Meet Nan McKernon

We were lucky to catch up with Nan McKernon recently and have shared our conversation below.

Nan, so appreciative of you coming on today to talk with us about a topic that is important but rarely talked about – overcoming bankruptcy. Can you talk to us about your story and how you overcame bankruptcy and managed to build a happy, fulfilling and thriving life and career after bankruptcy?

I overcame bankruptcy with a lot of patience, realistic expectations, support from my now-husband, and pure hard work.

I filed for bankruptcy following the advice of a financial planner after a divorce left me saddled with exorbitant debts. I would never get back on my feet, let alone get ahead as a single mother in graduate school hoping to earn financial security in college academia. I felt immense guilt, particularly for the smaller companies that would be impacted by this legal maneuver that would grant me a blank slate from my muddy financial past. I received hateful communication from several people accusing me of shirking adult responsibilities and calling me ‘a deadbeat’. Rebuilding an honorable life in following financial destitution is not for the faint of heart; it takes hard work.

I cleaned houses for cash and supported two children on meager stipends from the university where I did my professorship training and modest child support checks. I leveraged food pantries and town resources to help offset living expenses. I swallowed my pride and applied for a food assistance card which helped with perishables like fresh fruits and vegetables. My two kids and I learned to live on nothing. We slept in front of the fire on brutally cold nights with the oil tank hovering near empty, created entertainment by volunteering, playing board games, and flipping through magazines at the bookstore on Friday nights.

A decade later, I have near-perfect credit, a well-paying job that leverages my terminal degree and respect for people like me who don’t use bankruptcy as a lifestyle but as a one-time solution.

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 am a writer; my personal passion is creative nonfiction (CNF) – the telling of true stories in a novel-ish way. I particularly love CNF essays because my ADD brain tackles things best when disassembled in small chunks, and essays can say so much in a smaller ‘space.’

I do write full time for one of the largest healthcare organizations in the world; my focus is behavioral health communications. I never expected when I was in graduate school to land where I did professionally, but it works!

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

This question falls in beautifully with a journal I am doing with my life coach. Oprah’s “The Life You Want” series has a Finding Your Purpose guide and one of the tasks was to identify qualities, skills, and experience we have and then have several people closest to us to identify the same as they know us in life. It was interesting to see the commonalities (and also to see myself as others do – we need an app for that!). The three that came up across the board are:

Resilience: don’t quit before the miracle happens.

Read and then read some more! Researching trends/companies/standouts in an area of expertise or, for my line of work, exposure to different voices helps us hone our craft.

Connect: Who you know matters; and their engagement with you is equally important. Will someone go out of their way to help you if you are dishonorable, narcissistic, or unkind? Probably not. Prove yourself worthy – most of all to yourself – and others will be invested in you, too.

To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?

I was adopted so I would have to start there – by opening their home and hearts to creating a family in a non-traditional way in the 1960’s certainly changed the trajectory of my life. Otherwise, I would say my parents instilled a deep value of education, which I really didn’t appreciate fully until midlife. They were sticklers about writing and speaking with proper English and grammar, which used to make me roll my eyes, but it stuck. My dad joked that my English was perfect until I rode the school bus where I learned slang.

It wasn’t just classroom education that was revered in my family of origin; my mother and grandmother taught me proper dining table etiquette as a child on Sundays – which I hated – until I found myself at an important work dinner in New York City, seated with then-mayor Bloomberg, and gave no thought to which forks and spoons went with which courses, unlike the woman next to me who was a deer in headlights and grateful for my discreet coaching. I am grateful for that ‘life’ knowledge.

My parents were voracious readers and while I didn’t develop the same love until after I’d graduated college, seeing a tower of books by their bed and newspapers stacked up by Dad’s reading chair installed being curious, informed, and well read.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://nanmckernon.com
• Instagram: @nanmckernon
• Facebook: Nan McKernon
• Linkedin: /nanmckernon