With Kimberly Crowe (formerly Hobscheid), a joint venture super-connector, award-winning international inspirational public speaker, best-selling author, audiobook producer, and six-time entrepreneur. Kimberly gets entrepreneurs the stages and connections they need to stop being overlooked, and explosively grow their revenue and reach.

Join us for this terrific conversation where Kimberly shares her success secrets including her formula, the “Road to Joy” for Entrepreneurs. You will hear about how Kimberly finally left her golden handcuffs to embrace entrepreneurship, and success tips and strategies that helped Kimberly to build successful business after successful business. (You will also hear what led her to walk away from one of her businesses!)

Kimberly shares about what really makes people hire you or decide to buy from you, the number one thing you need to do today to explode your business, a powerful strategy for handling pre-stage jitters if you are a speaker or presenter, as well as what successful entrepreneurs do differently than those who struggle.

Kimberly is also the creator of Entrepreneurs Rocket Fuel, an active community of Entrepreneurs, looking to contribute, connect, and grow with other entrepreneurs.

>> Subscribe to Guts, Grit & Great Business on Apple Podcasts

Biggest takeaways (or quotes) you don’t want to miss:

• How Kimberly left her “golden handcuffs” to enter the world of entrepreneurship
• The energy that you can bring to your business when you LOVE what you do. And how this translates into attracting a ton of business!
• “We built this whole business around the fun, and the joy, and the happiness of it.”
• Why people really buy from you.

Check out these highlights:

9:19 Hear how Kimberly helped her son start an entrepreneurial adventure as an audiobook narrator!

11:04 “Life’s too short. You gotta do what you love.”

12:00 How do you hold onto the fun? (And hear about Kimberly’s ROAD TO JOY for entrepreneurs!)

23:59 What can you do well that you love? And hear from Kimberly about how to handle a job or current work that you don’t love.

29:40 I know what it takes in order to grow a business. What it takes is getting seen and getting heard. (Hear more here about how Kimberly helps people do that!)

37:00 What are those (who are successful, including during covid) doing differently than those who are not?

46:10 “How I wore the ‘I make it work’ badge as a badge of honor, and what a mistake that was in my life.”

How to get in touch with Kimberly

On social media:

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/kimberly.susan,crowe
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberlyhobscheid/

Join Kimberly’s Entrepreneurs Rocket Fuel [Free] Community here.

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Learn more about Kimberly or get in touch with her via her website here.

Imperfect Show Notes

We are happy to offer these imperfect show notes to make this podcast more accessible to those who are hearing impaired or those who prefer reading over listening. While we would love to offer more polished show notes, we are currently offering an automated transcription (which likely includes errors, but hopefully will still deliver great value), below.

GGGB Intro  00:00

Coming up today on Guts, Grit & Great Business … 

Kimberly Crowe  00:04

I actually have an acronym that I teach entrepreneurs called the ROAD to joy. And ROAD is an acronym. The R is for relish. If you relish it, if you love it, if it fills you with joy and happiness, keep doing it. And if you don’t, then it needs to then whatever task it is that’s on your plate needs to move into one of the other three categories O, A, and D, for road to joy. So R is relish, but O is outsource, A is automate. And D is delegate. So you get it off your plate as quickly as possible. Because really what people come to be with you about is your enthusiasm, your joy, your happiness.

GGGB Intro  00:45

The adventure of entrepreneurship and building a life and business you love, preferably at the same time is not for the faint of heart. That’s why Heather Pearce Campbell is bringing you a dose of guts, grit and great business stories that will inspire and motivate you to create what you want in your business and life. Welcome to the Guts, Grit & Great Business podcast where endurance is required. Now, here’s your host, The Legal Website Warrior®, Heather Pearce Campbell.

