I won’t break if you email or call

I’m grieving a tragic loss. And I’m open for business—if you’re open to me.

My husband died.

That sentence hogs a lot of oxygen. With three words, the dead husband enters the language, gestures, and silences of the subsequent conversation. He’s not here, but he’s never been more present.

I’m acknowledging the dead husband in the room with the dark humor some other grieving people will recognize and which I come by honestly as an ex-journalist who wrote about terrible things. I’m a widow now, and I’m also still Kristen (a little different, true), and I still run a business. If you call me to offer me work or toss around an idea or ask me out for coffee, I will not fall apart.

If you show me compassion, tears might spring into my eyes. A couple might even escape. If you’re not OK with that, you probably wouldn’t be comfortable working with me under any circumstance. Ask some of my clients—they’ll tell you I get misty when I am deeply feeling what they are going through and where they are striving to go.

Wordschmidt is three years old this month. We grew together so much while I was living in Oslo in 2022 and 2023. With phenomenal support from Shelly Sweeney at Beeline Coaching, I know better now what I want to do and who I want to work with as an editor, writer, content strategist, and coach. I’m most keenly interested in working with businesses and individuals who want to build a lasting relationship and return to me for repeat business. Transactions feel icky to me, and they’re not consistent with what I seek to do with Wordschmidt, which is to get to the heart of people and words, where we can feel it and where, as I love to say, words matter. I do better work for you when I know you, your business, your audience, and your goals, especially over time.

Bear’s death has reminded me in such painful, undeniable terms that life is too short to do something that makes me miserable or bores the daylights out of me or makes me feel less than. Time is a precious resource, and it’s also an illusion. I am more playful now. I’m taking time to read, knit, and relearn how to live. I’m navigating single parenthood and, wow, should that a résumé highlight. I have a clearer sense of my boundaries, priorities, and I’m more confident saying both yes and no.

Ugh, this is the cringe LinkedIn post I usually scroll past. Death is cringey. No avoiding that. It’s also my turn and my time to reach out to you, pull the chain and see the neon OPEN sign jerk to life again. This is me welcoming your emails and calls for projects. You can even share this with awesome people who could use my help! You will not be pulling me away from hand-washing my widow’s weeds or working on my Spotify playlist of funeral music. (Remember: It’s OK to laugh.)

Could we be a good fit? Explore my website to learn more about me and what I do for clients.