Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kerstin Zilm. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Kerstin, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
I came to Los Angeles in 2003 on a 5-year assignment from the German public radio network ARD. It was a great job, actually the job of my dreams. It was also pretty demanding – producing stories and live talks for more than 50 public radio stations in a timezone nine hours ahead of you about a wide variety of topics is no joke.
At six in the morning, I might talk about Michael Jackson’s trial, then produce a 30-minute background feature about US immigration politics only to be woken up in the middle of the night because a Morning Show editor desperately needed a one-minute story about Britney Spears shaving her head. I enjoyed every second of it.
When the five years were over, my radio station in Berlin had a job with a nice salary and great benefits waiting for me. That job would have meant spending lots of time behind a desk, attending several meetings every day, and assigning stories which I would have loved to do myself.
I quit and founded my own production company in Los Angeles—soundslikerstin.
Being a freelance journalist keeps me on my toes and forces me to be flexible. It also opened up opportunities I wouldn’t have had, had I returned to Germany. I published a book about California in German, a collection of short stories and poems in English. I became a California correspondent for weltreporter.net, the largest network of German-speaking journalists worldwide. I developed, supported, and hosted podcasts. I discovered a new passion: supporting high school seniors to write college essays, guiding seniors through penning their memoirs, and recording neighbors for local oral history projects.
Sometimes, I do envy my colleagues in Germany for their salary and benefits which will lead to a comfortable retirement. But not for a second did I regret my choice to take the risk, quit my safe job, and become an independent journalist-writer in California.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I grew up in a village in the foothills of the Black Forest in Germany listening to the radio all day and night. Soon, I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up: the famous DJ of a call-in radio show. It seemed highly unlikely to get from that little town onto the airwaves, but I had set my mind to it and in February 1990, I got an internship at a public radio station in Berlin.
Three months earlier, the Berlin Wall had come down. Producers at the radio station sent anybody willing and able to hold a microphone and a recorder into the field. I covered the GDR parliament’s last session and the first open-air concert by the Rolling Stones in the united city of Berlin. I interviewed poets and prison guards, farmers and students, Stasi informants, and priests who hosted secret opposition meetings in their churches. I was in heaven. A reporter was born.
I also hosted, edited, and produced news shows like Morning Edition and All Things Considered at the radio station, but my true love was and is reporting. That’s why the job as a California correspondent was a dream come true.
During in-depth interviews, I realized how much I enjoy the art of listening. It now helps me guide others to write their stories, point out important life events, and go deep into those moments. I record for them what they remember, so their memories won’t be forgotten.
Over the last few years, I also reconnected with an earlier love I almost had forgotten – creative writing. I’m working on a novel, short stories, and poems. I’ll keep you in the loop about when they will be published!
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I learned, that as an independent creative, my “pipeline” always has to be filled with opportunities and even better with specific and well-paid assignments. That, while I’m working on one story, I better line up a few others I can get to as soon as I’m finished with what I’m doing now. I learned to keep busy, and if I have no assignment go out to make one happen: book networking events; search newspapers and Online publications for stories; cold-call potential clients.
Those lessons are hard to unlearn. I still struggle with it. But I know: I need not-busy time. I need empty spaces in my calendar. I’m not talking about time to recharge so I can work more again afterward. I’m talking about leisure time and not just minutes or an hour. I’m talking about days to enjoy without purpose. During those times, I take my Australian cattle dog on walks and myself to swim laps in the public pool or outings with my friends. Sometimes, I just stare at the orange tree in our backyard.
Sounds weird? Crazy? Scary? I know. It’s frowned upon. I can only recommend to do it more often.
I learned the hard way that it doesn’t serve me well to pitch out of desperation, looking at that empty calendar, or bills coming in. If those pitches are successful, I often end up working on stories I’m not really interested in, the work is tedious, and the results sound accordingly.
It’s better to un-busy myself. For sure, it isn’t wasted time.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
I am so glad, that I’m not stuck in one job, with one type of assignment repeating itself in different versions. I also have a lot of power in how I spend my time which ultimately is the biggest reward. Time to me is not money. Time is life.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.soundslikerstin.com
- Instagram: soundslikerstin
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kerstin.zilm/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerstin-zilm-a5138715/
- Other: www.weltreporter.net