Heather Pearce Campbell  01:18

Alrighty, welcome. I am Heather Pearce Campbell, The Legal Website Warrior®. I’m an attorney and legal coach based here in Seattle, Washington. Welcome to another episode of Guts, Grit & Great Business. So today I have a guest that you are going to love – Kimberly. I loved her when I met her. So Kimberly, we first connected I think it was through a mutual friend. You were running your summit, right, the Entrepreneur Rocket Fuel Summit. And your energy is just so fun. You were such a pro. I loved being a part of your summit. So I’m super excited to have you here today. For folks who don’t know Kimberly, we’ve got Kimberly (Hobscheid), now Crowe, and Kimberly is a master connector. She is a joint venture super connector. She gets entrepreneurs the stages and connections they need to stop being overlooked and explosively grow their revenue and reach. She is an award winning international inspirational public speaker, best selling author, audio book producer and six time entrepreneur. She is also the creator of Entrepreneurs Rocket Fuel, an active community of entrepreneurs looking to contribute, connect and grow with other entrepreneurs. So some fun highlights about Kimberly are that she’s a mother of two, also an adventure seeker, which I can attest to because she just explained to me how she is traveling full time during COVID. (laughing).

Kimberly Crowe  02:45

We’ll get into that. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  02:47

She has hiked sections of the Pacific Crest Trail and navigated class four rapids with one of Costa Rica’s female Olympic medal winning whitewater champions. Her motto is live life out loud. Kimberly, I’m so happy to have you here today. Thank you for coming on. 

Kimberly Crowe  03:06

Heather, it’s such a pleasure. I just love being with you. I love your energy. I love how you show up in the world. And I love this show. I think it’s gonna be really amazing to share with what’s going on in the world with your audience. But Guts, Grit & Great Business is a great way to start things. 

Heather Pearce Campbell  03:23

Oh, well, thank you. You know, it’s been really fun because and I’ve mentioned this several times, I launched the podcast during COVID. Right? It was like one of the ways to harness some creative energy that I had. And it’s been a really, really fun way to connect, and really get to know a lot more about some folks that are in the industries that I serve and that I work with, and that are really, you know, fabulous industry leaders and have some really interesting things going on. So I’m super happy to have you here and can’t wait to dig in. Now, one of the first questions that I like to ask people is about how they got into entrepreneurship, right? Not everybody chooses to be an entrepreneur. So talk to us a little bit about what that looked like for you. 

Kimberly Crowe  04:10

Sure. Um, so I will share my story about how I got into full time entrepreneurship. I actually like many of your listeners, I did what my what they told us to do, which is I went to college, I got a good degree. I graduated and I started working at a corporate job that had health insurance. I started at the bottom and I worked my way up, and I got promoted and I got you know, raises and I got more territory and I started at the bottom and ended up about 17 years later as an executive director for a fortune 1000 company actually rare enough I stayed with a company transferred several times that absolutely stayed with the same company for 17 years, which is very unusual. And about 15 of them were really good. I actually really enjoyed I grew up climbing up the corporate ladder and doing those things that, you know, they told us to do. And most of it was really, really good. And I learned a lot. But the last two, they just weren’t all that and a bag of chips. And at 15 years, I actually did put in my resignation, I knew that I didn’t want to do this for the rest of my life. And I had another calling, I had climbed up a ladder that I didn’t really even want to be on anymore. And that’s a really hard place to be, I had climbed up into what a lot of people know as golden handcuffs. Now, golden handcuffs, for those of you who don’t know, or when you it’s an expression, that means basically, you’re making a lot of money, but you don’t really want to do it anymore. But you’re making enough money so that it doesn’t make sense to leave. But you’re, you know, your heart isn’t in it anymore. It’s a very difficult position to be in. So I had resigned, and they had offered me another position, I get another transfer, I get another opportunity. I got more territory. And then I, you know, I stayed I probably shouldn’t have. But then after another two years, I trained my replacement, and we parted his friends. And I said, You know, I just I need to do anything else. I know that I’m not supposed to die with this on my tombstone, right? This is not in for me. So. So I actually left and fortunately for me, you asked, When did I start entrepreneurship long before that, I actually had some businesses on the side. And I’ve been fortunate in business enough to have grown some small businesses large enough to be able to sell them, which doesn’t happen very often. And so that was very fortunate. So I knew a lot about entrepreneurship when I decided to become a full time entrepreneur. And but, but launching into it as a whole new feeling. You know, just like, okay, I’ve jumped off the ladder now fly, be free. What am I going to do, right? So I went to my friends and family, and I said, What do you think I should do for this full time business? I want to create a seven figure business. And they said, Well, you were so good at what you did at corporate, why don’t you do that? And I was like, Oh, yeah, sure, right. I’m good at that. I should do that. So I created a business. And I started it. And I hired employees. And I had payroll, and contracts and customers and responsibilities and all kinds of deadlines and all kinds of things that that a business has. And in 18 months, I had grown it to a million dollar business and had over a million dollars in revenue. And I turned around and I went, Oh, no, I have just built my own jail cell. I felt like I had been hit by a Mack truck. It was like that fast that it came on me. Like I just built a whole business doing exactly what I wanted to stop doing. And now I’m in it. Now I’m responsible for other people’s paychecks and delivery. And I don’t want to do it anymore. And I had what Rene brown calls a spiritual awakening slash breakdown. Do you know?

