We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kristina Corcoran a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Kristina, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
In 2010, my life began to collapse. It was the height of the construction crash and I was in the process of leaving a bad marriage. My job was marketing for a company that built accounting systems for homebuilders and all my money was tied up in my family’s company which at the time was the largest drywall and ceiling company in Colorado with a paint division. As the divorce process got messier and messier ultimately leading to my gaining full custody of my children, my financial stability disintegrated into tatters. A series of poor choices and unforeseeable events within my family’s company including a lawsuit against the paint supplier, drove the company under and all my invested money was considered unsecured debt and unrecoverable. My job with the construction company was one of the last to go, but it too failed as the company I worked for struggled to stay afloat.
During the divorce process, my ex-husband also had some health issues which delayed the court proceedings and there was no child support during this time. The judge determined that I also received no back support at the end of the court process. Our house was underwater and had a second mortgage that I was not listed on, so the bank would not talk to me about my options to save my home and we were forced into a short-sale. I also had no savings beyond the money in my family’s company. Struggling to make ends meet and feed my children, I worked on web content creation for websites at $5 an article. I realize now how underpaid I was at that time.
With the problems we faced and the potential for angry encounters with my ex-husband, my parents convinced me to move back in with them with the kids. However, it was clear we were guests, not home. I fell into insurance work and went to work first in supplemental benefits and later financial planning. But the straight commission made it difficult to plan for expenses in a one income household. We stayed longer than planned, but ultimately needed a home of our own. After four years of struggling, I finally was able to purchase a townhome of my own.
Two years later as the interest rates dropped, a previous colleague came to me and told me that he had gotten into mortgages asking if I knew if anyone who needed a mortgage. At the time, my HOA was in litigation with the builder and no one seemed able to lend in my neighborhood. I asked if he and his business partner could help me with a refinance. While he knew very little about the industry, his business partner was very knowledgeable and answered all my questions. I gave them money for the refinance and was told it would be closing soon.
But after several closing dates had come and gone and still no closing, I began to question the process. I finally bypassed my former colleague and reached out to the business partner and was told that he had discovered my former colleague was a crook and had been stealing from potential clients including myself. He told me he would personally handle my refinance and that he was getting out of the mortgage industry and wanted to focus on rentals and fix and flips. He asked if I would I be interested in coming to work for the new company with a salary.
I jumped at the chance to enter the real estate market during a time housing prices were beginning to rise and to enjoy the stability of a steady paycheck. I quickly had five homes under contract that with a little work would have doubled in value easily. But I was still not receiving the agreed upon salary and the refinance on my house that he had told me he would privately finance was still not through.
After a couple months of getting the run around, the CBI came to me and told me that both my previous colleague and my new boss were crooks and had robbed me as well as several other people. They asked me to testify and told me there was no money behind these companies. At this time the earnest checks we had given began to bounce as well. I was never paid my salary. I spoke with employment lawyers and filed a dispute with the state which I won, but no one would take the case as there was no money to receive. In addition, when my former employer was charged and convicted, my money that had been stolen was never reimbursed.
My children who were teens at the time watched me collapse with fear that my hard-earned home would be taken from me. There was no back-up plan and no safety-net and my financial planning pipeline had dried up. They told me to get off the couch and get a job while I froze, terrified of what was going to happen.
At this time, I started Denver Free Fun so that I could find things that we could afford to do and that would motivate me to get out of the house. Within one month I had over 2000 followers and I began to see that there was a need for this service for many people, but I needed a way to monetize it. I realized the answer was advertising and set about networking to build an advertising base.
The first year was slow and hard while people grasped what I was trying to build. Initially there was no website or presence beyond a Facebook page and no market research prior to starting my company. I had little experience being an entrepreneur. But I had a background in PR, marketing and psychology and a vision for what I wanted to grow, so I persevered. I had the foresight to also plan for a nationwide company with Find Free Fun and I put my name out everywhere I could, meeting with as many business owners as possible.
