We were lucky to catch up with K. Krombie recently and have shared our conversation below.
K., thank you so much for making time for us today. We can’t wait to dive into your story and the lessons you’ve learned along the way, but maybe we can start with something foundational to your success. How have you gone about developing your ability to communicate effectively?
Since being in the pubs as a teenager in England, I’ve often been asked to tell stories “Tell my friend the one about…” and so on. So I knew I could keep people engaged to a certain degree, deflect when necessary, and have a cache of stories to use as a tenuous link to whatever it is I’m being asked about. I’m not sure that this is effective communication in a general sense, but it’s a useful tool for what I do, which is writing about and discussing New York history. Whether it’s the books, the lectures, or the walking tours that I write, I have to try and hold people’s attention through how a story is told and to break up dense information with some kind of levity.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I’ve had an obsession with New York since I was a child through watching films. I’ve lived in several countries but it took a while for me to get to New York and a great deal of effort to stay in New York. Shortly after I emerged from the green card red tape, the pandemic happened. Up until that point, I’d casually read a stack of New York history books. A lot of the information stuck, in particular the more peculiar facts, such as the number of burial grounds that are still present beneath some of Manhattan’s famous parks and landmarks. I could draw a diagram pattern relating to the development of the city via the dead.
When the COVID lockdown happened, New York became overwhelmed by the dead, and so I started to think about the city’s relationship with death from a historical, practical, and municipal point of view: epidemics, space or lack thereof, and death rituals brought by immigrants over hundreds of years. So I wrote a book called Death in New York, found a publisher, and it came out in late 2021. I turned the book into a walking tour, and at the same time as writing my next book, I wrote several more New York tours based upon the theme of “what the city doesn’t want you to see.” My tour company, Purefinder New York, developed a following and a lot of repeat customers, the majority of whom are New York residents. Purefinder New York has a growing number of tours and guides while I continue to write and lecture on niche New York subject matter.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I can name three meandering habits that never struck me as consequential until fairly recently. The first is that I’ve always had an insomniac habit of walking for miles and miles. When you cover an area extensively, you start to notice things about your habitat. They go into the memory bank and get stored up. The second thing is I wasn’t remotely interested in history at school. I was expelled, having left already, and I never went on to further education. I moved to London as a teenager, then after a difficult few years there, I turned to a book I found on the history of London to try and anchor myself to the city in a different way. The book blew me away because every twist and turn of the city took on a new and profound significance. So I read more history books but only as a pastime. The third thing was telling stories to my friends, a lot of which came out of holding court in the pub environments that were part and parcel of living in England and Ireland. I didn’t foresee that my street observations, reading history books, and putting stories together would one day go into the mix for what I’m doing now. Based on the aforementioned, I’d say that whatever skills you may think you need for a chosen career path, there’s a good chance you might have one or two of them already.
What has been your biggest area of growth or improvement in the past 12 months?
Purefinder New York began in 2022 with one tour. In the last 12 months, much more content was added. I now have tours on psychiatric history, outlaw and vice histories, Oppenheimer, and other topics. More content has led to freelance writing work and lectures as well as hiring guides. I’ve also been introduced through Purefinder New York to other individuals and businesses who do similar things to me and we keep in touch and swap information. Currently, I’m looking into providing downloadable content in varying formats. I’m also interested in writing about London among other places. There’s a lot to consider over the next 12 months.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.purefindernewyork.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/purefinderny/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/purefinder-new-york-new-york
Image Credits
The NY illustrations are public domain and from the Library of Congress. I took the rest including tour attendees, and the remaining image is my book cover.
