We were lucky to catch up with Kymberly Ellis recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kymberly, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the story of how you went from this being just an idea to making it into something real.

So, there are 2-3 ideas at play here. Two are the books I authored, and the other is the show I co-hosted. The one book, From One Mother to Another: You Got This! was simply me getting my story out. I was a teen mother and I know that is the case for far too many teens. However, some of the shows I would see on TV made it seem like that as a teen mother, your only option was to drop out of school. I understood that was the reality for some teen parents, unfortunately, but I was living proof it was not the only option. So, one day, I sat down and wrote my story, in detail, from the start up until that point in time. I was sure to include all the drama with my children’s father; the difficulty of obtaining a master’s degree; how hard it was to maintain relationships…. everything. I didn’t want to glorify teen pregnancy, but I also didn’t want teens who were going through it to feel like it was the end all be all. I wanted my story to be a lesson for teen parents. I sat down one day and just wrote. I think it took me a few months. I would write daily and just put down whatever thoughts came to mind and the emotions tied to them. Once I felt like I had told the story as best as I could, I started editing, putting it in order and cleaning it up.

As for my journal, it was a spur of the moment idea. I am a perpetual list maker and I’m a visual learner. I journaled a lot. Wrote down random things. I had a ton of notebooks all over the place with no actual rhyme or reason to them. I couldn’t even call it organized chaos. One day when I was sitting in the dealership having my car serviced, I started writing down everything that I’d normally write in like 20 different notebooks, all in one spot. I started thinking about the things I wanted to address and how often I wanted to address them: daily, weekly, or monthly. I started drawing different boxes for meal prep plans, exercises, goals I wanted to set, frequency of the goals…and it literally evolved. I have a line sister who works in idea execution…basically bringing ideas out of my notebook and into journal form. I reached out to her and she got to work creating templates on Canva. We would bounce ideas back and forth. I came up with the color scheme and how I wanted the cover to look. Once she was done with her part, I utilized Amazon’s self-publication service and published the journals on Amazon.

The last idea was for a show that I co-hosted. If I’m being honest, it was not my idea initially. I had a friend who, though we’d only known each other for about a year or so, we’d gotten close. When we got together, it was nonstop laughter and foolishness. I remember sitting in his home office one night and us laughing so hard at something that was more than likely nonsense, and stated that if people heard our conversations, they’d think something was wrong with us. He told me that he’d honestly thought of starting a podcast for a while (this was BEFORE the podcast wave really kicked in), but he’d never been able to find anyone that wanted to do it with him. I said, “I’m down, let’s do it”. One night, we recorded one of our random conversations on his phone. We let select close friends listen to it and they all said the same thing: we were on to something. From there, started buying equipment, ironing out topics, pinning down the format, solidifying the name of show, and learning how to release the content. That is how “Beards and White Toes” came about. We started recording weekly in his home office with his laptop and a tabletop mic. We would release episodes every Thursday. The whole idea behind it was that we were relatable individuals, trying to get through life like everyone else. Me: a single mom, never been married, working full-time, a couple of part-time side hustles, and still trying not to lose myself in the process. Him: a divorced single man, no kids, full-time job….and both of us just put our perspectives on things such as relationships and life in general. We ended up partnering with a production company and they polished the show up, gave us studio space, and put the show up on YouTube. We had one audio season and one visual season. It’s been a little while since we filmed because both of us are working on other ventures as well as still dealing with what life is throwing at us. We hope to film season three soon.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

As I said before, I’m a single mother of 4, an educator, a blogger, an author, a co-host…but most importantly, I’m an everyday individual. I got into my craft simply because at first, it was my interest. Then it became my passion. When I was around three years old, I used to get frustrated because I couldn’t read and write. When I finally learned, I started and never stopped. I used to write all kinds of things: poetry, songs, and a ton of stories I never actually finished. All of that was in my early teenage years. The other part of this is basically, again, letting people know that they are not alone and there are people out there who relate to them and to whom they can relate. My book talks to a certain demographic and lets them know that not only are they not alone, but that they can succeed despite what some people may say and maybe even how they feel. My journals provide a place to organize thoughts, ideas, goals, and routines because as my grandmother used to tell me, “Cluttered surroundings lead to a cluttered mind”. My show falls along the same lines as my book: it’s okay to be “regular” in this world…in this day and time. It’s okay to not always have it, and it may be money, time, the answers…and anything else. It’s okay, to not be okay.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

This request is so comically ironic to me simply because my whole life has been a pivot! Once upon a time, I didn’t want kids. Now, I have four and I had the first one at 16-years-old. I didn’t let it (it being my situation) stop me, though it did slow me down. I couldn’t work after school anymore because now, my full-time job outside of high school was my son. Pivot. When it came to college, I still had every intention of going, as did my parents. When I left, I took my son with me. I went to a school in Michigan. Looking back, if I had been a traditional undergrad student, I might have finished there. However, I hated it and felt lonely and secluded and went home after one semester. Pivot. Attended community college and worked while I was at home so I could keep working on my gen ed classes. Ended up going to a state school, but it was still about a three-hour drive away from home and compared to where I was from, it was in the middle of nowhere. Again, I wasn’t exactly a traditional student and even though I had my boyfriend at the time with me, I was still lonely. So much so that I ended up on academic probation. At that same time, I was also diagnosed with depression. I promised myself I would finish at that school no matter what. I got out and got involved and became the co-founder of an organization for students who were parents. I started having fun, meeting people, and making friends. Then, I found out I was pregnant again. Pivot. I was still determined to finish at this school, but when the next semester grades came out, my GPA was off by a quarter of a point. I was academically dismissed. Pivot. Went back home and worked and went to the community college again. I don’t want to get too much longer winded, so I’ll sum it up: working on my undergrad degree, pivot; being engaged and then being single while pregnant with my last child; pivot. Losing my childhood home because even though I was working, I wasn’t making enough, pivot. I could go on and on, but life is a pivot. That includes personal, professional, and otherwise.

How’d you meet your business partner?

For the business I share, I met my partner long before we knew each other. We grew up in the same neighborhood. We went to the same high school. I was a grade above him, but he was in the same grade as my cousin. He knew who I was, I’d seen him around. We never spoke though…I guess we didn’t really have a reason to. Fast forward to 2020, I’m sitting at home one night and decide to post a clip from the TV show Martin on my snapchat. My business partner responded to it, basically addressing how iconic the episode was. Somehow, that conversation evolved, and we discovered how much we had in common. We continued the conversation until he dozed off on me. I was excited to finally converse with someone who could hold a conversation worth holding, so I sent him another Snapchat message the next day and we just kept talking. Eventually, I gave him my number and we would text and talk…. we became actual friends. Once we formed that friendship, we would confide in each other and just have a great time. We decided that we wanted to share our experiences with the world so that our stories might help someone else.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/beardsandwhitetoes?utm_source=linktree_profile_share
• Instagram: kymberly_with_a_y
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/kymberly-ellis-60225143
• Other: https://prettypowerfulwords.home.blog/