Our best selling product is our vibe and how we make people feel. The value of this product is extraordinary.  

Kate was born in Busan, South Korea and considers herself one of the “lucky ones.” Despite being abandoned at birth, at the age of seven months, Kate packed her few belongings, took her first global flight to the United States, and arrived in Minneapolis, Minnesota to meet her forever family where she landed in the arms of her parents who continue to be her biggest fans and best friends. 

Kate began her artists journey at age 5 starting with Suzuki Piano. She selected the oboe in fifth grade based on her mother’s suggestions, but against the teacher’s recommendations, and in the hope of playing in 7th grade jazz band, Kate picked up the saxophone and instantly fell in love. At the end of her 7th grade year, Kate landed her first paid gig at the Lake Robbins ballroom in Woodward, Iowa with a professional big band specializing in swing, polka, square dance, tango, and samba. Her assistant band instructor gigged frequently with a number of different bands across the Midwest and asked her to ”fill in” for one of the tenor saxophonists who unexpectedly became sick and couldn’t play. This was the first time the notion of making money for being good at music had been introduced to a highly curious thirteen-year old. The thought of replacing her babysitting income with playing an instrument was incredibly attractive and sparked the entrepreneurial flames, the tenacity, and passion entrenched and ingrained in the thought architecture, business model, and strategic vision of the Kate Shu Collective and the Monarch Shoppe..

By the beginning of junior high school, Kate began singing and playing at church which introduced an entirely new dimension of her rapidly growing love of the arts through using her voice. As the 9th grade approached, there wasn’t an audience that was too intimidating, too big, or too small. The seeds of passion for the arts had been firmly planted, nurtured, and tended to along the way by teachers, conductors, mentors, and family. Because of the encouragement and support Kate experienced at an early age, her obsession and deep love for music and creative expression grew and flourished. For the next three decades, Kate would spend a majority of her time consumed by and engrossed in all things creative – theatre, painting, design, calligraphy, pottery, culinary art, textiles, sewing, clothing design, and of course music. 

Kate’s creative development was most significantly shaped and molded by her mother, Cedar Rapids, Iowa native and Iowa State University graduate in child development and elementary education, and her father, Iowa City native and Iowa State University graduate and Professor of Landscape Architecture for 47 years. Throughout Kate’s childhood, her family’s unwavering support of the arts, their authentic love for life and deep commitment to the value of education, creative expression, and a respect for nature to include all creatures – leafy, twiggy, big and small has shaped and carved out a sacred space in who Kate is and is reflected in the mission, vision, and values of Monarch Studio Café. 

While other children spent a majority of their summers in swimming lessons, or attending camp, Kate spent nearly all of her childhood summers traveling with her family, often including at least one set of grandparents. By the time Kate was sixteen she had camped, hiked, and explored nearly every national park, historic monument, botanical garden or arboretum in the United States. On several of these summer excursions, Kate assisted her dad with research for his second and third books and recalls following him and one of his colleagues around with a clip board helping to identify trees, vines, and shrubs native to North America. 

Perhaps the most influential person that initially planted the seeds of Kate Shu Collective and Monarch Shoppe – the concept and the WHY, is her grandmother. To this day family members often comment “you’re so much like your grandmother.” Alda Mae Zahner Hightshoe (1929 – 2014), the youngest of six children, was raised on a farm in rural Iowa and occasionally reminisced on “just how poor they were.” One of the most memorable qualities of Kate’s grandmother was how she started every day. Alda began every day with running down a list of things that were “sooo beautiful.” 

To this day, Kate has her grandmother’s artwork hanging on her walls, one of her favorites is a 4’ x 2’ peacock created in 1945 with an assortment of bedazzled buttons and jewels. Her grandmother received an art scholarship after graduating from high school, but because of the onset of WWII, and a lack of financial resources, she had to turn down the opportunity. Alda, like many women during WWII, became Rosie the Riveter, the American thing to do.

Kate recalls a special conversation when Alda was in her 90’s. She reminisced “I guess that’s one of the only things I ever regretted, I always wanted to go to art school, but I’ve had a good life, Katie, I’ve had a good life.” Instead of having the privilege to pursue her dream and procure her incredible gift, Alda spent the next 40 years or more working for a chicken factory, an assembly line during the war years, and later, on an assembly line for Proctor & Gamble until the day she retired. 

While Kate’s childhood would be considered privileged, even idealistic to many, and despite what might appear to be a successful life of accomplishments on paper, with her very first breath, she began her ‘hero’s journey’ and embarked on a road less traveled. In every good story, the hero must overcome a period of darkness before finding victory most often depicted in a dualistic manner – the task of defeating the “bad guy,” but through the battle, facing the even greater task of finding harmony and truth in self, the inner battle, the cliff each of us will face at some point in our life. 

Standing with our feet just a few steps away from nothingness, feeling the wind whip through our hair and clothing as we get closer to the top of the mountain, the chill in the air from the elevation, the sparseness of grass, trees, and green things. A little trip or the smallest stumble brings your heart racing like a stampede and the reality of "the higher you climb, the further you have to fall" becomes more apparent than ever before.

The most infamous films, literary works, and screen plays often unravel a story of the main character as a hero: a main character that possesses admirable qualities but faces challenges and overcomes obstacles, ultimately demonstrating courage and acting on behalf of humanity or for the greater good. The hero experiences many trials and tribulations throughout what’s called the “hero’s journey.” The external challenges frequently mirror and are intended to symbolize the hero’s inner journey. Just like any good storyline, there’s always a twist. Just when things seem too good to be true, the hero will succumb to what the Greeks called Hamartia, or the Tragic Flaw. A Tragic Flaw is a mistake or a character flaw that leads to the hero’s downfall and demise and often depicted as a character trait, like over-confidence, incessant pride, or childish greed. 

All of the love in the world wouldn’t have been able to insulate Kate from her own “hero’s journey” and some of the harsher realities she would face in the years ahead. Being the only student that looked like her in the rural Iowa school Kate attended, she experienced bullying, ’othering,’ and a strong sense of not belonging starting at a very young age. In reflection, these first experiences with a world outside of the safe haven of her parents coupled with trauma that she associates with abandonment and other challenges not uncommon to adoptees, she struggled with self-love, a sense of pride, abandonment issues, and a fractured sense of identity. 

As she entered junior high school, Kate recalls a cloud, maybe it was sadness or repressed trauma from birth, maybe it was shame, a mental health crisis, or depression, maybe it was just being a teenager, but a cloud moved in and it stayed for awhile. At the end of her first semester in college,  Kate found herself struggling in school, making poor relationship choices, and eventually ended up in a brush with the law, all before the age of 18. 

One of Kate’s greatest strengths is her sheer will power to succeed, her relentless optimism, and an eternal flame that’s tenacious and resilient unlike no other. 

Kate feels that part of the human experience and her commitment to being a lifelong learner is “being just a little bit better every day knowing that a little bit better every day adds up to a whole lot better over time.