Meet Kathy Biehl

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kathy Biehl. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kathy below.

Kathy, thank you so much for joining us today. Let’s jump right into something we’re really interested in hearing about from you – being the only one in the room. So many of us find ourselves as the only woman in the room, the only immigrant or the only artist in the room, etc. Can you talk to us about how you have learned to be effective and successful in situations where you are the only one in the room like you?

I have found myself in this situation many times. This pattern may have had an influence on my generally doing things for my own purposes instead of for outside validation or reward. I have learned, often through crushing disappointment, that outer reward is elusive. It often has nothing to do with my performance or skills. I can’t control it. If it comes, great; if not, well, no matter, if I did something important to me, or that furthers a personal goal. (Which is an indirect way of addressing your question: I’ve stopped measuring effectiveness or success by external standards, or even in the moment. I have learned, many times and usually years later, that my presence in a room had quite the effective impact, even if I couldn’t see it at the time.)

The first experience I remember was first grade, when I was one of four white kids in a class of 44. “How did that make you feel?” I was recently asked. My answer: it was what I knew.

Later brushes with being different weren’t as matter-of-fact. The second also came through school, when my family moved to Germany for a year and I was thrown into a public school with a German last name and very little command of the language. Unlike in first grade, I had strong reactions, because I had a frame of reference of blending in. Being “the American” was weirdly uncomfortable. Classmates were more accepting than some of the teachers, but not knowing the social norms was agony, for an early teen. My focus fixed onto making grades high enough to keep from repeating the grade when we returned to the States, which I pulled off. It took almost my entire year there to find my way in the environment.

My first formal job led to a creeping realization of not fitting in, and the ultimate realization that I would not, ever. I was the second female attorney in what would now be called a boutique firm, at a time when that simple fact of gender was enough for opposing counsel to assume I was a paralegal. I was also not of the dominant religion in the firm, and over time it became increasingly clear that the perception of “other-ness” could not be overcome (and, honestly, something I didn’t want to).

I have found that focusing on being different has made situations harder, at least emotionally and internally (thinking here of being so obviously, miserably out of place at a D.C. summer law job that an associate called me out on it). On the other hand, I have found that all of my experiences being the only one in the room has sensitized me to other people. It’s given me an abiding awareness that no one way of being is the only way, and it’s attuned me to subgroups of “otherness” for whom I’ve been an ally and advocate.

And with age, I’ve become much more comfortable with who I am regardless of who else is in the room. As I said in the beginning, doing things for my own purposes ensures a baseline level of satisfaction. I rarely feel the need to beat others over the head with my expertise and perspective (although in my attorney past, I will confess to some knock-downs with a few non-profit boards that absolutely did not want to hear the trouble they were courting). Some groups and situations see that I bring a perspective and insight that is useful to them. Some don’t. And, at this point, if my input isn’t welcome, I exit.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I have built multiple and parallel careers on the bridge between intuition and the logical mind. I am now predominantly an astrologer. That involves both a consulting practice and prolific forecasts translating technicalities into concepts that apply to real life. Called “annoyingly accurate” and “somewhere between a master storyteller and late night at The Improv,” they blend humor, optimism, and a love of patterns, symbolism, and pop culture references..

My forecasts are at my site, EmpowerentUnlimited.net and the Professional Aquarian YouTube channel (which also includes analysis of current events and politics). I interview astrologers, authors and other people with intriguing navigational approaches on the show Celestial Compass on OMTimes Radio & TV. My insights have appeared in publications such as The New York Times, Bustle and InStyle.

All of this draws on my diverse life experience as an attorney, a small business owner, a performing artist and a writer. I practiced law for 30-some years, concentrating on small business matters, contracts, nonprofit arts groups, gay couples and people with AIDS. I’ve performed in musical theater and on Houston’s singer-songwriter circuit. While in Texas, I had a long-running cabaret and sketch comedy collaborations, and founded two record labels for our output. In the Northeast, I’ve been a stage and film actress best known for the dowager role in the first-ever revival of the Marx Brothers’ earliest Broadway musical I’ll Say She Is.

In addition to three decades as a restaurant reviewer, food writer, alternative weekly columnist and zinester, I have co-authored or contributed to guides on legal Internet research, dining, and personal empowerment, including contributing the chapter on astrology to Your Guide to Self-Discovery (Llewellyn Worldwide). My latest book, Confessions of a Third-Rate Goddess, chronicles sexual ambivalence and other weirdness of life in the 1900s. My anthology of social commentary masquerading as sassy food writing, Eat, Drink & Be Wary: Cautionary Tales, was shortlisted for the 2022 Eric Hoffer Award Grand Prize. My writing has also won awards from the Association of Food Journalists, Houston Press Club, and Texas Bar Journal.

Oh, and I am a self-amusing personality.

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

1. Deep, diverse liberal arts education (multiple languages, history), coupled with / fueled by abiding curiosity and desire to learn

2. Arts education and training — visual, music, performing — especially being in an orchestra and a choir, which immersed me in the power of creating a whole far greater than the individual parts

3. Much as I did not enjoy it at the time, studying law, which gave me a grounding in how the world works

My advice is: Learn about your environment, your heritage, your community, your world, and then branch out. Learn about what’s beyond your immediate world and experience. Then listen to your heart, to your body, to the thoughts in your head when you first awaken. Pay attention to all that, even if (especially if) they lead you away from what other people are saying you should do. Some deep part of you knows who you are. Hand them the reins. As Oscar Wilde said, “Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.”

Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?

I am currently dodging the question of prioritizing my remaining time. (Odd to look at life that way, but there you have it.) After decades of pushing to make things happen, and them usually not working out quite in line with expectations, I have been more go-with-the-flow in recent years. A middle ground is trying to get my attention, because simply floating could leave a lot unfinished. It’s feeling like time to start setting targets, at least; to go through the backlog of outlined and partially written books and come up with an order; to look, honestly, at other goals, sort through them and toss the ones that really aren’t going to happen.. Basically, to think seriously about what else I want from life.

It’s harder than I expected.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.EmpowermentUnlimited.net AND https:/9thHouse.biz
• Instagram: @kabiehl
• Facebook: kathy.biehl
• Linkedin: kathybiehl
• Twitter: kathybiehl
• Youtube: @professionalAquarian

Image Credits

Suzanne Savoy, David Opheim