Tell us about yourself!

My name is Kimberly Gillette and I have lived in the Red River Valley for 25 years now. It’s hard to believe that it’s been that long. I grew up in the Minneapolis/St Paul area. I moved all over the country growing up and landed in Arizona for a job. After I had my first daughter, we decided to be closer to family. I came across a job in Moorhead, we moved up here, and have called this area our home ever since.

What is your connection to Rural America?

I’ve been in the Red River Valley/rural Minnesota for many years now. I will say, I love being in the outer part of Minnesota. There’s a different pace of life and a different value set. We moved back to this region to raise family here and I think it’s a great place for that. There’s something fun and unique about being in this rural part. And there’s more of a sense of connection to nature and some of that other beauty that Minnesota has.

What is your connection to 100 Rural Women?

I stumbled upon 100 Rural Women by taking a class! I took a class through the local Small Business Development Center and got connected with somebody who is active in 100 Rural Women. I started popping in on their weekly meetings on Thursdays and highly recommend this connection time with others. I can’t wait to get more involved and see how else I can be part of the services and connections that are made through 100 Rural Women. I have also invited other people to join!

Tell us about your career

I started my career in higher education, specifically in international education. So, I worked with international students, international scholars, international faculty, study abroad; the whole gamut in the International Education field. I really thought that was my calling and what I was going to do for my whole career. But a myriad of events led me to leave international education. With that, I decided to take it as an opportunity to reinvent myself and reconsider what I was doing. I forged my way into the second stage of my career. I like to call it my “Career 2.0”

Really, what prompted me to leave was a conversation with some colleagues of mine at the university a few years back. We were talking about what we would do if we left the university. Where would we go? What’s out there? In doing some research, I decided this was where I was going to be. I wanted to help my people find that there is some life outside of academia (if that’s what they choose.) In doing so, I have actually opened my services to anybody who’s in a spot who’s mid-career-ish and looking for that next thing.

I’m here to show people that there is life outside of the career that you once knew at the beginning. We often ask kids: “What do you want to do when you grow up? Who do you want to be when you grow up?” We don’t do that to adults. I give adults a safe place to explore that. It’s fun to have that permission to dream and think about: What else is there? and then help support my clients to find that next step.

I like to say I’m a “Dream Champion.” I help my clients identify their dreams and then I champion their dreams. So, one of the things we do is identify that dream. If they’re thinking of some new avenue, I will always ask them: “What is your dream telling you to do? Do you have enough information? Is that going to help support that?”

What kind of things do you do and what services do you offer as a career ownership coach?

As a career ownership coach, I work with people who are trying to figure out how to either elevate their careers or move into a different industry. We first identify the strengths, weaknesses, and goals of my clients. From there, we look at different avenues. At this point in life, usually, there’s a lot of burnout. We refer to it in our business as “The Battered Career Syndrome.” They’ve been working hard for somebody else and maybe not feeling valued or heard. Or maybe they’re stuck and not finding that next level.

We also talk about lifestyle goals a lot. Maybe it’s work-life balance, wanting to spend more time with family, funds for travel, etc. We identify that and talk about how you can get there.

I love the career ownership coach title because it’s taking ownership of your career in a couple of different ways. First, it’s saying “All right, it’s up to me to define what I want to do and take ownership of my next step.” But then it’s also exploring business ownership and entrepreneurship. Many people hadn’t thought of it. Or maybe had thought of it but hadn’t really pursued it. I’m just curious and help guide my clients through some discovery by asking questions. They open their eyes to a whole new way of thinking about themselves and what’s possible. It’s really satisfying.

Do you mostly work locally?

I am working all over the world actually; I have clients in other countries as well. I am hoping to get more established in the community here with this business. That’s something that I haven’t done yet but I’m hoping 100 Rural Women and some of the other organizations can help.

How did you learn to start your own business and go down that path yourself?

I actually had a career coach as well and was asked: what would it feel like if you were your own boss? Even the thought of feeling free was amazing. So that really prompted me to go learn more. I can’t say enough about the Small Business Administration, the Small Business Development Centers, and the SCORE mentoring program. SCORE got me connected with a mentor that helped me figure out how to narrow down my niche.

I met with a couple of businesses as well. There are some businesses out there that help you walk through each step. If you’re looking at funding, for example, my business is set up as a C-Corp based on how I wanted to fund it.  I hired people to help me through that process.

I’ll say, signing that paperwork and getting everything set up was the absolute scariest thing I’ve ever done. I would not change it for the world though. There’s this feeling on the other side of fear that is so worth it. This reminds me, at 211 degrees water is just hot water. At 212 degrees, it turns into steam. So, what happens if you’re at that 211 point and you turn around and say “nu-uh.” What if you just pushed forward that last little bit and you became incredible and became the steam? You could power things and do so much.