Kira Hartley Klinger built her reselling empire one thrift store find at a time as a divorced single mom with no startup capital and no business plan, just the drive to make it work.
In this episode, Dr. Sev and Kira get real about free marketing, time management with kids, hard money lessons, and why doing it imperfectly beats not doing it at all. If you’ve ever wondered whether it’s too late to start, Kira’s story — from side hustle to Etsy shop to published author to TV — will remind you: it’s never too late. You just have to start where you are.
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The Dr. Sev Talks Money podcast’s mission is to empower women to approach money confidently, reframe their financial habits, and build a future where their money is a tool for opportunity and security.
Through Dr. Sev Talks Money YouTube channel and Podcast, I provide actionable advice and inspiration to help you achieve financial freedom. Join me for one-on-one coaching, group sessions, workshops, or speaking engagements as we journey to financial empowerment together. It’s never too late to begin again—let’s make it happen!
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Kira’s information:
Kira Hartley Klinger is a longtime internet shop owner and the author behind two books (Fabric Wars) that delve into the entertaining and lucrative world of auctions and resale. She is an entrepreneur, reseller, and creative force who built her business from the ground up as a single mom.
Contact Kira here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/DodOddity
Transcript
Have you ever tried building something while juggling everything, kids, responsibilities, and the constant pressure to make money work? For a lot of women, especially single moms, entrepreneurship doesn’t start with a business plan. It starts with, “I need to make this work.” And we’re talking about this today.
Hey, hey, hey, Savvy Squad. Welcome to another episode of the Dr. Sev Talks Money podcast. If you are new here, I am your host, Dr. Sev, personal finance educator and coach. I help women rebuild financially, and I don’t just teach this, I’ve lived it. After a late life divorce, I rebuilt my credit from the 500s to 850 and paid off $39,000 in debt.
So trust me when I say rebuilding is possible.
Today I’m joined by Kira Hartley Klinger, an entrepreneur, reseller, author, and creative force who built her business from the ground up as a single mom. Kira’s full bio will be in the show notes and YouTube video description. Kira, welcome to the show. Thank you, Dr. Sev. We are two peas in a pod. I did not know that you had the same early journey.
Yes, yes. I think this is very common for a lot of people. It happens with a lot more people than we think, where our journey to entrepreneurship or our journey to finding our niche or our love or whatever it is that we’re doing started Um, with a hiccup somewhere. And it creates that much more of a passion for us.
So I like to start with an icebreaker. What has been your weirdest money maker? Oh, boy. I have so many weird money makers.
I can’t call this my weirdest. I feel like I keep talking about the same really weird things. Like old, old underwear- … is a really weird thing that’s worth money, you know? Old, old incontinence diapers for adults is another weird thing that’s, that’s worth money. Old dentures, you know? I’ve, I’ve brought those, I’ve brought those up before.
Um, this is, this is something that I just got again for only the second time in 20 years, but old photo developing paper that has expired is worth money. Some of it’s worth a lot of money. Uh, old film. I just sold, uh, a cartridge of film that expired in 1976 that was sealed for $150. You know, it, it just weirds…
There’s so many weird things. And I laughed when you said weird, because weird is like my middle name. The, the weirder, the better. Those are the things that I, that I look for, ’cause a lot of people don’t give it a second look. Yeah. Yeah. I can imagine, right? When you have that uniqueness, then you are…
you’re not like everybody else. So you stand out with that unique, uh, value proposition. So you started this journey as a single mom trying to contribute financially while still being present for your kids. What pushed you to say, “I need to figure something out”? What really pushed me was, was divorce. You know, I stayed married until I was 40.
My two sons were in college, but I still had a teenage daughter. Um, and I always, I always side hustled. I always did what I could to help bring money in, um, but still be available for the kids. But yeah, when I got divorced, I had to figure out what I was gonna do because I couldn’t add up all of my side hustles together and have it equal one full-time good paying job.
Yeah. Yeah. So I had to take what was a hobby and see if I could make it a full-time job. Yeah. There are a lot of women, single women, who
through divorce or other circumstances, are now forced to create a stream of income for them and their kids. So you built your business without a big budget. Yes. What are some easy low-cost or no-cost ways people can advertise or get visibility with when they’re just starting out?
