One-On-One With Tara Dimick

Tara is the owner of TK Business Magazine and Wichita Business Magazine. The business magazines and their corresponding websites showcase businesses and business professionals in Topeka and Wichita respectively, highlighting entrepreneurs, experts and leaders in their efforts to grow, innovate, inspire and lead.

Tara is a co-owner, partner and marketing + media strategist of Compass Marketing & Advertising Partners. Tara and her business partner, Tim Kolling, launched the company in January 2023. The company provides strategic planning, design and content creation, and delivers media buying and online advertising.

Committed to the community, Tara currently serves on the following:

• Momentum 2027, Tri-Chair

• Topeka Community Foundation Board, Chair

• Stormont Vail Foundation Board, Member

• Kansas Chamber Board, Member

• Topeka Civic Theatre Board, Member

She graduated summa cum laude from Washburn University with a BBA, MBA and has a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. Tara and her husband, Braden, have three children, Hope (20), Cordell (18) and Harmony (10).

It’s a little strange to be the owner and publisher of TK Business Magazine and make the decision to be interviewed. How do you ask yourself questions without creating bias in the questions? Let’s just be honest. I can’t. So, I enlisted a couple of friends, Lisa Loewen with the University of Kansas and TK Business Magazine, and Melissa Brunner with WIBW-TV, to provide me with questions.

Q. What drives your passion for business?

I am the result of being raised in an entrepreneurial environment. I witnessed firsthand the lessons and experiences that come with owning a business. My parents instilled in me a deep appreciation for the value of hard work, the joys and challenges of entrepreneurship, and the profound impact that cultivating a team can have as they become your chosen family.

Today, I get to honor business owners and their journeys. For me it feels like I am lifting up my parents and their journey over and over again through the pages of the magazine. It is my hope that you will fall in love with the businesses and choose to buy local, even with competition that delivers straight to your door.

Q. You’ve served on many boards and committees for Topeka organizations. What created this commitment to Topeka?

My commitment to Topeka is simple. I believe that we were put here to be a blessing to the people around us; to help those less fortunate than ourselves; to work hard to ensure we use our gifts to their fullest; and to leave the place we call home just a bit better than how we found it. Will we always be successful? No, but we can try. So, I try.

Q. As the Chair of the Topeka Community Foundation, you’ve spoken of the profound impact that your service on the board has had on you. Can you share why?

When I first joined the board, I felt my personal bandwidth expand as I watched and learned from the people around the table. The passion, commitment, personal ownership and respect that the board members have for this organization has offered the opportunity for some of the most thoughtful and challenging conversations.

Five years ago, we started a journey to explore Impact Investing as an additional means of leveraging our assets. We asked questions like, what if we took our investable assets that would be going to companies across the world, and invested it in companies in Topeka? What if we empowered those ready to launch great endeavors that serve a social need with significant funding through a loan?

Being a part of the teams that helped move us to be experimental and push boundaries, grew my personal bandwidth again. I am a better person because of my time on the board of the Topeka Community Foundation.

Q. What is Momentum 2027?

Officially, Momentum 2027 is a five-year program built to unlock growth and economic opportunity for all, founded on the principals of equity and inclusive prosperity. The strategy gives us focus on what the community, as a whole, is saying they want and need, so that we can all hop in the boat and row in the same direction. It allows us to support and raise up many organizations and people that are doing great work to improve our community and are already in the boat. It allows us to see gaps of what is missing in our community and evaluate needs so we can empower people and organizations to move forward.

For me, Momentum 2027 is each of us saying, this is my community, this the place I choose, this is the place I love, and then acting on it. You don’t need to sit on a committee or read the plan to be a part of Momentum 2027.

If you are starting a business, have kids in activities in Topeka, are beautifying your home or business, or buying from local businesses in Topeka, you are Momentum 2027.

When each of us do our part to improve our neighborhood, support each other and take ownership of our part of the community, we are creating momentum.

Q. Some critics feel these exercises involve the same people, doing the same things. How do you respond to that?

I am often one of those critics but at the same time, of course it does. The realities are that individuals making major financial investments in the community need to share what their plans, desires and challenges are when investing in Topeka. And, we want to share what the needs of the community are — this is 100% a win-win.

However, Momentum 2027’s Steering Committee was different. The committee was represented by all ethnicities, genders and backgrounds, and from all parts of the community. In addition, surveys went out to have non-committee member voices heard.

The final product is a strategy that hopes to represent and value every person in the community. For Topeka to thrive, we all must thrive.

Q. How would you like to see this process inspire, maybe even create, the next generation of Topeka leaders?

Now, Momentum 2027 is about the city and the strategy for us to grow incomes, people, workforce, college degrees, connections and partnerships while aiming for prosperity for all.

What if when we invest and grow our business team, we also challenge ourselves to see and address our personal biases and hire a more diverse workforce? What if while we beautify our yard, we meet the neighbors and serve each other in times of need? What if while we buy local, we commit to a buying 100% local at Christmas?

Eyes are watching — the next generation is watching us. When we think about who we want the next generation to become, we have to ask ourselves what are we showing them? In a world that allows us to isolate and live through technology, we're accountable to the next generation of Topeka leaders to model a true community, true care for our neighbors and that leadership involves embracing opportunities that sit in front of us every day.

Q. Speaking of the next generation, how has being an entrepreneur impacted your kids?

The truth is that there are some incredible benefits and some incredible challenges and disadvantages for kids of entrepreneurs.

My daughter Hope and my son Cordell started working at odd jobs for me as children. Today Cordell runs our website and Hope helped us with the launch of the Wichita Business Magazine.

While I love having this relationship, it also can cause challenges. At times they need their mom, not their boss or visa versa.

My hope for them is to simply find their own path and love what they do, what they have and the people around them. They have watched my journey. They see the good and the bad. I want them to pave their own way and to know that I am blessed that God chose me to be their mom.

Q. What's next?

Excellence and evaluate. Whether it's a business I own or an organization that I serve, I want to spend time in that continual improvement space.

I want to strive for greatness but constantly ask questions around what is working, what do we need to let go of and what needs to be added.