My favorite kind of people are the ones that are living out their big wild dreams. I have the pleasure of knowing an Orlando couple doing just that. Kostya Kimlat – “the business magician” and wife Amy are two magical Orlandoans and proud parents of two little girls.
Kostya is a world-renowned speaker, entertainer and author of the forthcoming book, Think Like A Magician. He has presented his sophisticated brand of magic for thinking audiences in over 200 cities on five continents and fooled Penn & Teller on their hit TV show, “Penn & Teller: Fool Us.”
In addition to entertaining business audiences with his astonishing magic and mentalism, Kostya frequently presents at in-person and now virtual conferences, revealing the secrets that make magicians the ultimate masters of perception—empowering professionals to communicate more effectively with customers, clients, and coworkers.
Kostya is married to a long-time dear friend of mine, Amy. And would you believe Amy performed a magic show before Kostya ever did? She presented magic shows for her third grade class and then again for her eighth grade class a few years later. On their first date in 2013, she told him how she used to be so into magic that she would post on 90s magic internet forums. That night, she went home and found all of her old posts in order to prove it to him. It was then she discovered that one question she’d posted while living in Baltimore as a 13-year-old in 1998 was answered by a 14-year-old kid in Orlando—and it was Kostya! Y’all, can you believe that? It’s a meant-to-be love story for the ages.
Today Amy and Kostya have two little girls—one sweet little babe just arrived during the pandemic! I’m forever fascinated by how each family makes things work when little ones enter their lives and set out to ask Amy just how they make it all happen. She was gracious enough to chat with me and tell us how they make magic at home. But first, one more unbelievable story about how their newest little one entered the world.
“I was due with our second child this year at the end of October—October 28 to be exact. As September rolled around, I started getting email after email of companies wanting to book a virtual magic show for the last week in October. It made perfect sense, with it being Halloween, as well as National Magic Week. For every show, we had a back-up performer lined up, ready to take over the show at a moment’s notice.
Kostya made it through a busy day and evening on the big day, October 28, and then all the way through the day on October 29. And then, one hour before Kostya began two back-to-back shows that night, I went into labor! Luckily, the contractions remained manageable for the next few hours, and baby decided to let Kostya finish his shows before kicking labor into high gear!”
What facets of the business do you oversee?
“From the beginning of our relationship, before we were even publicly dating, I remember wanting to get my hands on his website design! So I’ve been involved behind the scenes mostly on the marketing, media, and design end since we started dating at the end of 2013. My involvement has only increased over time, first when I left my job in 2017 to travel and work with him full-time, and then this year, with the pandemic, during which I’ve taken over the administrative end of his business as well. And on special occasions over the years, I’ll join Kostya on stage to read some audience minds. Everything we do is a team effort!”
How did you take things you learned working for other people and translate them into working for yourself. Was it easy? hard?
“I spent 11 years as a nonprofit marketing director, which translates well into self-employment. When you’re working for a community nonprofit with a small team, you’re used to doing a lot of things yourself that would otherwise be delegated to specialists in a larger business. Something I really valued in my nonprofit career was the freedom to pursue the creative projects and new initiatives that I found interesting and beneficial to our organization. So before joining Kostya full-time, I was already used to directing my own work—seeing what opportunities there are and just getting things done, without being told what to do.
Also, Kostya always emphasized that if we were to ever work together it would be because we wanted to, not because we had to. He’s always said working from home is not work because he loves what he does, and he wanted it to be the same for me—that I would only work on projects if it was something I was passionate about and gave me joy.
That creative autonomy has always been central to my involvement with Kostya’s business—I’ll randomly get a strike of creative inspiration to pursue a new digital marketing effort at, say, midnight, and then I’ll be too amped about it to go to sleep. We are both night owls in that way, which is not terribly compatible with life with two children under two!”
What are you most proud of so far?
