Meet Kim Ortiz

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

Kim, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

When I was twenty-three years old, I began writing a book titled, Surviving Your Twenties: The Truth About Growing Up. I was one year post-grad from college and trying to navigate this new norm of constant rejection, both professionally and personally. It truly felt like I was suddenly thrusted into this “quarter-life crisis” with no window or clear vision as to when the constant hailstorm of what I considered to be failure after failure, would end. Looking back on it, I can see how much pressure was put on me to be great – to do something Great! When we think about the term purpose, it is often used to describe this grand awakening where the stars perfectly align and your passion intersects with your dream job or dream life. I think that can happen and it’s beautiful when it does, but sometimes purpose isn’t pretty or glamorous. Sometimes, purpose is gritty, demanding, and requires you to shed expectations of perfection and accept that success is measured progress and true purpose is attached to your calling and sometimes your calling has nothing to do you with your dream. Once I freed myself of the expectation that my purpose had to be perfect, it all aligned.

My purpose in life is to be of service. I was raised in a community of givers, hard workers, people of great integrity, and honor. In my experience, discovering my purpose was a journey of allowing myself to fail forward and to sit in uncomfortable silence and prayer, asking God what is it that you want me to do? How can I leave this world better than I found it? Help me get over the grief of being thirty something with a life that looks very different than the one I pictured in my early twenties. Please release my fears and the distraction of imposter syndrome. As I leaned into my patience and faith being stretched while I was waiting on God to answer my questions, I kept working and building on what filled my heart with the most joy and that is providing a safe and loving space for children to be themselves, learn, and gain confidence. The L.O.V.E. Academy was birthed from this discovery of purpose. It is my legacy and my sister’s legacy as the co-founder of our organization. This is my story and I hope it inspires someone to dig in, plant the seed, water it, and watch it bloom.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I am the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the L.O.V.E. Academy – a fiscally sponsored project of the Arts and Business Council of Greater Nashville dedicated to serving teens from diverse backgrounds with life skills, financial literacy, creative expression, and certified skilled trades. We are wrapping up our inaugural 4-week Summer Empowerment Camp and it is bittersweet as I truly developed a wonderful report with our campers and staff! The coolest part of this work is watching the campers form bonds with campers they’ve never met before and likely would’ve never come in contact with because we have such a diverse group of students that live across Middle Tennessee. To witness them open up and lean into trying new things like making homemade ice cream and butter or various STEM activities and a 4-week financial literacy class taught by Kandace Harris of Pinnacle Financial Partners, it’s a full circle moment that feels like purpose fulfilled. My sister, Kirsten Albritton, and I laugh at the irony of it sometimes, because she is the educator of the family. We come from a long line of educators, but I never wanted to be a teacher in the traditional sense of getting a degree in Education and teaching in a structured classroom setting as my sister did. I work in music publishing and went to school for Music Business. That was my childhood dream and the trajectory that I set my sights on, but it goes back to purpose not always being connected to early dreams. There were always moments in my life where I found myself mentoring teens – whether it was while I was a shift manager at a fast food chain working my way through college with a shift full of high schoolers, mentoring my younger cousins or being a Big Sister with the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Middle Tennessee.

I always felt like I could relate to the teenage demographic as a mentor because I remembered my experience when I was that age, wishing that I had mentors who could step in and fill a gap during those moments when I felt misunderstood. The L.O.V.E. Academy (which stands for Leadership, Opportunity, Vision, and Empowerment) was a seed that was planted in my heart nearly 11 years ago while I was on a Study Abroad trip to Belize. But when I really think about it, it started well before that when I was a junior in high school. I’ll never forget this story and would love to share it here as I think it adds a lot of context to why the L.O.V.E. Academy is such a special place. When I was about 15-16 years old, I attended a historical inner-city high school in Louisville, Kentucky. I had just moved to Louisville the year prior and was still getting adjusted from suddenly uprooting my life in North Carolina. My very first friends at this new school were my fellow bandmates.

There was one particular week when I noticed that one of my bandmates had been wearing the same clothes. I overheard some of the students making fun of her and talking about her hygiene. I remember being struck that no one asked her if she was ok or why she had been wearing the same clothes for a week straight. After class, I pulled her to the side and asked her if she was ok or if she needed anything. She broke down and confessed that she had been kicked out of her home and was sleeping under the nearby underpass bridge by our school. The only time she had been able to eat was during school hours, but had no access to clean clothes and could only wash up when she got to school in the morning. This happened well over fifteen years ago, but I still remember it like it was yesterday. Her story taught me a very valuable lesson that remains relevant today – behind so many teen faces are stories of struggle and hardship. What they need now more than ever is someone to advocate for them, trust, and consistency. In short, they need to feel safe and seen. Our organization was founded on the need to provide this space with love, generosity, kindness, humanity, and empathy. Those are the soft skills that we teach at the L.O.V.E. Academy. That’s our mission.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

In this line of work, you have to remember the “why.” What I’m referring to are soft skills as I previously mentioned – empathy, kindness, putting humanity first, integrity, and hard work. This work also requires you to be a problem solver, a mentor, and sometimes a therapist all in one. It’s very similar to the skills I developed during my early roles in customer service prior to getting into the recording industry and later founding this organization.

My advice would be to lead with love. Not everyday is the same and some days are harder than others, but it’s important to take care of your mental health and develop healthy coping habits for stress and ways to rejuvenate yourself if you’re feeling burned out. What keeps me grounded is my faith, family, friends, and those quiet moments I save for myself. It’s also important to remember that “imposter syndrome” is just a distraction. While it is a valid feeling, I’ve learned that it’s my inner voice telling me I can’t or I’m not qualified when my resume says otherwise. You are exactly who you say you are! Remember that.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

We are always looking for ways to partner or collaborate with companies and/or organizations that are inspired by our work and whose mission closely aligns with ours. Whether you’d like to donate space or time to teach students new skills such as sewing, wood work, carpentry, tiling, automotive/mechanical skills, computer coding, graphic design, photography, robotics, a foreign language, and music or have extra equipment such as tablets, computers, sewing machines, tools, cameras, musical instruments, etc. that you’d be willing to donate – we would be incredibly grateful to connect with you. You can visit us at www.loveacademynashville.org or email me directly at kim@loveacademynashville.org.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.loveacademynashville.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loveacademynash
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Love-Academy-Nashville-61576154202169/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-l-o-v-e-academy
• Other: info@loveacademynashville.org

Image Credits

Austin Sena
Toni Appleton
Porsha Cherry