I really utilize, um, I do utilize social media. I don’t, I don’t pay for social media ads. I’ve tried it. I’ve dabbled because they promise you these great big returns and so many more viewers and all that other baloney. And yes, the numbers say that I have a lot more viewers, but the numbers don’t say that in my bank account.
I do just as well by just throwing it out there and being consistent and adding content frequently. You know, don’t let your ads go stale. Um, it’s also a really great way to make yourself comfortable on, on camera because you can shoot it over and over and over again. And, you know, just, just be yourself.
Try not to be stuffy. Just be who you are. It… I think people resonate with somebody that’s more natural anyway. You know, I’ve, I’ve got some pretty silly videos out there with some of my chickens in, in the picture. You know, just whatever. Um, but that can be an effective way to bring people to your website, to your…
You know, for me, for my store presence, I also, I, I use a lot of tag words every chance I get, because every chance, every tag word that you use has the opportunity to bring somebody to your shop, you know? So my shop name is a tag word. My, the name of my book series is a tag word. What I do is a tag word.
You know, everything that surrounds you should be a tag word, and you should use it everywhere. You can do that on all the different social media platforms. I can do that in, um, my Etsy store because I’m allowed to use 13 tag words for every single listing. So after having created thousands and thousands and thousands of listings, it’s no surprise that when somebody types in Dot Oddity or somebody types in Fabric Wars, that the internet page explodes with me because I’ve done the, I’ve done the work, and that didn’t cost me anything.
Um, so if, if it is a customer-based business like, like mine is, and you’re shipping orders or you’re dealing with customers, a human touch goes a long way as well. Um, I put notes inside all of my packages saying thank you. I, I… There’s a blurb on there that has been pre-printed out about my books so people know that I’ve written some books.
You know, but it’s just a, it’s a way to meet people, it’s a way to introduce yourself, it’s a way to show up as a, as a human, and I’ve made a lot of connections that way. Um, another, another thing that is free/get paid to do it, when I first published my book, you know, if somebody’s going into business and they’ve written a book, or if somebody has something to share, figure out who, who your market is.
Who are you writing to? Who are you selling to? For me, I was appealing to people that use fabric. So who uses fabric but people who make quilts? And there are clubs called quilting guilds, and they have monthly meetings, and they have guest speakers. Um, so yeah, I just, I wrote to them, invited myself. For the first year, I did not charge a speaker fee.
They did pay my mileage. But I met people, I got traffic to my shop, I sold books, and now I’m at the point where I can charge people to come appear, and to buy my books, and to become more shop traffic. So it all adds up. Um, just be creative. Identify who your market is, who your audience is, and then figure out where you can take yourself to them.
Yeah. I heard several things you said. You said, in your content, be authentic. There is nobody that can beat you at being you , right? Uh, so be authentic. Um, be consistent. And consistency’s going to mean different things for different people. For some people, consistency’s once per week. For some, it’s once every two weeks.
But when we set up that cadence, then people who are following you start expecting that cadence. Mm-hmm. And they know, “Okay, on Tuesdays I’m going to hear from Kira.” Um- Right … and then who are you speaking to? Define that. Um, because we can, we can spray at the wall and hope it sticks, but if we know who we have in mind, then we can speak to that person as we, create our content.
And then the other thing you you talked about is finding organizations or people who are adjacent to the thing that you’re doing. So for you, it’s finding the quilting bees and all those people who use fabric, which you’re selling in your shop. So somebody else, it could be you bake cakes. So you find those, uh, people who are event planners.
And you can introduce yourself. So whatever it is that we’re doing, what I’m hearing is find the lane or the adjacent lane, and see how you can blend, or insert your process into theirs seamlessly, and provide value for them. Yes So, we’re gonna take a quick break and then we’ll come back and continue this awesome conversation with Kira.
Hey friends, quick pause. If you’re enjoying today’s episode, the best way to support the show is to share it and leave a rating on your favorite podcast platform. And you know it, five is our favorite number. And if you’re watching on YouTube, don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share. Thank you. Okay, so all those years, um, that you’ve been doing this business, I’d love to hear some of your best finds, and why do you say they’re your best finds?
Oh boy. I’m gonna lump this right in there because it just happened, but the same time I just recently found old photography stuff again, I also found a tremendous amount of old catalogs. Like, we all remember J.C. Penney and Sears and Montgomery Wards, all the order from home catalogs. Uh, well, this, this guy saved every single one from about 1962 to about 2004.
