We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kim Robinson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Kim , thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
My parents worked during the day and my grandmother babysat me and my uncle and took us to work with her. She was always on the go. If she was not cleaning homes in Beverly Hills she was cooking and cleaning for the movie studio guest while they were in town filming. As if that were not enough she had a cafe and thrift store.
My mom worked at a factory and helped my grandmother clean office buildings at night.
My dad went to trade tech college during the day and worked at the Firestone tire factory at night.
Watching them work and achieve their goals is where my work ethic comes from.
I babysit my granddaughter who is 2 years old and the niece of my daughter-in-law from 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. I sleep for six hours and get up and write for two hours before sewing until the girls arrive. I fix them breakfast then we play and do lessons for 3 hours after which we all take a nap. When we wake we go for a walk play and watch television.
My grandmother always said, “You can rest when you are dead.”
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?
www.Sewingsouls.com is my baby. I am a full-service seamstress who has been sewing for money since the age of seven. I design, do alterations, teach sewing classes, and sell fabric. I am carrying on my father’s legacy by bringing back the art of sewing one student at a time. My motto is, “I can give you a fish or I can give you a pole.” People do not understand that proper construction and quality fabric are going to last a lot longer than anything you can order from overseas. These people make up 50% of my customer base. It does not take them long to realize that they come out better letting me make their outfits from scratch. I always do something to enhance their outfit and make it unique, otherwise, what’s the point? I do not know about you but I hate walking into an event and seeing someone in the same outfit that I am wearing.
The first thing I do is take measurements. People tell me what their size is based on what they purchase in stores. My measuring tape is accurate and ensures that everything fits the way it should. Nothing feels better than knowing that when you step out, you look good. When you look and feel good so do I, and it brings me more customers. I also pay 10 percent for any referrals.
My next baby is Kim’s Publishing. www.Kim-Robinson.com I started my writing journey when my grandmother said, “Someone should write my story, I had more things happen to me than she did.” She was watching the Oprah Show where she was talking about her book that had just come out.
A few years later when my first novel, The Roux in the Gumbo made the Dallas bestsellers list I was hooked on writing, six books later I am still writing. During the time that I was writing the sequels, I fell ill. I had Thyroid problems. The medicines I was on did not help., My joints lost the cartilage and I had cortisone injections but you can only do that so many times. For 4 years I couldn’t get around without crutches or a walker. The pain medicines caused me to develop ulcers. I experienced seizures and lost my independence because I could no longer drive for fear I would have an attack.
Writing and sewing were a way for me to escape the pain, I did not need the pills because I was no longer in my body. When I wrote I was wherever the current chapter was unfolding, feeling nothing but the emotions of my characters.
While sewing I was one with the fabric. I loved creating new designs or costumes. I researched everything I made. Designs from different cultures. I immersed myself in documentaries, music, and movies about cities and people that I was not acquainted with. The finished product was something that I could cherish and be proud of myself for creating. When people complimented my creations it made it all worthwhile.
After my thyroid was removed and both knees and shoulder replaced I got my life back. I could walk and dance again.
Life is great!
I am really excited about my newest book, Surayya’s Story https://www.amazon.com/Surayyas-Story-Surraya-Life-grandchild/dp/B0CJ44D6F1/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2OONYG8RCAD7Q&keywords=surayya+story&qid=1695964789&sprefix=surayyas%2Caps%2C122&sr=8-1
I hate to admit that I was so jealous of all my friends who had grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I was ecstatic when my daughter told me that she was expecting. I went to California and m;y friends gave me a party welcoming me to the Grandmother’s Club at 62.
It is an illustrated children’s book series featuring my first grandchild. It gives you a peek into her life. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful happy bright-eyed grandchild that I babysit. This book makes a great stocking stuffer for the children in your life.
I am the National Spokesperson for www.Awayoutproject.org, and that is not all, I am also a survivor of abuse. The founder of this organization, Eva Miles helped me over 30 years ago. I know that had she not stepped in I would not be alive today.
