About Kathryn

Purposeful Visionary

Kathryn Cloward is an award winning author, songwriter, publisher, and entrepreneur.  She is a passionate and purposeful woman dedicated to rippling loving kindness, compassion, and acceptance into the world.  A socially conscious risk-taking visionary, Kathryn is the founder and president of Natural Kidz, Inc. and Kandon Unlimited Inc., which is home of Kandon Publishing and Kathryn the Grape® Company.

Natural Kidz®

Kathryn was inspired to launch Natural Kidz soon after discovering her son had a serious peanut allergy. In seeking safe and healthy food products for her son, she developed a deeper appreciation for, and was inspired to choose, everyday products that promote a more natural and sustainable lifestyle.

Kathryn the Grape®

In bringing her childhood nickname to life through the award winning Kathryn the Grape children’s picture book series and  music CDs, weekly teen-hosted radio show, and merchandise with inspirational messages, Kathryn is helping others develop authentic self-love and compassionate self-esteem by rippling messages of loving kindness and compassion throughout the world.

Kandon Publishing™

With the desire to maintain creative integrity over her own books, Kathryn chose to take the personal and professional risk of investing in her own projects and founded Kandon Publishing.  Having successfully navigated the evolving publishing industry and earning multiple book awards in the process, Kandon Publishing has successfully expanded to publishing books by other authors.

Public Speaking

An engaging public speaker, Kathryn has shared her voice with audiences nationwide on a variety of topics ranging from negotiating deals and business success strategies, to personal transformation tools and guidance on awakening to your life’s purpose.  She shared pieces of her inspirational story on the TEDx stage in her talk titled, Choice Point Moments: Doing It Differently.  She has rippled her unique message into the world through a weekly internet radio show, The Ripple Effect™ with Kathryn Cloward, and produces Kathryn the Grape’s Magical Hour Radio Show, a weekly teen-hosted radio show focused on sharing inspirational messages with kids, teens, and families.

Award Winner

Kathryn has earned multiple awards and national recognition for her purposeful hard work:

  • SILVER Mom’s Choice Award  for “Kathryn the Grape’s Piece of Love” (2013)
  • SILVER Mom’s Choice Award for “Kathryn the Grape’s Colorful Adventure” (2012)
  • SILVER Mom’s Choice Award for “Kathryn the Grape Just Like Magic” (2012)
  • GOLD Mom’s Choice Award for “Believe Kathryn the Grape Songs for Kids of All Ages” (2012)
  • StartupNation’s Leading Moms in Business (2012)
  • San Diego Magazine’s Women Who Move The City (2012)
  • San Diego Family Magazine Cover Mompreneur (May 2011)
  • San Diego Metropolitan Magazine 40 Under 40 (2010)
  • Speak for Success Women Changing the World Awards. Inspirational Woman (2010)

Creative Risk-Taker

With over 15 years of entrepreneurial experience, Kathryn built her career from the ground up with hard work, fearless determination, creative risk-taking, and entrepreneurial optimism. She paid her own way through college by waitressing, and graduated from San Diego State University without taking any student loans.  After graduating, Kathryn worked and performed at Club Med for six months, then lived overseas in New Zealand for a year.  In returning to her native San Diego, Kathryn chose to work for organizations that fostered self-starting business models (100% commission) where she thrived and earned over 30 achievement awards for sales and management excellence, including #1 Sales, #1 Sales Manager, Presidents Club, and the exclusive Circle of Excellence.  In fully recognizing her inner motivation, she took the risk-taking leap into business ownership in 2005 by launching her first corporation, a food marketing company which she grew to $16 Million in sales in six years, and has been building her companies and brands ever since.

Kathryn’s focus, determination, and fearlessness also exists in her personal life. She has hiked to the top of Yosemite’s Half Dome twice, completed two marathons, and has bungee jumped the Kawarau Bridge in New Zealand and Victory Falls Bridge in Zimbabwe.

Giving Back

Kathryn has channeled her heart for helping others into creating companies that have an altruistic mission at their foundation. She has incorporated a giving-back element into each of her business endeavors.  Raised by her parents to nurture a heart for service, Kathryn has volunteered with a variety of local and global organizations. During a period of mentoring teenagers, an opportunity arose to travel to Zambia. Spending time with the people of this country, often in remote villages, brought forth a powerful internal call to action. Kathryn came home compelled to do more to help, which resulted in the creation of Walk Their Walk, a bi-coastal fundraising event that raised over $60,000 in three years to build three fresh water wells and complete construction on an elementary school in Zambia.  The people of Choma, Zambia organized a walk in their city center, and wore the Walk Their Walk shirts Kathryn sent to them.   Kathryn’s long-term vision is to develop a non-profit foundation focused on building schools and educating children all around the world.

The Ripple Effect™

It was in hitting a personal rock bottom that Kathryn chose to embark on a courageous transformational journey that resulted in awakening to her soul’s purpose.  Inspired by her young son, Kathryn has been purposeful in nurturing the development of her intuitive gifts and tuning in to the messages she receives so that she can continue to do her part in shifting the consciousness of our planet by being a conduit for sharing messages of love and compassion.  She is enjoys helping others experience unlimited and unleashed personal and professional growth, and empowers others with personal accountability by teaching about nurturing a positive ripple effect.