Transcript: This is Your 20-Minute Podcast where we do our best to give you useful information in 20 minutes or less. Today’s podcast is brought to you by Audible. Get a free audiobook download and 30-day free trial at AudibleTrial.com/your20minutepodcast. Over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle, or MP3 player. Now, here’s your host, David Brower.
David Brower: This is David Brower with Your 20-Minute Podcast, and our special guest today from the East Coast, I’m going to guess New York, Kim Interdonato, talking about her book, her new book, Shoes Are Like Men. Is that correct?
Kim Interdonato: You got it. I am from New York. I’m on Long Island, New York. It’s still a little cold here, but I’m here.
David Brower: All right. That a girl. I got to tell you, the way you communicate with our emails and our chitchat and all that kind of stuff, it just makes me laugh. Your book has got to be fricken hysterical.
Kim Interdonato: I have a very good sense of humor. The book, even writing it, I have to tell you, I wrote it when I took my computer out to different restaurants because if you know the book, it’s about shoes and men. I wasn’t dating at the time, so I would take my computer out to different restaurants and write the book, and as I’m writing, I would laugh because I found it so funny, and people must have thought I was some kind of lunatic, sitting in restaurants by myself having a cocktail and having an appetizer and just giggling to myself. The book is very, very funny.
David Brower: Oh, my God. That’s funny. Did the waiters and stuff come up to you and, “Would your computer like another cocktail, ma’am? Are you okay?”
Kim Interdonato: No, but I had a lot of people engage in conversation with me because they’d ask me what I was doing. I told them I was writing a book, and I think everybody thought, even my family thought I was off the wall when I told them I was going to write a book because I’m not a writer. I’m a hockey instructor, so me being a writer was just so off the wall and it was such an odd concept for me to … Everyone was like, “Okay, you’re gonna write a book?” I’m like, “Yeah, because I feel like it.”
David Brower: Because I can.
Kim Interdonato: Because I can, and it’s becoming quite successful.
David Brower: Wow.
Kim Interdonato: I’ve been doing quite a few radio interviews and quite a few podcasts and trying to get the book out there and a lot of book signings. I’m having a blast doing it and talking to people about it. It is such a conversational book. You can read it in a group. It’s a small book. It’s not a large book. It’s like a coffee table book, 42 pages. If you read it with friends, you guys can all figure out which shoe have you dated or even men have been reading it and saying that it is so comical and they’re getting such a funny insight of what guys are really like.
David Brower: How fun.
Kim Interdonato: It’s such a fun book, and it was so much fun to write, and I’m having a blast with it. Even reading it over and over again a million times, I go back and there’s so many funny one-liners in there, and if you’re sitting, especially the summertime, if you’re sitting on a beach, you can read it in two hours. It’s not a hard book to read, but it’s [crosstalk 00:02:54] and it’s entertaining. It’ll entertain you.
David Brower: How fun. Well, let’s go back a few years. Figure skater, hockey instructor, how did you do all … How did that all come about?
Kim Interdonato: Well, I was a competitive figure skater all through my childhood, and then I started teaching power skating and figure skating. I was doing more figure skating. I was a manager of the rink, and then I ended up having a child and my life just took a different turn.
David Brower: Sure.
Kim Interdonato: I ended up doing hockey a lot more because my son does hockey. I started doing the power skating, and now I’m thriving at it. I’m doing so well. As a matter of fact, I was just taking my tests online today, and now I’m pretty highly accredited through the PSA, which is the Professional Skating Association, and I love doing that job. It’s a great job.
David Brower: Wow.
Kim Interdonato: I work with amazing, amazing boys and girls, and I’m blessed. How many people get to go into work and is grouchy and I come out and I’m actually really happy? I have a great job.
David Brower: What’s power skating? What does that mean?
Kim Interdonato: Power skating is the hockey end of skating. Hockey is a great, great sport, but if you can’t skate, you can’t do ice hockey, and you need to learn how to skate properly, and I tell all my kids all the time, “If you do this correctly, it’s not so hard and it’s easy, but you have to learn how to do it. It’s not something that just comes natural.”