Heather Pearce Campbell  07:51

Oh, she’s fabulous.

Kimberly Crowe  07:54

But it was a big crisis in my life. And I actually went out onto a literal mountaintop to try to find the answer. Of course, it wasn’t up there. And I. And I’m not just an entrepreneur, I’m also a mom. So when I walked in my 15 year old son met me at the door and he said, Mom, I’ve got a problem. I thought, great, someone else’s problem. Right? anybody else’s problems other than our own? Let’s solve that. Right? So I was like, fantastic. What’s your problem, sweetheart? And he said, I’m going into summer, and I’m going to be 15 and a half the whole summer. And 15 and a half is a crappy aged enter summer because you’re too young to get a summer job. All of his friends were getting summer jobs. And he said, and I’m too old to go back to summer camp, because that’s boring and stupid, because I’m 15 and a half now and that’s boring and stupid, right? And not only that, he said, and I’m taller than all the camp counselors. And it’s true. He was tall guy, right? So I was like, Yeah, I get that. But you know what, you’re never too young or too old, or too tall or too short to do that to be an entrepreneur. So why don’t you and I create a business around what you love doing? Just anything really enjoy doing, let’s just create a business around it, and just make some money doing what you love doing? And he was like, Can we do that? And I said, Sure. Let’s do that. Right? So we put all his stuff into Google about like what he liked to do. Well, the apple doesn’t fall far, far from the tree. He loves being on stage. He does impromptu speaking. He was great at improv. He read books to the younger students at school. He loved kids. So we put all that stuff in and out popped, “Why don’t you be an audiobook narrator?” He said, Mom, can we do that? And I said, Sure. I don’t know why not. Right. So we bought some stuff on Amazon. We actually created a whole business. And he loved it. We loved it. I taught him all about entrepreneurship. He taught me all about Snapchat and the social media channels, I knew nothing about all kinds of stuff. We helped each other. We built this business and it was around what we loved. We loved doing it. We got so much business and So much came out of that energy of that love that passion, that fun, that joy, that happiness. So much came out of that, that we just radiated it. And because of that we attracted tons of business. And the business that came flying in, we couldn’t even handle we had more business, we had more books than we could read. We ended up having to teach a course to to locals in the area about how to become an audiobook narrator so we could hire them to do our books for us. And and we loved teaching. So we had this other little offshoot, we created a whole business around teaching people to become audiobook narrators, then we taught, you know, then we we had another one about how to market audiobooks. So we built this whole business around this engine of the fun and the joy and the happiness around it. And so at that moment, I realized that he had really rescued me, he had saved me from just doing what I was good at, and changed it to, I knew that I would never create another business that I didn’t love ever again. And I would never continue to do a business I didn’t love. I did it for two years at corporate and then I did it in my own business. And I realized that life’s too short, man, you got to do what you love.

