KARI Kolicko PROOF
Kari Kolicko is making her home in Boulder County. How the midwestern native has remade herself into a Boulder local.
There can be a pervasive sense of transience along the front range.
All year long, tourists pour into Denver and spill up and down I-25 or up the passes on I-70 to get their jollies doing touristy mountain stuff. Moving to the region can be hard for people trying to find a sense of “home” when so many people come and go, even non-tourists—some people move with the best intention to stay and then have to leave because it’s too far from family, they can’t afford housing, or maybe the front range just isn’t their thing.
Kari Kolicko is no tourist. She is a local, and wants to help newcomers and other locals find their home in Boulder County.
Like many others along the front range, Kari is a transplant from the Midwest, and she looks back with fondness on her Chicago roots, how she learned the midwestern work ethic and an unassuming way of carrying one’s self.
PROOF
“I visited Winter Park for the first time in the summer,” she says “and that got me motivated, thinking that people live here all the time and enjoy these things. There’s much more in the world to see.”
Her time in the suburbs meant she hadn’t spent much time outside, save summer stays at a lake house. “There’s not a lot going on there. It’s like breweries and food and stuff like that,” Kari remembers. “I don’t think I had much of a passion for the outdoors until I moved here. Honestly, I think I got tired.
I think that’s one of the reasons why I wanted to move away—there was more to do here and just kind of more to see.”
Her move to Boulder coincided with her move into real estate. Kari had originally intended to be a therapist back in Chicago. “One thing kind of led to another,” she says, “where I realized what I’m doing now is not really a
good fit. So I actually got a marketing position at a Berkshire Hathaway office in Schaumburg, Illinois.
“I put my nose to the grindstone, getting to know these real estate agents, their marketing, their ideas, and I would basically be their go-to marketing girl for anything that they needed. I really had to get creative and put the puzzle pieces together, so I got
I really had to get creative and put the puzzle pieces together, so I got to know the back end of how to market as a realtor.”
toknowthebackendofhowtomarket asarealtor.”
Karifoundagroovethatwasworking forher,butwasstillfeelingambitious. “Iwaslookingforotheravenuesfora similarpositioninColorado,andIgot interviewedasamarketingassistantfor abrokerinGolden.”
Thatwasallsheneeded.Shemoved outtoBoulderonceshegotthejob,but herambitionkeptpushingherbitbybit overthecomingmonths.“Igotreally savvywithwhatmakesrealtorstickand thought,okay,IthinkIcouldbethis,but IthinkIcouldelevateitevenhigheror setadifferentstandardintheindustry
“Afteracoupleofyears,Iremember havingalongconversationwithmydad aboutbeingunhappyinmarketingand admin.Youdon’treallygomuchhigher uptheranks.SoIthought,well,Idon’t wanttodomarketingandadminforever. Ithinkactuallygoingintorealestate wouldbereallyfunandchallenging.”
Shewentforit.
Thingsstartedcomingtogetherfor herwhensheswitchedrolesather firstbroker,butafteralittlewhile,she wantedsomethinglesscorporate,soshe joinedasmalllocalteamjustdownthe roadfromBoulder,whichwaswhatshe callsa“boutique”realestateagency.
“[Workingwitha]globalbrandwas kindofgreat,butIwantedsomethinga littlebitmorelocalized,”sheremembers. “Imovedfromaglobalbrokeragetoa teenytinyboutiquebrokerage,andI neededsomethingperfectlyinbetween. Milehimodernwasthatbecausethey’re onlyColoradobased.They’reayoung
I really had to get creative and put the puzzle pieces together, so I got to know the back end of how to market as a realtor.”
PROOF
company, but I think they’re very hip, kind of trendy, collaborative, and the relationships that I’ve grown—we’re very helpful towards one another versus keeping to ourselves and having our own systems and processes. It’s been something where now I feel very comfortable, where I’m pretty happy.”
Kari Kolicko’s ambition isn’t the sort of ambition we’re used to hearing about, the kind that wants to climb corporate ladders or the sort that drives politicians into double speak and back-door dealing. Maybe it’s wrong to call it ambition at all, but ambition can be a good thing, and Kari’s ambition isn’t about banking away as much money as possible.
“I think it’s about the clients that I have,” she notes. “At the end of every transaction, I like to stay in touch or even become friends. Those are the best kinds of transactions when you kind of leave the table and you want to see each other again for a drink or something like that. It’s really about first time home buyers—they are really scared and they know nothing about this process. It’s my job to educate them, to make sure that they feel confident in the home that they’re choosing.”
Clients first. Seems simple, but the pull of transaction volume is hard to resist. After all, who doesn’t like money showing up in their bank account? Not for Kari. She has stuff she’d rather do. Work is just a means to an end to her.
“I’m the person that tries really hard to set boundaries and take time for myself,” she says. “If I can go away on a camping trip or just get into the mountains for a couple of days, it’s a really good reset for me. That’s where I can actually think, and if I don’t have cell service, I’m happier that way. I’m a hundred percent happier if I’m able to get outside for a couple days.”
Camping wasn’t always her thing, but life finds a way. Her husband, a filmmaker and professor at CU, took her on her first camping trip. “Some people take vacations; we just go camping somewhere,” Kari says. “I think watching what it’s done to him and having me embrace it has been really good for mind, body, and soul. I’m a huge advocate for
PROOF
people understanding and sharing that type of lifestyle with others.”
It’s not just camping, though. She loves to get on the slopes in the winter, snowboarding at Winter Park or Mary Jane, and sometimes she ventures outside of the state for good powder, places like Tahoe or resorts in Montana. And she caught the travel bug, booking a couple of trips outside of the country for the first time, and it opened her eyes to the world outside of Boulder and Chicago.
When she is in Boulder, which is where she lives and works, she has one particular hobby that really does it for her—“In the past year I’ve been sharing Instagram stories of Boulder County coffee shops. It’s gotten a lot of attention to where people know me now, so I call it ‘Spill the Beans Coffee Reviews,’” she says.
“It’s very casual—‘this is what I ordered, this is the menu here,’ and then some photos. It’s fun to share where I’m going, and now people are always asking me, ‘where’s the best place for this?’ or ‘I’m going on a date. What’s the coffee shop that you recommend in Louisville?’ I think that’s been a really fun thing, and people remember me by it.”
And it’s literally just for fun because Kari likes people, coffee, and coffee shops. “I’m not monetizing it. I just reach out to some of the small businesses and say, ‘Hey, this is what I’m doing—is it okay if I showcase you?’ And of course they say, ‘Oh yeah, this is awesome. We’ll share your story!’ So it’s helping me get a little bit more localized that way.”
Localized. A neighbor, a good friend. Sure, Kari has made a heck of a career for herself in an impressive amount of time, but it’s being a local that matters most to her. She says, “what makes me want to hustle harder is to be someone at home in Boulder County.”
Kari Kolicko
630-740-6050
kari@milehimodern.com milehimodern.com
