Kerry Doman is a serial entrepreneur, a business owner, and a mom of three. Each of those duties is hard alone, but this Metro Detroit mover and shaker seems to manage the balancing act well.
As the founder of After 5 Detroit, an online resource for young professionals, she also launched supplemental programs including Connect After 5, a corporate team-building community, and the After 5 Intern program, which assisted companies in recruiting efforts of top young talent.
“The goal was to assist these companies in recruiting this top talent to eventually come live, work and play in the Metro Detroit and Downtown Detroit areas,” Doman says.
When life transitioned from nights out on the town to playgrounds during the day, Doman looked for ways to help navigate parenthood.
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Kerry Doman.
“As I started my family, the idea was born to translate all that we had done with trying to engage young professionals, and show them where to go and what to do — into helping families, moms, dads, caregivers, grandparents and anyone with kids in their lives navigate various events, classes, happenings and kid-friendly adventures in and around Metro Detroit,” she says.
LittleGuide Detroit offers things to do, events, lists, camps, activities, and resources to help navigate life with little ones in Metro Detroit. The guide grew from a small idea in 2017, to a largely-followed online blog and social media presence with 192,000
Facebook followers, 134,000
Instagram followers, 26,000
TikTok followers, and 92,000 email
newsletter subscribers.
“Social media over the last several years has really taken a dominant stance,” says Doman, founder of LittleGuide Detroit. “Social media is another very effective way to communicate with your audience. Certainly, that’s where a lot of our audience lives: the parents, moms, and caregivers are on their phone looking for immediate things to do with their kids.”
LittleGuide Detroit posts regularly, sharing videos, lists, and mom ‘insider tips’ on local museums, parks, family-friendly events, and festivals around the Metro Detroit area. Whether it’s birthday party ideas, educational fun, holiday and festive events, farms, free fun, indoor play, museums, outdoor activities, or top attractions — there’s one underlying aspect that never changes. An honest, truthful voice. In a world where viral videos spouting misinformation sometimes reign, providing a respected, trusted voice has been crucial to LittleGuide Detroit’s success and growth thus far, Doman says.
“We have become a trusted voice for parents — for moms, and that is our role,” she says. “Our goal is just to be true to ourselves and report on what we’re doing with our own families. That is what resonates so deeply with our large social mermaid following. They know that we’re doing it with our family, showing as many aspects as we can in an Instagram reel. Parents can see if this is a place their kids would actually enjoy.”
Doman enjoys exploring all that Metro Detroit has to offer, and is proud to be a Detroiter through and through. Whether it’s attending a
Tiny Tots concert at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra,
ice skating at Campus Martius, or having a fun adults-night-only outing at the Michigan Science Center or the LEGOLAND Discovery Center in Auburn Hills, her and LittleGuide’s calendars both continue to stay busy.
“There is truly something for everyone,” she says. “We try to also sprinkle date nights in there too, because we may be parents, but we’re still looking for fun things to do too.”
LittleGuide often features free parks, playscapes, and nature centers around town to provide budget-friendly activities for families. They also love uncovering hidden gems that residents or visitors might not be aware of.
“We did an Instagram reel on the Roush Car Collective in Livonia,” she says. “It’s a free car museum that has really cool cars, old and new race cars. Even the Batmobile is there. The reel has since gone viral, a lot of people don’t know about this free hidden gem. We love highlighting places like that.”
The LittleGuide team of six moms behind the scenes also highlights tips and tricks on how to visit museums and attractions for less money, sharing cost-saving programs like the
Michigan Activity Pass. These real-life moms are right there with their viewers, trying to find activities for snow days, and sharing key info that all moms appreciate like if a place has accessible playgrounds, parking nearby, a stroller-friendly trail, or on-site bathrooms.
“An ultimate goal of ours is to highlight our entire area as a kid-friendly destination, place to live, and place to raise your family,” Doman says. “What is better than people coming up to me saying, ‘we did this with our family and we had so much fun?’ I mean, that’s the greatest gift we can give. If we can continue to highlight fun places that encourage you to go out with your family and have a memorable experience, then we’re doing an incredible job.”