Meet Kim Berlin

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

Kim, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

Let’s say I didn’t find my purpose– but rather, my purpose found me.

The way I’ve seen purpose portrayed in our culture is that it’s something to be sought out with fervor, elusive, located outside of ourselves. Discovering my own purpose was a reductive process– the stripping away of a life’s worth of external projections to reveal what was already alive within me. The deeper I tuned into myself, listening and feeling with all my senses, the more information I received. This subtle tuning to one’s internal compass is the best way I know to understand what’s nourishing and what’s depleting. And like a puzzle that comes with no duplicate pieces, it will be different for everyone, which is precisely the beauty.

I was amazed to find that purpose is not the singular, elusive destination we’ve been taught to hunt down– but rather an inexhaustible ingredient, already resident, that we can apply freely, in abundance, to absolutely everything we do.

The next part of the interview is where we’d love to learn more about you, your story and what you are focused on professionally – whether it’s a business, nonprofit, artistic career etc. Please tell our readers about what you do, what you feel is most exciting or special about it, as well as anything else you’d like folks to know about your brand/art/etc. If relevant, please also tell our readers about anything new (events, product/service launches, expansion, etc)

My story starts out like so many– little girl with very big plans goes from making clothes out of tin foil on her parent’s Brooklyn living room floor to college at Rhode Island School of Design. Along the way she has early careers as a competitive figure skater, hand painted t-shirt business owner, screen printer and freelancer. She graduates and starts climbing the corporate ladder. Buys a convertible, a house, a boat, and the most spectacular wardrobe this side of the Hudson River. Wins awards, works abroad, gets promoted. Changes jobs, nurtures a team, grows a business, shrinks her own life. Commutes 4 hours a day, gets frustrated, gets sick, gets laid off. Joins another firm, doubles her salary, and eleven months later, she quits. No plan, no income, no clue what’s next. This is where my story really begins. And it’s nothing like I’d ever expected.

Fast forward to one unremarkable spring morning– I woke up a different person. No explanation, though in hindsight, I’ve read about near death experiences that sound similar. The reflection staring back at me was like a distant memory suddenly returned to life. I felt powerful. Wise. Unshakeable. In full remembrance of who I truly was, a state of complete and total alignment with myself and all the world. For the next six months, I walked around wanting for nothing, smiling warmly at strangers, with not a care or worry, beaming love from my eyes and shooting rainbows from my butt. I was handed three visions, about a business, a book and a mission. I had absolutely no frame of reference for this occurrence, and I certainly didn’t seek it out– but the feeling was utterly undeniable– something massive had changed. Other unexplainable experiences followed– synchronicities, visions, codes and uncomfortable disruptions to my body, each one ultimately leading to subtle yet palpable shifts. In the blink of an eye, this practical professional went from zero interest in the mystical nature of the universe to completely transformed, reclaiming wisdom as if to make up for lost time.

I discovered while design is my discipline, people are my purpose.

The work I love best lives at the intersection of creativity and counseling, empowering high performers to live and lead with purpose. My incredible clients are executives, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, policymakers, artists, coaches, designers, healers, activists and business people of all stripes– the change-makers, innovators and builders of our bright new future. They tell me I’m kind of a unicorn– a rare amalgam of creative, strategist and sage. They trust me with their deepest truths and we reveal beautiful insights together.

As I ran my creative business like a “normal” human being, I began to see the realms of identity are multidimensional. I am both a visionary architect of brand identity for business– AND a compassionate archaeologist of personal identity for the individual. We excavate and we build, in our lives and in our work. The two nourish each other. I recognized the qualities that make me an excellent creative are the same qualities that make me an extraordinary guide. I have a keen ability to listen deeply, see beyond what’s visible, identify hidden patterns, discern what’s missing, intuit what’s needed, and connect the dots in the most useful and grounded way.

Ultimately, my mission is to stand in service to the brave bodies, businesses and brands who seek to truly understand and express themselves with integrity, authenticity and a difference only they can bring to the world.

As it stands today, my business consists of two practices that are taken together or a la carte:

My approach to visual identity is aptly coined Creative Direction for Human Connection™. This practice is designed to build the bridge from idea to perception. You can view me as a translator of sorts– I take your brilliant vision and turn it into something people can see, feel and experience. You may have stumbled across my work in Fast Company, The New York Times, Graphis, Refinery29 and the Whitney Museum. I’ve been entrusted with the design of commercial airlines, busy seaports and exclusive resorts. High-end real estate, plumbing, insurance, underwear and many other categories of products and services in between. I love to work in new industries with new people and have new experiences in which I can learn new things. I’ve come to understand the client who’s looking for any old “good designer” is generally not my client. My entire business runs on word of mouth– referrals and recommendations are the ground upon which I stand. I’ve been told by CEOs, CMOs and COOs that I make them look smarter, better, more aligned with who they are. Even so, this is not the only reason why my clients choose to work with me. What I hear time and again is people choose me for my insights and talents– and also for the experience we create together in partnership. I show up with genuine care and curiosity. I listen deeply to what’s said (and what isn’t). I make the process enriching, fun and full of ease. I aim to serve with compassion and integrity. And together, we learn about who we are– as businesses, as brands, and as people. In short, I treat my clients the way I prefer to be treated– like valuable human beings. Your insights matter. They drive the work forward. When we come together, we create the opportunity to build something truly extraordinary.

