Kim’s Journey

I define pure happiness as being lost in the moment. The bliss of bluebird skiing with my kids, a weekend in the mountains with my girlfriends, reading a good book, solving a complex problem, or being so engrossed in some form of creativity, that I completely lose track of time. As a Colorado native, I grew up spending a lot of time in the mountains with family and friends, and consider anywhere in the high country my “happy place”.

I graduated from Colorado State with a BFA in Graphic Design which helped to validate and nurture my creativity. After college, I moved to Chicago to pursue a career in advertising, and created campaigns for world class brands including Kraft, P&G, McDonald’s, AT&T and more.

After a few years of savoring and thriving in the Windy City, I missed the mountains and yearned to move back west. My next adventure landed me in Montana where my first business was born, a marketing and event consultancy. After the birth of my first child (and a failed relationship), I moved back to Denver to be closer to family. As a single mom, I turned my focus away from a challenging career and spent the good part of the next four years just surviving.

I remarried when my daughter was 6, and gave birth to my second child two years later. As happy as I was, my world included very little creativity and I felt stuck working for someone else. Time for my second business… Mears Interactive started as a marketing consultancy and quickly grew to 5 full time staff and numerous contractors. I was teaching, consulting and building successful digital campaigns.

As my business flourished, my marriage fell apart and took my self esteem with it. I was working insane hours, snapping at my kids, and crying every night. I became a twice-divorced single mom with a failing business and a mountain of debt. I closed the doors of Mears Interactive and started on a journey to find myself.

The last 10 years have been a mix of courage, sadness, strength, anger, self doubt, loneliness and shame… and many many times, happiness. Through all of the pain, I have grown in ways I could have never imagined. I am able to relax and live in the moment with my kids, to walk away from people and things that do not serve me, and I feel more at peace about who I am and what makes me happy.

This is the beginning of the next chapter in my story, weaving together a framework of learnings to help others grow and evolve through travel.