Hello Friend,
I grew up in a family that loved me, but life was complicated. My parents divorced when I was in third grade. My mom fell in love with a prison inmate while teaching adult education at a correctional institution. I was the flower girl in their wedding inside the prison chapel.
At first, it felt exciting. It was different and unusual and something none of my classmates could relate to. But eventually the weight of it settled in. I remember filling out school forms with space for just one address and one set of parents and feeling a shame I couldn’t name. I remember paying for groceries with food stamps and spending long hours alone while my mom worked three jobs to keep us afloat.
From eighth grade on, I lived with my dad. I remember him fumbling his way through single parenting, trying so hard, and both of us not knowing what to do with all the sadness between us.
Those years shaped me. They taught me that people face real battles behind closed doors. Parents want to give their kids the world, but sometimes the world they can offer is small. Asking for help is not weakness. It is strength waiting to rise.
I eventually went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and earned a degree in broadcast journalism. I worked in television news for many years in Milwaukee, Madison, and Fargo. I had big opportunities and a big life. On the outside it looked great.
Inside was a different story.
In 2011, I had everything I thought I wanted. I was married to a college basketball coach and had three sweet small children. But life felt flat. I was edging toward addiction and numbing myself with food, sleep, and alcohol. I felt lost in a life that looked perfect on paper.
Then one small act of kindness changed everything. I did something kind for someone else and it made me feel powerful and creative again. Soon after, I started writing a weekly newspaper column called Kindness is Contagious. Within a year of practicing intentional kindness, I quit drinking, quit smoking, lost 30 pounds, and fell back in love with my husband. My home changed because I changed.
A few years later, I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. I learned how tiny acts of kindness could reroute a bad day and reset my mind. Kindness became my survival skill. It became the medicine that helped me see what was still good and still possible.
Kindness trained my eyes to look for what was right instead of what was wrong. It helped me rebuild my life from the inside out. What started as a personal lifeline became a calling to help others navigate the heaviness of life with hope and humanity.
Today, I am an author, speaker, and the host of The Kindness Podcast, where I get to sit with people who are making the world softer in small but powerful ways.
The one thing I would tell the world is this:
Kindness is not about other people. It is about you. The life you transform with kindness is your own.
Thank you for being here. I hope something in my story reminds you that you are stronger than you think and you matter more than you know.
With love,
Nicole
P.S. Remember, what you look for is what you’ll see.
