We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kellie Okonek a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kellie, thanks for joining us today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

HOW I GO BEYOND THE INDUSTRY STANDARD
I see organizations as living, breathing ecosystems brimming with potential—not machines to be optimized. And ecosystems don’t just function—they flourish. My work isn’t about efficiency tweaks; it’s about igniting a high-vitality organization where teams are in coordinated and effective action, fueled by the Principles of Adventure—tactics I’ve honed over a lifetime of adventuring in Alaska’s wilderness and the world’s highest mountains.

We evolved in the wild, thriving in environments that demanded instinct, intuition, and intrinsic motivation. Yet, today’s corporate structures often strip away these natural capacities, forcing us into environments that feel alien to our nervous systems. I bridge that gap. Through immersive facilitation, leadership strategy, and adventure-inspired transformation, I help leaders and teams navigate their own professional wilderness with elite-level adaptability, clarity, and natural motivation.

THE STRATEGY THAT IGNITES FLOURISHING
I build high-vitality ecosystems through two core components:

BOTTOM-UP STRATEGIC VISIONING
I don’t deliver a strategy from the top down—I build it with the people who do the work. A great strategy isn’t just a roadmap—it’s a point of orientation, like the mountain itself for a mountaineer. It reflects the ideas, motivations, and unique insight of those actually doing the work—the very perspective that leaders so often have a hard time hearing, let alone acting on, much to the cost of the whole organization.

You want to talk about employee engagement? This defines the standard. The vision we craft is inspiring, actionable, and, most importantly, doable. We don’t just create an aspirational vision—we anchor it in reality and break it down into a plan designed for execution.

ONGOING STRATEGY EXECUTION WITH THE TEAM & LEADERSHIP EVOLUTION
Over the next six months, I work alongside both the leadership team and the executive leader to start operating in alignment with the plan. We don’t just set direction—we embed it into the everyday operating system of the business. This is where the Principles of Adventure come to life—teaching teams how to work with uncertainty, take smart risks, and move with precision toward their goals.

And while the team is evolving, the leader is, too. Leadership isn’t just about setting vision—it’s about becoming the person who can embody it and carry the organization forward. I integrate executive coaching that is just as iconoclastic and high-energy as my work with the team, ensuring that the leader’s own vitality, capacity, and evolution are just as central to success as the team’s. Because let’s be real—when a leader is drained, uninspired, or stuck in outdated patterns, the whole team suffers.

THE POWER OF SEEING DYSFUNCTION – AND DESIGNING IT OUT
Most leaders can feel when something is off, but they can’t always pinpoint why. That’s because dysfunction is rarely obvious—it’s embedded in culture, structures, and daily habits. And it’s reinforced by leadership styles that once worked but are now limiting.

I have x-ray vision for organizational dysfunction. I don’t just facilitate planning sessions—I diagnose friction with precision, clarity, and compassion. I illuminate the structural barriers, misaligned incentives, and subtle energy drains that slow execution and kill engagement. Together, we redesign these systems while simultaneously evolving leadership capacity, unlocking both personal and organizational transformation in real time.

Most consultants either offer strategy without leadership development or coaching without clear business outcomes. I bridge both seamlessly. Every coaching session directly links leadership growth to tangible results, ensuring leaders aren’t just executing a plan—they’re evolving into the kind of leaders who can sustain it.

STRATEGY THROUGH ADVENTURE – ALASKA IMMERSION
If my standard consulting approach challenges the status quo, my Strategy Through Adventure – Alaska Immersion obliterates it.

Imagine stepping away from the boardroom into Alaska’s vast, untamed wilderness—a landscape that strips away distraction, leaving only raw clarity. This isn’t just an escape; it’s a high-impact strategic immersion where leaders engage with the Principles of Adventure in real-time, transforming the way they think, operate, and lead—and having an unforgettable time doing it.

In Alaska’s powerful landscape, my unique capabilities—the pinpoint precision in diagnosing dysfunction, the integration of strategic clarity with leadership development, and my vibrant, playful facilitation style—are exponentially intensified. Here, leaders don’t just talk about transformation—they live it.

Immersed in an environment that inspires awe, big ideas, and belief in possibility itself, teams forge new ways of thinking, communicating, and executing. Rather than merely hearing stories of adventure, they embody the Principles of Adventure—learning through experience, in a way that translates powerfully back to the workplace. And let’s be real—who doesn’t want to experience all of that in the name of “work”?

THE BOTTOM LINE
What sets me apart isn’t just my methodology—it’s the depth, energy, and true engagement I bring into every interaction. My work isn’t about incremental improvement—it’s about unlocking high-vitality teams, deeply engaged leadership, and organizations that aren’t just successful, but truly flourishing.