David Brower: How cool. Good for you. You’ve been doing that for what, 25 years altogether?
Kim Interdonato: Yeah. I’ve been doing that for 25 years. I’ve been a skating instructor for 25 years.
David Brower: Oh, my gosh.
Kim Interdonato: I think [crosstalk 00:04:19] was just such an off-the-cuff, weird thing to do, but it was fun.
David Brower: Well, you’re only 29, so, God, that’s impressive.
Kim Interdonato: Yeah, it’s getting harder and harder to tell people at the rink that I’m 29 because I’ve been working there for 24 years.
David Brower: All right. Let’s get back to the book, Shoes Are Like Men. You did the illustration, too. The cover of it’s just a trip, so you must have some artist skills.
Kim Interdonato: Yeah, I went to college to become an artist. I’m a hockey instructor and a writer. Go figure. I’m the epitome of not using your degree, but at least I put it to work with the illustrations, and I had a great time doing it. I was looking … I was doing the book. I was looking for pictures to go with the shoes that I was writing about, like the broken shoe and charity shoe, and my publisher kept going back and saying, “Well, we can’t use that one because that was from the Internet. We can’t use that one.” I’m like, “You know what? Back with you. I’m going to draw it myself.”
David Brower: Nice.
Kim Interdonato: I ended up doing it myself, and I had a great time doing it. That was more stressful, believe it or not, and writing the book was just so much fun, and I hope whoever picks up the book and I hope your listeners do grab the book because it’s not an expensive book. I wanted it to be a small, inexpensive thing so everybody could enjoy it.
David Brower: Nice.
Kim Interdonato: It’s really so much fun, and I truly, truly had a great time writing it.
David Brower: You are a renaissance woman.
Kim Interdonato: I like to say a Jack of all trades, but master of none.
David Brower: You always hear the term renaissance man. By definition, you’re a renaissance person. It’s cool all the things that you do, and you catch people off guard, like your folks going, “You’re writing a book? What?” You’re fearless, right?
Kim Interdonato: I am, but I’m not. Everything … I always tell everybody … Everyone’s like, “Oh, I can’t believe you’re doing this. I can’t believe you’re doing that, and you just took your hockey test and you just wrote a book, and you’re doing all these things.” Anybody can do it. This is also about the book, too. Everybody’s just got to think positive. If you think positive, the world is endless, and I’m a strong believer in the universe and God and I just think that you can do whatever you want to as long as you put your mind to it and don’t give up.
David Brower: Absolutely. I could not agree more. I’m a man of faith, too, and when you have that and you’re not afraid of change and you just take the leap of faith, man, your world can change in a second.
Kim Interdonato: This book has been life-changing for me. Not only putting it out there and putting my life out there, but also my attitude, even towards dating. I have become such a better dater after writing this book, and I think people would become a better dater after reading this book-
David Brower: Nice.
Kim Interdonato: Because I look at it so differently. I was looking at dating as such a negative thing when I was writing the book. I just happened to break up with somebody, and I was just also extremely depressed over another ex-boyfriend that I just couldn’t get over, and just I felt like my world was collapsing. I felt like everything else was going well in my life except for my dating, and I had to change it around. The only way I could change it around is if I wrote about it, and I expressed myself in a way, and it just, believe it or not, just came into a book.
David Brower: That’s fabulous. A lot of people like to find ways to journal, find ways to share with friends, and really you just started writing and all of a sudden, boom, you got a book.
Kim Interdonato: I was writing journals for years. I was writing a journal, but I was noticing my journal was weird. Every time I look back in my journal, it was always negative. It was this was negative and that was negative, and then I ended up having another journal I set aside and I put a journal what I was thankful for, and then I started writing an entire journal with that, so it helped me at least be able to organize my thoughts, so when I was able to sit down and write the book, I was a little bit ahead of the game for someone that just hasn’t written anything in their lifetime.
David Brower: Well, I think gratitude’s a big part of life, and you found a way to tap into that, didn’t you?
