Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristi Ackley.
Hi Kristi, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
Sure! I am a Minnesota native, Navy veteran, wife, mother, world traveler and an optimist. As a creative visionary, I love to lead teams and clients toward innovative solutions and community-changing outcomes, inspiring them to dream big along the way. My love of leadership and leadership development began in the U.S. Navy, where I served for almost 12 years as a cryptologist and career counselor. The experience was invaluable and helped shape my expertise in organizational effectiveness and the importance of team culture and leadership; however, in 2010, while deployed to Iraq, my husband asked for a divorce, which left our 2-year-old son in the care of my 76-year-old grandmother. This ultimately led me to leave the Navy and move back to Minnesota, where I grew up. I soon landed at the Initiative Foundation, a large foundation that works to strengthen the economy and communities across the 14 counties of Central Minnesota. As the Community Philanthropy Manager, I worked with hundreds of nonprofit and community boards to help them accomplish their goals.
I grew up with a serial entrepreneur dad who instilled creativity in me and a mom who worked as a bookkeeper and was our family’s breadwinner and rock, teaching me grit and perseverance. In 2017, my dad had a heart attack and died. His sudden, unexpected death made me realize that we cannot take life for granted, and sometimes we must take risks to do the things that make our heart sing. My heart has always been to help people and I wanted to be free to help people outside of the region the foundation served. So, borrowing some of that fearlessness my dad always seemed to have, the next year, I started my business and named it Fair Winds Consulting – a nod to my Navy days and a metaphor for how I want to show up with my clients. I wish my dad were here to see it.
I have a huge heart for women leaders, entrepreneurs, and nonprofits; these sectors are making some of the biggest impacts in our world, often with the least resources. So, in addition to my work at Fair Winds, I support them in many ways. I co-founded the Women’s Leadership Fund in central Minnesota, created and lead “A Legacy of Generosity” podcast for planned giving and fundraising professionals through Leave a Legacy MN, a committee of Minnesota Gift Planning Association, and serve on various board of directors.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
My first full year in business was 2019 and my business partner at the time was still working almost full-time at her previous employer. So, our first full year full-time in the business was 2020! We had gotten to a place where we thought we knew how to run the business well and then everything changed. We had to learn how to connect with clients and help them connect with stakeholders virtually in a business that is very relationship focused. We still knew where we were headed, but this unforeseen obstacle certainly threatened to throw us off course. No matter how successful we are, there comes a time when we get stuck. Even if we know the final destination, we might not know where to go next. Thankfully, in my work with businesses, individuals and nonprofits, I’m often brought in at this juncture. So, I’m pretty comfortable pivoting and finding creative solutions. An organization might say, “We need a strategic plan to fix this!” or “We need to fundraise!” Then after going through our onboarding process and pre-engagement exercises, we might find that the core issue is really a lack of shared vision or a misunderstanding of roles and responsibilities, so we pivot and find a way to provide them with what they want and what they really need. When I was a career counselor in the Navy, we called this “finding the need behind the need.” And that’s what we did here, we found ways to still provide our clients with the best services while building connections in a variety of creative ways.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next, you can tell us a bit more about your business?
At Fair Winds, we serve small businesses, the public sector, and nonprofits throughout the Upper Midwest region. We provide services that help organizations clarify goals, accelerate progress, and spark change for a better world. Our team includes experienced and skilled facilitators who love helping our clients crystallize their visions and dreams, fundraising experts, nonprofit specialists, storytellers, strategists and small business coaches. All with the same passion to leave a positive impact on the world.
Our Service Areas Include:
• Organizational Excellence & Identity: This can range from helping a small business define their mission, vision and values to identifying and developing solutions for internal organizational culture issues.
• Nonprofit Consulting: Our team’s expertise and connections with strong collaborators means we can help with anything a nonprofit might be experiencing from facilitating a meeting, engaging board members at a deeper level or creating a multi-year strategic plan.
• Training & Talent Development: Our services include single team trainings to our professional development programs for nonprofits and women entrepreneurs – Changemaker Collective & The Growth Zone.
• Nonprofit Fund Development: Our partnership with Generosity by Design gives us the flexibility to work with many organizations on their annual, capital and planned giving campaigns. We also love to help organizations build more effective fundraising teams.
Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share? We’re always looking for lessons we can learn in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis.
I have two lessons that I keep learning. First, when we authentically show up in our relationships and ask powerful questions, we will learn there is so much more below the surface. Everyone has a unique story, and there are no cookie-cutter solutions. Sparking transformational change and long-term success can only happen with deep conversations and asking the “why” behind the “what.” It’s especially rewarding to watch individuals and organizations open up and find solutions that this new insight presents. They know change is needed, and they want to change. Equipped with the information that I seek out, gather and evaluate, we can have honest conversations about goals and what the next right step is to get them to their destination. Sometimes they are farther along than they think they are! I am forever grateful that I leaped to start Fair Winds Consulting and feel extremely fortunate to help businesses and nonprofits on their world-changing journeys.
The second is that we have to stop comparing ourselves to others. A friend recently said, “comparison is the killer of joy.” She is so right; we all have unique value, and we bring that into whatever we do. One of the things I frequently see, especially with my fellow female entrepreneurs, is that we create this standard of what our business should be doing based on some other company we really know nothing about. We have no idea what their internal struggles are or how long it took them to overcome something we are dealing with; we just see the shiny business persona they portray and somehow decide we aren’t enough. Yet when we look deeper, we might find this business we’ve compared ourselves to has been in business 15 years longer than us or started with much more capital than us or has some major struggle that we’ve solved in our business. This often leads to imposter syndrome and negative self-talk. It’s because of this that I created The Growth Zone for Women in Business – a peer cohort paired with business education to help our businesses flourish.
My final piece of advice is to be you, be curious, ask questions and above all believe in yourself!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.fairwindsmn.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fair_winds_consulting/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fairwindsmn
