A Valpo Life in the Spotlight: Kathy Sipple

Kathy-SippleWho would have thought 20 years ago that social media would be the communication giant that it is today? Everyone uses it –some for leisure, and some for business. Kathy Sipple is a super-savvy business woman who uses social media in smart and positive ways. So it’s only natural that she is a Valpo Life in the Spotlight.

Sipple was born and in Louisville, Kentucky. She lived all over the United States and when it was time for college, she chose the University of Michigan. There she received her B.A. in Economics.

Ten years ago Sipple moved to Valpo with her husband.

“I love living here,” Sipple said. "I enjoy a lot of things about Valpo. It has a lot of advantages for a town its size. There’s nothing that this place has that I don’t want. The people are friendly.”

Sipple is the owner of My Social Media Coach –where she does consulting for businesses and non-profits. She does various things to help her clients through her business such as Webinar training for groups/individuals, face-to-face training, professional speaking engagements, etc. This isn’t all that Sipple does. She also has a website called 219greenconnect.com. It’s basically a site where people can connect and share news and events about environmental topics with each other.

“It’s taken on a momentum of its own,” Sipple said happily.

Other things that Sipple has on her plate are: a weekly radio show on WVLP called Socially Speaking (she co-hosts with Tracy Traut), she is involved with Northwest Indiana Green Drinks, she is the Regional Coordinator for Sustainable Indiana 2016, she is involved with the Northwest Indiana Health Initiative, and she is a certified Reiki Master Teacher.

You know, that’s only the tip of the iceberg. There are many more things that Sipple does. Check out her website to find out more. She’s also on Facebook, so look there, too. 

So how did she get into social media? Sipple told me that it started out as a personal reason.

“My younger sister had brain injury in 2008 and went into a coma for a month and was hospitalized for six months. I was not happy with the communication tools at that time, so I started a blog for her on Carepages.com,” Sipple said. “I went on her Facebook page to find her friends so that they would know what was happening, and after she was released in January of 2009 I came to Valpo and started the business that I have now. It just seemed right.”

Sipple definitely made the right career choice. She has been very influential and beneficial to the social media world. She hosted Northwest Indiana’s first ever Tweet-Up, and she was voted Indiana’s Most Influential Woman in Social Media in 2009. That’s nothing to shrug at.

“I love what I do. Social media is great because of what it can do. I like to help people connect within a community so that they can help each other,” Sipple said.

With all of the things above consuming much of her time, one might assume that Sipple doesn’t do much outside of work. Wrong! Though she does have quite a bit going on Sipple does find time to do the things she loves like hike at the Dunes with her husband, photography, reading , playing Texas Hold’em, karaoke, and she’s into community organic gardening.

If you haven’t caught on already, and I know that you have, Sipple is very into the environment. How did that start?

“It kind of unfolded. In college I was ahead of curve. I took classes on environment,” Sipple said. “When I was young I loved Ranger Rick. I liked recycling and getting outside. It really stuck and the environment is an interesting mystery that I never get tired of.”

So with a full life, Sipple must have some secret to success that she wished to divulge with us.

“In Reiki there’s a saying," Sipple said. "‘Just for today, do not worry. Just for today, do not anger.’ When you thing about it, when your worried it’s in the future and when you’re angry it’s about something in the past. When you’re not worried and you’re not angry -live in the now, you can see the beauty of every single moment if you look for it.”

That makes a lot of sense. And it should coming from someone as smart as Kathy Sipple. She is, most definitely, a Valpo Life in the Spotlight.