Three years later I brought on an intern, Kendall Racanelli, who eventually became my first full time employee and Client Relations Manager. I also formed a friendship with an owner of one of the networking companies I worked with, Tim Zeman, who came to me asking to work with Denver Free Fun. With a background in digital media and knowing his drive and work ethic, I made him my business partner instead. Six months later after a failed business arrangement to purchase the company he had previously worked with, we began our own networking company, Tribe Networking and Marketing and began bundling advertising and networking together.
Now five years later from when Denver Free Fun began, we get over 3.5M hits a year on social media, have brand new market offerings and have built one of the fastest growing networking communities in Colorado with expansion plans into several other cities and states for both Find Free Fun and Tribe Networking. We have several dynamic partnerships and everything we do focuses on small business community and give-back. We operate the largest Pints4Purple fundraising event in the country for the National Pancreatic Cancer Foundation, have Find Free Fun’s Feed the Fam for homeless and in-crisis teens and their families and are working to build a Tribe Mentors program to help young people learn to be business owners and grow through networking.
A lot of hardships have built these platforms and a lot of tears were shed in the process. But consistency and resiliency have created something pretty amazing that will continue to grow with time. These hardships made me a better person in the end.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
With both Find Free Fun and Tribe Networking and Marketing, we believe in community and work hard to make sure it is a place where people are supported and feel welcome. With Find Free Fun, we have not only promoted all the free and cheap things happening around town, but we have also done our own events including dinners, nature educational events, charity events and fun activities. We monitor all interaction carefully to ensure that people are communicating well with each other and that the group vibe is always positive. We also work hard to ensure that the content is what people would like to know about.
In Tribe Networking, we also focus on community with a vision of collaboration, not competition. Without being industry exclusive, we allow members to work together to build partnerships and create new visions. We help companies with business development and allow them to work on growing while still focusing on their own businesses. We have over 40 meetings a month around the metro Denver area as well as meetings from Fort Collins to Phoenix. In addition, there are lunch and learns, after hours events that support local charities and social events so business owners can really get to know each other including our Adult Field Day in June, Pints4Purple in October and our holiday event benefitting Feed the Fam in December. We also offer members a full spectrum of business development products including business lending, payment services, business credit, SEO, web design and more.
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?
In my opinion, the most common quality of business leaders is stubbornness. We fight through the tough times to build our businesses and we grow through them. We don’t give up when it is difficult and work to constantly improve what we do. This includes sometimes funding the company rather than the company funding you. We see the long-term vision rather than the short-term difficulties. Even when hard times happen, we stick.
Another quality of business leaders is consistency. So often I see people who put up an ad or show up for a couple networking meetings and then they complain that it did not work. They are not consistent in the process and do not continue to show up. They say that 90% of the battle is just being present and that is true. In the beginning with Denver Free Fun, I had a process of posting consistently throughout the day. In fact, the in the first few days, my son sent me a message telling me that I was spamming people. I informed him it was my page and he laughed and told me to carry on. If I had not been consistent though, people would have failed to follow me and I would have lost interest in building the company.
Finally, you need to have thick skin as a business owner. You are going to fail. You are going to have bad days and things that fall through the cracks. You are also going to have to develop boundaries and understand that not everyone is going to like you or agree with you. You are going to have to own all these things and take care to remember that it is about making your business successful. You are also going to need to learn to pivot when things change.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
We are always looking for people who want to support the Find Free Fun community through advertising and offer very affordable rates that include web, coupons, blogs, social media, email advertising and more. Not only do they get visibility through Denver Free Fun, but we lock in pricing so as we grow, their pricing remains the same. In addition, we have partnered with several tourism organizations and media companies to build membership and work together to create a stronger platform.
For Tribe Networking and Marketing, we are always looking for strong business leaders in the community who are looking to build real relationships in a fun, dynamic networking environment where they can focus on business development, growth and collaboration with other business owners. We need partnerships that provide value add to our members, speakers for our lunch and learns and locations that would love to host a large group of business owners. When we say it is time to “find your tribe”, our members create lasting connections.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.findfreefun.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/denverfreefun
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/denverfreefun
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristina-corcoran-561b222a/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@denverfreefun6027
- Other: www.tribenetworking.com www.instagram.com/tribenetworkingdenver https://www.facebook.com/groups/623828871936323