Heather Pearce Campbell  11:08

Hmmm there’s, there’s so much i love about that story. And it highlights how I mean, in my mind, I’m thinking about how many ways things go wrong, where we end up working in a position, like you said, that is either making money or just feels like the thing that we should be doing. And it’s not really the thing that we want to be doing or that are you know, where our heart can really soar. Talk to me, though, in your experience, because I love that first of all, you guys were able to start something that felt fun. And it stayed fun, right? Yeah, because I think some people start something that feels fun. And it doesn’t stay fun, once they get into actually doing the work required to make it a business. So how do you hold on to the fun? How did you guys manage to grow it and do all the things and hold on to the fun?

Kimberly Crowe  12:03

Well, I want to say that I did not seed Heather with this question. But it was a beautiful segue. I did not give her that question. But it was beautiful. Because I actually have an acronym that I teach entrepreneurs called the ROAD to joy. And R.O.A.D. is an acronym. The R is for relish. If you relish it, if you love it, if it fills you with joy and happiness, keep doing it. And if you don’t, then it needs to then whatever task it is that’s on your plate needs to move into one of the other three categories o A and D for road to joy. So R is relish. But O is outsource, A is automate. And D is delegate. So you get it off your plate as quickly as possible. Because really what what people come to be with you about is your enthusiasm, your joy, your happiness. I mean, if you gather you teach people about how to be free of the legal issues, right how to make sure that they can run a business without getting trapped in some of that garbage, right? And if we come to you, and you’re like, yeah, it’s horrible. There’s a lot of stuff. It’s super complicated, you’re gonna hate it. Like, we’d be like, I’m gonna go find somebody else, right? But you come in, and you’re like, I got you, this is totally perfect. And we’re gonna fix it so that everything’s gonna be good, you’re going to love it, it’s going to be amazing. That’s why people buy from you. Because of your enthusiasm because of your because because that enthusiasm that radiates out from you. exudes confidence, people want to be in your zone, people want to be in that sunshine and that light. And that is what we found, you know that when we were really successful it was because we were focused on what we loved doing. When it got too much like we could not do those. The we could not we could not spend more time in the closet recording audio books anymore. Like we just needed some oxygen, right? We went out and taught other people how to do it. And they were like, Oh my god, this is so fun. And we’re like, Yes, it is, is it in fun, and we like super excited about it again. And when you get that enthusiasm, people want to be a part of that. And they want to be in your glow. And that is what makes you magnetically attractive. So the road to joy keeps you there by saying if I love it if I if I go in and I love recording audio books, keep doing it for as long as it’s fun. And then one day if it’s not fun, do something else. And if it’s not fun for like a week or month or a year do anything else, right? Like don’t do it anymore, go do something else. And and that’s really it and you need to outsource, automate or delegate the rest. So for us, we did a little of everything, right. We automated all of our email campaigns. And we automated our our announcements that new books were coming out new audio books were coming out that was a whole automated process. Now we click like three buttons and out goes in announcement to all of our listeners about a new audio book that’s been released. We automated our website, we automated a lot of stuff, right? But then there’s other stuff that you can’t automate, like okay, well, we have a new product. Now we have to put that up on the website. Well, now I delegate that I have a VA and she’s amazing and big Getting a virtual assistant is the best move you’ll ever make as an entrepreneur, really, really even better than hiring your children. It’s way better to hire a VA because they do what you tell them. And getting it off your plate is the best favor you can do yourself. Because if you go in and you’re like, Oh my gosh, I’ll never get out from under this email. Or Oh, no, I’ve got to do my taxes or Oh, no, I have to do invoicing or whatever it is you hate. I mean, some people love invoicing. I mean, people they’re like, I can’t wait to do my invoices is great. If you love it, and it fills you with joy. Keep doing it. If you don’t, and it fills you with trepidation and gloom and doom, get it off your plate as soon as possible onto somebody else’s. Hmm.

Heather Pearce Campbell  15:42

I love that. And I agree. I think people get bogged down in the doing and it really can take them out of the joy. What do you I’m curious, what do you say to people that say no, you can’t build a business based around doing something that you love. You need to build a business that makes money first and then take that money and do what you love? You know, you’ve probably heard that advice, right?

