KIMBERLY RING'S SPOTLIGHT

Mar 1

NAVIGATING ADVERSITY, SELF-DISCOVERY, AND ENTREPRENEURIAL TRIUMPH

In her formative years, Kimberly Ring wasn't the one basking in constant attention. Instead, she had to carve out her own spotlight, drawn to it like a moth to a flame. As the second youngest in a family of six, Kimberly often found herself overlooked, leading to years of uncertainty and a lack of commitment. School was navigated effortlessly due to natural talent, yet genuine success eluded her. Initially content as a background character, Kimberly eventually reached a breaking point at 22.

Experiencing a tumultuous period, she found herself in undesirable situations and yearned for a different identity. The attainment of a long-desired goal left Kimberly devastated and prompted a profound self-reflection. Facing herself, she made the crucial decision to embrace self-love, sparking a journey of exploration and reinvention.

Relocating to Austin, Texas, with the belief that a change in scenery would alter her trajectory, proved to be a temporary solution. Old habits persisted, leading her astray, albeit with the discovery of a newfound friendship and an amusing penchant for dancing to gay pop hits. Amidst the chaos of 2019, marked by bouts of homelessness and a return home to support her family, Kimberly stumbled upon her true calling.

During this tumultuous time, she rekindled her passion for sewing, discovered a love for modeling, and embraced the entrepreneurial spirit. It was a transformative period, and as Kimberly gazed into the mirror, she encountered a version of herself she genuinely loved – someone scared, lonely, but deeply committed to self-improvement and pursuing her passions.

Several years later, Kimberly reflects on her journey with amazement at the resilience and positivity instilled in her younger self. Now self-aware, genuinely loving, ambitious, and optimistic, she navigates challenges with trust and certainty that good things are on the horizon. Life's adversities no longer perplex her; instead, Kimberly acknowledges that life happened for her, not to her.

In sharing her story, Kimberly imparts the wisdom that the world has good things in store for everyone. By adopting a positive perspective, one can begin to notice the abundance of positivity that surrounds them. No longer pondering why life unfolds the way it does, Kimberly confidently asserts that life has unfolded for her benefit, embracing warmth and gratitude for the journey that brought her to this moment.

GETTING TO KNOW KIMBERLY

QSM: Can you take us back to the time when you hit rock bottom at 22? What were the circumstances and emotions that led you to that point, and how did it shape your decision to embark on a journey of self-discovery?

Kimberly: I was in a really bad relationship. Unknowingly at first, I was getting very deeply entangled with someone who was on his way to being someone else’s husband. I had abandoned all ties with my family really and didn’t have many strong relationships, so I allowed myself to be manipulated and strung along. I was just feeling less-than all the time. I started letting my attendance in school slip, I was drinking more than I ever had before and making really bad decisions. My life was getting messier by the moment, and I was an “organized chaos girlie” back then so I had no intentions of cleaning it up.

I ended up getting 2 DUIs within months of each other, I guess I needed extremes to learn my lessons. This was hitting rock bottom. While most of my family was supportive in the ways they could be, the message I remember the clearest from that time was “Do you know how much money you are wasting on this?”

It was that kind of thinking and energy that made me really detach from my family and myself. I started to believe I was just a financial issue and the friends I had at the time didn’t help much either. I was surrounding myself with people I knew wouldn’t challenge me, wouldn’t hold me accountable, and really just wanted a drinking buddy. It wasn’t until my university actually required me to go see a counselor, who then got me in touch with a therapist, and set up a program for me to really understand the path I was going down for me to wake up. Working with that therapist was the first time I felt like someone could actually see and hear me. I had never been vulnerable in that way, so it was VERY uncomfortable for me at first. I felt so naked and exposed. I was more than just a negative balance on an income statement. I am more than some man who just wanted me to fill his bored, drunken time. I am more than a girl who doesn’t care about the beauty and the significance of her life.

It was in these programs that I had to complete that I really started to understand how much damage I could cause in my own life and other people’s if I kept going this way. IfI am being honest, that university, the counselors, and all the people who held me accountable during that time saved my life. So, I started to think, if I am enough for some random stranger to think it’s important to save me, I should be someone worth saving.

Right before I really had to commit to completing my AA and defensive driving programs, I had moved out to the Lake of the Ozarks and spent the summer there alone. I could go into a whole other diatribe on this experience, but for time’s sake, let’s just say…do you research before committing to anything in life. Create a plan. Have some strategy. Make the world work for you because it will. This will save you from a lot of headache and heartache.

This was an emotional rollercoaster of a time. I was mostly embarrassed and so shameful. I just wanted to hide all the time. For most people, it’s obvious that you don’t make mistakes like this but I grew up around heavy drinking so that was my response to most things. After this experience, there was a period of self-loathing that set the tone for the next couple years, but there were also moments that I really was proud of myself for just dealing with the shit. I worked several jobs to cover all my expenses and just became a loner for a while. I even remember getting messages from friends reprimanding me for kinda “going into hiding” so to speak. I was just so exhausted putting on a front or facade, it was easier just to focus on work and kinda let the rest of the world fall away.

