Meet Karen Pearson

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

Hi Karen, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

For me, resilience comes from a belief that positive always comes from negative. No matter how difficult or challenging a situation is, there will always be an opportunity to find hope and possibility.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I am the CEO and Co-Founder of the Adaptive Performance Center. APC is a non-profit fitness center exclusively for veterans and active service members with the mission of eliminating veteran suicide through physical fitness and recreating community. We aim to return a sense of purpose and dignity to every veteran and allow them the opportunity to self-actualize by creating a holistic, non-judgmental, safe community space. I feel the most amazing part of APC is when we see a veteran come in who is turned inward emotionally, interacts minimally and is very sad in their eyes start letting the magic of APC happen and within a couple of weeks you see them come back to life. They start to interact and smile. They stay longer to just talk to other veterans and staff members. We get to see them take their actual life back when they feel at home around other like minded veterans. For many veterans this is something that has been missing for years or even decades. APC becomes a safe place where they can be themselves and know the person they are talking to understands them. The two most common things we hear from our members is, “When I walked through the door I felt like I was home.” and “You may not know it but you saved my life.” Right now the Adaptive Performance Center is in Billings, MT and Helena, MT. We hope by early 2026 to have locations in Colorado Springs, CO and Tulsa, OK.

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?

I would say the three qualities, skills or areas of knowledge that have been most impactful on my journey are believing in people, being a good listener and having a background in mental health. I have an inherent belief that people are good and when given the right opportunities and support to become the very best version of themselves, they will rise to the occasion. Even if that means just making it out of bed in the morning. Second, I am a very good listener. Everyone has a story that needs to be heard and one of the greatest gifts we can give someone is to listen to their story. Listening, without interrupting, shows another person they have value. And finally, having the knowledge and background in mental health has been a great way to bring it all successfully together. My advice to those early in their journey is to be patient. Learn as many skills as you can and recognize you can learn something from almost anyone you come in contact with. Keep your focus on your goal but recognize getting to your goal is not a linear path. Don’t give up when it seems like things are going the wrong direction. It’s all part of the process.

What has been your biggest area of growth or improvement in the past 12 months?

My biggest area of growth and improvement in the past twelve months has been learning to let go of control. I’m kind of a control freak. I used to think I was responsible for how every situation turned out as well as everyone’s feelings about it. That was exhausting. And depending on the population you work with, once they learn that about you, they will manipulate it every chance they get. It will also lead to burn out very quickly. I still have compassion for people and I want things to go well but I am not responsible for how other people react to situations. This has freed up my emotional and energetic capacity to be able to take on larger tasks and let others do their own jobs without interfering. It also requires others to expand their emotional capacity and learn to problem solve on their own or as a team. This becomes a win all the way around.

Contact Info:

Suggest a Story: BoldJourney is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems,
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
Productivity
Where do you get your work ethic from?

We’ve all heard the phrase “work hard, play hard,” but where does our work ethic

Productivity
Tactics & Strategies for Keeping Your Creativity Strong

With the rapid improvements in AI, it’s more important than ever to keep your creativity

Productivity
From Burnout to Balance: The Role of Self-Care

Burning out is one of the primary risks you face as you work towards your