About

How I did it

MY JOURNEY

Odds are not in my favor.

Hundreds of job and internship applications sent with no response… Even from sketchy companies.

2 recurring thoughts in my brain are: “I should’ve chosen music degree instead”, and “I probably should’ve visited this city before moving here”.

I remember that I don’t have the voice of Whitney Houston, Victoria Secret model look, or a willingness to starve myself to “make it” in music. So I go online.

Next Step? Online.

So I go online to find an answer… Then I come across Reddit posts, and remote freelancing marketplaces.

Eventually, a question hits my head, “wouldn’t I be able to make a full time income if I had enough of these projects?”.

I roll my eyes. I’m only in second year of university, and can’t even land an unpaid internship. So how would I land numerous PAID work?

But the more I think about it… What if it actually worked?

Closed my eyes, and leaped.

I took a leap on January 2015 by joining Facebook groups, marketplaces, and even Craigslist.

Shortly after, I started working with clients on various projects– social media, graphic design, web design, account management, etc.

Nobody asked how old I was, when I could work, etc.

The only thing that mattered was what I can do for their companies and projects.

Plan A didn’t happen.

My original plan was to work a 9-5 right after university, and keep my freelancing as a side-income business.

That plan did not happen as expected.

I ended up wearing all kinds of hats: start-up executive, consultant, musician, and a magazine contributor.

All while working fully remote.

Consequences of Plan B.

These various hats allowed me to experience the journey of:

Working with hundreds of organizations across 5 continents
Investing and incubating various businesses
Speaking virtually alongside fortune 1000 exec’s, NYT best-selling authors, international thought leaders

It’s not what I expected…

But I wouldn’t have it another way either.

diving into tmi territory…

Random Facts About Me

I'm a (fur) parent of 2; Sven the maltipoo and Olaf the cat. Olaf loves to fetch... Sven doesn't.

I'm a EDM singer-songwriter. Stage name may or may not be somewhere on this website.

My MBTI is INTJ. I used to get INFP, but one day, it showed INTJ and it never changed back.

I've been using AI since 2021, and latest focus with AI has been with using AI for multimedia creation.

3rd person pov

Official Biography

Clair Kimberly Laurelle (a.k.a. Clair Kim) is the founder / principal /CEO of CCIA Solutions, a consultancy group serving high-growth companies.

A two-time award-nominated business consultant (Forbes 30 Under 30, RBC Woman of the Year), Clair splits her time between Calgary and Montreal. She has partnered with over 300 organizations of various sizes to grow and scale their businesses—some achieving revenue increases of up to 900% in less than two years.

Her insights have been featured in Forbes, Today Show, Huffington Post, MSN, Entrepreneur Magazine, Today Show, and Business Insider. She also contributes thought leadership content to HackerNoon, and TED-Ed.

Outside of consulting, Clair creates electronic dance music and is parenting her two (fur)children, Sven and Olaf.