for a Monday-morning deadline, she declined. “Some money isn’t worth it,” she said. “My job is to protect my team.” The experience led to one of Comma’s internal mantras: We don’t work with jerks.

The Five Core Values That Define Comma

Five years into her journey, Crystalee decided to formalize what her team already practiced. Using the framework from the book Traction, the team gathered for a weekend retreat, filling a wall with sticky notes describing their best teammates’ qualities. The result was five values that guide everything they do:

  1. Freedom – Life First: Crystalee started Comma to create more freedom. “Work-life balance is backward,” she said. “Life should come first.” To celebrate this, Comma gives employees a Bucket List Grant—$1,000 to check off a personal dream after three years of service.
  2. Accountability – Show Up and Own Your Work: Freedom only works with accountability. “If you give too much freedom, you risk missing deadlines. If you give too much accountability, it feels like a prison,” she said. “You need both.”
  3. Humility – Work as a Team, No Egos: A past experience with a writer who bypassed the company’s process and challenged a client taught her the cost of ego. “That is not okay,” she recalled. “We are a team.”
  4. Curiosity – Keep Growing and Learning: Especially relevant in the age of AI, curiosity keeps Comma adaptive. “We welcome input and questions,” Crystalee said. “It helps us stay open to change and innovation.”
  5. Care – We Put Our Heart Into It: Whether it’s choosing clients or managing projects, Comma only takes on work the team truly believes in. “You can’t do great work if you don’t care,” she said.

These values shaped company culture and became a recruitment magnet for people who want meaningful work that fits real life.

Leading Through Change: Trust and Team

Early on, Crystalee did everything herself, from sales and writing, to editing and invoicing. Over time, growth demanded trust. “It’s leaps of trust, like jumping from one side of a mountain to another,” she said.

At first, she edited every piece herself to ensure quality. As the team grew, she had to hand off that role. “I realized there are writers on my team who are far better than me,” she said. “Our clients get a better product because of them.”

Letting go wasn’t easy, but it was essential. By shifting from writer to business leader, she created opportunities for others while scaling Comma’s capacity. She explained that sharing the work meant sharing revenue too, but that it ultimately enabled her to grow faster and pay her team what they deserved.

Navigating the Age of AI

When ChatGPT exploded in early 2023, Crystalee admits she panicked. “I was almost in a mental fetal position for two or three months,” she said. “I thought it might destroy my business.”

Instead, she chose curiosity over fear. Comma ran pilots across seven AI tools with seven different writers, testing use cases from research to editing. “It’s a very powerful tool,” she explained, “but it’s not a good idea to copy-paste and publish something straight off of AI.”

Crystalee now encourages clients to aim for what she calls publish-ready content. Content that is AI-assisted but edited and owned by humans. “If there hasn’t been at least about 30% human touch on a piece of content, then it can’t be owned,” she said. “AI doesn’t have a soul. Writers do.”

Life First: The Heart of Leadership

For Crystalee, success means being both a founder and a present mom. Her proudest moment came not on stage, but in her kitchen, when her five-year-old asked, “Mom, why don’t you go to work?”

“He couldn’t tell I was working because I was always with him,” she said, smiling. “That’s what I wanted—to build something meaningful without missing their childhood.”

She credits her mentors, including entrepreneur Allen Hall and business coach Adrian Dayton, for shaping her leadership philosophy. Hall taught her, “Take care of your team, they take care of your clients, and your clients take care of your company.” Dayton reinforced the idea that good enough is often good enough, “If someone can do something at least 80% as well as you can, it frees you up to grow.”

The Three B’s: Body, Babies, Business

To stay grounded, Crystalee lives by her “three B’s”—Body, Babies, and Business. Each day she focuses on all three, even if one takes more time than the others. “If you’re clear about your big yeses, it’s easier to say no to distractions,” she said.

She encourages others to identify their own non-negotiables. “Decide what matters most—faith, family, creativity, health—whatever it is, make sure those things never get your leftovers.”

Giving Back: The High Five Grant

Through The Mama Ladder, Crystalee co-founded the High Five Grant, a national initiative supporting mom-owned businesses. Each year, the grant distributes over $20,000 to help women gain both capital and confidence. “Less than 2% of venture capital goes to women,” she said. “This is my way of paying it forward.”

Now in its eighth year, the program has helped dozens of mothers grow their businesses while proving that family life and entrepreneurship aren’t mutually exclusive.

Looking Ahead

As Comma approaches its tenth anniversary, Crystalee’s bold goals include doubling output to 1,000 pieces of content per month, landing on the Inc. 5000, and continuing to expand her team while preserving the “life-first” culture that started it all.

“How you do something is just as important as what you do,” she said. “We’ve held true to that for nine years, and we’ll keep doing it for the next nine.”

Lessons for Entrepreneurs

  • Build around your “why.” It’s the only thing strong enough to sustain you through hard moments.
  • Choose values that already exist. Codify what’s real, not what sounds good.
  • Protect your people. Say no to clients who violate your culture.
  • Stay curious. Technology changes fast—your adaptability is your advantage.
  • Live life first. True success includes time for what matters most.

Want the full story behind Crystalee Beck’s journey?
Listen to the complete MountainWest Capital Network Podcast episode, where she shares how she’s building a “life-first” business in a fast-changing world—one that empowers women, writers, and families to thrive.

[Listen to Crystalee’s full story here →]

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About the MountainWest Capital Network Podcast: Your gateway to the Winners’ Circle, featuring stories and strategies from Utah’s fastest-growing companies. For 30 years, MountainWest Capital Network has celebrated entrepreneurial excellence through the Utah 100, recognizing the state’s most dynamic businesses and their founders.