Life and Work with Macquel Martin

Today we’d like to introduce you to Macquel Martin.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Macquel. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
When I was 2 years old, my family moved to Colorado, and I was raised here in this amazing state. Once I got into college and got married and starting having my own family (still in Colorado), I found myself every year, planning vacations and road trips to various places throughout the United States. I found myself counting down the days until I would board that plane or hop in the car. I would spend hours upon hours planning itineraries and investigating various food options and activities and adventures in the places we were going to be visiting. I think it was about a year ago when someone mentioned something about Aspen, CO to me, and I realized I had never even been to Aspen. In my almost 30 years living in Colorado, and have never been to Aspen.

For some reason, this was a defining moment in my mind. I realized that I was always looking for and studying for places to travel to, and never batting an eye at the places within our state boundaries. I was so focused on crossing those state lines that I never really appreciated where I lived. Colorado has so much to offer and I was literally taking it for granted! I have now started my “Colorado Bucket List” and have begun to see Colorado through the eyes of a visitor or tourist per se and I am finding that the things to do are endless! This enlightening has come at a season in my life where I also have young children, so the things I look to do are usually kid-friendly. We’ve been having so much fun, and I decided to start a social media account to document some of the adventures that I have with my kids around Colorado. The account is called “Colorado with Kiddos” on Instagram.

Within weeks, I had loads of people start to follow us, and I truly felt this pull to give other moms ideas and options to get out of the daily rut they may be in with their kids and routines. To drive an extra 20 minutes to go play at a new park, or go on a hike with the kids instead of Saturday morning cartoons. With young kids, it’s easy to close our circle and stay within a 10 miles radius of our home. It seems difficult to get out and adventure with tiny, needy children. But I think our kids’ senses crave diversity and truly my mama’s heart craves adventure as well! I don’t claim to be the most adventurous or knowledgeable Colorado mama out there, I have just taken the chance of posting some of our adventures to the interweb to try and put a little value out into the world. In fact, this account has connected me with so many other amazing people that have similar values that I have been inspired as well. One of the beauties of social media and the internet is connecting people that might not have otherwise connected. It is a creative, informative outlet that when used correctly can be a tool for inspiration and good in our lives.

Has it been a smooth road?
Finding passion in our lives gives us a feeling of purpose. I believe humans all have an inherent nature to want to create and that finding outlets of creation large or small drives us and brings contentment into our lives. It’s never smooth pursuing passion; it entails dedication and work, soul-searching and risk. My struggles have always been based on insecurity. When I feel joy, it is when I accept myself for who I am and pursue passion. My advice to women young and old is to find and follow their desires and to have consistency but to also have the ability to always be developing and evolving. If I let something like “Colorado with Kiddos” define me, what or who will I be once my kiddos are grown and living elsewhere? With this thought, I do hope to continue to evolve and transition as life happens.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Colorado With Kiddos – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
What do I do? It’s pretty simple, I find fun places to explore around the state with my kiddos and document our experiences there! I share candid videos in my Insta-stories and also will do a post with more information about where we were at, costs, what we liked, etc. Because I have a good following and more importantly great engagement on my account, companies reach out to us and exchange admission or pay an advertising fee for us to show our followers their event/facility, etc. The advertising and marketing world is changing with social media being a huge asset to companies who utilize it correctly. Advertising is no longer the picture-perfect staged commercial or advertisement you see on TV or in a magazine. Companies are getting much better response from using social media “influencers” or real-life people to influence followers to try their product or event, etc. Not all my posts are “ads”, most are just simply our own doings.

Since having kids of my own, I have become very passionate about the idea that it is so important to give kids experiences and expose them to different environments and activities even at a young age. Their little developing brains latch on to every sense they experience, and the more experiences they can have, the more adaptable and knowledgeable and successful they will be. I know many families who take this to the extreme and travel the world with their children to give them these various experiences, and I do believe that is beneficial, however, not everyone is in a position to be able to that. I find that we can give our kids amazing experiences and opportunities within our state lines and that is what I am out to do for my family and inspire others to do as well!

Are there any apps, books, podcasts or other resources that you’ve benefited from using?
As far as my little business, I utilize social media accounts for networking and search engines and blogs occasionally for discovering. I utilize google calendars to organize my chaos, I listen to various podcasts especially inspiration/life-coaching type accounts. And with the technology in phone cameras, I now take most pictures for my account with just my phone. It’s amazing how almost anything we do really is all just on our phones anymore!

Contact Info:

• Email: coloradowithkiddos@gmail.com
• Instagram: @coloradowithkiddos

Suggest a story: VoyageDenver is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.