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

Hi Kirsten, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

3.5 years ago, I moved to Mexico with my family. It was Dec of 2020 and the world was still shut down. Majority of social interactions were still online and I was watching my own teens and hearing from my friends that their teens were spiraling into the dark caves of endless screen time, which we suddenly allowed because it was the only way to connect with the world and people around us. But it was a fake, surreal connection which tricked our brains into thinking we had connection, but not actually fueling our souls. My kids mental health was suffering and I knew something had to change. I put the call out to see if their were any other parents with teens who would like to get them together in person. We started with socially distanced activities outdoors, but at least it was in person. I committed to organizing these weekly activities and we formed a community of teenagers who were getting in person connection when the rest of the world was still isolated and lonely. As rates of depression, anxiety and suicide in teens was rising everywhere else, our kids began to thrive. The world slowly returned to normal and our teens were rooted in a beautiful community of connection, belonging. We gave them lots of opportunities for adventure, fun and real life interaction. But as I rejoiced in the local community for teens that had grown from 8 to 80 in the course of a year, I kept seeing friends in other places in the world, struggle because their teens were still chained to their screens, becoming increasingly disconnected and unable to truly thrive in the real world. This inspired me to create opportunities for them to come for an immersive adventure here. I began creating camps and trips that would help disconnected teens get away from their normal habits and patterns and truly reconnect with themselves and others.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My first service trip to the Philippines at age 16 showed me how to be high on life, friendships and experiences and somehow that stuck with me. Woven through my experiences and job opportunities throughout my lifetime was the same theme. Truly see people, build community and collaborate with creativity. I believe this is something that must be experienced more than taught and that young people who have the opportunity to live this first hand will turn around and change the world in whatever field they pursue.

I’ve worked with youth throughout my whole adult life, both in outdoor athletic and camp settings and in educational musical and theatre settings. But certain elements remain consistent. When people are seen, heard and given space to develop their talents, ideas and sense of self, truly anything is possible.
I’ve spent the last three and a half years developing a program for teens in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. The goal has been to give them as many hands on, face to face, confidence and community building experiences as possible. And now we are ready to share it with the world. We launched Teen Connect Adventure Camps with the goal of bringing youth from US to have an immersive adventure in Central Mexico. Teenagers today are more stressed out than ever with increasing pressures to look, think and “perform” for a society that offers expectations without support. The more connected these teens are to the world of social media and online everything, the more disconnected they become with themselves. We aim to give them the opportunity to unplug and come discover themselves, build friendships, experience belonging and build confidence in who they really are. THIS is how we will change the world.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Moving to Mexico required a huge pivot in my life and business that I didn’t even know was coming. My degree is in music and most of my adult life I have spent teaching in various capacities. Before college I was a swimming instructor, camp director and preschool assistant teacher. After college I taught voice lessons and directed choirs. And of course, as a mom, I became the first instructor in the school of life for the beautiful children I was entrusted with. But when I moved to Mexico, My kids had a huge need for connection, community and belonging and I threw all my efforts into creating it. It was the culmination of all my other experiences and training and for the first time it felt like I was making a huge difference to this group of teens I was serving. I had no idea that all the love and energy I was pouring into the community would turn into a business and I never even thought of it that way. But as time passed and the experience evolved I realized that so many teens outside of our community needed these experiences too and that perhaps not only could I offer this to my local community, but maybe I could actually work in my passions and serve teens in other places by bringing them here to experience the adventures, confidence building and connecting that we had to offer.

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

Probably the biggest risk I took was hiring a multi media marketing professional to help me advertise the adventure camps. I believed wholeheartedly in my mission and what I had to offer to stressed out teens. I had several years experience doing just this in a volunteer capacity. But my strength was in face to face, in person connecting and networking and I had no idea how to get my amazing offerings in front of the parents of teens who were not local to me and needed what I had to offer. Finding and investing in the marketing help I needed was a huge risk, as I had no capital to get started, but it was absolutely worth every penny.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://teenconnectadventures.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teenconnectadventures?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61560673777012

Image Credits

photo credit: Ian Gough