Kimberly Crowe  16:08

Yeah, but go get a job because you have health insurance that way. Because if you want to make money to go on two weeks of vacation a year, a job is a great way to do that you’re done at five o’clock, you go home at night, you can spend time with your family, you get regular vacations, you can call in sick, no big deal, go do that. They pay your taxes, they pay your insurance, that’s a good idea, go get a job. But do not do that as an entrepreneurship. Because if you’re doing an entrepreneurship that you hate, just so that you can have time off. Whoosh, that’s a that’s a lot of time because especially starting a business, it can be three to five years before it turns a major profit where it’s generating enough income to pay for your bills. And imagine building a business large enough to pay for your kids college education. That can be a daunting task. Like if you’re like, Okay, I got this now I got to pay me $100,000 a year, and I have to earn enough to be able to save 25 to $40,000 a year for four years. And I got four kids while I only have to. But if you have that, like that’s a lot of money, then you’re like, aha, now I know what I need to charge. That’s not a small side business, where I’m knitting quilts or anything, right? This is a big, major business, right? So if you’re going to build that business, that’s a daunting task. If you don’t love what you’re doing, you’re going to be spending 5060 7080 hours a week working a $30,000 a year job doing like a lot of work, not what you love. Absolutely not. I’m not in favor of that. But if you want to do that, go get a job. And there’s plenty of people that will hire you to work from nine to five and do a great job for them. And you’re done on the weekend, huh?

Heather Pearce Campbell  17:43

No, I’m so glad you said that. Because I do agree the amount of momentum that it takes to clear some of the hurdles that you have to clear in entrepreneurship, like, you don’t get over those if you don’t care about what you’re doing to the point that you’re willing to do what it takes to clear those hurdles. Right. You’re,

Kimberly Crowe  18:04

you’re totally right. Absolutely. And the joy and the happiness is what muscles you through some of those bad times. Now I’m not saying I don’t have bad days at work, right? I’m not right. Every day, guys, whether you’re working a job, or whether you’re working in entrepreneurship, there are days where you’re like, whoosh, that was a gut punch, right? Like there are days and and there can be days in a row, right? And it can be a week or two. But if it’s beyond that, you really need to, especially if you’re an entrepreneur, take a long hard look at it and say, What is it that’s that’s dragging me down? I know that I can be 10 times more effective if I’m not dragged down. So how can I get that off my plate and be 10 times more effective, right? If I have to hire a VA, and you can hire a VA in you know, overseas or whatever, whatever your whatever your beliefs about that are, it’s totally fine. You can hire a VA in the United States right now for $20 an hour. And if you don’t think your time is worth $20 an hour, you you know, you shouldn’t run a business. Yeah, right. So it’s I’m not saying everybody has money to burn when they’re starting a business. But I am saying, you know, take a long, hard look at that and figure out, like if I could get that off my plate, give it to somebody else, and then be 10 times more effective doing what I love, having fun. And being in the joy and the happiness of it great. My dad actually accidentally taught me that lesson when I was very young, the opposite of that. I overheard him with my little seven year old brain. And he was talking to a friend about his boat. And we were fortunate enough to have a really nice sailboat that we visited on the weekends, right? And he would say, well, Bill, you have this great boat, why don’t you do a business with like, why don’t you take people out on pleasure cruises. And then you could do it all the time. You could be on that boat all the time. And he said, Oh no, that’s my hobby. And I love it. If I turned it into a business than it would be a job and I wouldn’t love it anymore. And my little seven year old burnt brain flip that switch and I was like Aha, you can either make money or have fun, but you can’t do both at the same time. A lot of people got that message from their, from their parents or from a friend who meant well, my dad didn’t mean anything by it. He loved his job. You know, like he was an entrepreneur as well. He loved a lot of parts of his job. Not all of them. But it wasn’t a sailboat. Yeah. But yeah, I think that a lot of people get tied up in that. And you just have to break free of that and just say, Okay, what if, what if I did only do the things I loved? What would be left? And how could I get rid of that as soon as possible? That’s a really good methodology.