Kim Interdonato: Absolutely. Even my bad days, I find … Even if it’s joking around now, I tell them all the time, I say, “I am so thankful those bad days. They made this great book. They made for a great book.” The time you’re going through things sometimes, you don’t realize it, and it’s really hard to laugh at some situations that you’re going through in your dating life, and it’s hard to sit there and turn around and laugh until you get up to take a step out and go, “That was pretty funny. I can’t believe I actually did that.” Believe me. This is not a man bashing book. I didn’t bash anybody in this book because I didn’t feel like that is appropriate. I actually bashed myself more than I bashed anybody else [crosstalk 00:08:49], and I even said on several interviews, “I am not the most perfect person to date. I wouldn’t want to date me at times.” Some of these guys, if I was some of these guys, I would have tied up my sneakers and ran.
David Brower: I got to ask, when you meet a guy on a date, is the first thing you look at is shoes?
Kim Interdonato: You know what? I know this sounds terrible. Yes, it is though. I shouldn’t be that shallow because, listen, I’m not perfect either. Everyone has their off days, but I feel I look at men’s shoes. I love the way men dress. I love a distinguished-looking … I like a man that dresses nice. Feel like he could take care of me, because I dress … I’m always, every time I even go out to work, I put sweatpants on and a jacket on to go to work, but when I take off my skates and I talk to my parents and I’m off the ice professionally, I like to look good.
David Brower: Well, yeah, absolutely. I think that when you … I work from home. I have a studio in my house, and I get up every morning, and I get dressed, where I could just … It’s a 10-second commute to the coffee pot and it’s a 30-second commute to the studio, and I could just throw on my sweats and call it a day, but there’s something about getting up, taking a shower, getting dressed and just stepping into life, you know?
Kim Interdonato: Absolutely. It’s about having pride for yourself. If you feel good, you’re going to look good, you feel good, you got to project that energy, and everybody projects energy about them, and you can either have a very negative energy or a very positive, and I know that my energy is extremely positive, and even when I talk to people, you always try to find the good in people.
David Brower: Absolutely. Well, your energy comes through in spades on this podcast. I’m having a blast. Tell me about some of the shoes. Give me a couple of examples of shoes that are like men.
Kim Interdonato: Oh, I have the hot shoe. Everybody wants to date the hot shoe. Boy, I’ll tell you. I’ve dated enough hot shoes, and they have broken my heart, and I’ve tried to impress the hot shoe. In the book, you’ll hear about my dating situation of how I tried to impress my hot shoe, and at the end, he dumps me for the girl that can actually tame the hot shoe. Then we have the charity shoe, which is always my favorite. That’s the guy you break up with, you go back with, you go back, you break up with, you go back with. I had a bunch of shoes one time, like 20 shoes. I had a charity box, and to put these shoes … I felt like I was giving away one of my children.
David Brower: Oh, my gosh.
Kim Interdonato: Well, I feel so strongly about my shoes. I know this is stupid, and I know it’s an inanimate object, but I love shoes. I love buying them. I love going shoe shopping. It’s my favorite thing. I feel like it dresses me up. I feel good when I wear them, so to give 20 of them is horrible, but that was the same thing with the guy that you break up with. It’s like I was giving him away, I was taking him back. I was giving him away, I was taking him back. Then there was dates that I didn’t even go on. I’ve had dates that I never even went on, and those are some other different shoe styles.
David Brower: How would that work? You have a date set up and you don’t go on it. How does that relate to a shoe then?
Kim Interdonato: There was a guy that I was going … I tried to go out with, I was trying to go out with and trying to go out with, and he just never asked me out, so that was the shoe that I just left on the shelf. You go shoe shopping.
David Brower: Like that, yeah.
Kim Interdonato: I just left that shoe on the shelf. That shoe was in … How many times do you go past a shoe rack or a shoe store, and you’re like, “I really like that shoe. Maybe I’ll buy it later. Maybe I’ll buy it later,” and you never end up buying the shoe. That was this guy and me and this date. He never ended up going on the date with me. He never ended up buying the shoe. I was like this-
David Brower: Wow.
