Today we’d like to introduce you to Kathryn Nelson.
Hi Kathryn, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was born and raised in Lexington, South Carolina. As a child, I was actively involved in dance, musical theater, swim team, and so much more which made me well-rounded and fed my creative soul. After earning my undergraduate and master’s degrees, I began teaching special education in upstate SC and studying acting and voice in Charlotte. I met my husband Alan there, and not long after getting married, we took a leap of blind faith and ventured to Austin, Texas – because why not?
We started a family, and I continued my teaching and acting careers in Austin. I had planned to always teach school, but in 2014 I became gravely ill with toxic mold exposure from the elementary school where I taught…The school has since been leveled and rebuilt. It’s still amazing to me how the school turned its back on me at the time.
I initially had to spend 5 weeks in Dallas receiving toxic mold detox treatment from Recovery took several years, and during this time, I was still unable to work while my husband was starting a new career as a therapist after having just obtained his master’s degree.
Times were extremely tough for us for a while with two small girls. We were so fortunate that both of our families helped us out financially, but at our lowest point, we were visiting a food pantry weekly. When I became strong enough healthwise, I tried hosting our home on Airbnb and found how lucrative it could be, especially during the SXSW and ACL festivals in Austin each year, but really all year round.
I achieved superhost status, and Airbnb soon invited me to create an experience on the platform. At the time, I happened to be involved in a creative book study group, out of which was born my first city scavenger hunt in Austin. I wasn’t prepared for its almost overnight success. After a few months, I had expanded to several Texas cities. By the time the pandemic hit, I had scavenger hunts in over 20 cities, and they were thriving.
All of this of course, crashed to a halt due to lockdown. I was forced to shift swiftly, just like so many others. I created an adapted online version of my city scavenger hunts. I auditioned for a panel of Airbnb executives, and they praised and approved it. It almost instantly became a global bestseller on Airbnb online experiences, and I’m so grateful that it has remained so for almost 3 years now.
You could say it went viral! In 2020 our clientele was everyone everywhere, and now about 99% of our clients are worldwide corporate clients with remote and hybrid workers who are very much in need of engagement as well as morale and productivity boosts. To date, it is hard to believe that we have hosted over 40,000 people in our virtual team-building games alone and that we have been featured in dozens of press. Demand for those online games continues but is nothing like our 2020 and 2021 numbers.
Therefore, since noticing that decline that resulted from world opening back up again, we’ve been diversifying somewhat aggressively but thoughtfully and successfully! Our in-person city scavenger hunts are now offered in 300+ cities in North America and the Bahamas. We have also developed a prolific sector of our company that specializes in scratch-made custom events, many of them for large corporate groups and on the fancy side.
We keep expanding our custom upgrade menu and are proud to truly have something for everyone! Every budget, every vision, every human…and every excuse to celebrate! And I am downright giddy to share that we’ve been involved in a good many wildly creative collaborations, initiatives, and special projects. Among just a few of them include a collaboration with an alternate reality app developer to take our games to the next level (while skipping a few levels!) and a partnership with Clark County, Nevada to gamify public education about the critical issue of sustainability in the greater Las Vegas area.
So here we are where suddenly it seems that our two darling baby girls are at that bittersweet midpoint in their childhoods here at the end of elementary school and the beginning of middle school, respectively. You’ve caught me at a poignant time in my life and career where I’m finally able to look back on the last 10 years and to not only ask myself. “What just happened?” but to catch my breath and finally settle into and appreciate how far I’ve come and all that I have to be grateful for.
Yes, our company experienced an unprecedented pandemic boom and was operating at quite the breakneck pace for a couple of years there as we rode that tidal wave we had been fortunate and strategic enough to catch, and I can say that I am truly loving the strange and rewarding paradise island I found one day I had washed up on! All that I have accomplished is beyond my wildest dreams, to put it mildly, and I am more inspired and motivated than ever to keep growing my company, reaching new heights, and of course creating – what I do best!
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
I feel like I literally had to go into a cocoon and reinvent myself quickly when the pandemic hit. That month and a half that I was scrambling wasn’t fun, but I came out of it with an instant best-selling online game.
After that, while experiencing such rapid growth while we were booming during the early pandemic, we had our fair share of growing pains along the way; but I’m certain that each hardship made me stronger in the end. I try to always learn something, even from negative experiences.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m most proud of being able to shift effectively in large and even minuscule ways. My parents always told me how determined, resilient, and creative I was from day one. The fact that I was able to shift so radically and successfully at the onset of the pandemic continues to inspire me and to propel me forward when I encounter obstacles of all sizes. I’m really proud of how robust our scratch-made handcrafted custom-design events have become.
The more our clients come to us with unique visions, the more events we are able to add to our arsenal to reuse, repurpose or adapt for future clients. Now we have a full-fledged multiple island treasure hunt in collaboration with a boat company in the Bahamas because a client asked for it once…and I have so many more examples like that: A Switzerland-themed online team-building game, a money-themed scavenger hunt, a ghost hunt, and so much more!
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Surround yourself with like-minded professionals who can support you and help you grow. Don’t be afraid to take a leap but don’t bite off more than you can chew either. Make and stick to a business plan, but account for both the near and far future. Monitor and adjust always, and be willing to learn new things, as you will constantly have to shift. Don’t overextend yourself, and be sure to celebrate the baby steps. It’s literally one foot in front of the other. Those add up over time. Don’t chicken out of trying something new just because you’re lacking in the manual on how to do it completely or perfectly. You’ll learn as you go. Lots of times you will be blazing a new trail as you launch new initiatives, and so there wouldn’t be a blueprint or roadmap for you to study anyway. Ask for help and give help freely. Over-deliver to your customers. Diversify, diversify, diversify. When he gets overwhelmed, have strategies for zooming out to stay in the right headspace. Keep finding joy in what you do and keep your bucket full, and then you can’t help but let that overflow and possibly impacts others.
Contact Info:
- Website: alleykatadventures.com
- Instagram: @alley.kat.adventures
- Facebook: @alleykatadventures
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/mwlite/in/kathryn-burns-nelson-1a2b46b
Image Credits
Kelsey Edwards Photography