The organization helps people in domestic abuse situations, people reentering society, people who want to change their lives, senior citizens and we do a toy drive for children who would not have Christmas without our efforts.
We have a gala coming up on October 7th which also celebrates Eva’s birthday. If you can’t make that one we have lots of events that we do throughout the year. We would love for you to join us and if you can donate, if you can not afford to donate money, give us some of your time by volunteering. We can always find some way to utilize your gifts. You never know who you can give a kind word to and save a life.
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?
I would have to say that sewing and writing are gifts that I can pass on to people to add joy and meaning to their lives. Sewing is not for everyone, I have a lot of students who after their first lesson tell me, “I just want to pay you to finish this garment for me.” and that is okay. I can usually tell when a person is falling in love with the craft. They do the homework assignments I give them. They get to know and name their machines and what all the different stitches are for. They come to class with a list of questions so that anything they do not quite understand I can explain and show them how to do it in a way they can understand it. After five lessons they are off and running. Many of my students over the years have started their own fashion line. I couldn’t be prouder to have played a part in their success. I will never get tired of walking into a room in one of my designs and people ask me where did I get it and I can hand them my card and tell them I made it myself and can do the same for them.
I keep my books on the table where my customers sit while we talk about their needs. Before they leave I ask if they are a reader. Nine times out of ten they purchase a book, usually The Roux in the Gumbo which is my family’s history starting in the 1800s and goes to 1997 at my grandmother’s funeral. By the time they come back to pick up their clothes, they purchase the sequels because they have fallen in love with the characters. Many tell me how my books inspired them to mend fences with their own families or to find out about their ancestor’s history and maybe write their own book.
Who would have thought that a little girl from Compton would be able to go online and read hundreds of reviews praising her novels? My books tell it like it is, I did not pull any punches or sugarcoat anything telling my story about life in the fast lane. People who have excuses about changing their lives read my books and know that they too can become a person that they can be proud of, no matter what their life has been before. Tomorrow is always a new day.
I tell everyone to believe in yourself because whatever you have been through you are still here and that means God has plans for you, if you just put yourself in his hands and let him show you how he can use you. It is hard to feel sorry for yourself when you are busy helping others.
How would you spend the next decade if you somehow knew that it was your last?
Currently I am having the play and movie script written for The Roux in the Gumbo. I have dreamt about my whole family at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre for the premier. This is the next step for me and I know it will take a lot of work but I am ready to do whatever it takes to make this a reality. My grandmother use to have visions of the future and one day she stopped talking and closed her eyes. When she opened them she looked at me and said, “One day this book is going to feed your family.”
Through the years my husband and I have been through many challenges, but we continue to persevere, and I have to say that sometimes book sales have paid a bill or two or enabled us to go out to dinner.
A portion of my book sales go to Anna’s House, and www.Awayoutproject.org.
One day I hope that my books will enable me to pay for a house or apartment building to help these men, women and children who need somewhere to lay their heads while they start life anew.
They Live On
Life does not start at conception or birth
A soul takes millenniums to create
To raise and nourish future generations of worth
Ancestors who bore fruit, come back to relate
Leaving shared beliefs and astral dreams
Memories and professions passed on with bites of recipes
Cuisine perfected through time with spices of personalities, herbs of love, marinades of meetings
baste in other’s life experiences
A sculptor preserves a person with clay
A photographer immortalizes a face, a physique
A producer creates a movie to tell a history
An artist paints a likeness of a profile or day
To get to tomorrow, you have to have yesterdays
Their stories should be told. It is what they deserve
To be passed on to children to come
I write to preserve
Contact Info:
- Website: www.Kim-Robinson.com
www.SewingSouls.com - Facebook: Author Kim Robinson
- Linkedin: AuthorKimRobinson
Image Credits
Colin Robinson
