Tracie Jellison
a fresh start at graze craze
By: Chase Muro
For years, Tracie Jellison’s friends had been telling her something she wasn’t quite ready to act on.
She should plan events. She should design celebrations. She should find a way to turn her love of entertaining into something more.
They had been to her parties. They had seen the care she put into bringing people together. To them, the connection seemed obvious.
But Tracie had a career in banking, one she had built over decades. Entertaining was something she enjoyed outside of work. She wasn’t convinced it could become her livelihood.
Then she retired.
And after reaching a milestone she had looked forward to for years, she discovered something unexpected: she missed having somewhere to put her energy.
Today, Tracie is the owner and chief grazeologist of Graze Craze in Vancouver’s Salmon Creek area. Her days involve charcuterie boards, catering orders, customers, and the unpredictable demands of running a business.
It is a different life from banking. But as we talked, it became clear that much of what drives her has stayed the same.
She likes working. She likes people. And she likes seeing what happens when something she helped create becomes real.
An Idaho Beginning
Tracie grew up primarily on a hobby farm in Idaho, raised by a single mother alongside her two sisters.
There were horses, cows, chickens, ducks, and other animals to care for. The family grew a garden and raised animals for food. Their responsibilities were part of everyday life.
“You got to get up and you got to get moving,” she said.
Animals needed attention whether she felt like getting out of bed or not. That routine gave her an early understanding of work and follow-through.
Her mother owned a business, too. Watching her manage those responsibilities while raising three daughters left a lasting impression.
“It really taught me to be a strong, independent woman,” Tracie said.
Formal education required finding her own way financially. She attended college but did not complete a degree. At the time, she had another ambition that excited her: becoming a pilot.
In her early twenties, she needed a job to help support herself and pay for flight lessons. She found one as a teller at a small credit union in Boise.
Banking paid for the dream she was pursuing in the air.
A friend who was a pilot and flight instructor worked around her schedule, meeting her in the evenings and on weekends. Tracie earned several ratings and imagined a future as a commercial pilot.
Then a car accident caused an injury that took away part of her hearing.
Her path changed.
By then, she had already spent a few years in banking. She was working hard, learning, and looking for opportunities to move forward. The job she had taken to support one future began opening the door to another.
The Woman in the Pink Hard Hat
Tracie’s banking career lasted about 36 years.
She moved from teller work into consumer lending, helping people finance cars, access home equity, and meet other financial needs. She remembers the excitement of approving someone’s first car loan and knowing that a routine part of her work could become a major moment in someone else’s life.
Over time, she moved into commercial lending. Much of her career would be spent there, with construction becoming a particular specialty.
That work gave her something she loved: a chance to see progress happen.
“It was really fulfilling for me to go out on those construction sites and actually see the dollars at work,” she said.
She kept rubber boots ready for muddy sites. She also had a pink hard hat.
A loan was paperwork, financial analysis, and decisions, but a visit to a construction site made its purpose visible. She could walk through a project and hear the excitement in a client’s voice as they explained what was taking shape.
Her work brought her into apartment buildings, medical projects, retail developments, and storage facilities. It also gave her opportunities she might never have expected when she started behind a teller counter.
She toured yachts under construction. She watched catamarans being built for a tour company in Maui. She attended a launch celebration in Portland, complete with music, food, and a champagne bottle.
Years later, a connection from that project welcomed her onto one of the boats during a trip to Maui.
Those relationships made the work memorable.
“You never know what’s going to come,” she said.
She eventually became a banking executive. Along the way, she also took time away from her career to stay home with her two children, something she described as deeply important to her.
Her progress included professional ambition and decisions about the kind of family life she wanted to have.
A Career Built Around People
When I asked what had been most fulfilling about banking, Tracie’s answer came back to helping clients achieve their goals.
She also valued the community involvement that came with working for local financial institutions. Her career included time at First Independent, Columbia Credit Union, and Riverview.
There were nonprofit events, committees, boards, golf tournaments, and opportunities to support local organizations. Sometimes she emceed events. Sometimes she represented the bank at a sponsored activity.
Banking gave her a platform to participate in the community on a larger scale than she could have managed alone.
It also helped her develop a way of working with people that she still follows.
“Always surprise and delight,” she said. “Go the extra mile.”
For Tracie, that can mean a handwritten thank-you card, a birthday card, or a follow-up call someone wasn’t expecting. It also means keeping her word.
If she promises to call later that day, she makes the call, even if it means staying late.
“I always stood behind what I said, and I still do that to this day.”
She sees those habits as relationship building. They show someone that a conversation mattered and that their needs weren’t forgotten when they walked away.
That approach has followed her from loans to charcuterie.
When Retirement Didn’t Feel Like Enough
Tracie had long wanted to retire at 55.
She reached that goal, expecting to enjoy the freedom she had worked toward. But the experience felt different from what she had imagined.
Her husband was still working. Her children were busy with their own lives. Many of her friends were still working, too.
“I’m feeling disconnected,” she remembered thinking.
She wanted to return to work, but she wasn’t sure what that should look like.
