People Feature | Brooke and Bobby Mikulas
We’ve been spending some time sitting down with couples that seemingly work together effortlessly. When someone does something well, asking them to share about it and listening with open minds only works to our advantage. Today, we’re reading through Brooke and Bobby’s hard worked for processes of both their breathtaking project as well as how they work together. Today’s interview can be seen on video and is posted up on my IGTV channel over on my Insta. I have a few photos and snippets here but for the fully animated version, please follow the link below. xx-K
To see more on Kinship Landing, click here!
Click here for to hear more about Brooke & Bobby’s boutique hotel build in the heart of COS as well as the push and pull of their relationship working to their advantage.
For an abbreviated, transcribed version of our time together, I’ve given some of the high points below…
Q: “How did you meet?”
BrM: “We grew up in COS. We met when I was a freshman in high school, started dating I was a sophomore, Bobby was 16. And then we married at 20/21.”
Q: “What are some projects that you’re working on in our city right now?”
BoM: “I think something that we’re commonly hearing right now is that we’re “very busy” and the truth is that we aren’t very busy. We’re working very hard but we’re extremely focused for the first time in a long time. In the past we’ve held a lot of community nights and gone to events and right now our energy is streamlined into our son, Wilder. And a business we’re starting called, Kinship Landing, which is a friendly boutique hotel in Downtown, Colorado Springs.”
Q: “How did the vision of Kinship start? How have you influenced one another throughout the path of coming to that decision?”
BrM: “We know that Colorado Springs is a very hospitable place. We rally around one another and support one another. We traveled around the world for a year during 2016 and we had this vision in the back of our minds. We went to 17 different countries and stayed in every type of accommodation, we wanted to bring something back and contextualize it to Colorado Springs.
BoM: “Once we determined we were returning home, we asked ourselves, How can we be a gift to our community? What are the gaps that we can fill? What are we qualified to do that others cannot? Creating a space for locals and travelers to collide became what we wanted to do. Traveling to those spaces became the catalyst for the hotel.”
Q: “When is it scheduled to open?”
BrM: “Sometime in 2020!”
Q: “What are some tools that you can share with us that we can incorporate into the way we think, dream, thrive and grow together- with our partner?”
BrM: “We had never worked together formally before this project. We’re both executives on the team, along side of two others. I would just say that this has opened space for us to process how we do this well inside of our marriage, work and parenting.”
BoM: ”Practicing small is really important. When we were in New Zealand we had a camper van which more or less became our home and that helped us work out all kinds of stuff about where our channels are and our lanes. Then we practiced with an airbnb. It taught us so much. For me, design is really important but I’m not good at it, so while I can give my input, it’s not my lane. So starting on smaller scales helped us prepare for this hotel. Brooke is really good at design, so I’ve had to learn to trust.
…This piece continues into talk about foundational trust and incorporating familiarity from marriage into the working relationship as well as the differences that make working together challenging as well as the processes that they lean into to overcome the struggles they face. Worth listening to!
Q: “Any other tips to contribute?”
BrM: “Our trip took us seven years to save and plan. But we talked about it like it was real. We knew there would be big challenges to overcome in order to make it happen. We started talking about it like it was real, we asked for tips and tricks. Once we started talking about it, it did something in our spirit and in our lives that made it feel tangible. We felt the same with Kinship.”
**This interview continues for a short time after the last question and there are a few other questions mixed in. It added value to my life and I hope it offers the same for you. Even if you listen to it over bluetooth while you’re doing something else, I encourage you to carve out some time! Enjoy! xx-k
Q: “I’d love to hear a little bit about you two…”
Bobby Mikulas: “People keep saying, “gosh you guys are so busy.” But in fact we’re not very busy, but we are very focused, our energy is streamlined into our son, Wilder and our upcoming boutique hotel, Kinship Landing.”
Caveat: I love this. I believe that there is significance and intelligence when people are able to decipher busy and focused. These two can often oppose one another and there is great productivity returned when one stops spinning their wheels and instead is focused on a thing in order to see it come to fruition. Thanks for this sentence, Bobby. It’s worth clinging to… almost to make a mantra. -km
