Nechamie Margolis is a personal history writer and founder of writingthesoul.net a site specializing in creating engaging, personalized memoirs and heirloom books and video to preserve memories and photographs for a lifetime. She asked if she could interview me and write a short piece so people could truly meet Mrs. Kathy King. And guess what! She also offered to give one of my lucky readers $100 off of one of her services. Comment with your favorite part of my story to enter! Below is her interview. Enjoy!“
A Defining Moment
The stress of her job was killing her. She’d just been to the doctor. “You gotta change your career, or you won’t make it to forty,” he threatened.
That got her attention well and good, but what was she to do? She had the ideal job. In theory anyway. Working for a Fortune 500 company, six figure salary plus commission, medical insurance, and a car allowance.
Ideal job, but she was miserable. Her two boys were growing up and suddenly she realized that she couldn’t remember when her son took his first step and didn’t know her other son’s favorite lego character.
Then her boss called her into the office to tell her company was re-organizing. Although her boss cried as she let her go, Kathy felt an overwhelming relief. Relief that now she could stay home and be a mom to her boys because at that moment she realized that you could go years chasing the perfect successful life, only to achieve it, look around and realize you felt empty.
Downgrading Salary, Upgrading Love
With the relief came a financial crash. “We went from a good salary to living on twelve thousand dollars a year,” Kathy said. “The irony was inescapable. Here I was writing my first press junket post for Disney, and I hear my water being shut off as I wrote it.”
Photo Credit: Dan Lundmark
But it brought blessings in its wake. “I used to be materialistic and spend a lot of time wanting things,” she admitted. “Don’t get me wrong, I still love things, but guess what? I know how to live without them! My family and I were blessed to have realized that true happiness comes from being together. Everything else is a bonus.” Kathy got her biggest gift of all. “I’d wanted a daughter for so long, but pretty much gave up on it. Eighteen months after I lost my job, I was blessed with the daughter I’d always wanted. I refused to go back to a life where I wouldn’t see her first step and miss out on parts of her life. I just wanted to be a mom.” This inspired her to launch www.mrskathyking.com she realized many families were experiencing the same struggles and wanted to provide families of all backgrounds and cultures with the tools to create memorable moments for their kids whether it’s playtime, party time or family time.
Struggling financially also opened Kathy up to receiving. A friend gave her the sixty dollars she needed to begin her blog. Another friend, upon hearing that she didn’t have the money to buy clothes to attend her first red carpet, gave her the money for a new dress, another provide the credit card needed to cover the room deposit on the hotel for her very one of her first press trip. “With every blessing, I took it as a sign that God wanted me to move forward and not give up.”
Ongoing Encouragement
It was Kathy’s dad who encouraged her to start the blog. “I’d started my career with big dreams of what I wanted when I went into the big wide world, and nothing happened as I expected it. “As a corporate girl, I experienced great success however as an entrepreneur I had encountered several bumps in the road and did want to go thru another disappointment.”
Kathy shared her new dream with her dad, and he told her “Just because you failed, or think you failed you’ll never know what God has in store for you if you don’t go after your dream.” He was her best friend, and six months later, he passed away, but his encouragement stayed with her.
But there were hurdles to cross, and the website took the time to become profitable. She vented to her mother-in-law. “I love her, but we have a typical mother/daughter-in-law relationship,” Kathy said. “I didn’t expect a loving response when I told her I planned to give up and go back to work. My husband was working three jobs, and we still weren’t making enough. She said, ‘Kiddo, you’ve gone too far, you’ve worked too hard, to walk away now. Keep on trusting in God, and he’ll see you through. Just keep going baby.” This encouragement continues as the years went on from several family and friends that at first doubt her dream.
Multicultural Family and Fun
Mrs. Kathy’s Blog evolved from a coupon into a site to help families create memories with their kids, whether through recipes, crafts, movies or fun trips. Her husband creates most of the printables on this site. “We’d struggled to give our kids a nice birthday sometimes, and decorations were so expensive. We figure that offering parents the option of free printable decorations to free up money to use for other things, whether it’s a nicer gift or an evening alone for mom and dad.”
Kathy is an expert at finding things to appeal to ages and nationalities of all kinds. After all, her personal life and business partners embody multiculturalism. “I’m an African American mom, married to a husband that is part Italian, Irish, Dutch and Scottish. We have a mixed ethnicity family with a son in high school, a son in college, who writes full time for the site, and a daughter in preschool. Our staff is diverse in its different backgrounds, faiths and sexual preferences.” And her husband and children are a big part of the blog’s success, contributing their talents in unique ways, her oldest JJ is writing full time for the site, Joy loves to get in front of the camera to shot videos or model clothing and youngest who is a Millennial can be found giving ton’s of suggestions behind the scene when his not doing his AP homework.
While Kathy has doubled her income from the blog’s early days still has several goals to reach in her business. “But it’s the happiest time of my life,” she said.
If you are a Brand, Pr Firm or Agency I would love to work with you.
Please email me at ( me {@} mrskathyking.com and Let’s see how we can collaborate.
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