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February 3, 2025
MOSINEE – Lyn Arnhart said she is not one to shy away from challenges – a statement supported by her nearly 30 years in the Army and owning not one, but two businesses.
Arnhart said she balances her analytical side as owner of TeamLogic IT and her creative side writing dinner theater mysteries as co-owner of Dinner, Detectives & Desserts, which hosted its first show late last year.
A strong foundation
Arnhart said she entered West Point in 1985, less than a decade after the military academy started accepting women.
She said she found her niche at West Point as part of a cadet company that was academically oriented.
Commissioned as a field artillery officer, Arnhart said she later transitioned to human resources as part of the Adjutant General’s Corps.
“The Army sent me back to graduate school to get a master’s degree in operations research,” she said. “I worked in operations research for the rest of my career. It involved a lot of mathematical modeling for cost-benefit analysis, new systems, budget planning and other areas.”
Arnhart said she was involved in data analytics during her time in the Army before data analytics was the business staple it is today.
“I spent a fair number of years in the Pentagon working with the personnel budgets for the Army and helping the Army determine recruiting, training and promotion targets, as well as the funding that would need to be requested from Congress to facilitate that,” she said.
When Arnhart left the army, she was stationed at U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, where she was a division chief.
With her assignment there wrapping up and the time limit on her military service approaching, she said she decided to retire.
A natural fit
When she returned to civilian life, Arnhart said she didn’t stray too far from her previous work with the Army.
“One of the things that was going on while I was at Central Command was the fight with the Islamic State,” she said. “And one of the things that I saw that concerned me was what international terrorists and criminals were doing in the cyber world. I thought I’d try consulting
but decided that that wasn’t for me. I kept thinking about what I wanted to do and realized that I was drawn to business ownership.”
After attending a Service Academy Career Conference, Arnhart said she realized the franchise route, and TeamLogic IT specifically, seemed a natural fit for her.
So, in 2020, after moving back to the Mosinee area, she opened her own TeamLogic IT office.
“We do IT support for small- and medium-sized businesses that don’t have an internal IT staff,” she said. “They can depend on us to help facilitate their operations, including cybersecurity services. We offer staff training which focuses on risk awareness. We also do voice over the internet phone service, data backup and business continuity.”
Arnhart said she and her team work primarily with clients in Central Wisconsin, but they appreciate how TeamLogic’s vast network enables them to have national clients as well.
“I’m able to contact a colleague in another office in another part of the country if a client is located closer to them and requires in-person assistance,” she said.
Despite spending so many years along the eastern seaboard and other locations, Arnhart said moving back to Wisconsin still felt like coming home.
“We’re about an hour away from where I grew up in the Flintville area,” she said. “It’s been fun to reconnect with some people who are still here. Meeting new people and re-establishing old relationships – it’s been a good thing.”
Her creative side
In the short time she has been back in Wisconsin, Arnhart said she has also started another venture, and this time it’s in a field far from her day job.
“When I was living in Florida, a good friend – who’s also an operations research analyst – and I were talking,” she said. “We’re like, ‘How much fun would it be to have our own murder mystery dinner?’ So, I wrote a couple, but then they just kind of sat for a few years.”
However, when she joined Business Networking International (BNI) back in Wisconsin, Arnhart said she was asked the ever-popular ice-breaker question: “What’s something nobody knows about you?”
She said she answered with: “I write murder mystery dinners.”
Shortly after that event, Arnhart said fellow BNI member Jessica Vercimak – co-owner of party rental company, Party Envy out of Plover – reached out.
“Jess was thinking we could put together a show, highlight local businesses and raise money for worthy organizations,” she said. “So we started talking.”
The pair said they began working with people in the area who were interested in theater, and the rest was history.
Partnering with Vercimak and Party Envy, Arnhart said Dinners, Desserts & Detectives hosted its first show – “Pier Pressure: A Cruise Ship Caper – outside the Waters Pub & Pier in Stevens Point in October 2024.
Proceeds raised from the events, she said, are donated to area nonprofits, with Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Central Wisconsin serving as the first recipient.
Arnhart said the shows incorporate a lot of audience participation and ad-libbing by the actors, so each performance is unique.
She said the next show, titled “Who Killed Gregory?” will take place at the Lisa’s at Lakeside restaurant along Pike Lake in Hatley this month.
More information on the event will be available soon at party-envy.odoo.com.
Constantly learning
Arnhart said her two areas of professional focus – TeamLogic IT and Dinner, Detectives & Desserts – allow her to explore both her analytical and creative skills.
She said she lives each day reminding herself that “there are always new skills that you need to learn – and I’m of the view that everybody should constantly be learning something new.”
Having gone from a research specialist in the Army to a business owner and playwright, Arnhart said she proves each day that the more you’re willing to learn, the more fulfilling life will be.