On the other side of the coin is my work with the people behind the work– Healing for bodies, business and brands. A component of this is what I call Relational Energetic Somatic Therapy™ (or REST for short). Relation is context and connection. Energy is lifeforce. Soma is the body. Therapy is relief. We create a bespoke container for conscious capitalism– counsel for creating something bigger than ourselves. We excavate before we build. Go deep before we project out. We unearth inner clarity, transmuting bias that may cloud our vision, generating a clean energetic signature embedded within all we do. Using the deep well of tools in our toolbox, we develop a specially-made program to support your unique biological imperatives, in service to your very specific objectives and one-of-a-kind offering. We strategically craft an itinerary of resonant experiences in biocompatible environments that enable your systems to relax, unwind and come back into coherence. For me, these practices are not merely something I do, nor a role I choose to step into, but the way I live my whole life. This first began as a passion project, then grew to include donation-based services for others in need. I’m now expanding my reach to serve a wider audience to help people better navigate and integrate the uncertainties of living in this rapidly changing environment. If even a fraction of us recognized how our every word, choice and action impacts the whole we have exponentially increased our potential to shift things for the better.

Our world is growing less recognizable by the day. You may not see it yet, but this is a very good thing. The further we ascend into great change, the more this work will be needed by so many. The key to evolving with grace and ease is to know yourself deeply. With all your beautiful facets. The utterly unique and precious being you are. Living a life that feels truest to you. In integrity and harmony. With openness and compassion. Rested and fully resourced. With extra to share freely. You may not yet know what this looks like for you. But I do. I see you.

It’s time. To own our magnificent humanness. To dissolve the restrictions and constrictions that bind us. To discover great strength in softness. To remember how it feels to be at ease, finally, as our authentic selves. I am here and dedicated to this work. To myself. To the world and its evolution. To the darkness and the light. And especially, to you.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

There’s so much I’d love to share with you! I’ve chosen the three concepts below for their universality– they are applicable to every human at any age, and are particularly relevant right now:

1- You are not your work, and your work is not you. I’m learning this in an all-too-real way right now as my highest profile design project, a commercial airline, is under very public scrutiny for taking a painfully polarizing government contract. I could easily become angry, sad or dismissive, but instead am filtering this experience through as many lenses as possible to arrive at a place of understanding and equanimity, which brings me to my next point…

2- You can never truly know the circumstances behind anything or anyone who isn’t you. Our world is not painted in black and white, but rather infinite shades of gray. Ever hear the saying, we contain multitudes? We are never just one thing, but many, all at the same time. One of the most valuable skills we can cultivate is the ability to hold multiple, even conflicting points of view– without making them the enemy. We have more capacity for this than we realize– all we must do is remain curious and let go of our need to be right.

3- Your one job in this life is to be as YOU as you can possibly be. It may seem rote, so let’s break it down: You are the only one in the world who sees life through your eyes– with your background and your experiences and your emotions and your talents and your connections and your ancestors… I could go on. You bring something to the world that literally no one else can. Let me repeat that another way– when you are being completely authentic and 100% you, no one else can do exactly what you do. Competition becomes irrelevant because technically you have none– no one else is you.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?

After 30 years in business managing thousands of requests for hundreds of clients as an entrepreneur, employee and energy worker, the one foolproof piece of advice I’d offer is this: play with space and time to focus your energy on dissolving the blocks creating overwhelm.

We often get overwhelmed when we are able to see the outcome– but there’s no bridge between where we are and where we want to be. As they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day. And like Rome, we can choose to approach things brick by single brick.

First, breathe. Nothing fancy. Inhale with your whole body, belly to back to chest to throat. Get wide. And tall. Exhale a little longer than the inhale. Notice any tiny opportunities for openness in your body. Remember to keep breathing. This creates space.

Second, slow down. Be where your feet are. Engage your senses. Experience only what’s right in front of you, right now. Tell yourself “I have all the time I need, all the time in the world.” This stretches time.

Third, take super small steps. We ingest life just as we ingest food. Food must be broken down or else it clogs up our systems. It’s the same with assimilating tasks and information. You only need to consider your very next step, even if it’s just a breath. No step is too small. This focuses your energy.

These three steps repeated with every task will help to gently dissolve the blocks creating overwhelm without further overloading the body’s systems.

Like a latch, so it is with us humans– pressure must be decreased and released before there is an opening. Whenever we touch on something truly true, we release the belief we are a problem to be solved, and instead remember that we already are the solution.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.iamkimberlin.com and www.hellokbd.com

Image Credits

Portraits by Andrew Dolgin