Most transformations occur incrementally. Mine happen in leaps. And in Alaska, those leaps become revolutions.

Kellie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

MY JOURNEY, MY WORK, AND WHAT SETS ME APART:
After 20 years in the oil and gas industry, I left—not because I wasn’t successful, but because the environment was draining me so much that it was no longer worth it. I wanted to do something that was values-aligned and built around my intrinsic motivators rather than trying to fit myself into a rigid corporate structure that was becoming increasingly clear I didn’t belong in. I knew I had more to give, and I wanted to design my life and work in a way that actually fueled me, not depleted me.
I started Iron Lady Coaching, working with executives one-on-one to help them navigate leadership challenges, get out of their own way, and step into their full potential. But over time, I realized that the same stagnation, rigid structures, and outdated models that had drained me weren’t just an oil and gas problem—they were everywhere. I had assumed these rigid ways of operating were just the nature of working in a “dinosaur industry,” but corporate structures across the board weren’t designed to bring out the best in people—or to generate the highest levels of business success.
That’s when I saw the real opportunity: going after the design of the team. No matter how much a leader evolved, if their team, systems, and culture weren’t evolving alongside them, real transformation was nearly impossible. And I’m not about feel-good fluff—I’m about bottom-line results and performance. High-vitality teams aren’t just more engaged; they deliver at an elite level.
Having honed my craft as a coach, I recognized that my true calling is working with entire organizations. I’m here to create high-vitality ecosystems, where leaders and teams are flourishing. That’s when my work evolved from coaching individuals to transforming entire organizations—designing strategies that unlock potential at every level and embedding the Principles of Adventure to help teams move with agility, purpose, and alignment.
My work takes all of me—every piece of my experience, expertise, and passion is embedded in it. For years, I had my work life and my adventure life, but now they are one. I integrate my expertise in leadership, organizational strategy, flow science, and adventure-based transformation into a single, cohesive offering that only I could deliver. I don’t just facilitate leadership development—I build organizations that thrive. And I do it in a way that’s high-energy, deeply engaging, and fun—because true transformation should feel alive.
And when it all clicks? That’s what I’m most proud of. It’s not just when a leader recognizes a new, more powerful way of operating. It’s when their entire team shifts in response—when they start showing up with more clarity, more alignment, and more momentum than ever before. It’s when things that were supposed to take years start happening immediately because when you get people in sync and working toward a clear vision, the rate of change is exponential. That’s the magic of high-vitality teams—and that’s the magic of my work.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

RESILIENCE IS ABOUT LEANING IN AND GROWING THROUGH
Injuries have shaped my life more than I ever would have chosen. They’ve also taught me some of the most profound lessons about resilience – not as sheer grit, but as adaptability, reinvention, and learning to move forward in ways I never expected.

After breaking my collarbone in a ski fall, I spent months rehabbing, determined to come back strong. And then, one year later to the day, I tore my ACL. The collarbone was rough because I was so upset that I had gotten hurt, and so with the ACL, the rules were that I wasn’t allowed to make it wrong. Focus on what you can do, focus on what you do have. I had always said I wanted to learn to fly, so I told myself: Now or never. If you can’t say never, the answer is now.

And so, I got my pilot’s license. Like everything I do, I threw myself into it completely – grinding my way through, pushing hard, doing it the hardest way possible. When I finally passed, I was so exhausted that I didn’t care if I ever saw an airplane again. I had done it mostly to give myself something to focus on and to grow through the experience rather than stagnate. And that was enough.

But then a friend called me and said, I found your perfect airplane. My only reason not to buy it was fear. And I decided that I wasn’t going to let fear be the boss of me. (Spoiler alert: fear is actually very smart, but that’s a different story.) So I bought the airplane.

WHEN RESILIENCE MEANT SOMETHING DIFFERENT
A year later, my cartilage failed. That’s when I learned that there’s a statistical correlation between ACL tears and early onset osteoarthritis. I was worse off than I had ever been. This time, it was clear to me that I had to change my relationship with myself if I was going to survive six weeks on crutches.

I realized I had been running so hard – not just physically, but mentally – to avoid feeling. And now, the war I was fighting against myself had to end. Six weeks on crutches for each knee, done six months apart. The pain in my right knee from the most recent ACL tear was the same pain I had in my left knee from an ACL tear ten years earlier – just not as bad. The pattern was clear.

And so, for the first time, I committed to truly transforming my relationship with myself.