Banking was the obvious possibility. She knew the industry and still had plenty of contacts. She reached out and interviewed, considering whether a familiar role might be the answer.
But the reasons she had left were still there.
Over the years, banking had changed. She described how increasing regulatory demands had affected the work and her enjoyment of it. Eventually, she had stopped looking forward to going in.
Returning would have meant going back to something she already knew she was ready to leave.
So she began asking a different question: what else could she do?
Her friends’ encouragement about entertaining remained in the back of her mind.
She had thought about owning a business before. Through lending, she had seen how much effort it took to build one from scratch. A franchise appealed to her because it offered a model and systems she could learn.
While researching, she came across United Franchise Group and began looking through its brands.
One name caught her attention.
“What is a Graze Craze?”
She looked closer and discovered a charcuterie business.
“The light bulb went off,” she said. “Like, oh my gosh, this might be it.”
Something She Could See and Feel
Looking back at the gatherings she had hosted over the years, Tracie recognized a familiar detail.
There was always a charcuterie board on the table.
What had seemed like a new direction was connected to something she had enjoyed for a long time. When she told the people closest to her, they understood the fit immediately.
Her husband, children, and close friends encouraged her. Friends began talking about the business to people they knew, excited to help her get started.
Tracie went through the franchise approval process and purchased two Vancouver territories. Her current shop is in Salmon Creek. She also holds the rights to develop a second location in the eastern part of Vancouver, though that remains a possibility for the future.
The business started to feel real when work began on the storefront.
“That’s when it started to get real because then I had something tangible to look at,” she said.
She could see it. She could walk through it. The idea was becoming a place.
Her years in banking helped her navigate that transition. She understood financial statements and business structures. Her experience financing construction gave her useful familiarity with the process of turning a space into an operating business.
She was entering a new industry with skills she had spent decades developing.
The Work Behind the Board
Owning Graze Craze has brought challenges that Tracie couldn’t fully schedule around.
That is, in fact, one of the biggest adjustments.
In banking, she had more control over her appointments. In catering, an order can arrive late at night for the following morning.
That can mean changing plans, working early, staying late, or giving up a weekend she had hoped to keep open.
“I have to go get that order taken care of,” she said.
She hopes that as the business grows, repeat customers and additional staff will help create a more manageable balance. For now, she is putting in the hours needed to establish it.
Delivery has created another challenge. Orders from the Portland area can fall beyond the range available through a delivery service, leaving the team to work out another solution.
One employee has become especially valuable in helping with those demands.
Matthew, whom Tracie described as her right-hand man, works on social media, content, website needs, board preparation, and deliveries. His media production background gives him a chance to use his training while helping the business build its identity.
Tracie appreciates having someone who can move between so many responsibilities. She also values that the role gives him an opportunity to focus his creative work on one brand.
Their arrangement reflects something she understands well from her banking career: a business depends on the people helping it run.
A Personal Touch at the Table
The creative side of Graze Craze gives Tracie room to use the instincts her friends had recognized for years.
She likes thinking about the occasion and the person behind an order.
For a wedding, that might mean charcuterie centerpieces on round boards where guests can gather while the couple takes photographs. For another event, it might mean a custom grazing table with colors, flowers, or details chosen for the host.
She recalled a retirement celebration where a client wanted fresh herbs incorporated into the presentation. His wife supplied herbs from her garden. Tracie brought some from her own.
Those details are part of what she enjoys.
During our conversation, I mentioned my own upcoming wedding. Tracie quickly began talking through possibilities, asking about the setting and explaining how different presentations could work.
It was easy to hear the enthusiasm that had made her the person friends turned to for parties.
She also continues to use the relationships she built in banking. Former contacts have reached out after hearing about the shop, seeing her in local coverage, or learning about her new venture through someone they know.
She is out meeting people, following up, and asking for their business.
But whether an order is large or small, she tries to carry the same principle into the interaction.
“Treat every client as if they’re your only client,” she said.
Making Room for Another Person’s Story
At the beginning of our conversation, Tracie wondered whether her story would be interesting enough.
By the end, we had talked about an Idaho farm, flight lessons, an accident that changed her plans, a pink hard hat, raising children, retirement, and the decision to begin again.
When I asked what “Everyone Has a Story” meant to her, she spoke about the differences that make each person worth listening to.
“There’s no two stories that are the same,” she said.
Someone’s experiences in business, family, or everyday life can hold meaning that isn’t immediately visible. One person’s story doesn’t become less interesting because it looks different from another’s.
“I think everybody has a remarkable tale to tell about their experiences.”
For Tracie, listening is part of understanding people.
“I think it’s important that as humans we listen to people’s stories and try to understand their stories because we are all different.”
Her own story includes plans that changed and opportunities she couldn’t have predicted. The teller job that helped pay for flight lessons became a career. Retirement led her to reconsider what she wanted from work. A familiar feature at her parties became the foundation for a new business.
Now, she is building something she can see, feel, and share.
And once again, she is helping people bring something they imagined to life.
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Tracie,
Thank you so much for the opportunity to share your story. It's an inspiring one, to say the least!
Alexa and I have your card and know where to find you for our big day!
All the best to you and your ventures!
Chase