We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kimberlee Blocker a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kimberlee, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love for you to start by sharing your thoughts about the pros and cons of family businesses.

Running a family business can be both challenging and rewarding. As a small business co-owner who shares ownership with my older brother I can see where things can often go wrong in family business. In order to be successful you have to over communicate, allow room for creative differences, offer grace, express boundaries and ensure everyone is on the same page regarding the ultimate goal. If you go into business treating family anything other than team member things can go awry. There has to be a level of respect on both ends regardless of who is the elder or their position in the family and there also has to be trust and transparency. Things will get stressful, money will be spend and time will be invested so the best thing to remember is everything can be figured out and ultimately why you started. Your family should want the business to succeed as much as you do and in order for that to happen you’re going to have to set egos aside.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

So Fab Kim gives you bubbly personality, class and intelligence all in one fabulous package. Originally from Pittsburgh, PA, So Fab Kim moved to Raleigh, NC to pursue her media/entertainment career.

So Fab started her career doing weekend overnights on, at the time, Raleigh’s 93.9 KISS FM before moving to weekends on 105.1 G105 under iHeart Media Raleigh. While at iHeart Media, So Fab interviewed a plethora of celebrities ranging from Marlon Wayans, Ledisi, Bruce Bruce, KEM, Lecrae, Ne-Yo and more.

In 2016 So Fab moved on to 92.1 Choice FM where she co-hosted with the legendary DJ 2wenty weekday nights. While with Choice FM, she decided to give the station a presence in the community by organizing creative and fun promotions, as well as getting the station involved in community-driven events.

After almost 3 years with Choice FM, So Fab decided to step out on her own and expanded her entertainment segment “In The Diva’s Den” into a live internet based talk show. So Fab Kim has now branched into marketing strategy, podcast creation, podcast management and engineering and is currently the co-owner of a new internet radio station, TDS Radio with her brother Ken Blocker.

TDS, which stands for “Two Dope Siblings” was created to bring back all the great pieces from the radio past and mix it with the technology of today. The mission is to give the power back to the community we serve using our voice and our culture.

Based in Raleigh, NC, TDS Radio is truly built for the consumer. TDS Radio provides top-notch quality music, content and advertising. TDS Radio can be heard conveniently from anywhere on any device. TDS Radio plays all your favorite Hip-Hop/R&B music from 90s, 2000s, 2010s and current.

Recently Kim and Ken acquired the licensing for Fuck Up Nights Durham. Fuckup Nights is a global series of events where individuals share business failure stories. Each month, at the events around the world, three or four people face a room full of strangers to share their own fuckup.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Being relatable, authentic, honest and kind. Also reaching back to help someone else even if it’s just connecting them with someone.

Any advice for managing a team?

First get it out of your head that you can do it all. Even the most successful person has a team around them to help them met their goal. Secondly, allow your team to feel comfortable with contributing. No one knows it all and should never have “yes” men or women around them,
Third, do more listening than talking.
Fourth, never forget to acknowledge and thank a person for their efforts. It creates loyalty when a person feels seen and appreciated.
Finally, if it doesn’t feel right then don’t do it! One thing I pride myself on is that with every decision I made I can sleep peacefully at night knowing I didn’t compromise my business, team, myself or my morales.

Contact Info:

• Website: tdsradio.com
• Instagram: @sofabkimm @tdsradio @fuckupnights_durham