{"id":4387,"date":"2019-04-30T15:45:33","date_gmt":"2019-04-30T19:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.golive.clarku.edu\/school-of-business\/keeping-up-with-kara\/"},"modified":"2025-02-25T11:59:24","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T16:59:24","slug":"keeping-up-with-kara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/business\/news\/keeping-up-with-kara\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping Up With Kara"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While growing up, Kara Duffy, B.A. \u201903, MBA \u201904, and her family moved so frequently that she is never quite certain how to respond when asked for her hometown. Yet, that doesn\u2019t bother her a bit. She thinks it is perhaps the lack of a predetermined path that strengthened the entrepreneurial spirit she has felt since the day she was born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Kara<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now living and thriving in Costa Mesa, California, Duffy has turned her passions and energy into a business \u2014 a few of them, in fact. Duffy is a small business consultant and personal coach, co-founder of a nonprofit, and owner of Powerful Ladies<\/a>,  a community organization committed to providing women the tools they need to be powerful in all areas of their lives. Each of her jobs is a labor of love and none of them she would change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll of the work I’m doing allows me to give insight and provide tools to make people\u2019s dreams come true, and that makes me really happy,\u201d Duffy states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to being a recruited field hockey athlete, Duffy chose Clark University as an undergrad mostly because of its entrepreneurial success stories. \u201cI liked that it had so many people who started their own business and went on to do cool things,\u201d she says, \u201cas well as for its international and high academic reputations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite her uncertainty about choosing a major, Duffy found herself selecting more and more business classes as she neared her senior year. With her high academic achievement, she was told she would qualify for the rigorous fifth-year MBA program, offered through the University\u2019s Graduate School of Business<\/a> (GSchool of Business). She decided to apply, knowing she had a heart for entrepreneurship and a mind for business, as evident by \u201cside hustles and businesses [she] started before Clark and as a student.\u201d Duffy also realized that GSchool of Business\u2019s encouragement of entrepreneurship and impactful leadership made their MBA a perfect fit for her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cThe program continued the message that you can create whatever you want by being curious, doing the research, looking for problems to solve and creating something different than the status quo,\u201d she states.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

One business Duffy started while a student she named, \u201cOrganizational Bliss,\u201d simply because organizing was something she truly enjoyed. She realized she could earn money helping others get both themselves and their spaces more structured. Working with the mantra that \u201ca clean, minimized, and organized physical space can have an impact on one\u2019s mental and emotional spaces,\u201d Duffy did not have to look very far to find customers. She found projects with her peers and even her faculty. Current GSchool of Business management professor, Donna Gallo, asked Duffy to assist her and remembers vividly how much effort she put into her work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy husband and I were doing a renovation project at our house and Kara designed the entire closet we were adding. She was amazing!\u201d Gallo explains. \u201cKara was always very self-driven, self-motivated, and supportive of her classmates. I\u2019m so proud to see all of the incredible things she has been doing since she left Clark.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Kara<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With her MBA in hand after graduating, Duffy began working in the footwear, apparel, and accessories industry, moving up the career ladder with such notable companies as Reebok, Puma, and DC Shoes. All the while, she approached her corporate positions as an entrepreneur, helping colleagues and her employers solve problems and plan strategically. Duffy co-founded Hello Possibility, Inc. while still working full-time at Quick Silver, the parent company of DC Shoes, but grew a bit restless devoting the majority of her attention to her corporate job and little to her entrepreneurial work. With the itch to grow her personal businesses, she reversed that scenario.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy focus is on my businesses and clients now, but I haven\u2019t quite left the footwear and apparel industry altogether. As a consultant, I still work with some of those brands, as well as new footwear and apparel startups. In addition, my newest business is a brand with a full e-commerce site of its own,\u201d she states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Duffy is certainly keeping busy. Hello Possibility is an organization that provides assistance to non-profit startups and businesses that want to outsource their charitable giving. Through Kara Duffy Consulting & Coaching<\/a>, she assists small businesses, start-ups and individuals looking to grow their business, establish greater goals, and plan for their financial future. Most recently, Duffy finds herself immersed in Powerful Ladies<\/a>, which just launched a new website and podcast<\/a> with the same name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’m so excited for our launch expansion and love the community that’s being created,\u201d Duffy says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Duffy credits Clark with growing her confidence, her curiosity, and her understanding that if there is something to fix or a way to do business better, she can be the one to do it. Duffy uses these qualities every day, in how she lives and in the work she does with Powerful Ladies. Too often, she says, she encounters people who think they don\u2019t have the abilities to take action toward betterment personally or professionally, who say, \u201cI can\u2019t.\u201d It is partly why she started both Hello Possibility and Powerful Ladies in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been surprised at how many people think they’re not capable of something, and I\u2019ve also been surprised at how many things I considered common sense that are not common sense to every person or business,\u201d Duffy states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along her career path, she has learned other things, too, particularly noting the harm of making business decisions based solely on ego and emotion, versus decisions made with logic and strategy. She feels fortunate to have received a strong foundation at Clark and GSchool of Business which helped shape her confident business mindset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cGSchool of Business also helped me prepare for my career because even though it wasn’t a large school, we were held to the same standards and expectations as the bigger, more well-known schools,\u201d she adds. \u201cMy professors were able to give us individual attention and taught us to take on the world by being informed, scrappy, diligent, and resourceful.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Duffy continues to live life with a curious, enthusiastic, forge-your-own-path approach. She enjoys encouraging people of all ages to mold their future into something that fits their passions \u2013 be it in business or in life \u2013 and then watching them take action and succeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love to make things \u2013 brands, products, strategies, teams, solutions. I love to simplify the process and bring joy back to peoples\u2019 lives at work or home. I love to meet people, hear their stories and connect them to others. Today I get to do all those things,\u201d she states.  \u201cIt\u2019s fun, it\u2019s hard work, and it\u2019s interesting. And why do something if it’s not interesting?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Meredith Galena
Communications Specialist, Academic Adviser
Graduate School of Business, Clark University<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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