A visionary, entrepreneur, and DeepSouth native, Kim Kaupe is the motivated millennial young professionals strive to imitate. The co-founder of The Superfan Company – a custom publication and content creation company that creates engaging fan packages for brands, celebrities, and entertainers – Kim has helped drive the company into a powerhouse churning out packages for A-list entertainers like Bob Dylan, Taylor Swift, Paul McCartney, KISS, and many more. Kim has made it to Forbes 30 Under 30, Advertising Age’s 40 Under 40, and Inc.’s 35 Under 35.

By Scottie DeClue

Who are the young leaders and enterprisers of the business world? Without a doubt, Kim Kaupe is on the list. Her company, The Superfan Company, has received esteemed recognition from powerful, venerated outlets like Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Inc. Magazine, and Shark Tank among others. But her success has not come without a calculated and determinate effort – Kim has passion and drive that she attributes to maintaining focus and balance in her life. Better yet, she wants to share her formula for success with others. On her Facebook and Instagram accounts, Kim shares tips for improving quality of life and finding balance and success through her video series called “Coffee With Kim.” SVM spoke with Kim about her company, her inspirations, aspirations, and her advice on being successful in a highly competitive job market. Here is what she had to say.

You are a highly successful young professional who holds the reins of big company. Can you tell us a little about what you do? I started my company eight years ago with my co-founder, and the heart of the idea was to create a fan engagement agency, so we focused on “superfans” – these are the types of fans who are highly passionate and very excited about the various things that they love. Those things can be music artists, sports teams, or France, or Starbucks, or comic books, or anything, really. So we focus on people who are really excited about the things that they love.

So what do you do for superfans? So, we are a “b-to-b” company, which means that we work with the brands, and music studios, and movie theaters, and record labels, and artists of entertainment properties to touch the fans. We work collaboratively with these companies to help them come up with ideas and find ways to surprise and delight fans in what they’re doing or promoting.

I imagine it has been challenging to make it to where you are today. Through this process, did you have a mentor – someone to give you inspiration, motivate you, and teach you? I feel like I’ve been lucky to have lots of mentors growing up. Whether it was through middle school, or high school, or college, or throughout my career, I’ve always felt that mentors take up a significant role in guiding mine and anyone else's life. And I also think that it’s interesting to consider what capacity mentor’s come in.

What I mean is that I think that a lot of people feel that mentors should be official and that you have to ask someone to be your mentor, but I’ve found that I consider people who I might have dinner with once a year, or grabbed coffee with a couple of times to be mentors – anyone that gives some kind of insight, or perspective, or knowledge about the industry, or information that might affect how I run my business.

I feel like I always have a mentor even when that person might not know they are my mentor. One of my earliest was my first boss, who was my boss during my internship. She was a great inspiration for me, because she really helped provide that workplace experience. She helped me see the action in the board meeting and in the work rooms. We can read about how to do something in school, but when we have someone to follow who will guide and teach us, that is truly a mentor.

Speaking of guiding, I know from your track record that you have a passion for guiding young professionals. Where did the desire to help others achieve come from? Yes, an organization that I do a lot of work with that I was also a part of when I was in high school is an organization called Junior Achievement - a hundred year old nonprofit that does work in middle schools and high schools to teach entrepreneurship and business-ready skills to young minds. I do a lot of work with them every year by volunteering time, whether it’s going into high schools and talking to the kids, or helping with these fantastic business plan competitions that are like mini shark-tank exercises –the kids can even win scholarships through these competitions. A cool part about Junior Achievement is that they are in all 50 states, and they are also in national and worldwide companies. I think I became passionate about it because I saw how it affected my own life, and that was monumental, but now, being on the other side of it, any sort of interaction that kids can have with real professionals... seeing that come to life in the classroom is really important. It inspires me.

New years is right around the corner, and some young professionals moving into the workforce are looking for inspiration to get their careers going. What kind of advice can you give to young people to make themselves look better in the job market? I would say having a build out Linkedin profile – that’s basically the new online resume – is instrumental to success. The employers who are looking at applicants, the first thing that they’re going to do is google those applicants, and they are going to make sure that the profile is totally filled out, and that there is a photo, and that the description and summary is filled out. They are going to look at any past internship experience, and they are going to check that it’s totally up to date. So often, opportunities can really come from networking, and just like the lotto where you have to be in it to win it, you really have to be on linkedin with a complete profile so you can be considered for the serendipities of life. When someone starts looking for a new candidate, boom, your profile appears. It opens up a world of possibilities.

You seem to like giving advice. You've got a recurring video series called “Coffee with Kim” where you give life advice to people through social media. Could you talk about that? My goal with this project, which started at the beginning of the year, was sharing insights that I had picked up while having coffee with other people. I think that some of the best pieces or “nuggets” of information aren't always taught in a formal setting – often times they are mentioned by somebody who is on the ground doing the work. So a lot of the habits, or books, or podcasts, or skills that I have implemented in my own life – and I would love to take credit for all of them, but the truth of the matter is that I can’t – I got them from other people who shared them with me, and I thought, “why should advice, I thought about sharing it with others and that it might be as applicable to their lives as it was to mine. It certainly shows that you applied it. You made it on both Forbes’ “30 Under 30” and Inc. Magazine’s “35 Under 35.” Yes, because it’s those small tips and tricks that often get overlooked unless they are shared – like volunteering your thoughts during a meeting, or writing a thank you note after a job interview – that can really may a difference professionally in a person’s lives, and can help that individual make an impact on others lives. I think that school and internships do a great job preparing your for work, but some of those softer skills might not necessarily be something that’s covered in those institutions or settings.

You were on Shark Tank, also. What was that experience like? Shark Tank is a fantastic show. I love it because it shows young people about entrepreneurship, and I think that having people watch a show about how to make a business work well is better than watching the Kardashians, but people should remember that the show condenses the actual workload that goes into success, so it’s important to remember that between the cuts, there is quite a bit of work that goes into making business work. Getting money and starting a company is a lot of hard work, and running a small business is not easy. Shark Tank was a great opportunity, and I thought it was an amazing thing to do and experience.

Certainly, and running a business is quite a lot of work, like you said. So how do you make the best of your down time when you finally get some? What is it that brings you back to the center? I love to work out –that’s sort of a natural way for me to step away – and I also try to make as much time as I can for friends and family. It’s important for me to schedule time to do those things, but I have actually write them down. I am big believer that if you don’t make time, there won’t be time. A lot of people make plans with good intentions, but when they don’t actually set that time aside, the time sort of slips away and you realize that you never ended up doing what you wanted to. Scheduling is a great way to catch up on things that you enjoy doing. Time really flies.

You are from the South. What do you miss about the South now that you’re in New York? Yes! I’m from West Palm beach, about an hour north of Miami. How much time do you have? I miss the weather, sweet tea, warm water and college football – everybody says, “Oh New York has beaches,” but these beaches are COLD! I go to Hampton Beach, I put my feet in and I’m like, no way, that water is freezing. People don’t talk about college football either. They don’t even know what the SEC is. I’ll say something about it and they are like, “what are you even talking about?” And that’s such a huge part of southern culture that I miss a lot. SVM