I'm Kendra Pink.

That’s me. I must be two or three. Wow, we’ve really gone back in time. But I guess that’s what you’re here for, to learn a little of my history.

These beautiful brown cows are my true love (that’s my little brother). We grew up on a farm, full of animals, dirt, and lots of hard work. Surrounded in the daily miracles of creation it was the perfect place for me to learn.

I am a mom now and, though my own family is rooted in an urban area (keep Portland weird!), I’m focused on instilling in my children the same sense of care and reverence for our natural world that I was gifted. And as an entrepreneur who envisions a world that honors every aspect of ourselves and our environments, I get the importance of good systems, efficiency, and prioritizing what really matters.

And here are my siblings. Yes, there are six of us!

How I See the World

It’s not easy building a foundation that allows a seamless integration between the many roles we fill, and I’ve stood at a crossroads countless times in my life where the choices presented have asked me to choose one over the other. And in taking a step forward, I’m asked to leave an aspect of myself behind. But I don't just see one side or the other, I see the connection points.

The ways that being a mother give me an opportunity to practice a tenderness that is carried into my professional projects through a commitment to make the ways we work full of ease and simplicity. The drive to build businesses, structures of resource exchange, offers me the flexibility to realize my innate creativity and an understanding of how we are all powerfully capable of creating the world that we live in and share. Because life happens in the moment it is lived. Not just on the weekends or when things seem easy but also when we are sick, tired, angry, or afraid. And those are the times when the most pivotal moments can happen.

The Foundation: Farm Life

While growing up I witnessed a natural interconnectedness and felt aligned and in love with the cyclical beauty inherent in stewardship of land and life. The lessons were straightforward. Coming home from school excited to play I failed to give the cows under my care water and they broke through the fence trying to quench their thirst. My dad’s gentle voice woke me in the dark hours of the night as he held me accountable for my actions.

Responsibility is care and water is life.

I remember that always.

The problem repeated over and over with no resolution. Even at my young age, I could easily see how things worked and how to influence the factors that affected success: nature, choice, and intention. Combined, they determined the health of the living things we served. It was a pivotal point in my upbringing and ingrained in me the necessity of solving problems outside of the theoretical— improvements involve working cooperatively with others and committing to doing things differently.

When I was seven I saw a silent battle play out over the need for water and ownership of water rights between my father and a neighboring farm. Three things were obvious: there was a mismatch between needs and resources, there was a problem with how to measure the water and its allocation, and there was a lack of communication between my father and our neighbor.

We need to stop just pulling people out of the river.

We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.

-Desmond Tutu

Growing from Difference

When compared to animals and farm life, I often find people puzzling and sometimes very confusing. While I really enjoy being social and find people endlessly interesting, the societal conventions and the behaviors associated with them add complexity to every interaction and embedded cultural expectations mean that we should behave a certain way. It is this last element of relationships that I grappled with once I grew up and started my ‘real life’, which involved marriage, children, and the corporate ladder.

Like everyone else, I try to understand the world, and because of the way I’m wired, my approach to learning uses a very analytical lens. While I was married and adored my three children, I had been following norms that were human constructs rather than being authentic to my own nature. I dug in and uncovered and discovered myself in a new way.

My husband and I separated. It was an ending and an opportunity. I recognized that a bridge had to be created between us, and who builds a bridge is not important when it creates a pathway that everyone can use to move closer to one another. I could choose to design a way of relating and living that worked best for our family, which meant I had to leave resentment and blame behind. And now my former husband, my “was-band,” and I have a great relationship and our kids are thriving because of it. Creating a solution, one founded on leaving behind the way things have been done and how they should look, has been the best thing for us.

Interconnectedness on New Ground

In 2018, my own growth and understanding went to a new level. I was managing my work life and parenting, nearly completing my graduate studies, immersed in busyness and personal achievements, when someone close to me had a critical life event. The situation was going to be a mess. Christmas, New Years, and birthdays were all celebrated in the hospital that year. And I was able to advocate for my loved one's protection, care, and independence through navigating the systems we depend on to support our lives and keep our communities just—housing, healthcare, and law. Results, not just physical recovery but a life left to live for, hinged on a higher purpose and an intention to problem solve, get things done, and create a care-network. I needed to enlist an army of community to do it and do it all with love.

What I discovered in being an advocate was the failings of our current systems. They are antiquated. No one person or thing broke them. They just don’t work. It is everyone’s and no one’s responsibility. The commitment must be creating processes and systems that do work. Because I wasn’t focused on blame and felt privileged with the resources, the network, and the energy- I was the person to step in and take on what was required.

From the outside, the recovery of my loved one seems miraculous. And it is. But the miracle was the army of the community doing what they did in a coordinated way, creating space not just for a physical recovery but an opportunity for true healing.

Making the Impossible, Possible

Sometimes solutions involve tearing down what isn’t working and rebuilding. And it can feel risky to move away from the known, even if it’s broken, in order to realize the unknown. There is a limitless power in accessing resources and working with each other to face crises and build successful outcomes. In reflecting on my own life journey my personal experiences have highlighted the need for united and flexible communities as the foundational structure for care and belonging. Without realizing it, this understanding has lived in me from the time I was a kid growing up on a dairy farm and in the many experiences and years since.

Because I see things from an unconventional perspective, my busy mind relentlessly works to develop strategies that others might scoff at as impossible. Embracing who and how I am wired, including my neuro-divergence and queerness, has activated my authenticity to create and succeed.

We are powerful and quirky creatures, and ours is a world of abundance and joy. I’m interested in creating partnerships and accepting invitations that channel my chaotic good and activate my skillset to measure what really matters in building communities of equity, taking care of each other, and living in partnership with our world.

If you are interested in nurturing intentional innovation across industry spaces and building collaborative partnerships we should talk.