Exploring Life & Business with Katie Gailes of Katie Gailes & Company

Today we’d like to introduce you to Katie Gailes.

Hi Katie, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
It is hard to know where to begin because my story is still being written. I am 68 years old and proud of it. So many people didn’t make it this far, and others are acting like they are on the downhill slope of their lives. 

I do believe I didn’t find my groove swing until I was over 50 years old, partly because I my decisions were defensive instead of offensive. So, if I were to give any younger person advice, it would be to be bold. But let’s get to the story. 

I am a proud native North Carolinian. I was born in Granville County, grew up in Forsyth County, went to undergrad in Guilford County, business school in Durham County, and now live in Wake County. 

I received my Batchelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, where I was on the school newspaper staff, took Karate at NC A&T, and had three corporate internships: Reader’s Digest, Ciba Geigy Corp., and Liberty Mutual. 

I began her professional career as a Systems Engineer with IBM, working primarily with small and mid-sized businesses. During my long tenure with the company, I gained experience in project management, marketing, public relations, sales, integrated product marketing, routes-to-market and strategic planning, integrated product planning, and channel management. Whew! That’s a lot. 🙂 I am forever grateful to IBM for the breadth of experience they afforded me and for paying for my MBA from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business. 

I left IBM in 2006 and opened my own consulting practice focused on business and marketing strategy to help small and growing businesses aim their products and services into their sweet spot in the marketplace. I provided one-on-one coaching sessions, company or product-specific strategic planning sessions, face-to-face workshops, and webinars. 

In 2010, I joined the Growing American Through Entrepreneurship (GATE), a program managed by the NC Rural Economic Development Center. This program helped dislocated workers in North Carolina’s rural counties create jobs for themselves by starting small businesses. It was massively creative work because I had to mine my clients’ skills, interests and passions to identify opportunities for them to create at least one job, one for themselves, by starting their own business. For instance, I helped a woman with a 10-year-old eyelash extensionist certification open her own studio in three locations with no money. It was massively fulfilling work. AND This is what ignited my real passion for entrepreneurship. 

In 2014, I began a consulting contract with Wake Technical Community to counsel in the Small Business Center and to re-think the vision, mission, and plan for their Center for Entrepreneurship. After renaming and redesigning everything about the Center, including rewriting the job description and title of the Director, I was offered the opportunity to fill that role. 

As a consultant, one does not often get to see the final outcome of recommendations and proposals. I was curious to see how this thing I had just designed would turn out. So, I became the first-ever Director of Entrepreneurship Initiatives. My mission was to find the holes in the entrepreneurial fabric of Wake County, design something to fill those holes and figure out how to pay for it. 

In 2016, in that position, I co-founded the LaunchMyCity entrepreneurial ecosystem-building program model. Over the next five years, I implemented that model in nine of Wake County’s dozen municipalities, resulting in over 600 graduates. Over 70% were minorities and/or female. These programs lived under the LaunchWakeCounty umbrella. In addition, I assisted in the implementation of programs Durham, Rocky Mount, Johnston County, Denver Co., Lenawee County, Michigan, and Reading, England. 

I also designed and implemented the Veterans Entrepreneurship Advantage (VEA) and ran that from 2016 – 2018… In this program, we assembled cohorts of active duty and retired military professionals and spoused focused on starting and growing businesses. This was a real learning experience for me because I really learning how important creating the right culture is to the success and impact of programs. 

Under the LaunchWakeTech umbrella, I created several student-focused entrepreneurship programs: The Business of Barbering, The Business of Barbering, and The Business of Cosmetology. These professions, in particular, are at risk of working for 30 years, not knowing and understanding what it means to be an entrepreneur. I ran at least two cohorts in each of these each year. I also co-created the Graphic Design Student Practicum, where graphic design students became the branding teams for real-life entrepreneurs. The student got valuable hands-on experience managing contracts, assessing client needs, and delivering branding elements. The clients got at least four brand elements and deliverables. Over 30 clients and over 137 students participated prior to my departure from Wake Tech. 

In 2020, while still at Wake Tech, I co-funded OUR STORIES: Brave Conversations on Race, a nonprofit aimed at creating more racial understanding and peace in the United States. That organization now has over 400 graduates across 3 chapters. We are working on a neo-natal nurse’s chapter in California and, after a successful pilot, are introducing corporate versions of our program and curriculum. 

Over the course of my career, I have directly served over 1,000 entrepreneurs, created two award-winning entrepreneurship programs, and have received several individual awards. And I am not done yet! 

I am a member of the Board of Directors the White Oak Foundation, the North Carolina Sustainable Business Council, the Holly Springs Chamber of Commerce, Carolina Community Impact CDFI, and the NC Women Business Owners Hall of Fame. I am the Membership Chair for the Holly Springs Rotary Club, Professional Development Chair for the Greater Raleigh Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners, and the Communications Manager for LaunchHollySprings. I am an inaugural Co-Chair of the DEI Council for Rotary International District 7710 that covers 1900 members across 46 clubs in 10 North Carolina counties. I recently joined the Board of the United Strings of Color, a non-profit that supports black student string musicians interested in building their skills and/or careers in classical music. 

My superpowers are creative problem-solving, mega collaborations, and communications. 

In my spare time, I am an avid reader, future published author, jogger (“because no one would confuse what I do with running”), and a frustrated gardener. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I have already had a long career. So, I have been through several generations of struggles. 

When I started my career with IBM, my struggle was with racism and sexism. I was often the youngest person, only female, and only minority in meetings and situations. I have been called the ‘n’ word, had clients and superiors pat my butt, and make other blatant and inappropriate advances. I have had awards and recognition withheld because of all of the above and because I was ‘not supposed to be able’ to perform at that high level. Superiors have actually told me that I was ‘subservient’ to others at my same level on the org. chart. 

As I moved into phase two of my career, managing motherhood, home responsibilities, and a demanding career in a male-dominated field was exhausting. But I was the first female student to give birth during the program in the Weekend Executive MBA (WEMBA) program. My daughter was born during mid-term weekend of second semester. Because I was breastfeeding, I took her to class with me for the first 3 months of her life. 

I the next phase of my life, the entrepreneurship phase, the challenge was being a rainmaker so that I could support myself. This was made more difficult because, in the early 2000s, the image of an entrepreneur was a 20-something white male. And the tech industry basically owned the words innovation and entrepreneurship. 

My obstacle now is that I see opportunity EVERYWHERE. I no longer see my gender, age, or ethnicity as a challenge. If someone has a problem with any of that, it is difficulty their issue. Because I have decided that I deserve to be in whatever the hell room I choose to be in. 

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next, you can tell us a bit more about your business.
I tried to think of a cutesy name but decided that my name is just fine; thank you very much. 🙂 

KG&C is a boutique entrepreneurship training, coaching, and consulting firm. We believe that within entrepreneurship lies the life and leadership skills of the future. EVERYONE should be an entrepreneur, if not to start a business, then to design the life of your dreams. Often, these things are connected. 

I am proud to be able to take clients from the foundation process of writing a personal vision statement to designing a career and or business to synchronizing time and energy with what matters most to them. 

The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you, and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
What I relearned from Covid-19 is that, with creativity, collaboration, and cultural competence, we can solve all of the world’s problems. At the very least, we can do amazingly impactful things in the lives of individuals and communities. 

Contact Info:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KatieGailesInc/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiegailes/