Authority Magazine - Lessons from a Thriving Power Couple
An interview with Candice Georgiadis
Complexly Simple's founders - Marcela and Adam Killin had the pleasure of being interviewed by Candice Georgiadis from Authority Magazine. In this article, they talk about being growing together as a couple, building a values-based business, and supporting each other's dreams.
Support Each Other’s Dreams but don’t forget your own — When you are a couple you start making plans and dreaming on what you want to accomplish together. And that’s all amazing. But we can’t forget that we are also individuals and that we each have dreams. We make a point of supporting each other’s dreams and asking each other what our individual goals and ambitions are. You can’t forget your dreams or put them aside just because you are a couple.
Asa part of our series about lessons from Thriving Power Couples, I had the pleasure of interviewing Marcela and Adam Killin.
Marcela and Adam are the founders of Complexly Simple, a management consulting company with focus on helping socially conscious entrepreneurs optimize their operations, increase their productivity and maximize their impact.
They each have unique paths to entrepreneurship and share a story of building a strong relationship while looking for fulfillment in their careers and making the world a better place by enabling others to amplify their impact.
Spending time together in isolation (due to covid), while juggling a new business, and going back to school taught them a lot about relationships and what healthy relationships need to thrive.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you two to your respective career paths?
Marcela: Thanks for having us! My path to Complexly Simple was very organic. I always had a passion for complex ideas, and I always loved innovation. I’m also a multi-potentialite, which means I have lots of different interests and always wanted to find a way to make everything fit in my life. Throughout my career I struggled with the trend to specialize and look for specialists, when I consider myself a generalist for life.
My passion for social impact led me to working in the non-profit management industry where I realized how small businesses and those starting up could benefit from smart generalists, and that made the light bulb go on. I knew I wanted my work to be meaningful and I wanted to help others thrive and achieve their mission and impact, but I also knew I craved that variety of tasks and responsibilities.
With Complexly Simple I get to do all of it. We work with strategy, and we work with operations. Our clients go from social impact networking to professional development, tech companies, start-ups. There’s a lot of variety, I’m never-ever bored, and I get to meet some amazing people. So, it was a perfect fit for me.
Adam: I always had a passion for numbers. I started playing music at an early age, and math always came easy to me. I fell into butchery as my full-time job and soon started branching out into the business end of the industry. I became more conscious on the one cost of product versus the yield, and that led me into the idea of working in business.
When the idea of starting a business together came up, I really wanted to be able to support Marcela and build this together. It was just a matter of figuring out the best way.
When Covid hit, I had the opportunity to go back to school and decided to study accounting and bookkeeping.
Pivoting over the past 18 months brought us together and enabled our business to grow, while I’m also having the opportunity to further develop myself and pursue other interests. All this while supporting entrepreneurs and small business owners when they needed it most. It was a great fit for all of us.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you two got married?
Adam: Honestly, I think all of our stories are interesting. We knew each other for 6 months before we went on our first date. There were lots of staring and smiling. We had our first date the day before Marcela was going back to Brazil. We went out and then I took her to the airport. We dated long distance for 3 months and when I went to visit her in Brazil I proposed. We got married 3 months after when she came to visit for new year’s.
Marcela: And even that was interesting because we were not really planning on getting married during that visit. I came to meet his family and spend the holidays together and was supposed to go back to Brazil right after. We were talking and planning the wedding. And then we were skating right in front of City Hall, and we just thought “let’s go inside and see what we need to get married.” There’s usually a lot of bureaucracy with translating documents and all, but the clerk was Brazilian, so he just verified all my documents and we got married the next day. I bought a white dress from Forever 21 and the jewelry store just so happened to have the ring I liked on my number (I have tiny fingers, so that was such good luck) and everything was at the perfect time.
Adam: And it was like this for everything else. After we got married, every time we decide to go on a new path together, things happen in a way that always inspires and amazes us. And it taught us to always be able to jump. That’s where the most amazing stories come from. We were talking about getting a dog for almost a year, and it wasn’t until Marcela found a posting of puppy Ice (our older husky) that she hopped on the sled. Even our home was serendipitous. We spent years planning what we would look for in a home, size, layout…and we ended up finding something that checked off everything on the list, right at the perfect time. The day we moved in we had the internet guy show up while the movers were bringing everything in. If that wasn’t enough, that’s when our other dog was delivered (by the breeder, but Uber should take notes). It was a house we put a lot of work into, but it became our home so fast.
Marcela: And the house gave us so much fun experiences too. We love DIY reno’s, so it’s been one interesting story after the other as we learn how to do new things. Adam also had to put up with lots of unexpected reno’s because I was left alone unsupervised and decided to rip the wallpaper down or re-paint the basement. So yes, I love all of our stories. And I think what makes them interesting is when you allow yourself to be amazed by the little things in life, and fully embrace it.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Marcela: We were working on a prospecting project and the goal was to connect with dairy manufacturers across Ontario and pitch them this high-tech automation equipment for packaging. We started calling people right away and had a lot of great conversations, but this specific one was the funniest.
Adam: For this specific project, we were given access to a CRM platform that had all the prospect information. We were told they were all ready to be contacted and we could start calls right away. We followed the instructions and contacted one of the prospects and had a very weird 20-minute conversation. The prospect was amused and intrigued and made a lot of leading questions. Long story short, after we tried to answer all their inquiries, they disclosed that they were actually cattle traders dealing with live cattle and did not produce dairy products. We had a good laugh at the vision of automation equipment that was able to pack cows away.
Marcela: What we learned from that experience is that we should always double check and research before starting a project. Even when someone tells us everything is ready to go, we need to do our own validation. It might seem like extra time, but it will also save a lot of time.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Marcela: I think our company stands out because we are not trying to restrict our clients. We understand their ideas, and we understand that they don’t want to be reduced to one little niche. We — and our clients are the same — want to be able to do all the fun and exciting things we want to do, regardless of how big or how small you are. If you have a great idea, you shouldn’t have to leave it aside just because you’re not a big company with lots of resources. So Complexly Simple helps our clients do all their projects, implement all their strategies, while also understanding that money is not unlimited.
Most of our clients will come to us and say that they want to do all of these different things, but — here is a sentence I hate — it’s impossible. And then we work with them to say no, it’s not impossible. We just need to be creative on how to get there.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Marcela: Yes! We made the decision to adopt through the Children’s Aid Society over the past few months. We started the process and the training, and we were truly touched by how many children are in the system, and how being in the system affects their lives. Going through the program really left this bug in my ear that I wanted to do more to support the children. To help contribute for the future of the world, by contributing to the people who will make it.
So, we just announced a partnership with the Durham Children’s Aid Foundation. Complexly Simple committed 10% of all our revenue to the DCAF to ensure no child shall be left behind. We are super excited and proud to offer this support and extend a helping hand to those children in need and break the cycle of abuse and neglect while helping them develop into socially responsible adults. DCAF provides programs to children and youth involved with the Durham Children’s Aid Society providing services that are not covered by government funding.
We have this strong belief that corporate social responsibility should be a pillar of any business, so it was important to us to identify a cause that we are passionate about and be able to support it with the business.
What advice would you give to other CEOs or founders to help their employees to thrive?
Marcela: Working in a start-up or small business is stressful. Be mindful of your team’s emotions. Check-in often and establish an open line of communication so they know they can talk to you when they are feeling stress or burnout. I’ve seen founders and CEOs that expect the team to work as much as they do, with the same effort and passion, and sometimes they are blind to how stressed and exhausted the team is. Do frequent check-ins and offer help and support before they feel like they are falling apart.
Adam: Incentivize your team to be multi-disciplinary. Specializing is great, but in a small business you need to understand all the aspects of the business and be able to quickly adapt. If Covid taught us anything is that businesses — and people — have to be agile and be ready to embrace change.
How do you define “Leadership”?
Marcela: Leadership is being able to help others grow. Understand their needs, their dreams, and equip them with what they need to achieve it. Is seeing potential in others and activating it, so they can be better humans.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Marcela: We are so lucky to have met wonderful people who helped us at different points of our journey. I could spend the whole day naming them here. But I will send a particular thank you to two in particular: Nick Gibson, founder of Our Better Selves was one of our first clients. He believed on us from the beginning of Complexly Simple, and always pushes us to be — well — our better selves. He is a generous soul that is always ready to help others in their journeys. And Nina Penner from Blue Helium Consulting. She’s been a mentor and a Friend who has given me so much insight and helped me define who I want to be as a leader.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
Marcela: I think we bring goodness to the world every day, in every action we take. It’s in choosing the right supplies, engaging and supporting the right people. But mostly, on living our values.
We always feel so lucky whenever we achieve a big dream. And I think our immediate thought is “how can we help others?” It’s our way to give back to the world and be grateful for everything we get.
Adam: We do that through donations, volunteering, but also connecting people with opportunities and helping others to grow. If we keep the circle of giving and support going, we all grow together.
What are the “5 Things You Need To Thrive As A Couple”? Please share a story or example for each.
Support Each Other’s Dreams but don’t forget your own — When you are a couple you start making plans and dreaming on what you want to accomplish together. And that’s all amazing. But we can’t forget that we are also individuals and that we each have dreams. We make a point of supporting each other’s dreams and asking each other what our individual goals and ambitions are. You can’t forget your dreams or put them aside just because you are a couple.
Marcela: When I decided to go back to school for my MBA last year, I knew it would mean I would be busier, I would have less time off and I would probably be more stressed. But I had been talking about it for years and it was something I really wanted to do. Adam was so supportive and encouraging to get me to finally sign up. I was always worried the extra responsibilities and activities would reduce our time together, but he made it work by being flexible and understanding.
Adam: Marcela also supports me and my dreams. When we moved to Ajax, I was really missing the music scene. As a musician, I wanted to be able to play music and be surrounded by it. We found an all-level orchestra in Ajax — Music4Life — and I was super excited about joining. The rehearsals were on Saturday, which is the only day off Marcela and I had together at the time. Not only she came to every rehearsal to support me, but she also ended up buying a cello and joining the orchestra. Now is something we both enjoy and share.
Be real about your emotions — being self-aware and understanding your emotions is something essential for all types of relationship. There are days your tolerance is very low, or you are so stressed any little detail will make you explode. And that is not fair to those around you. Being real about your emotions means owning how you feel, and why you feel it — or sometimes that fact that you have no idea why you are in such a horrible mood — and communicating that openly.
Marcela: The past year with COVID and my family being in Brazil was very tough for me emotionally. There were days I felt depressed and anxious, and anything could set me off. And I remember this one day, I was so stressed and tired that the sound of Adam chewing an apple was making me so angry. But I knew it wasn’t his fault. He didn’t do anything wrong. I had to be real about my emotions and why they were there. I was able to just open up to him and say that I was mad, and sad, and everything together. And he helped me manage those emotions by just listening to me. When we don’t own our emotions, we make them someone else’s problem, and that’s never healthy to a relationship.
Know where the other person is coming from — Understanding when someone is not acting like themselves and being able to not take it personally is an important skill for a relationship. It’s about being empathetic and knowing that not everything is about you. Sometimes the other person is not able to acknowledge the stress and how is affecting them, or they are just really having a bad day. You need to know that that’s not directed at you, that there’s more happening on the inside. In a relationship, you need to be able to connect and help them out of whatever is that is getting them down.
Adam: Marcela is usually such a happy person. She wakes up singing to the dogs and howling with them. But some days she is quiet and introspective, and I know something is not good. Understanding that there’s more than what is in the surface, connecting, inquiring and being empathetic to help her deal with her emotions is part of my job. She does that to me too. When I’m having a bad day, she knows exactly how to ask the right questions to help me go through it.
Be comfortable pushing each other outside of the comfort zone — sometimes we need a push, and sometimes we need to be pulled back. And being a strong couple means knowing the difference. Pushing each other outside of the comfort zone is pushing for both of us to do what we need to, no matter how scared or uncomfortable we are.
Adam: When we started working together and I started taking the business development and accounting clients it was very uncomfortable to me. I had never done this type of work before; it was outside of my experience in retail. I had fears and concerns. And it was all so easy to think “I will just go back to my retail job.” But Marcela kept pushing me to be better and to believe in myself. She believed in me, and that belief made me strive to do more.
Marcela: It works on the other side too. I struggle so much to let things go and relax. I’m very uncomfortable at relaxing. In fact, I think the project manager in me makes me try to plan absolutely everything. Pushing me outside of my comfort zone is making me delegate, trust others to take care of things and be more kind to myself. Adam has helped to develop so many healthier habits.
Always approach it as a team effort — To thrive as a couple you need to understand that you are not doing things alone. When each of us makes commitments, it affects both of us, so finding ways to cooperate is what makes us stronger.
Marcela: we started the business together. Then we decided to go back to school (me for my MBA and Adam for his Bachelor of Commerce). All of a sudden, our schedules were packed. We have so much to do between homework, assignments, and taking care of the house, walking the dogs… I would go crazy if I had to do it alone. We approach it as a team. We help each other and share the load. When I have late evening meetings, Adam makes dinner or brings me a snack in the office. When he has work or is studying for exams, I make sure we are ordering his favorite food (he’s the cook in the house, so my contributions in this area are mostly UberEats). We clean the house together; we share laundry duty. We are a team. And nobody is carrying the weight alone. I think sometimes couples get in the “who is doing more” debate, and there’s nothing to be won in this argument. We always talk about what else could we be doing to help each other.
You are people of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
Marcela: I would really like to see every company in the world being socially responsible. Beyond the marketing piece. Actually, focused on Corporate Social Responsibility. I think if every company out there started giving opportunities for internal teams and stakeholders to develop CSR programs that support causes, they are passionate about we could become a much better society.
Adam: I totally agree. Contributing to the community. Having a mentality of giving something back, that’s what will push us forward.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Marcela: I’m a huge Gilmore Girls fan. I grew up watching it again and again until everyone was tired of hearing Rory and Lorelai’s voice. And my favorite Life Lesson Quote is from the Life and Death Brigade. It’s from Latin “In Omnia Paratus” and it means “Be ready for Anything.”
When I heard the phrase, it really stayed with me. Be ready for anything. It’s my version of “Carpe Diem” but for me it means being prepared to jump, to take the risk, to be brave and take action when you need to.
We are, so often, paralyzed by fear to take action. Fear of change. And we never feel truly ready. If you wait until you are ready, you will be stuck in the same place for a very long time.
In Omnia Paratus is something I tell myself every day. Be ready for anything. No matter how unexpected, no matter how scary. And that’s how I run my life and the business. Every day I think of what I can do to be ready for any outcome, and to embrace this uncertainty with courage and excitement, not fear.
Adam: My favorite quote is from Herman Hesse’s Sidartha: “It isn’t down in any map; true places never are.” I think we are consistently told that we need to follow a path to achieve success. Everyone is trying to give you a roadmap. But truly, there is no map to success. We are always innovating and the world around us is always changing.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them :-)
Marcela: I would love to have a breakfast or lunch with J.K. Rowling. I loved reading Harry Potter when I was growing up. But beyond being an amazing writer, Rowling is also an example of overcoming adversity and succeeding despite of all the challenges and obstacles thrown in your direction. I also admire her Charity, Volant and its work on supporting women and children combat social inequality. I think she is a great example of someone who inspires others and shares her growth by giving back.
Adam: Given the opportunity, I would love to meet Hans Zimmer. Beyond his years of experience in the industry and his experience working with people and all different types of situations, he seems like a person you can have a real conversation with. I acknowledge that his role is to take the emotional content of one person’s art and translate it into another dimension. He is pretty much an artistic empath.
How can our readers follow your work online?
You can follow us on our website at www.complexlysimple.ca
Or on our social channels:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/complexlysimple/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/complexlysimple.ca/
Marcela’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcelakillin/
Adam’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamkillin/
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
