Meet Carol Kennedy

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

Carol, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.

Like many people from my background, confidence and self-esteem didn’t come easily. As an African American and Irish American girl growing up in Chicago, it was difficult for me to find ‘my tribe’. Not many in my school looked like me, acted like me, or had a similar family as mine. And, to make matters worse, my love of everything arts, music, acting, and writing, soon labeled me as a ‘nerd’.
Compounding all of this, I had a rather traumatic childhood, peppered by fond memories and good times, propelling me into a state of flux, insecurity and low self-esteem. It also helped me fall prey to some very undesirable, not-so-well intended opportunists.
Staying true to my intrinsic love of theater, music and dance helped, but, for many years, I felt lost, lonely and unable to trust anyone, particularly myself.
Trust came slowly and love came hard, but they finally came and many years, hard knocks, and therapists later. These, I feel, were the two key prerequisites to confidence and self-esteem.
I had to do quite a bit of self-work, exploration and I set out for several years to really understand who I was. This was time well-spent. And what I came to understand is that the key to confidence was learning how to trust myself. I had to become my own best friend. I had to love myself through the foibles, the follies, the mishaps. Vision boards, meditation, positive affirmations, surrounding myself with like-minded people, and learning from my pets, all helped me slowly build a tower of esteem. And, as each floor of the tower was built, so was my trust and love for myself and, subsequently, my self-esteem.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I am a filmmaker. In particular, I am a screenwriter and director. My genre, dark rom coms, was probably born from my unique and often traumatic upbringing. You might say that movies and the theater saved me. Through the trials and tribulations of growing up, I always knew that I could lose myself in another’s life for a while and escape some of the darkness in mine. And I loved creating so I often found myself on stage experiencing the joy of giving to a live audience and feeling the energy of love and appreciation that I often found was void in my life. I also discovered that the people that I was creating with were my tribe, my family.
I am currently working on two scripts that are soon to be in preproduction. I have worked in varying roles in film, both in front of the camera and behind the scenes.
I also recently started my own production company cakennedyfilms.com and hope to inspire, collaborate and work with other filmmakers.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Tenacity, Lifelong Learning and Inspirational Mentors
My aspirations for artistic endeavors were not met with much encouragement growing up and I was often told to ‘find a career that will make money’, and ‘you’ll never make money in acting or film’. I was even instructed to switch my career from theater to psychology so that I would have a better, more prosperous future. And never did I do anything with my psychology degree besides determining which diagnosis in the DSM some of the weirdos I encountered fit in. But I was a tenacious young girl and rather stubborn when it came to my artistic endeavors. Even during years of being in the corporate world, film, theater and music always seemed to seek me out.
Growing up with two Super Educators (mom a school teacher and dad with 2 PhD’s), I developed a love for life long learning. I was a cat with an insatiable desire to know all and everything about life. This helped me be a better creator and put me in situations where I learned a lot from inspirational and supportive creators. I was so very fortunate that several very accomplished industry professionals took it upon themselves to take me under their wings and teach me the ropes. Perhaps they saw that little girl with the long pigtails, hard shoes and socks rolled around her ankles, who only wanted to sing, play, act and share with the world and make a difference.

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?

I’ve been so very fortunate to have had some incredible friendships. I would say that the one person stands out – my oldest sister. Even though she had her own demons to crush, she was the one and only person who encouraged me to stay true to my artistic goals. Because she was an artist, she knew the importance and challenges of pursuing a goal that was considered off the conventional track (i.e. lawyer, doctor etc.). She was the one who whispered in my ear, ‘ya know you don’t HAVE to go to college right away. You could try to go to L.A. and do film for a few years.’ She was also on the side lines cheering when I was on stage, when I wrote my first script, when I started learning the sitar. No matter what whacky idea, premise, story I came up with, she was the one who I could count on to say ‘go for it’.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://cakennedyfilms.com

Image Credits

All images are mine