I realized that the only thing I could do that would affect my future – the only thing that could allow me to continue doing what I loved – was growing cartilage. And what do I know about a growing environment? It’s full of kindness, nurturing, and patience. Everything we do to make plants thrive.

That’s when I understood: My relationship with myself had to change. And the stakes were high enough that it was worth it.

THE FINAL WAKE-UP CALL
Then came the final injury – the one that told me something had to change. A catastrophic bike crash in Anchorage left me unconscious, found by strangers in the park. A mechanical failure in my rear brakes sent me over the handlebars, breaking another collarbone and leaving me with a traumatic brain injury. That was it. I saw the pattern, and I knew the cycle had to end.
And here’s the thing: I can’t even tell you the exact change I made. I just decided. This cycle ends now. And it did.

THE REAL LESSON OF RESILIENCE
In those moments, resilience isn’t just about pushing through. It’s about leaning in and growing through the experience – extracting the lessons that make the whole thing worth it. There’s a part of me that would willingly give back all of the struggle and pain of those years, but in reality, I wouldn’t. Because I would never give back who I became, and I value dearly the growth that came from that time.

I always joke that if I were writing the story, I would never be that cruel to the main character. But then again – characters don’t develop without hardship.

And the lesson of real resilience isn’t just about how we come back – because it’s not about coming back at all. The real lesson of resilience is how we integrate the experience, evolving into deeper, more authentic, and more capable people than we ever could have been without the hardship. The goal is never to go back to who we were before, but to emerge through the experience better than we ever could have been without it.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

THE LESSON I HAD TO UNLEARN: PUSHING HARDER ISN’T THE ANSWER
I was raised to believe that trying my hardest was the most important thing. And not just trying hard, but pushing to the absolute limit. The only way I knew I was giving my all was if I was right at the edge. Any more and I would break.

And frankly, this mindset worked. It got me to the top of the world’s highest peaks. It fueled my business success. It drove me to accomplish incredible things. I credited this relentless approach for everything that had gone well for me.

Until it didn’t anymore.

THE FIRST WAKE-UP CALL—LEADERSHIP & STRATEGY DON’T WORK THIS WAY
I started learning this lesson in business before I fully saw it in my own injury cycle. My first management role put me in charge of a team that had zero tolerance for lazy leadership.

These were smart, experienced people. They weren’t interested in being “pushed harder” or working under some top-down strategy they had no part in designing. I quickly realized that forcing an outcome was never going to work.

Instead, I brought in a consultant to facilitate a bottom-up strategic visioning process. I knew I needed to enroll the team, design the system around what actually brought out the best in them, and then step into the leadership role of removing barriers so they could execute at their highest level.

That was my first wake-up call. They had absolutely no tolerance for pushing for performance at the expense of vitality, engagement, or intrinsic motivation. If it didn’t feel good, it wasn’t going to work.

And that cracked something open for me.

THE SECOND WAKE-UP CALL—THE INJURY CYCLE
Even after learning this in business, I still hadn’t fully applied it to myself. I kept pushing. Harder. More. And my body paid the price.

I pushed myself to the absolute breaking point again and again. Eventually, it was undeniably clear that something had to change.

THE SCIENCE THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
As a flow expert and someone deeply immersed in neuroscience and peak performance, I started to see the real mechanics of why pushing harder wasn’t the answer.

Even flow itself operates in a cycle: flow, struggle, release, recovery, and then back to flow.

There’s no skipping steps.

Our nervous systems literally cannot make the neurochemicals required to feel that good on repeat. As we age, that chemical production slows down. I wasn’t in my twenties anymore when it felt like I could keep going without replenishment. That wasn’t resilience. It was unsustainable.

THE NEW WAY—MOVING SMARTER, NOT HARDER
The key isn’t endless effort. It’s knowing when to lean in and when to lean out. It’s about designing for optimal performance, not just maximum effort.

This isn’t just about avoiding burnout. It’s about unlocking true, sustainable excellence.

I now design for flow, knowing that recovery, energy cycles, and intrinsic motivation lead to sustained success. I’ve never been more effective, aligned, or energized by my work.

And this is still a craft I’m constantly honing. Learning how to walk the line between leaning in and leaning out – and it will be my life’s work to explore that balance.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kellieokonek.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/kellieokonek
• Facebook: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063772534399
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/kellieokonek
• Youtube: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@kellieokonek3743
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kellieokonek

  Substack: https://kellieokonek.substack.com/

Image Credits

The first 3: Tarryn Megan; the 2nd two: Ralph Kristopher, 6: Amanda Compton, 7: Sherrie Soltis, 8: Ralph Kristopher