We had the good fortune of connecting with Jen Ikuta and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Jen, what’s the most important thing you’ve done for your children?
Most important thing I have done as a parent in terms of the impact on my children has to be parenting with incredibly high expectations of them, while simultaneously providing them with high levels of support. They have seen more life events, traumatic AND beautiful, all of which they have taken in stride, due mostly in part to my ability to offer them support in all facets of life.
What should our readers know about your business?
I lead and teach from a heart-wide open standpoint. As a substitute teacher at a local Waldorf charter school, community and connectedness are mainstays of our education. In real estate, I win deals, both on the selling side and the buying side, when I lead with my heart and my intuition. On a professional cuddling note, heart-wide open work means that we address the deep, meaningful, and impactful things first. We live in a microwave society and I’m more of a slow cooker kind of person. All of my relationships are deep, like tap roots, with serious longevity. I maintain connections from decades prior with quick touches of connection, so people know I think of them often.
I am most proud of building multiple, heart-centered, thriving businesses, while being a single, special needs, homeschooling mom. In my very early days as a single mom, I was a doula and lactation educator/counselor. When that work couldn’t continue (because babies come at all hours of the night and babysitters don’t), I transitioned into slinging elderberry syrup at farmer’s markets and shipping elderberry syrup kits nationwide. While homeschooling my girls, I started an e-commerce business and hired them to work with me. A couple of years later, I nose dived into doing professional cuddle work and started a non-profit with a dear friend of mine. We started teaching boundaries and consent workshops together and it all took off. Since then, I saw a serious need in the real estate market for a heart-centered, homesteading, homeschooling mom’s perspective. I got my real estate license to help my mom friends who want to homestead in urban areas AND help my more affluent cuddle clients do 1031 exchanges with their real estate investments. So now, I run a thriving cuddle business, substitute at my youngest daughter’s school, and guide friends and family through their real estate transactions.
What am I excited about? I am SO JAZZED about bringing skills from both industries together! In real estate, I lead a spiritual-based, community-led, and relationship-centric business that really comes together with our authenticity and vulnerability during the largest investment purchases of most people’s lives. In the cuddle world, my relationship with clients is vitally important to their ability to progress through our touch trauma coaching, while receiving safe touch. It can easily be the most transformative time of their lives and is a huge investment of time, money, and energy. Melding both of those worlds where I meet people when they’re most vulnerable and by bringing them kindness, generosity and understanding at these times is by far what I’m most excited about.
Consistency, hard work, systems, making decisions from my value system (faith, family, and finances, in that order!) are how I’ve made it this far. FAITH! I have this undying and unequivocal faith that everything will work out in my favor, at all times, and it hasn’t failed me yet.
Was it easy? Not one bit of this has been easy. It’s been hard-won and well fought for.
Oh there has been challenges to overcome! Faith, again, is how I’ve overcome those challenges. I let go of my own expectations of the rate at which I should be growing, and I let God handle the rest.
I can talk for days about the lessons I’ve learned. So many lessons! Here’s just a few: be generous with your heart, have boundaries of steel, and stay consistent and boring, even when all of the shiny objects keep trying to grab your attention.
What do I want the world to know about my brand and story? I will sit with you in the hard times; we can sling mud at each other, and then, I’ll remind you, even though life is tough, SO ARE YOU. That goes for healing the touch trauma during cuddle work and working through a less than ideal inspection report on your dream home.
Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
IF she came THIS WEEK, we’d start by taking her to the mountains, of course. There’s a spot off of Guanella Pass that we love to adventure into. We’d search for wild strawberries, bathe in the snowmelt river, watch the leaves change from green to yellow, and enjoy a daytime fire (if there’s no fire bans).
I’d pack a picnic and we’d grab coffee at Georgetown Coffee and Tea on the way back into town. I’d have us stop at Indian Hot Springs for a quick soak before coming back to Arvada area. We’d swing up Lookout Mountain and have a peek in Buffalo Bill’s gift shop before the City of Denver closes it down. For dinner, I’d take her to Sherpa House in Golden for some Thai food and for the sunset, we’d hike up South Table Mountain to see the purple mountains majesty. For drinks after our hike, we’re both gluten free, so naturally, Holidaily Brewing is where it’s at. The next morning would be an early morning wake up to hike the fire road in Golden or do yoga on the rocks at Red Rocks, if it’s happening! I’d take her to Just BE Kitchen in downtown Denver after that for lunch, and over to walk Sloan’s Lake before finding something to eat at Edgewater Public Market. It’s apple season and I run a group locally for food foraging, so Dee would be joining me for some neighborhood adventures to forage apples, grapes, mint, plums, pears, elderberries, rosehips, and peaches from around our local community.
The zoo and the Children’s Museum would happen, absolutely; Paco Sanchez Park for all of our kids to burn energy! We would stay a night at the YMCA of the Rockies in Granby to ride horses and e-bike all over. Taking the kids to hike, or attempt to hike, Mt. Bierstadt with our 10 essentials would be so lovely.
Heading up Rabbit Ears Pass to Steamboat and the Yampa Valley would be another night for staying out of town. The library there, second to none, and all of the hot springs along the river for the kids to explore would be a blast!
They’ve never seen bison, so we’d go north to Cheyenne to the bison ranch there and take them on a tour of the ranch to see where the buffalo roam, if we don’t see them at the Buffalo Overlook off of I-70.
We have so many farmers markets, festivals galore, and every single night we’re in the Denver metro area would be filled with one of those, as well.
Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Care Messer of the Birth Education Center started me down a path of self-realization, growth, progress, and doing an entire life overhaul in 2012. I wouldn’t be the mother, businesswoman, or human I am today, without the seeds she planted all those years ago!
Website: www.cuddlejen.com / www.jenikuta.yourcastle.com
Instagram: relationshipdoulajen / jen.denverrealtor
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenikuta/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cuddlejennn / https://www.facebook.com/jenikutarealtor