QSM: That was some story! WHEW! Let’s talk about Texas, which was a significant change in your life. Can you elaborate on your experiences there, both the positive moments like pursuing acting and the challenges that led you to fall back into destructive patterns? How did these experiences contribute to your personal growth?

Kimberly: I’m laughing because even moving to Austin was such a disaster. I was moving in with this friend I had from high school. There would be three of us in the apartment and I wasn’t living in Austin at the time, so I let them pick the apartment and the rooms and just largely put my whole faith in people that I really hadn’t spoken to in 4 years. Not a great move on my part. So anyways, I get all my stuff packed up and move down there. The guy I was with at the time didn’t like that I was moving so that caused a lot of drama during the move, but nonetheless, I got there in one piece.

After maybe a month of applying for jobs, I finally got an interview at a restaurant within walking distance to my apartment. This was both really convenient but also really dangerous because walking meant I could get a drink or 2 or 7 before going home. However, this was where I first met my best friend. My Anthonys was the first person to just love me for no other reason than he had extra love to give. He pushed me and held me accountable. He would drive me places and he would make sure I was going after the things I wanted in life. Every morning that we worked together, the first thing we did was hug for about 5 minutes, I’m not joking, then we would get right to work. He was just love in a human form.

This made me more willing to work because I loved the people that I was working with, but it also distracted me to the point that I never even started working on my acting! I would work 5 or 6 days a week and then just drink and go home to watch TV because I was “tired”. I wasn’t too tired to go get drinks after work. I wasn’t too tired to spend $100 on Ubers every weekend and to go out dancing. If you ever think you are” too tired” to go after your dreams, you are lying to yourself. You just don’t believe they are worth it, and you choose to prioritize other less challenging activities. So then I just fell into this routine of working, drinking, dancing and maybe about 6 months into living in Austin like this, the pandemic hit.

Leaving Austin was when even more chaos hit. Remember back when I said, don’t put my full faith in people? Don’t ever rely on someone to do right by you just because you think they should.

QSM: Being homeless and living in Louisiana must have been a challenging period. How did this time shape your perspective on life, and what were the pivotal moments that led you to rediscover your passion for sewing, modeling, and entrepreneurship?

Kimberly: I really became homeless in Austin. Like I said, leaving was just as chaotic as getting there, and I knew my aunt lived in Louisiana, so I decided to make my way over there. I gave away most everything and what I couldn’t give away, I had to haul to storage with the help of my friends. I’m still thankful for them to this day.

I had one apartment that I absolutely loved in school. I lived alone and even though I had no furniture when I first moved in, I found some of the most incredible pieces and started to create a space that was all my own. That was the first time in my life I ever really felt at home. So when I was back to a time where I didn’t have a home, it was uncomfortable but nothing new I guess. I think that was always my problem. I never felt like I had a space for me anywhere in the world. I always felt in the way, like I was inconveniencing people and so this was just the most physical manifestation of that.

Once I finally got to my aunt’s we were in the country of Louisiana. There wasn’t much to do and my aunt was planning on selling her house so I spent my days cleaning with her and my nights sewing and going through all her old fabrics, patterns, and notions. I would just sew every day trying to give my creativity some room to grow.

This was when I started looking to the internet to see what owning a business could look like for me. I became obsessed with the idea of owning everything because in that time, I felt like the smallest little pea on the planet.

QSM: You mentioned developing a passion for modeling and entrepreneurship during your challenging times. Can you share specific experiences or realizations that fueled these passions, and how did they become integral parts of your journey toward self-love and success?

Kimberly: Sure! When I started sewing, I needed someone to model the clothes. So I started just taking pictures of myself to make the garments look beautiful. I would find these amazing pieces with such life, body, and movement, but when I photographed them like everyone else, they looked terrible! They deserved a person living in them. So the first photos I ever took were against the newly painted white brick of an apartment I had moved into with my mom and little brother. I was working at a coffee shop and on the weekends I would volunteer for anything fashion in Dallas. I would do anything I could to teach myself how to get into this industry and succeed.

One particular experience I remember-I used to wear all my stylish clothes to work under my uniform shirt and I did everything I could to make a t-shirt and black hat look cute. I would always get uniform violations though, I’m laughing thinking about this because Kimberly knew she was it, she had so much confidence. The coffee shop was inside a department store in the mall so on my way in I would walk through the department store and just imagine myself owning/running a store like that.

And while I was there, I did. I talked to everyone, I knew everyone, and everyone knew me. It was nice to finally have a place where I started to really build something nice for myself and for a while, I really thought I would stay there forever, but try as I might, I could not get a job outside of that coffee shop and restaurant, so I had to leave.

