We recently connected with Kale Sudhoff and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Kale, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
I had never really thought about becoming an author when I was growing up. When I was younger, I had a stutter that was especially evident when I was reading, and as a result I was made fun of a lot growing up. With this in mind, I avoided reading as much as possible, and didn’t like books. One thing that I have absolutely loved for my entire life is drawing, and over the years I became pretty good at it. This was one area of my life where I found confidence, and I was excited about. I’ve always had the heart of an illustrator. It wasn’t until I was about fifteen years old that my life would completely change course, and I would find my true passion. I am a strong believer in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and that everything happens in his perfect timing. I remember one night before I went to bed, a word entered my mind, and it was the last word that I wanted to think of, it was “author.” I knew that I wasn’t trying to think of this word, in fact I tried my hardest to get it out of my head. I plainly said “God if this is you, you have the wrong person, I couldn’t even read the right way for most of my life. I am not a writer.” With that statement said, I went to sleep thinking it was over, and when I woke up the next morning, I had forgotten what had happened the night before. It was nearing the end of summer, and my grandma was at our house helping my mom clean. As soon as she saw me, she began to tell me about a children’s book author she read about on Facebook. As soon as I heard the word “author” my mind snapped back to the night before, but I convinced myself it was a coincidence and went on with the day. In the afternoon I was drying the dishes in our kitchen while my mom and sister were talking. My sister was studying to be an elementary school teacher at college, and my mom told her “You know so much about kids you should be a children’s book author.” There it was, that word again, and after the second time hearing it that day, I was a little paranoid. However, once again I labeled it as a coincidence and tried my best to ignore it. Later that night I was sitting in my chair drawing while my family was watching the TV show called Holey Moley. On this show, whenever there was a new contestant, they would say their name and what their job was. About halfway through the show I got this urge to look up at the TV, and when I did there was an older woman looking right at the camera as if we were making eye contact. Her next words were plain and simple, but they still give me goosebumps today, she said “I am a children’s book author.” As soon as she said this, I could ignore it no longer, I got out my phone and began to write. I was astonished at how natural it felt, as if this is what I was made to do. A few short months later I was a published author, and I couldn’t believe how my life had taken such a turn. Since then, I’ve had two more books published, I’ve been featured in different magazines, on podcasts, and even on TV. I am in awe at how God took me, a kid from Celina, Ohio and gave me such a platform in the world as this. I want to use this platform to show love to kids with disabilities or who just feel different and show them that they can do anything they put their mind to. I am walking proof that God can take your insecurities and make them your triumphs. I’ve been able to read my books to hundreds of kids giving me confidence in this skill that I was once so insecure about, and Jesus deserves all the glory!
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?
My first book “Danny the Duck Heads South” depicted a duck who could no longer fly south after being injured. I didn’t know it at the time, but this book became an inspiring factor not only among those with disabilities, but also those who simply feel different. After this book was published, my publisher approached me about writing a “mission book,” which is a book looking to bring attention to a certain group of people who may be overlooked in our society. Out of the given list, “Limb Loss and Limb Difference” stuck out to me for reasons I can’t explain. While I was brainstorming ideas for how I could go about designing the story, inspiration struck me from somewhere I didn’t expect. I was at my first home track meet watching the two-mile race begin when a certain young man caught my eye on the track. This young man had a very noticeable facial deformity, and as he came around the track the whole crowd that I was standing in erupted in laughter and hateful shouting. I looked around in disbelief as people who I had known for years treated this runner as if he weren’t a person at all, but as that runner came back around the track, he did something I’ll never forget. He stared directly into that crowd that was still shouting horrible things and smiled. I was shocked, and so was the crowd, but every lap as the crowd’s shouts continued his smile got bigger, and he made it clear that nobody was going to steal the joy from his eyes. That young man showed me more courage and determination than I had seen anywhere else, and as I began to write, the words “refused to quit ” echoed in my head. Soon after, my second book “Danny and Kevin Conquer Camping” was published. Since the publishing of this book, I’ve had the privilege of meeting many individuals with disabilities, and every time I am inspired by their heart, courage, and determination. I feel it is my calling to inspire and bring attention to those who feel different with my books, and to show them that God made them just how they are for a specific reason and purpose. My next book on the way is titled “Born to Stand Out,” and it is meant to bring attention to those who are hearing impaired. I think it is important that all kids grow up knowing that there are others out there who have difficulties in life, but just because someone has different circumstances than them doesn’t mean they have to be afraid or treat them differently. We are all made in the image of God.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
In my journey, three qualities and skills that I had to acquire and learn were confidence, determination, and the ability to accept feedback from others. In whatever you do in life, if you want to be great at it, you need to be confident. You need to have the belief that what you have to say is just as important as what others have to say. If I wasn’t confident in my message, then I never would have become a published author. Confidence is great, but it’s even better when accompanied by determination. When you decide you’re going to do something great, there will be doubters that try to talk you out of it. At that point you have a choice of whether to keep going or let fear win. If you have true determination, there is nothing in this world you can’t accomplish. Lastly, I had to learn to accept feedback from others. If you want to perfect your craft, whether you’re a product designer, architect, etc… you have to consider other’s advice. No one person has all of the answers, and something that seems great to you may not make sense to others. I fortunately get a lot of feedback from my target audience when I go read my books in schools because kids are very honest about things they don’t like or understand. I was able to take those suggestions and get better and better with every book. My advice to anyone pursuing their dream whatever it may be is to never let doubt stand between you and success. God has a specific purpose for everyone, and if you believe in yourself then you will succeed at whatever you’re called to do in life.
We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?
I personally believe that we all receive gifts from God, but these may be discovered at different points in people’s lives. One way that you can discover your strengths is to try new things and be open to new ideas. Some people are blessed with multiple amazing skills that they are using to change the world. If these people found one strength and then chose to only focus on that skill, then they never would have found their other skills. If I was still closed off to developing new skills, then I never would have become an author in the first place. Almost five years ago, I was content with just being an artist because that’s what I was good at, but when God exposed me to writing for the first time, I felt a sense of fullness that art had never given me. Over these past few years, the skill of writing that I once hated with a passion has become more important to me than art ever was. If you want to be great at anything then you have to work at it diligently and give it your all, and if nobody ever worked at something that was hard then we’d live in a pretty sad world. We all have obstacles in our lives, but it’s how we respond to those obstacles that makes our story truly worth telling.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kalesudhoff20.wixsite.com/portfolio
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kale_r_sudhoff
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082921624454
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kale-sudhoff-author-illustrator/?viewAsMember=true