So there’s about 150 catalogs in his very old barn out in the middle of the woods. Um, and I paid 500 for all of them. It, it was quite a bit more than I expected to get them out of there. I ended up finally getting somebody with a forklift to come over and give me a hand. Those books are heavy, you know?
So it was an all morning experience getting them home. But some of those catalogs, uh, can be worth more than $100 a piece. So, you know, I think I t- it, it’s a very recent estate, so I just, I’ve just sold four catalogs I think for a collective about 400 bucks. So I’m $100 shy of making back that 500 and I still have 146 catalogs to go.
Wow. So, you know, I get, I get pretty excited about things like that. Um, you know, the, the fabric works a little bit differently. You know, the, the fabric, yes, I find good fabric all the time, and I have enough fabric to keep me listing fabric probably for the rest of my life. I’ve got a huge inventory of it because when an estate full of fabric pops up, I buy it.
But fabric isn’t something that pays me back like the catalogs. Fabric is something that pays me back consistently through orders all day long, you know, day in and day out. It’s something that I can not list for a couple of weeks and I’m still getting sales ringing up because I keep a pretty good inventory.
eBay is where the big ticket items live, and eBay really helps fund those big Etsy purchases when I do come across an estate for that Yeah, so it looks like you have some superstars, and then you have your Mary and Martha doing the regular work, bringing the income in on a regular basis. Yeah, pretty much.
Pretty much. Yeah. But I really like the people on Etsy. You know, that’s where all the magic happened with the books and with the public speaking, and, you know, it’s, it’s this really great community that I landed on. And I like the people on eBay well enough, but it’s more transactional. You know, it’s a lot more friendly on Etsy.
Okay. All right. So if somebody’s considering which one they wanna go on, you may wanna go on both, but know the atmosphere or the aura that you are going to be encountering on each of the platforms. So as things started to grow, how did you structure your time or set boundaries so you could bring in income and still be present for your kids?
In the beginning, I mean, I had four years, uh, when my daughter was still in school, and I was still working part-time, too. I worked four hours a day at, uh, the elementary school in addition to trying to make a go of buying and selling. My daughter was very active. She ran track. She was a cheerleader for football and basketball.
She played basketball. Um, when she got to be 16, she’d had two or three jobs of her own. So sh- she was quite busy. My position as her mom basically looked like getting her up in the morning because she left for school before I did, um, and going to her games. Uh, you know, it’s like when she finally graduated and I had all these afternoons free, I’m like, “Oh my gosh, what am I gonna do with my time?”
You know, because everything had to be structured around when she had these games. Yeah. So yeah. But after school if she was working or if she just had practice, didn’t have a game, those would be when I would try to line up my auctions and my estate sales, or I would go on the weekends. Um, she was a teenager, so time with friends was a priority.
She spent every other weekend with her dad. So I had to look for my openings in order to be able to get the things done that I wanted to get done. But I also stayed up till probably 1:00, 1:30 in the morning until I was done in my brain for the day. You know, I’d try to get on the elliptical before I went to bed.
I’m, one o’clock in the morning I’m out there pedaling. Um, but yeah, just, I, I utilized every single minute. It, it was hectic for the first, first four years. Yeah. I can imagine. And if, um, what I’m hearing is it’s really about structure, creating your own structure, your own flow, um, that works for you. Um, so for somebody who may be flustered right now and then like, “Oh my God, I have all these things to do,” creating a calendar or a, um, the sequence of how you want your day to go based on what you have going on will work for you, not what somebody else is doing or what society says or what the internet says, um, that you need to do to set your calendar, or what are the things that you need to do for your children.
You know your child best- So, you know, as Kira said, she set her schedule around her daughter ’cause she knew what her daughter needed, where she needed support, and that’s where she set her schedule. So over 20-plus years, I know there’s are, are some money lessons learned the hard way, and of course, this is the money show, we have to bring that up.
What’s one money pattern you had to learn to shift as your business grew? Oh, gosh. I really struggled financially, um, when I was first married. There just, there just was not enough money to go around, and I had myself in a position very early on where we were a solid month behind on everything. And I learned pretty quickly that, um, it, it won’t go on your, your credit report until you’re 30 days past due, and they’re not gonna turn off your lights until you’re probably 45 days past due.
