Welcome to 2026!

New year, same chaos—but I’m sending this newsletter anyway because sometimes focusing on what we can control (like our businesses) helps when everything else feels like a mess.

Given the chaos, I’ve decided to set an intention going into 2026. The last time I made a resolution was at the​ beginning of 2020​, and we all know how that turned out. Now that we’re on the other side of a global pandemic (and I survived creating two humans and launching a business), it feels like enough time has passed to start anew with a one-word intention.

If I were Santa calling out to my reindeer (on Dasher, on Dancer…), I might write it like this: more smiling, less sickness, more wellness and fitness, more reading and sunshine and growing my business. In one word, in 2026 I intend to make more time to: NOURISH—myself and those around me.

In this quarterly newsletter, I’m excited to share three consulting secrets, debut exciting news and hiring opportunities from the Arboretum Foundation, highlight an Annual Report I’m proud of, offer a 2025 Year in Review post, and resurrect one of my all-time favorite gift ideas: a card mob.

What’s your word of the year for 2026?

Best,

-kC

What Do Strategic Communications Clients Really Need? 3 Common Misconceptions

I want to bring you in on a little consulting secret: it's common for leaders to have expectations misaligned with their current resources. An even bigger obstacle? Clients with a solution in search of a problem. My approach is partnership—clients bring expertise in their challenges, I bring skill in designing right-sized solutions that actually fit their capacity.

Here are the top three requests I receive, and what usually works better:

Big News from the Arboretum Foundation

After 90 years of collaborative partnership, the Arboretum Foundation and the University of Washington Botanic Gardens recently announced that they will combine operations under a single nonprofit organization: Seattle Botanic Gardens. This historic agreement combines two organizations to create Seattle’s destination botanic gardens.

This merger is what I've been working to support for the last year as the Interim Communications Director at the Foundation, and I'm so excited to see our vision coming to fruition. Supporting these efforts has been wildly fulfilling, and I was especially grateful to lead the process for selecting the new organizational name (thanks to many of you who took that survey a few months ago!).

As the new Seattle Botanic Gardens, the team is hiring for HR, IT, and Operations. The job description for a permanent Communications Director was also just posted—dream job alert!

Rainier Scholars Impact Report

I was thrilled to spend four 4 months supporting Rainier Scholars as their Interim Marketing & Communications Director. As I teased in my last newsletter, I had the opportunity to work on some incredible stories of impact, most of which were embargoed for the Annual Report. As the project manager and content lead for the Annual Report, I’m so happy with the way it showcases the personal stories of scholars while weaving in the impact of their work. Talk about an incredible piece for my portfolio.

2025 Year in Review

Nearly 20 years ago, I mailed my first holiday card. Lots of people send annual cards, but a single, 23-year-old gal doing so was pretty unusual. I got married and made two people in the intervening years, and I still send a New Year's card every year. However, I always fall short when it comes to writing an accompanying letter (the last time I did a Year in Review post was 2013). So, for the tens of people who want to read this, here’s our 2025 year in review.

Deliver Happiness with a Card Mob

I'm a bit of an old soul. I like to read real books and write with a pen and paper. One thing I really love is sending and receiving cards in the mail (see above). It's a dying practice, but some of my very favorite people are those who still send cards to say thank you, happy birthday, merry holidays, or hey, I was thinking about you and just wanted to send this card to let you know.

A few years ago, my friend Jason had a milestone birthday he wasn’t particularly happy about. Rather than ignore his birthday (as requested), I organized a surprise card mob to fill his mailbox with love. What happened next was magic.