I made the commitment to myself during this time that if I didn’t prioritize my success quickly, no one would take me seriously. So I started thinking of ways to get legit. I started following a young designer, Brianna Shanae, owner of Matte Brand, and watching her manifest her way through life made me realize it could be done. I read a book she recommended, Becoming Supernatural, and my life completely changed. I literally would read it and meditate on my 30 min lunch breaks and be able to work 12-hour days like it was nothing. I miss that version of myself sometimes and all my work is to guarantee her efforts are never in vain.

QSM: Reflecting on your younger self, you mentioned programming your mind to think positively. Can you delve into the process of cultivating this positive mindset, and how it has influenced your self-awareness, love for yourself, and ambition over the years?

Kimberly: Absolutely, so it all started with Becoming Supernatural. That book taught me to check in with myself, create ambitious visions, trust the universe, and set expectations for the world to provide. See there is a flow that gives and it takes. It makes life easier sometimes, to challenge you for something else. There is a loss in one area to make room for a gain in another type of thinking. I started to see everything as a potential gain and opportunity to be the person I so desperately needed when I was younger. I honestly just tried to frame everything in love and come back to that. Now I didn’t do that perfectly, but I think the whole point of shifting towards a mindset like that is realizing the system, the way it is, wants us to be miserable. It profits from our lives operating out of misery and I was so sick of giving away my life and energy for free! If my energy was going to be used, I was going to decide who got to profit from it.

This definitely made it much easier to create the ambition I lacked. I realized how powerful it is to take ownership of my life and decide what every moment looked like. If something went “wrong” I knew how to use it to fuel me, and when opportunities started to come my way, I knew exactly how to build them into my lifelong plan. It was exhilarating when it first started happening and there are things that I manifested for myself during this time that are only happening this year. I recently worked with a makeup artist who used an eyeliner, Inglot, that I used to obsess over. I thought that was a beautifully full circle moment.

QSM: Your story seems to be one of transformation and resilience. How did you overcome the challenges and setbacks you faced, especially during the times when you were tempted to give up? What advice would you give to others facing similar struggles?

Kimberly: Honestly, I don’t think I overcame them sometimes. I just failed enough and dealt with the BS long enough that I came to understand how to use it on my journey. Like I would love to say I overcame it all, and I am this giant success now, but I am still grinding and still working to create the life for myself that young Kimberly wanted. but I would definitely say something that has kept me dedicated to winning is family.

Right before I left Austin, I told my best friend that I wanted to build a family. It didn’t matter where people came from, it didn’t matter what you’ve dealt with. If you were good and you poured into the family, there was always room. So I have used that as my North Star so to speak. I work every day because I know I will be able to take care of my family entirely and I will be the person that speaks life back into our name.

Listen, I am a rebel child. I am the one who will do things just to piss the “establishment” off. So, the times I am tempted to give up I honestly talk to myself and ask if I really want to let the same people win again. Do I really want to lay down and give up? Hell no, I want these people to know my name and I want my family to enjoy a nice private piece of land when it’s all said and done. When someone else was designing and directing my life, I saw my rock bottom and there is no way I’m going back there. So if I could work that hard on the wrong things and end up there, when I work hard on the right things, I know exactly where I will end up, because I design it.

My advice: Take more ownership in designing your life. If it doesn’t look the way you want it to, act. The people you see who are successful did the things that no one else wanted to do in a way that worked for them. So make the plan and attack, because you have a whole life but you are only guaranteed today.

QSM: Great advice! You mentioned that life happened for you, not to you. Can you elaborate on this perspective shift and how it has influenced your outlook on life? How do you now approach challenges and setbacks with a positive mindset, and what impact has this had on your overall well-being?

Kimberly: Life does happen for you. It gives you tests and resources so you can level up. It gives you opportunities and failures so you can see what the world has to offer and what you need to get better at to get there. I use this to create an opportunity out of everything. I can learn more, I can be better, I am a hands-on learner, so I have to use this mentality to keep myself from crying every time I try something new and it goes wrong. That’s what life is about is evolution, even the plants and the trees are a testament to that. As humans we have a very unique experience of affecting our evolution in real time, we don’t have to wait until the next generation, and every single day is a day to get out and try it all again.

QSM: What an inspiring journey you’ve had. Honey when they say that you cannot have a testimony without a test! God bless your testimony. I hope your story helps someone to never give up. Please tell people where they can follow your journey.

Kimberly: Thank you so much for those words and thank you for the platform to share our stories. All I can hope is that this story helps other young women leap off the things that used to trip me up.

The best place people can find me and all my information is: https://dot.cards/profile

On TikTok and IG, I am @umburrrly . On Pinterest, I am @umburrrlyinvests .