Today we’d like to introduce you to Kim Jones.
Hi Kim, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
To sum it up, my story is a tale of two professional lives. The first consisted of climbing the corporate ladder to pursue my goal to achieve the American dream. This life consisted of hard work, hustling, performing, earning, pursuing, sacrificing, playing the game, and achieving great success doing it. Over 25 years, I worked my way into to the executive positions traditionally held by very few women in male-dominated industries. As divisional CIO and senior vice president for a Fortune 250 insurance company, I had a career that was, by all accounts, the embodiment of success. It was everything I had dreamed of accomplishing as a young, ambitious woman just starting out. The problem was, I was harboring a reality that I was unwilling to admit even to myself for many years: the reality that I was desperately unhappy doing the very thing that I thought would give me the life I wanted. Instead, I was under a high amount of stress based on the nature of the work I did which required my 24/7 commitment, and I was navigating a highly challenging work environment that often felt isolating and precarious.
My second professional life began when I was forced to confront my choices when my personal life started to unravel six years ago. First, I lost my brother to an untimely catastrophic heart attack when he was only 45 years old. Nine months later, a beloved member of my family was diagnosed with a terminal illness that threatened to take his life in a matter of years. Two months after that, one of my closest friends was diagnosed with aggressive cancer that he died from two years later. It was because of these events that I began to face the fact that my career left me with little time to focus on anything outside of work, let alone the needs of my loved ones as we experienced seismic shifts in our circumstances and my own needs as I required space to process the emotional toll that these events were having on me. It was during this time that I first knew with a clarity I had hadn’t had before that I no longer wanted to live a life dedicated to work that required all the best parts of me, with little to show for my efforts except for status, a great paycheck, and the belief that I had “made it.” I knew it was time for me to reinvent my career into one that would fit within the broader context of the life I now saw for myself, rather than continuing the pattern of squeezing my nonwork life into what was left after my career took its disproportionate cut. With this new clarity, I left my corporate job in 2017, leaving behind the career I had invested so much of myself into. Scarier yet, I was walking into a life that had no shape, no certainty, and no clarity. I would spend the next three years exploring this unknown territory, trying to find my way to a new path that felt like me. I didn’t know what form this path would take, but I knew it needed to lead me to something that inspired me, that felt authentic to who I am, and that created a positive impact on the people and communities I care most about.
During my exploration, I went back to college for my second master’s degree in cultural anthropology, just because. Because it sparked my curiosity. Because it was a chance to explore a new identity. Because it returned me to academia, an environment I loved as a young student and where I felt like I could try on new versions of myself as an older student. I went to lots of retreats and workshops that explored new and time-tested concepts in psychology, anthropology, human transformation, spirituality, leadership, and consciousness. I made new friends who lived on the fringes of the paths we are culturally taught to follow. I redefined many of my existing relationships to be based on a more authentic version of me and began building a life in alignment with that.
This journey and all that I learned on it has led me to my current adventure in entrepreneurship as a career coach and organizational culture consultant. The work I do now is centered on working with women whose stories I deeply understand and relate to – women who have become disillusioned with a career path that they felt sure would lead them to a life of security and happiness. Women who are navigating the challenges of being underrepresented in the most important industries of the 21st Century: leadership and tech. Women who are looking for guidance and effective strategies for working in environments where they feel undervalued, overlooked, and like imposters. This is now my life’s work, and its current incarnation takes the shape of coaching, consulting, and speaking on these critical topics.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
My road has been far from smooth, and yet it’s been navigable. The road I’ve traveled has required me to lessen my attachment to the identity, relationships, and environments that I built an entire life on. It has required me to shed cultural conditioning that was deeply embedded in me, specifically cultural beliefs that our value is primarily in what we do, what we earn, and what we produce. It has required me to develop faith that things would work out when there was no certainty or indication that they would.
What got me through this transition was studying the journeys of those who traveled this path ahead of me. They are the seekers and trailblazers who have built lives centered on meaning and service. I sought the coaching and advice of many mentors along the way. This community of guides and fellow seekers steered me when I didn’t have the knowledge to find the way on my own. They showed me that there is another way to live, one that is different from the way I had been taught to live. I have so much gratitude in being able to learn from those who have been brave enough to forge a new way, and I am grateful that I now have the experience to pass along the knowledge I gained in both my past and present professional lives to those I coach.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I launched my coaching and consulting practice, Kim Jones Alliance, in 2020 with the mission of working with individuals and companies committed to fostering the advancement and well-being of women in leadership and technology positions. I am passionate about this work because as a former executive in the IT sector, I know firsthand the barriers women face to achieving equal representation. Over my 25-year corporate career, I developed approaches to effectively navigate these challenging environments, achieving among the most senior-level positions in leadership and IT, including my last role as divisional CIO for a Fortune 250 company. I learned that successfully navigating these environments requires focused strategies centered on developing leadership skills, grit, perseverance, and a focus on fostering the professional networks and personal practices to balance career advancement with personal well-being. My coaching approach is unique in that it is based on the anthropological approach of holism and making mindset shifts based on positive psychology. My focus when working with clients is to help them define the best balance between their professional impact and personal well-being. I use a holistic approach that considers the effect of each client’s unique work environment, cultural conditioning, and inner psychology and mindset to help them navigate the biggest obstacles to achieving personal and professional balance. And in some cases, achieving this balance requires my clients to transition out of careers that no longer fulfill them to follow the path of transformation into a new, more meaningful professional realm.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
What matters to me most has changed significantly over the past few years. Whereas I used to be driven by outward markers of success, I am now driven to create a career and life centered on purpose, ease, and inspiration. After navigating and surviving several devastating years where I dealt with intense personal loss in the form of death, illness, and career & identity change, my energy, well-being, and relationships with those I love are now the most important aspects of my life. I honor them by engaging in work that fulfills me, by being of service to those I serve, and by engaging in daily practices that help me effectively cultivate my well-being. After all that I achieved in the first phase of my career, I now know that nothing beats living a fulfilling, meaningful, and joyful life. This matters so much more to me now than the success, financial abundance, and professional status I once sought and achieved.
Contact Info:
If you’re ready to align your career with your life’s vision and purpose, let’s chat! You can book a discovery call with me directly on my website, or contact me by email for more information.
- Email: kim@kimjonesalliance.com
- Website: www.kimjonesalliance.com
Image Credits
Elizabeth Granli
