Do What You Love to Do Interview: Kitty Kilian

I asked Kitty to contribute to the Do What You Love to Do Interviews because:

1. She has a really interesting path (historian, artist, journalist, teacher).
2. Her writing is so darned good. Okay, that’s just my opinion, but really it is.
3. She strips back what doesn’t need to be there and just says what needs to be said.
4. I knew her answers would be to the point.

Background: I first met Kitty online in 2011, her first words to me via a tweet were ‘you’re going camping, that’s so 80’s!’, and then for a year or so we wrote nonsense back and forth, and then eventually we met face to face here in Edinburgh in July 2012.

Intro from Kitty

I write in Dutch only. So enjoy the interview while it lasts.

Of personal information I have little of interest to share – or wait, I have just started using a running app that tells me to slow down and speed up and that I have done great.

I blog and I offer writing coaching at the Blog Academy and that is where I add value.

What does doing what you love to do mean to you?

For me creation (blogging, teaching, building websites etc) is escape from reality. It lets me live in my own zone. Where I can write and think and challenge and applaud. Helping other people write better comes naturally to me. It is an extension that does not feel like work.

I need to escape because reality is boring. Often in the garden at night I hear our neighbours’ dinner parties. I hear the sound of glasses and laughter and chatter and all I can think is: I am so glad I do not have to be them. Being in my own zone is way more interesting.

How are you living your life doing what you love to do?

It has taken me almost a lifetime to find my sweet spot. I trained as a historian, I was a journalist, I am a wife and mom. I have free lanced, I have not held down jobs very well, I got a near burnout when I was around 40 and I have been unable to type for a few years.

I have adhd, like everyone else online. Which means I get bore out pretty fast. In the past it also made me insecure and ashamed and therefore often mildly depressed, but ever since I’ve taken medication I am just fine. I wish I had not waited till I was 48.

What has been your career journey to this point?

Before I found out I had adhd and before I took these great blue and white pills every morning (an antidepressant which is prescribed for adhd) my life just never felt right. There was always a big black hole in me, or so it felt. It needed filling up, but I could not find what with.

Now it is full. Just like that. No more questions.

Oh and also: I do no longer count each night how few friends I have. I never count my friends anymore. There are too many.

How did you make doing what you love to do happen?

I had at some point decided to be an artist. I made mixed media stuff with ironic quotes that I had picked up in conversations or magazines. But to sell I had to study online marketing. Then I looked into copywriting and realised I knew how to do that already.  My artist  blog picked up and a friend asked me to do a blogging workshop. It took off from there.

When did you know what it was?

When I realised how much I liked copywriting and that there was a great need for people to learn how to write effectively in this age of content marketing, even if they don’t know it themselves.

Can you share the good, the bad and the ugly when you made the decision to do what you love to do?

I was just starting to get back to work when I started the Blog Academy so there were no financial worries. I was not dependent on anyone. I did not need to suck up to anyone. I could just be my old critical ex-journalist me. And write about how to raise a blog.

In the beginning I had a business partner who was no real partner. Teaming up is not always the best thing to do.

What were the biggest hurdles, challenges and barriers you had to overcome?

At first I had few readers. It took ages for the blog to take off. A year or so. Keeping at it was the hardest. And finding out what my readers really wanted to buy from me.

What was easy? What was a surprise?

Writing a blog each week has been easy. I take every Friday off to write it. I love my Fridays.

What led you to this love specifically?

I have always loved writing and have always done so. Along the way, working for a newspaper,  I forgot how much fun it really is. I am glad I rediscovered.

What would be your top 5 pieces of advice, or suggestions, words of wisdom you would like to share?

• If you are unhappy: find out why. Then make it better.
• If you happen to get a psychiatric diagnosis in the course of  that: don’t fight it for too long. Then make yourself better, or as well as you can. Do the running, the healthy eating, the sensible amount of sleeping and take the damn pills. You will never look back.
• Enjoy your family and love them to bits
• Take care of people who need care
• Only do what you love – if you can

What has been your biggest learning in the journey so far?

That doing good work brings you good friends and customers.

What piece of wisdom did someone give you that worked for you?

Think hard before you write down the first line.

What’s next for you on this path?

A course on how to illustrate your own blog. The copywriting course is reasonably thought-out by now. The illustration course will be a new adventure for my own pleasure.

What was the biggest piece of learning you picked up and ran with?

Just start. And improvise along the way.

Pick a quote for life, and explain why it hits a home run for you?

There is a 17th century Dutch painter and engraver by the name of Goltzius who had a motto I love. His motto was: ‘Eer boven golt’ which translates as: ‘Honour above gold.’

I have always balked at doing things I don’t believe in. And I treasure the freedom to say no. Gold has never been my main goal. Being able to be difficult I value much more.

Where to reach you?

Since most of my work is in Dutch I don’t think people will visit. But I tweet and here’s the Blog Academy Blog.