When I spoke to Kim, she talked about the fact that being out of her comfort zone had almost become her comfort zone! 

“I grew up moving a lot. We moved from I was born in the UK, to the West Indies and then to Canada, back and forth. I think that when you’re always the new kid in town, you are essentially always the ‘other’ and, as such, you don’t really get a comfort zone that is sustainable. So, I think, in many ways, being out of my comfort zone is my comfort zone.” 

At Kim 20 she was working a spring ski season at Big White (a ski hill in British Columbia). “As the season was ending there were a lot of us who were looking for our next ‘adventures’. On one particularly enthusiastic night out – with perhaps a few too many Jägermeister shots, if I’m honest – a couple of the guys said they were going to northern Saskatchewan to go tree planting. To this day I can’t tell you why I decided to say, “That sounds interesting… I’ll do that too!: 

The patronising look they gave me said it all… and then they said it out loud: ‘girls can’t do that!’ Well, this girl was going to show them. “Oh, yes, we can!” 

I knew then that Kim and I had a lot in common! 

Kim actually ticked a lot of ‘no’ boxes on doing this work “I hated camping. I’d never held a shovel in my life. I don’t do cold. And it was all those things… and more. 

“But I did. I sucked it up and I did it and, in many ways, it was the making of me. Actually, after tree planting I went even further north and ended up emergency forest firefighting in the Yukon Territories!” 

“Never in my wildest dreams did I ever see myself doing that, but it was pivotal to me as a human being, and to finding the fierce female component that has, from that point on, been integral to who I am.  

“Once I’d done that, when I’d really taken myself completely, not only out of my comfort zone, but almost out of my own understanding of myself, it made me. Because I knew that if I could do that, I could do anything.  

“It was, in so many ways, one of the most intensely uncomfortable – in fact, I call it my ‘In Tents Summer’ – and incredibly joyous times in my life.” 

Choosing from many further examples of stepping out of her comfort zone, Kim chose her ‘latest incarnation’. 

“A few years later I found myself founding and running a theatre company in London and from there moving to Amsterdam, where I was an editor and writer for national and international magazines and newspapers. I got to interview people like Madeleine Albright, Tom Wolfe and John Irving, who were all, in one way or another, huge influences on me and people I’d looked up to for many years. It was a great life!  

“And then I met an amazing Australian man and, with no hesitation I can tell you that I fell in love with him at first sight. When we decided to get married, we made the decision to move to Sydney, where he grew up. It was an exciting time but also daunting. 

“I had an amazing career and a phenomenal cohort of female friends. We empowered each other; we commiserated and celebrated together and when you find a group of fabulous women who all support one another it is extremely difficult to give up. That group of friends will always be priceless to me.” 

Kim spoke to me about how hard it was to start again in a foreign country. With no children in tow, there were no playground or school gate meetings where she could make new friends. Also career wise Kim knew that, already in her forties, it was unlikely she’d be able to walk into a commensurate media career – she needed to rethink and retool. 

“I had to figure out what to do. 

“My husband and I co-founded a high-tech startup company together- which was wonderful – but, at that point, it was not an industry, I was completely au fait with.  

“Once again, I was out of my comfort zone so, I had to figure out a way to find my place and my position in a way that was true to myself but also was useful to the company. So, I began to learn; I learned about the industry’s past and present, but more importantly I explored the future of the industry – and I began to write about it.  

I started a blog and reached out to people that I felt were very influential in their industries.  “Given my previous career, interviewing people and writing about them was definitely in my comfort zone. However, I was talking with and listening to people who were experts in areas that, at the time, I knew nothing about. In doing so I learned a huge amount and became a vastly better CEO.” 

Kim’s advice for people considering stepping out of their comfort zone is: “I think people don’t realise how powerful and how plentiful generosity is around them. Too often we have been told that asking is a sign of weakness. It’s not. Know this: regardless of what comfort zone you’re stepping out of, be it personal or professional, there are more people willing to help than you know. They’re there to help you to take steps forward, to support you along the way and to celebrate with you when you’ve reached your goal.  

“This is a journey. There’s no end point where you think: okay, I’m done. The adventure of life isn’t like that; every day is an opportunity to stretch and learn a little bit more. Who knows you may even plant a few trees along the way.” 

Bio of Kim Chandler McDonald:

Kim is the Co-Founder and CEO of FlatWorld Integration, an Australian high-tech software firm, which is transforming the world of data. She is a globally respected thought leader on disruptive approaches – particularly those involving innovation and the global Digital/Data Economies. Kim is the award-winning author of Innovation: How Innovators Think, Act and Change Our World (2013) and Flat World Navigation: Collaboration and Networking in the Global Digital Economy (2015) as well as co-author of, ‘Entrepreneurial Renaissance: Cities Striving Towards an Era of Renaissance and Revival’ (2017). She is currently in the midst of a new book project, all profits of which will be donated to Lou’s Place – the only daytime drop-in refuge for female victims of domestic violence in Sydney. Currently Kim sits on a number of boards both locally and internationally and is a proud member of the inaugural cohort of SheEO (Australia), a global community of radically generous women transforming the way we finance, support and celebrate female entrepreneurs who are creating a better world. Formerly, while living in the Netherlands, Kim was a writer/editor for national and international English-language newspapers and magazines and host/producer of an award winning radio program.