Heather Pearce Campbell  20:29

Mm hmm. No, it’s true. And you you raise this really important point that I think, and then it leads me back to wanting to ask a question that you were talking about before. But this idea that we can’t make money and do what we love, at the same time, how many people, especially in the creative space, and I’m just going to say that if you are an entrepreneur, like you probably part of you lives in the creative space, regardless of what you’re doing, because entrepreneurship is all around creating a business that solves problems, right, hopefully in a unique way that doesn’t already exist in the marketplace. Or if it does, you’re doing it with your own spin, right. So I fundamentally believe that like most entrepreneurs are actually highly creative. And we do so many of us get told, right? Oh, well, you can’t do the fun thing to make money, like you have to do the hard work and the other stuff to make money.

Kimberly Crowe  21:26

So that’s a really interesting point. Now, I want to stipulate that there are many people out there who are like, Oh, I love knitting. And I want to knit and I want to make a ton of money knitting, and that that what you’re doing, producing knitting products may not generate $100,000 a year plus enough to put your kids into college, like it may not generate that. And that may be what you love doing. So there’s a difference there. Because what we need to look at is market research, will the market pay for you to be able to knit five hours a day and make $200,000 a year? Maybe not? Right? Maybe it just won’t pay that. So you might have to look at another aspect of it or, or learn or figure out how you can help other people learn to net or how you know, like, have passive income while you do that, maybe you have rental properties or something else, you know, that’s feeding that income. So I don’t want to just put it out there that Oh, do what you love and forget the rest. What I do want to do, what I do want to say is it’s possible to love what you do love the aspect of your job, and then take the other aspects that you don’t love so much and and have other people do them. For example, I don’t do my own dentistry. I don’t know if anybody else out there does that. I don’t do my own, I hire that out to other people. Right? I also i’m not my own CPA, I hire that out, right? And it’s just a matter of being like, okay, I also need to hire out my invoicing because I don’t want to do invoicing or I don’t want to do bookkeeping, or I don’t want to do Facebook ads, or I don’t want to do those things, you know, and go and look just like you would for a dentist to make sure you have a good one. And then and then let them rip, you know? And if it doesn’t make sense, then stop doing it. And if it doesn’t make sense, keep doing it.

Heather Pearce Campbell  23:04

Yeah, I love that. Well, and then the the practical advice. And I’m so glad you mentioned this because I agree that if you’re going to build a business, do something that you love, but not everything that you love. Can you build a business around? Right? So it’s about? Yes, it’s about choosing like being really, because you can’t, you know, and I’ve said this before, you can’t skip business fundamentals, regardless of what you’re doing, you have to look at the marketplace, you have to understand whether there’s a demand, you have to, you know, some people, especially if they’re really phenomenal artists, they can create the marketplace, but most of us can’t, right. And so I think that, you know, that piece of advice of like really examining, how is it that you either choosing something that you love that you can build a business around or choosing within the construct of a business? What can you do well, that you love, right? Because there’s kind of two ways to get into that position of like really being joyful about the work that you’re doing. And I think it does make a difference in the success of the business.

Kimberly Crowe  24:12

I often coach people that are in business right now, like in a job. If you if you have a job, and they’re like, I don’t love it anymore, I want to quit and I want to be an entrepreneur. Well, those are that’s a big job, right? Like there’s a big, big, big Cliff in between those two things. Not bad and possible, and great, but they’re it’s bigger than you think it is. Right? So I’m coach them, like, what do you love about your current job, go to your boss and ask him to do more of that, like go do more like and bosses love that mean? Who doesn’t love when you come in? And you’re like, you know, I really really loved teaching this to other people. Can I do more of that or I really, really love working directly with the clients. Can I do more of that? If you have an employee that comes to you and ask you for those things, you’re going to be like, yes, how can I make that happen for Heather right. So the first thing that you should do is find out how you can do more of what you love in your existing company, right and get paid on for that, right? And then the more you do it, the more you’ll realize, do I really love this or not? And if you do, fantastic, great, keep doing that. And if you don’t, at least you didn’t jump off a cliff and start doing it yourself. And, you know, yeah,