And so I’d make sure that I would… I, you know, right, day before, but when you get a solid month behind, it is almost impossible without some sort of windfall to suddenly catch that back up. It, it, you know, you start getting slapped with late fees, um, and, and higher interest rates and it’s, it’s impossible.
It, it really is impossible. So there were some things that, that happened during the course of that 20 years. By the time I got divorced, you know, we had sold the house and there was some money left from the sale of the house. So I was able to walk away from that marriage without having any debt. The credit cards got paid off.
I didn’t have a house payment anymore. So I tried really, really hard not to make new debt. Um, and when you’re starting a business, that’s not easy to do. I didn’t finance anything when I started my business. You know, I was into buying and selling, so I had to look for things that nobody wanted that were really inexpensive.
Maybe it was s- $2 or $3 or something that if I didn’t make my money back, it, it was okay. It wasn’t gonna be the end of me, you know? But that being said, there were still times that were so incredibly lean. Um, there was a period of time where my ex-husband had lost his job and he quit, just quit paying support.
“Oh, well, I’m not gonna pay support. I’m done.” I counted on that and, and maybe, maybe I shouldn’t have, but I was trying to grow something, you know? And so every penny counted. So there were some times that I really seriously wondered if I was gonna be able to make it out of, out of each month. I remarried when I was 45. Um, we both came into the marriage with our own debt because even though I started myself debt-free at 40, by the time I was 45, I had more debt. Uh, it wasn’t like before. I could pay my bills on time, but I still brought debt into it. He brought debt into it. It took us 13 years, but today we’re debt-free.
And it took a lot of focusing on, on paying the bills, you know, trying not to buy it if we didn’t need it, and trying… Yeah, just putting the money where it mattered. Um, and now that I’m, I’m debt-free again and there’s actually enough money to pay the bills without having to think about going back into debt, I don’t want anything to do with it.
You know, I, I learned a long time ago, in my business, it ebbs and flows. Sometimes I’m making tons of money, and sometimes I’m just making a little bit of money. And I find that when I’m barely scraping by, that seems to be the time that I’m most tempted to buy things that I don’t need. I don’t know if it’s that I get depressed or whatever, but that’s when I find myself on the internet shopping my favorite clothing sites or whatever.
But that seems to be the time that I wanna spend the most money, is when I have the least. When I’m making money, it is far more addictive to sock that money in the bank than it is to spend it. I don’t wanna spend it. I don’t wanna touch it. Leave it alone. You know, so now we’ve got a savings account. You know, I never had a savings account.
So we’ve got a nice savings account. We have a nice retirement plan. Our cars are old, but they’re paid for. The house is paid for. It’s like, no, I don’t want a renovation loan. No, I don’t want a new car you know? I am fine just the way I am. It, it’s wonderful. Yeah. They, they do come at you with those, uh, those loans.
Oh, oh, you could, you could get this beautiful $20,000 personal loan. Right. Who said I need that? Right. I don’t, I don’t need it. Uh, yeah, you know, you want me- Yeah. Banks love us, love to tie us to them, right? So they can- Yeah … take one person’s savings and take, pay them .0% on that, and then take that money and loan it to you and I for 25%, you know?
Wow. Yeah. Mm-hmm. But you, you know, you mentioned something earlier about, you know, where you were and how you felt like, you know, being a, a month behind a- and the hopelessness and the feeling of hopelessness and feeling like we’ll never get out of it. And I know that there, there are women who’ve been there who will be there next time, you know, in the future.
Um, but if I could add anything, um, and this is not advice, this is just general information, is for somebody who is in that position Really take a look at your situation, and you may think, “Well, there’s nothing I can cut.” Many times there is something that we can probably look at and see, “How can I get rid of this?”
It may be temporary that you say, “I’m gonna get rid of this.” It could be TV. It could be a, a subscription. Um, and go to the library. Instead of paying for TV service, go to the library. Or, you know, all those little trade-offs that you can do to give you s- you still wanna have fun, but if the fun is gonna cost you money, what are some things that I can do to maybe have some fun, but for it to not cost me money?
Um, so, you know, that’s just one thing that I can think off of the top of my head. But with hopelessness, one of the things it does when you feel hopeless, is we make decisions that hurt us. Yeah. Because we’re making decisions from a place of, um, desperation or a place of hurt, rather than a place of prosperity or a place of, oh, at peace.
You’re at peace, so I can make this decision. And, and it really can hurt us in the long run. So if somebody’s listening to us and you’re feeling like, you know, “I’m in a place of hopelessness right now,” or, “I’m feeling like, um, why even bother?” ‘Cause that mindset is what’s gonna say, “I, I don’t care. I’m gonna go buy the dress even though I can’t afford the dress.”
Yeah. So just think about what are some things that you can do to trade off. And again, just remember that any sacrifice you’re making now as you are trying to get out of whatever hole you’re in, it’s temporary. Just keep that in mind. This is a temporary setback and I am doing things to create permanent outflow, permanent abundance.
So I hope that helps somebody. Yes. It doesn’t happen overnight. Yeah. It, it really does not. It was a whole life journey for me. Yeah. Yeah. And even, even though re- rebound, as you said, doesn’t happen overnight, so is getting into debt or getting into a financial situation. So both of them will take time. The problem is when we who are used to a microwave society, when we are getting into the position where we wanna get out of it, we want it to get out of it like that.
Yeah. And so, so we have to change our mindset. It took me a while to get here. It’s gonna take me a while to get out of it. Um, and then h- hopefully that will help us to not make decisions to, to think those decisions will get me out of it like that, but to make decisions where you can see the long-term result of that decision.
I’m doing this now, but I know five years from now, two years from now, I won’t need to make this sacrifice. Maybe I can sell something, you know? Um, you can sell it to Kira. And she will repurpose it, right? You know, so there’s just, there’s always a little, a way- It may be a little harder for some of us than others, but there’s always a way out of whatever we’re in.
And, and, and lean on, on our family and, and neighbors, lean on friends. Um, because you never know. There’s somebody who could say, “Hey, let’s exchange this.” So a thing that was costing you money may now become a barter system. Mm-hmm. And so now you’re not spending money for that thing. Um, you could go get together with friends and get a, a Sam’s card or a Costco card or whatever and say, “Okay, we’re gonna get rice and we’re gonna split it.
And, but we’re splitting the cost of that membership.” You know, there’s just so many things that we can do, uh, to be creative. Yeah, that’s a great idea. That’s a great idea. Yeah. You know, and something that I do, because I buy and sell, I do a tremendous amount of thrifting. But I’ve been thrifting even before I, I, I did this.
I, I used to go to garage sales to buy my kids clothes, to buy them- Sure … to buy them toys. And, you know, you can… I, I had specific people that I knew had garage sales every year and, and their child was, like, one size ahead of my daughter. My daughter had more clothes going into preschool and kindergarten, uh, tremendous amounts.
I, I, I, like, challenged myself one time and she wore something different to school every day for a solid month, and they were cute clothes, but, you know, I didn’t pay full price for them. I also knew when the stores had the best sales, and to this day, I still only shop sales racks, you know? Um, during this whole y- building the business time, uh, I, I didn’t, I couldn’t have told you what was on TV any night of the, any night of the week.
So maybe if I didn’t have, like, a subscription service to cable or whatnot, it would not even have mattered because TV’s a time suck. So is social media. You know? It, they can both really take away valuable time towards your goals, basically. You did the yard sales and all the other things.
Um, a- again, these are just creative ways, right? Creative ways that we can look at, how can I make this work for me? Because this is where I am. Yeah. What can I do to make where I am work for me for right now? Yeah. Do not eat out. Do not eat out. Resist. That’s it. If you wanna treat yourself and go out once a month, then, then do that.
Give yourself permission once a month or whatever. But oh my gosh, the amount of money that the eating out sucks up. My kids didn’t know what fast food was really. If we went on a trip, I packed a cooler. Yeah. You know? I mean, the, the ex-husband took leftovers to work. Um, yeah. Yeah. Don’t eat out Yeah. So many creative ways, right?
Yeah. To, to dig ourselves out of the hole. So from Etsy to books to speaking to a TV opportunity, how did you position yourself, um, that allowed opportunities to find you? And again, it goes back to a lot of the free marketing that I did. You know, I started, I started the eBay shop. The Etsy shop was born from the eBay shop because I started to grow an audience for vintage fabric and textiles.