Kim Interdonato: Big shelf … What you think the book would be is not, and that’s what I love about it, and that’s why I love, you know whoever reads the book, you could put whatever you want to it. It’s put your own style to it.
David Brower: How fun is that? Make it your own really.
Kim Interdonato: Absolutely. That’s what’s so great and conversational about this book.
David Brower: I love the idea. In fact, it seems like when I was looking through some of your stuff, if I remember correctly, there was a video with you and three or four other ladies, and you were just chatting about the book, right?
Kim Interdonato: Yeah, I did several podcasts. Women, you ask them about their dates, and I’ll tell you, I’ve been asking more men about their dates, and I’m getting the greatest, greatest conversations out of them because everybody wants to tell you about what happened and what this crazy guy did or what he did, or even men have been coming up to me. My guy friends have been coming up to me and have been asking me, “Can you write a book on the flip side,” and I think that’s definitely going to be in the works is where-
David Brower: Oh, my gosh, yeah.
Kim Interdonato: So you guys get to have a little chance of your own spotlight and stand on your own soapboxes.
David Brower: That sounds like a natural. Are you in the process or just kind of …
Kim Interdonato: I started a new book and then that’ll probably be book three.
David Brower: Oh, okay.
Kim Interdonato: I’m definitely into it. I’m hook, line, and sinker. I love doing it, and it’s fun. It’s been so much fun doing.
David Brower: Wow. What’s your second book?
Kim Interdonato: I think it’s going to be Men Are Like Cocktails. I haven’t decided if it’s going to be Men Are Like Cocktails or Men Are Like Shoes Again or Shoes Are Like Men Again, but I got to write about things I know, and I’m not the biggest drinker in the world, so cocktails are a little hard for me, but shoes I know pretty darn good.
David Brower: I love it. I love it. People want to get your book and, obviously, they do now after hearing you. It’s available on Amazon, Kindle, Barnes & Noble, all kinds of places, right?
Kim Interdonato: Yeah. Amazon right now, if anyone’s buying the book, please just tap on it. It says “It’s temporary out of stock.” That just means that it’s coming a little later than you’d want it to come. It takes about two weeks instead of three days, like Amazon. They just restocked it. It’s just flying off the shelves, which is great.
David Brower: That is great. Gosh, I’m intrigued by it. I’m going to have to go it my own self.
Kim Interdonato: I’ll have to send you one, David. You and your wife will have a good laugh.
David Brower: We’ll just sit around and talk about it. I’m fascinated by that. All right. It is Kim Interdonato in Long Island, New York, and you can find the book, Shoes Are Like Men, Amazon, Kindle, Barnes & Noble. Do you have a website where people can check in and laugh with you?
Kim Interdonato: Yes. It’s shoesarelikemen.com. Like me on Facebook if you’d like. Look me up on Instagram. I have Twitter. Please, give me your input. I love hearing from everybody, and I will answer you.
David Brower: Nice. That would be a great way for men to reach out to you with their own stories through social media to feed your book a little bit.
Kim Interdonato: I’d be more than happy to interview anybody. Any great stories, I would love to put in the book, the next, book three.
David Brower: Whether it’s Shoes Are Like Cocktails or Shoes Are Like Women, we don’t know yet, so we’ll find out.
Kim Interdonato: I’m going to keep you all on a cliffhanger.
David Brower: That a girl. Well, when the new book comes out, reach out to me. I want to do this again.
Kim Interdonato: I would love to. I would love to. It’s been a pleasure talking to you.
David Brower: Likewise. Thanks, Kim. Kim Interdonato, author and illustrator of the book, Shoes Are Like Men, and you can go to shoesarelikemen.com and Amazon, Kindle, Barnes & Noble, all the usual places, social media, Twitter, Instagram. Check it out. It’ll be even more fun than this conversation. Kim, have a great rest of your week.
Kim Interdonato: Thank you. You, too.
David Brower: You’ve been listening to Your 20-Minute Podcast with David Brower, and we’d like you to follow us on Facebook at Facebook.com/your20minutepodcast.
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