“When I left my nonprofit marketing director job, it was to travel with Kostya and help more with his marketing efforts. I had a lot of fun working on so many creative projects to boost the business! But when the pandemic began, my role changed entirely. We cut back on our expenses in March when we realized all of the shows we’d booked for 2020 had been cancelled. Part of that meant suspending the services of our virtual administrative assistants and receptionists. For the first time, I took over all of the client communications and migrated our business to a new CRM system, setting up entirely new processes from scratch to handle the influx of requests. While I still enjoy working on digital marketing and design projects, I have surprised myself with how rewarding I’ve found it to be in charge of communicating with clients and prospective clients looking to plan magical corporate events.”
How do you make running a business as a couple work?
“It’s extra-tricky in a pandemic with two under two! While Kostya is cooking and changing double diapers, I’m responding to clients’ e-mails and editing the website. While I’m feeding the baby, Kostya is consulting with clients, setting up the studio, and preparing for his shows. We also schedule dedicated time when the kids are sleeping to review our systems and finances and make sure all of our clients have been contacted. It’s a constant juggle, made a little easier by frequent visits from my mom to play with our toddler. The most important thing is that each of us have autonomy over our responsibilities—things would get confusing quickly if our roles weren’t clearly defined.”
How do you separate out family time and make sure there’s balance?
“These days, we find ourselves really enjoying our weekends. Whereas before the pandemic, Kostya was performing nearly every weekend, now, the majority of his engagements are for companies who book the weekdays. On the rare quiet weekday, we’ll seize the opportunity to go explore a park after nap time or play in Kostya’s parents’ backyard.”
What are some favorite things to do as a family?
“Pre-pandemic, we really enjoyed traveling together as a family, and we’d often join Kostya in his travels to events. When she was six months old, we took our oldest on a whirlwind trip around the country for several weeks, and we took her out of the country a month before the pandemic began. We’re looking forward to returning to that lifestyle once our girls are a little bigger and the world is a little less infectious! Until then, we are really enjoying our time together at home, walks in the neighborhood, and visits to parks.”
Tell me about the pivot during the pandemic and how you two sprung into action to make that happen?
“I’ll admit that when everything first shut down, I was pretty nervous! All of Kostya’s booked events began to be cancelled, one-by-one. How does a magician and speaker earn an income if there are no events? Plus, we’d just found out I was pregnant with our second child three weeks prior, so the timing was especially concerning to me.
But then a surprising thing happened — after just a week of lockdown, we heard from an old friend in California who wanted to hire Kostya to perform a virtual magic show for her company. That first virtual gig showed us what was possible—and we’ve been fielding requests for virtual magic shows and magic-themed corporate training from companies around the world ever since.
Kostya and I are overwhelmingly grateful that he is able to perform from home and be around to 100% experience the first months and years of our girls’ lives.”
How can people book Kostya for their virtual events?
“The virtual work-from-home phenomenon is here to stay. People have discovered the wonder of working virtually from anywhere, while enjoying life with their friends and family in their local community. Even when it’s once again safe to gather in person, business and organizations will find themselves doing virtual events, for both business and entertainment.
A virtual magic show is a unique way to have fun together while actually interacting with one another through a memorable experience. A virtual magic show is also a great way for a company to celebrate an accomplishment with its team, show its clients how much they’re appreciated, or gather its people for some fun during the holiday season or throughout the year.
The same goes for individuals looking to host a party for their friends and family—whether for the holidays or a milestone celebration. A virtual magic show is a pretty great interactive substitute for in-person revelry.
Looking into the new year, we are getting requests for Kostya to virtually present his Think Like A Magician™ and Personality Magic keynote presentations, which help companies learn to step into the minds of their customers and colleagues.”
The transformation Kostya and Amy have seen in their business during this challenging time has been such an unexpected surprise. Of course, Kostya has some powerful thoughts on pivots during the pandemic. Check out, Kostya talks about this idea of transforming chaos into purposeful opportunities in his motivational talks. You can
You can learn more about Kostya, including his virtual magic shows and motivational speaking, at www.KostyaKimlat.com. Kostya is also the founder of See Magic Live, with a team of Orlando magicians that can be booked at www.orlandomagicians.com. Or contact booking@kostyakimlat.com to learn more about how you can make your event magical.
