About Kate Strathmann
I've spent the last decade working with small businesses in strategy and finance; I get fired up supporting leaders in crafting more sane and human-centered businesses, especially one's that support all bodies in the business.
I'm well known for combining irreverence and humor with jedi-like listening skills; and as a go-to on alternative business models, building equitable team structures, and being the person that comes to mind anytime someone says "I'm not sure this has ever existed before..."
Contrary to popular belief, I'm not from Minnesota, but I did live there for years, learning fierce winter-layering skills while attending Carleton College and working at the Walker Art Center.
After a lengthy stint living in India, I returned to my native Philadelphia, where Wanderwell is headquartered. My beloved partner ( a Brazilian, learning to love winter) balance time in the NEK Vermont and periods of travel.
I channel my rebellious streak into visioning and creating new possibilities in the world; and my voracious reading and research habits into finding the solutions and examples to inform those visions.
Other things to know about me:
- I'm an Enneagram 4, INFP, my strengthfinders are Strategy, Input, Empathy, Ideation, Intellection, Future
- I'm a queer woman of northern and western european ancestry, raised a white woman who is clear about my whiteness and my white kin, and working towards the end of white supremacy and settler colonialism.
- I went to school for art, where my primary focus was on drawing and printmaking. I still consider myself an artist first and foremost, and approach my work with that perspective. (And, no, never in a million years did I think I'd also call myself a Business Finance Strategist, or direct a bookkeeping service.)
- I'm someone who's lived a lot of lives, some of those include organic farming, large-scale puppetry, baking award winning pies (and a few friends wedding cakes), conflict-mediation in prisons, and even a brief stint teaching stilt walking.
- I've spent many years studying alternative healing traditions, including Ayurveda when I lived in India; and even practicing massage and reiki. Including 20+ years of yoga practice, I have a pretty deep toolkit for embodiment. That said, I come off as more punk than woo-woo (and if that doesn't mean anything to you, don't worry about it!)
Learn more about working with Kate.
Press
Building Business Partnerships: Cooperative or Collective?
Kate joins Charlie Gilkey in a deep conversation about the different types of business partnerships and how they can create community. Topics We Explored:
- The essential differences between a collective and a cooperative.
- Pay and power are different things in business partnerships
- What is the line between resilience and interdependence?
Taking Better Care of Each Other
Kate unpacks why rethinking the purpose of your business might help you rethink your goals to be more aligned with your personal values; and how expanding your vision to include taking care of others as well as yourself can create a paradigm shift in your business.
Growing Anti-Capitalist Economies with Small Actions
Kate discusses approachable actions that business owners can take in support of an anti-capitalist operating strategy - without destroying their profitability.
Pricing Strategies Through a Lens of Justice
Kate talks about sliding scale, pay what you wish, and other accessible pricing models, as well as pitfalls to avoid.
Leading a Team without Micro-Managing Them
Kate talks about Wanderwell's hiring process, handling employee compensation and team communication, and about why she approaches everything in her business through the lens of providing flexibility and great employee care.
Making Better Financial Decisions
Kate talks about financial basics, profit, margins, and setting standards for yourself and why financials are the foundation for everything in business.
Creating a Less Harmful Sales System
Kate and Tara McMullin dig deep into the question: can you even sell things without causing harm or perpetuating harmful systems?
How to create more freedom and flexibility for the team to thrive inside and outside of the business.
Kate talks Wanderwell's human-centric team practices, and about what it means to build a counter-cultural business that isn’t centered around the primary purpose of profitability for the owner or the founder.