She built this for the woman she used to be.
Meet Your Founder
Katie Mares. The woman who chose NOW.
I wasn't always the woman standing in front of you.
There was a version of me who had nothing. No money. No confidence. No map. A woman who had survived domestic abuse and was staring at the beginning of a life she had no idea how to build. I was a mom trying to hold it together while quietly falling apart — and the gap between who I was and who I knew I could be felt impossible to cross.
But here's what I've learned: you don't cross that gap all at once. You make one decision. You set one standard. You choose — just once — to stop negotiating with your future self.
That decision changed everything for me. It became the framework I've built my entire life around. And it's the reason you're reading this right now.
Today I'm a #1 bestselling author of CustomHER Experience and More Women, More Money, a TEDx speaker whose talk "The Art of Choice" has reached over a million views, and a customer experience strategist who has worked with Toyota, Honda, Volvo, Celebrity Cruises, and Canada Post. I've spent over two decades studying what makes people feel seen, valued, and loyal — and the most important thing I've ever learned is that it starts with how you treat yourself.
I'm also a mother of three, a woman of deep faith, and a newlywed — I married my person, Kevin, in June 2026 at a vineyard in California surrounded by the people I love most. My life today looks nothing like where I started. Not because I got lucky. Because I got serious about what was non-negotiable.
The woman you already know you are is waiting for you to stop negotiating
Join the Inner Circle and make NOW non-negotiable — or start free and see what this community is about
WHY I LOVE WHAT I DO
This work saved me first.
I didn't develop these tools from a textbook. I lived them. I had to stop negotiating with myself, build standards I refused to lower, and create support systems that brought me back to clarity when everything felt overwhelming.
The tools I teach inside NOW Rising are the same ones that changed my life. They are rooted in real experience, backed by emotional intelligence and behavioral science, and tested by the one person I trust most — me.
What I love most is watching women remember who they are. Not by becoming someone new — but by trusting themselves again. By deciding, maybe for the first time, that their life, their time, and their potential are non-negotiable.
This isn't about fixing women. Women are not broken. It's about giving them what actually works — and then getting out of the way while they rise.
That will always matter to me.
Meet Your COO
Alaina Kunder-Woods
Alaina is an accomplished healthcare executive and operations leader with a proven track record of leading multidisciplinary teams, driving operational excellence, and delivering high-quality client care. Alaina has exceptional capability in organizational leadership, strategic planning, clinical oversight, and operational management. Her leadership fosters a culture of accountability, service excellence, and continuous improvement, contributing to strong client outcomes and operational effectiveness.
Alaina is passionate about developing people, optimizing systems, and creating environments where teams can perform at their highest level while delivering exceptional care and service to those they support. Throughout her career, Alaina has been recognized for her ability to build and lead high-performing teams, navigate organizational change, and maintain rigorous standards of quality and compliance. Alaina holds a Master of Science in Psychology from Trent University and is a Canadian Certified Addiction Counsellor through the Canadian Addiction Counsellors Certification Federation (CCACF).
