Today we’d like to introduce you to Courtney Kearney.
Courtney, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
The journey to becoming a #DataLovingMarkter has been an adventurous one and there’s not a single part I would change. That might come as a surprise to some who know that nine days before Christmas in 2015 I found myself without a job. That’s right, I was unexpectedly fired which in the moment was a huge shock but ultimately lead to the best decision I ever made, to create CKearney Consulting.
Let’s back up to the beginning, I owe my business drive to my father who had me doing short-term and long-term goals at the age of eight. I also feel in love with the A/E/C (Architecture, Engineering, Construction) industry because of him. When I was young he was a project manager for a construction company in Dallas, Texas and I loved going to the job sites with him. The bug for the industry bites me at a young age.
As soon as I turned 14, I wrote the HR department of that construction company asking for an internship. They didn’t have one but they were so impressed with the initiative I took that they created one. Through that experience, I knew I wanted to run my own business one day or as I would tell people back then, “I will be a CEO of a multi-million dollar company.”
I returned every summer to soak up as much experience as I could before going off to college. I attended Texas A&M University and graduated in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in speech communications. I returned to that same construction company as a marketing coordinator and spent five years learning all I could about marketing.
After having my first daughter, I returned to work but in a new role focused on the client relationship management (CRM) tool. I formed a local user group that grew to be a national support group. Through this exposure, I became a thought leader in the world of CRM. I wrote articles, white papers led round table discussions at conferences and gave countless presentations on the topic.
I worked in corporate marketing for four more years before I was unexpectedly fired. I found myself jobless during the holidays which is the worst time since no one is at work and companies typically don’t have a big hiring push the first of the year. I quickly turned to my network and asked if anyone needed help with projects. For the next four months, I was blessed to have enough work to provide the income my family needed.
In May of 2015, my business coach asked if I was ready to start a consulting business to which I replied: “I want to one day but not today; I’m not ready.” He asked if I had skipped a paycheck or been unable to make an income to which I had to answer no. “Then aren’t you already doing it?” I was confused because I just saw what I was doing as helping people out. “What do you think being a consultant is?” Light bulb moment! Days later I started the business.
Over the last three years, several amazing people have joined CKearney Consulting! Together we have a blast serving our clients, working hard and playing hard too. CKC is a family that is collaborative, genuine, respectful, 5-Star with a bold vision. Besides my husband and two daughters, CKearney Consulting is one of my proudest achievements.
Thanks for reading about my journey to becoming a #DataLovingMarkter and creating CKearney Consulting. Like I said, it has been an adventure and there’s not a single thing I would change.
Has it been a smooth road?
I feel like having a company is a lot like having a child, every stage brings its own challenges. When you have a newborn or a company in its infancy, the struggle is keeping the thing alive, feed and safe. At the beginning, the focus was on bringing in the work which quickly turned into a struggle of too much work which sounds like a great thing but not at the cost of quality and your reputation.
Once I hired my first employee the workload problem was solved until the company grew and entered the next stage needing me to be out speaking and selling the business. Sounds fun right, well it means I was less billable and increased our overhead significantly which introduces another struggle. That was solved with winning more work but then we grew to the point of inefficiency so I needed to implement a business structure instead of the entrepreneurial “all hands on deck” mentality. This led me to EOS®, the Entrepreneurial Operating System, which works great for our team.
Now the company had grown to be a teenager and was trucking right along until a huge curveball was thrown at us when we lost two of our largest clients. See every stage of company growth brings its own struggles making this a never-ending journey and one I look forward to every day.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with CKearney Consulting – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
CKearney Consulting (CKC) is a small, woman-owned business providing companies insight into both Client Relationship Management (CRM) and Social Media Management (SMM). We provide our clients quality services to live the working lifestyle they desire, free from the stress of managing a CRM system and social media marketing. Similarly, CKC exists to allow our employees the ability to live the lifestyle they desire. This is the heart of CKearney Consulting, the why behind what we do the thing I am most proud of that sets us apart from any other CRM consultant.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I love that the DFW area has it all – the urban downtown of a city, the Texas-style in the Stockyards, the small towns and the suburbs. But most importantly we have the hospitality of true Texans. I travel often to a variety of places and I love coming home to the warmth and friendliness of southern hospitality.
If I had to pick something to like the least is the traffic. Despite having huge highways with tons of lanes we still have crazy traffic. It’s probably because of our love for big trucks and SUVs. I joke that living as for north as I do that at high peak traffic hours it’s faster to get to Oklahoma than downtown Dallas or downtown Fort Worth.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ckearneyconsulting.com
- Email: marketing@ckearneyconsulting.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/ckearneyconsulting
- Facebook: facebook.com/ckearneyconsulting
- Twitter: twitter.com/ckearneyconsult
- Other: linkedin.com/company/ckearney-consulting
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