And so I’m like, “Okay, well, I’m gonna I’m gonna split them up. It’s too congested.” Uh, the Etsy shop is when I started to tell the stories of, of my adventures of buying and selling, the things I found and the people that I met. Um, and so it was my customers on Etsy that asked me to write the books. So I, I wrote the books.
And it was the free advertising of putting notes in packages, “Hey, I, I wrote a book. You guys wanted me to write a book about the stories. Well, well, here they are.” You know? Yeah. Um, and those notes are what found me the TV producer. I sold a piece of fabric to a TV producer. I didn’t know, but you just don’t know what’s gonna come your way.
Um, and when I published the books, my first podcast invitation came because a podcast host was looking for an e-book to read over the holidays, and she stumbled across my book. Next thing I know, I’m on my first podcast. I never even thought about going on a podcast before. You know, the quilting guilds, that was something that I kind of figured out in my own brain because, yes, I wrote this book, yes, I had my customer base, but it was such a a niche market.
It’s not like I just wrote the next Danielle Steel book, you know? Uh, who are my people and where are they? Because I’m not gonna just sell books by letting my book sit and rot on Amazon. Nobody’s gonna find it. Yeah. So that’s, that was being creative and me taking the books to the people. Um, but they all just kinda happened.
They held hands with each other, just kept pushing and pushing and molding this thing that nowadays everybody calls a brand. I didn’t, I didn’t know I was making a brand. I had no idea. But- Yeah … that’s basically what I built. Yeah. I love this creativity and that, that feel good for, for whoever’s listening right now to understand that, um, just do the thing that’s in your heart and find ways.
Um, be creative. Don’t l- don’t look at what social media says you should do or the marketers say you should do. Do what’s in your heart. And I’ve, I’ve seen it happen over and over again, just doing that thing, doing it imperfectly. Yeah. Doing it imperfectly, but just doing it what’s in your heart, and the, the, the deals will find you, the opportunities will find you.
So what would you want a listener right now to take away from our discussion or even from your journey? What would you want them to take away? It’s never too late. You’re never too old. I didn’t publish my book until I was 55. Um, yeah. I, I mean, you gotta believe in yourself. You have to take a chance. Um, it’s just, life can be hard, life can, can be depressing.
But at the end of the day, pulling yourself out of that and doing, doing the climb and doing the work, it’s extremely self-satisfying. It’s very, very gratifying. When you arrive at that place finally, and you have peace, and you have contentment, and you have choices, and choices are gigantic.
Yes. You know? I mean, my dad’s been battling cancer, and he lives many, many states away, and I can stop what I’m doing with minimal notice, hop on a plane, and go spend a week. Do I make less money that month? Yeah, I do, but I have money in the bank, and I don’t owe anybody money. And I couldn’t have done that even five years ago.
It would’ve been hard to do that. You know? So the rewards are endless. You have to have this picture of where you see your life, and not everybody sees their life when they hit retirement years as being wealthy or having fancy cars or having this, you know, gigantic business. People don’t have the same goals.
I didn’t have that same goal. You know, I see time with friends and family. We have grandkids. I see time with grandkids. That, those are the things I want. So identify what you want out of this life, and then figure out how you’re gonna get there. Yeah. The word choices, that is such a small word, but it’s so powerful.
Um, and a lot of us are working towards financial freedom for that very reason, choices. Mm-hmm. I can go when I’m ready. I can stop, stay if I want to. I can move however I want because I have the opportunity and the choice to do that.
I’m sorry to hear about your dad. Um- Thank you … you know, I’m just sending, uh, prayers for him, um, that he’ll be at peace as he goes through this cancer journey. I have had it with many family members, so I can imagine your anxiety when you get a phone call. It’s hard. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It’s hard. Yeah. But the people are the backbone of your life.
At the end of the day, the only thing that matters in this life, in this world, are people, the people that surround you, and they will keep you going. They will lift you up. Pick the people who support you. Yes. Pick the people who pick up the phone every morning when you’re breaking down. Yeah. Pick the people who got your back.
Yeah. My pastor always said- The things that move you through in life or get you, uh, get you where you want to go in life are the books you read and the people you know. Um, so yes, definitely the people who are there through the ups and the down, not just the ones who when you are up, now they’re like, all of a sudden they’re your friends.
