Meet Erin Guenterberg

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Erin Guenterberg a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Erin, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

From a young age, I’ve had an inner drive, self-motivated to get good grades, be a good friend, do well in school, be a good worker, be a good wife, a good mom. It’s just been a part of who I am. Throughout the many roles I’ve had in life, I’ve found purpose in each of them: student, friend, social worker, wife, mother, entrepreneur, etc…

And then my husband died when I was 36, ripping away my favorite role and title, wife. A role I enjoyed, took seriously, was playful in…and it was ripped away from me through nothing I did. Nothing in my control. And that caused me to struggle to see a purpose in anything or any of my other roles.

Through 18 months of therapy, through my community of moms that held me through my darkest days, through family that stepped in, through my new community of widows and widowers that are walking a similar path, and mostly through my daughters. I needed to teach my daughters, to show them that horrible things will happen in life, sometimes through no fault of our own, but life continues. We need to rise, even when we so don’t want to. Even when everyone is calling you strong and all you want to do is metaphorically slap them in the face for saying stupid cliches. My daughters are my direct connection with my husband and the beautiful life we built together, and they need to know that there are rainbows after storms. One of my babies is a rainbow baby herself, and I’ve learned a lot from her and her happy-go-lucky personality.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I own a business, Lake Country Family Fun, and run a women’s networking group, Lake Country Currents. I’m passionate about community, about connecting families to their communities, whether that be literally the city they live in or connecting them with their village of moms and like-minded people. We also connect with a number of nonprofits in the community. I was on the board of Gals on the Go Project, focusing on resilience, and adolescent life skills, as well as the Friends of Imagination Station, an all inclusive playground in Oconomowoc. Through that, I was on the planning committee for the Oconomowoc Splash Pad as well that opened in summer 2024.

We continue to connect with business and event planners in the Lake Country and Waukesha County area, and our biggest event Hartland Kids Day is in its 13th year this upcoming summer.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Active listening is a skill I learned in social work school, but it is key in all areas of life. Listening to connect versus listening to speak/respond. This has allowed me to create and maintain long relationships with clients and to see multiple sides of an issue or story. All parts of business are really relationship-building. That’s the cornerstone.

Also, things will go wrong. The best laid plans have snafus. Competitors come out of nowhere. But we like to believe in community over competition and the ability to roll with it. This is a skill I’m not sure I will ever be an expert at, but I get lots of practice at it.

Another skill is knowing when to ask for help, when to delegate, when to hire out. You cannot do it all alone. I started a team pretty early on as I realized the scope of what Lake Country Family Fun could be and that I could not do it all by myself, at least not well by any means.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?

When overwhelmed, take it minute by minute. Prioritize and break all tasks down into smaller tasks. Complete the smaller tasks and acknowledge that you completed that. And because you did, you can complete the next small task. Also, maybe take a nap.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Julie Collins Photography
Lauren Kreibich Photography

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