Today we’d like to introduce you to Kim Guevara.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Kim. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Disaster relief work in college/post-college helped me realize I had a passion for helping people in times of crisis. During that time I realized I wanted to focus more on preventing, deterring and minimizing the effects of emergencies, as way too often I heard “I never thought it would happen to me”.
When 9/11 happened, I was going to graduate school in Washington, DC. I felt the plane hit the Pentagon because I lived so close, and in the coming days and weeks was able to volunteer there onsite with the relief efforts. Ultimately, my prior experience and somewhat of a chance encounter led to me moving back to San Diego to work with a defense contractor firm doing consulting work for the (then) forming Department of Homeland Security. I gained valuable, challenging consulting and contracting experience.
I also functioned a bit like an entrepreneur as we were building a new market in a new location and our “mother ship” was back east. Mozaik Solutions started out of a desire to do consulting (and life) differently. I wanted to remain nimble and able to adjust to clients’ changing needs, pursue projects and opportunities I was passionate about, have the ability to give back, and to produce the highest quality services and products possible rather than coding time in minute fractions of “billable hours”.
I also wanted to create a challenging and supportive environment for the Mozaik team. Whether that means juggling around childcare and nursing schedules and sick babies, freedom in how and where we work, or bonuses and experiences tailored to individual needs and passions.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Ha! Life is nothing but a lesson in resilience – it’s what we teach in our emergency planning and what I preach to my children. Each bump in the road makes you stronger, even if it takes you to your knees for a while. A more personal example is right after I started Mozaik. I left for Kenya for a project, and upon my return a few weeks later, my then husband and I put in an offer on a house and found out I was pregnant with our first child. I was ecstatic and riding high—a baby, my own company, international work I loved, and a new house.
Life was glorious—for three days. Then I got a call that my mom—my best friend, constant cheerleader and source of advice and grace—had collapsed and been rushed to the hospital with what turned out to be a horribly aggressive brain cancer. We lost her four months to the day later. Life was a blur of traveling to be with her and trying to stop what ended up being unstoppable, work, moving, and launching a business (and growing a human). I also had a trusted business “partner” relationship that ended during that time—I’d blindly trusted the relationship and failed to dot the “i’s” and cross the “t’s”, resulting in a lost contract I had been banking on.
My daughter was my grace during that time, and it’s amazing to me still how your heart can split into the highest high and the lowest low at the same time. My company and work were also anchors that kept me pushing forward. Now I can say I know it made me stronger, even if I wish the lessons had come another way.
Mozaik Solutions – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We provide strategic and technical consulting services in emergency/crisis management and organizational development. (We typically get a lot of blank stares at this point.)
In a nutshell, as disasters and incidents (wildfires, superstorms, earthquakes, active shooters, cyber-intrusions, brand and reputation threats, etc. etc.) increase in frequency –– the need for pre-event planning, organizing, training and practice come in. And this is what we do. Having responded to countless disasters, emergencies, and crises, we champion projects that emphasize prevention, preparedness, and resilience (how fast can we pick ourselves back up). We help government agencies and private and non-profit sector companies – large and small – get ready. We conduct an analytical gap and organizational analysis and studies; write plans so there is role clarity; we develop training curriculum and provide practice and improvement opportunities.
While my deepest roots are in emergency management, I also spent time as an executive officer helping a defense contractor/technology company mature organizationally and improve employee morale and retention. Combined with the challenges I saw organizations face when moving from day-to-day activities to crisis response—I included organizational development (OD) as a core capability when founding Mozaik. As a result, OD strategies and activities are threaded throughout all of our programs. Our team includes masters and doctoral-level organizational development leaders and doers. We offer ‘off the shelf’ or highly customized services in this area to include individual and group coaching, restructuring/transitioning, team building, diversity, process improvement, and leadership development.
Right now we’re also fascinated by advances in neuroleadership and what it means for leaders and employees day-to-day and in crisis—and how it can be used to increase and sustain optimal individual and organizational performance. We’re actively designing curriculum, speaking, teaching, and coaching in this area. We are most proud of our ability to create a healthy, supportive team dynamic—one that supports and truly cares about each other and allows us to each prioritizes our growing families and/or individual interests and passions. That care translates into our work and we have the same respect for our clients.
We go ‘above and beyond’ every time, and we are proud of our dedication to total customer satisfaction, ability to respond quickly to changing needs and priorities, and our ability to bring together high performance-teams to meet our client’s unique and diverse needs.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Work ethic. The old adage “Success is where preparation meets opportunity” is so true. There’s a lot of hard work and time that goes into running a business. Likewise, when we hire we’re most intrigued, and have found the most successful outcomes, with a willingness to work hard, adapt to change, learn new skills, and ultimately ‘get it done’ no matter what.
Contact Info:
- Address: 249 S. Highway 101, Suite 437
- Website: www.mozaiksolutions.com
- Phone: 949-433-7836
- Email: kharris@mozaiksolutions.com
- Twitter: @kguevara
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