But the ones who are there, the ones who will bring the potluck, the ones who will, um, you know, they won’t ask you, “Do you need anything?” They’ll come over and bring you something. Right. Because people who, who will ask you, “Do you need anything?” I mean, what do you want me to tell you? Of course I need something.
Right. You know? And then there’s the people that will knock on your door, like you said, with a roast. Yeah, yeah. You know, it’s, it’s… Kind of think, “What, what would I want in this situation, and how can I give that to somebody who is in that situation?” Instead of asking me, “What you want?” Then they, you’re asking me now to think about, you know, to work on figuring it out.
And if you’re my friend, you know me enough to say, “Hey, don’t cook anything tonight. I’m gonna bring over a roast.” Or, “Don’t have any plans this weekend, I’m taking you, uh, on a, on a staycation somewhere.” Or, “I’m taking you out for…” You know, whatever it is, you know, you should know the person enough to say, to call them and tell them what you’re planning to do for them.
Um, and it may not work out for that weekend, it could be another weekend. But at least you, you have their… You know who they are, you know what they want based on what they’re going through to be able to provide some kind of support rather than telling, “Well, what do you want? How can I help you?” Right.
Don’t do that. Don’t do that. I know, and I find I’ve got friends in my brain that are, you know, just like that. It’s like, this person’s popping up here, and this one’s popping up here. Every time you say something it’s like, “Oh yeah, that would be so-and-so. Oh yeah, love it.” But I do have one friend that I talk to just about every single day, and we’ve been each other’s support system, oh gosh, since my son was 12.
So what, 28 years ago? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So what are you working on right now, and where can people connect with you, support you in any way, grab your books or any of that? So the Fabric Wars books, those, um, I have a third one that I’m working on, because I kind of see this cute little box trilogy set, you know.
Um, so that one I’m working on. But I also have other books I’m working on. This friend that I mentioned, we did a book together. She’s the, the illustrator for the covers of my books, and she’s like, “Yeah, I want to illustrate a kid’s book.” And I’m like, “Oh, I want to write a kid’s book.” So we’ve written a children’s book, and I don’t…
We kind of want to take that a little bit further and make some more books with that. Um- You know, I’ve written a book for my dad. I mean, it’s like now that I’ve unleashed the power of being able to write a book, I wanna write about everything. I wanna have a whole shelf full of books about this, that, the other, everything else.
I do not have a website. I have enough trouble keeping up with social media pages. I have them, but I try not to live on them. Um, find me on, find me on Etsy. My… And y- I see it on the screen right there. That’s my Etsy shop name. Instagram is also under DodOddity. LinkedIn is under Kira Hartley Clinger. I have a Facebook author page that’s under Kira Hartley Clinger.
Um, the books you can find on my Etsy shop. I can sign them there, but they’re also on Amazon. So going into retirement, yes, I have to sell everything that I bought. I probably should. I keep telling my kids I won’t die a hoarder, but my garage outside says otherwise. Um, but if I ever get everything sold off, I really would love to just write the kids’ books.
I would, I would have so much fun doing that. Yeah. Um, sounds like you’re, you’re living a life that you envisioned. You created a lifestyle, you created a life that you are now, you are enjoying. Um, and, um, even though you think, “Well, I need to retire,” um, I don’t know. You’re probably just gonna find something else.
I don’t think I’ll ever really retire. I- Yeah … I’m that type A person. I can’t slow down. I can’t stop, and, and I’m okay with that. But knowing that I can stop, then, then that’s everything. You know, we’ve got- Hear that … the eight, the eight grandchildren we share, and we love having them here on the farm. They come here for camp every year.
So, you know, we can make priorities different than what they looked like 20 years ago. Yeah. Yeah. That’s, that’s what choices are all about. Yeah. Yeah. Choices is a good word. Yeah. Yeah. So Kira, thank you so much, um, for, uh, coming on and, uh, sharing your journey so openly with us. I know someone listening needed this reminder that you don’t have to have it all figured out.
You just have to start where you are, and you’ll figure it out along the journey. And to listeners, if this conversation showed you anything, it’s this: You might not need more money to start, but you surely need more willingness to try. Start small. Stay consistent. And don’t underestimate what you can build over time.
Amen. We are all powerfully, powerful, and wonderfully made, and every one of us have a gift inside of us that sometimes we may not have even exercised, but we won’t know what that is unless we start. Until next time, take care of yourself and your money
