PAlife P R O F I L E
A L E A P o f FA I T H SETTING UP HER ONLINE BUSINESS WAS A STEP INTO THE UNKNOWN FOR FORMER ATHLETE AND STAY-AT-HOME MUM KIMBERLY ROTHMAN
T WAS A CHANCE MEETING AT a funeral that set in motion the events that led Kimberly Rothman, CEO and founder of I’d Love To Do That, to grow from a wife and mother into an athletic champion and then a business entrepreneur. It was there she met pole vault coach Brian Hooper, who during a light-hearted conversation convinced her to try out for the ITV show, Body Heat. “I was bringing up three children and doing bits and pieces, but nothing specific,” she says, so this was a new direction. She certainly had her reservations. “I was 32 and a bit old for pole vaulting, but I thought I’d give it a go," she says. As it turned out she won the show and went on to compete in the event at national level for three years, winning silver at the British National Championships, before switching to long jump. By the age of 37 she was representing Scotland at the commonwealth trials, and at 40 attended the European Championships in Sweden, returning with a gold medal. Later that year she won gold at the World Championships. It was at this stage she came home, hung up her spikes and thought, “I’ve got gold, you can’t do much better than that.” She
describes that time of her life by saying, “When you’re stretching your physical and mental limits it makes you feel so alive. Every day was a challenge.” So it’s no surprise that three years later she decided she missed the buzz and turned to the heptathlon, training for nine months before going to the World Championships in Finland. For Kimberly, crossing the finish line with her three children cheering her on from the side was the proudest moment of her life. After a year, she found herself searching for a new challenge, which sparked the idea for her online business, I’d Love To Do That. She found that typing 'self-development' into Google brought up cluttered pages of courses, but with nothing that was relevant to
her. “It was cold, corporate and didn’t speak to me,” says Kimberly. She wanted a place where you could find a course that made you say, “That’s for people like me, and I’d love to do that.” It wasn’t around, so she decided to set one up herself. With just a telephone and a website landing page she started contacting companies to find suitable courses, and so the name and concept of the business was born. Simply put, I’d Love To Do That features workshops and experiences hand-picked by Kimberly and her team. They go out of the way to guarantee the quality of the courses, speaking to the owners and often testing them out first-hand. As Kimberly says, “The coaches who trained me were passionate to the core, and I wanted to find courses that feed your soul.” Growing every day, visitors to the site will find something to suit every taste. For the busy PA, this is perfect. “PAs spend their life looking after someone else," she says. "This is an opportunity to do something for you, and be selfish about it.” ● TURN TO PAGE 27 TO FIND OUT HOW PA LIFE AND I’D LOVE TO DO THAT CAN HELP YOU STEP OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE AND START “FEEDING YOUR SOUL”.
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JULY/AUGUST 2012 • PALife