Hi, my name is Kim and I’m the proud wearer of red shoes.

I have these wide Flintstone feet which makes it hard for me to find pretty shoes. One Christmas, I finally found a pair of pretty shoes—red ones!— that fit my feet as well as my personality. I started getting compliments on these shoes which put a little spring in my step. One day while participating in a leadership training, I had this crazy positive moment during a trust fall exercise. While journaling about it afterward—right in the middle of processing that powerful experience—I wrote, “I love my red shoes!” 

There was a time in my life when I felt like I didn’t have a voice. This silencing turned into a belief that my words didn’t matter so I didn’t matter. After my “leap of consciousness” at that leadership training, I decided I do matter and that my red shoes were about so much more than being pretty. They were about power. I grabbed that energy and inspiration and jumped into a new business venture: Red Shoes Writing Solutions.

And that was over 10 years ago!

My guiding value is empowerment. I am passionate about helping people identify and craft their own message and about building confidence in their writing skills.

I have a Bachelor’s degree in linguistics from the University of Minnesota, a Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certification from Hamline University, and a Certificate of Editing from the Poynter Institute. Additional training includes LeaderImpact leadership training, Intercultural Communications, and Strengths Strategies.

My top five strengths are woo, positivity, maximizer, connectedness, and communication. This means that I’m a really outgoing, energetic person who’s great at getting other people excited about what you’re excited about.

When I was a kid I wanted to be Jane Goodall. Not because I wanted to study chimpanzees or live in Africa, but because I wanted to experience the world. My journey as a writer has been a long, winding path through four countries and many journals.

In my own writing, I use contemporary culture and humor as vehicles to explore the human condition. Prevalent themes I like to explore include cultural diversity, gender roles, family, perceptions and stereotypes, and, most recently, etiquette and its role in society.

I’m the weekly Saturday contributor to a blog collective—the Wannaskan Almanac—with five other writers where I write mostly about “embracing the crazy” and other parenting adventures.

One of the book clubs I’m in has been meeting faithfully for 15 years. We read a little bit of everything which is awesome because there are so many books I’ve had the pleasure of reading that I probably wouldn’t have picked up on my own.

I prefer diving into a book without reading the jacket copy or back cover blurb.

In another life, I volunteered thousands of hours with American study abroad students and foreign exchange students studying in the U.S. I founded a girls’ leadership program in northern Minnesota. I’m a member of two Toastmasters International clubs, Star of the North and Keystone Speakers, and am the District 64 Toastmasters International reigning “Tall Tales” champion.

I’m a master chocolate chip cookie baker and an avid knitter. Even though I’m not the savviest angler, I do know how to clean a fish. My kids wish I was better at Minecraft. I wish they were better at Wordscapes.

Like most Minnesotans, I have a tendency to talk about the weather.