Heather Pearce Campbell  25:18

right. I know I it’s true there, there is a big, there’s a big space between a job and you know, liking something, either about that job or something else that you do in your life and actually going into business for yourself. And on that note, I’d love for you to revisit, like the point that you decided to leave your golden handcuffs, right, just in case we have listeners who are in that place, or who are in a job or in the corporate world, and they’re really wanting to get into entrepreneurship. What was the point that you reached where you just knew you had to make a decision?

Kimberly Crowe  25:55

Well, I realized, for me, it was that I was in an executive director position, there was a lot of politics that I didn’t really agree with. And I thought, you know, I had a lot of influence as I was climbing the ladder. And when I got to the top of the ladder, I felt like, Wow, there just isn’t enough of me influenced to go to be able to make this company that I would be proud to say I’m working for continuously, and they didn’t do anything wrong. I mean, it wasn’t it was just like, it’s just not me, right? It doesn’t fit. I felt like I was wearing somebody else’s shoes, or, you know, like, it just wasn’t me. And I really wanted to I was, you know, there were days where I was like, I’m quitting, forget this. But then there were there was really a time where I was like, No, seriously, I don’t want to do this with this anymore. And I know that there’s more for me out there. I know, I’m not supposed to only do this for the rest of my life. I did have sort of like a, an awareness that like, Do you want to die with this on your tombstone? And that was a very scary thing for me. In our business. When you get anybody that climbs to the top, like, do you really want to be known only for this, and you’re carrying somebody else’s banner, as an entrepreneur, you’re carrying your own, right? It’s not for everybody. But for me going in and saying, you know, I don’t, I don’t want to carry somebody else’s banner to my grave. That was it. But then, of course, I didn’t want to leave them in a situation, I was a key employee, and I didn’t want to leave them in a situation that was not great. So I didn’t train my replacement and left on very good terms with a really good separation, they asked me back several times, and I knew that I was in a safe place. I didn’t just up and quit one day and a half. But I didn’t know that it was the right thing for me to move on it just you know, for me, it was

Heather Pearce Campbell  27:38

Yeah. Was the was the timing right? Or do you wish you had done it earlier?

Kimberly Crowe  27:44

Oh, looking back, I think I was probably scared. I probably should have left two years earlier. But I don’t I wouldn’t have known as much as I’d known. You know, and I wouldn’t have felt safe as I did. But sometimes people stay and then they get fired because they don’t love it anymore. And then they’re like, screw them kind of Oh, I don’t know if I can say that. But Oh, darn it, you know, like, like, I’m not, I don’t love it anymore. So I’m going to make them pay for my unhappiness. And that as a boss is a really great place to get yourself fired. Right? You are going to get fired. If you come in everyday with that attitude. As a boss, I could watch it happening with certain employees. And I’m like, Nope, I’m gonna move before you do, right? Like I’m gonna make this move before you have a real and even if

Heather Pearce Campbell  28:27

yes, even if it’s not an express attitude of like, intentionally, you know underperforming. I think if you do have that attitude or belief, you probably can’t help but underperform right if you’re just not enjoying what you do. And so it’s gonna be relevant one way or the other, for sure. So talk to us about so you made the leap. Obviously, you got into entrepreneurship, I love this story about helping your son created this business. That was a lot of fun. what came next for you because you’d previously built built a business that felt like handcuffs again. And you didn’t want to do that. So after this endeavor with your son, what came next?

Kimberly Crowe  29:07

So right now I actually, once I had that awakening, I did do the business with my son for a while. But I realized that I really wanted to help entrepreneurs create jobs, or create businesses that they really loved. That went to the six figure level, right? Because a lot of people are like, Oh, I get all my business by referral, or I’m a life coach. And I have, you know, one client and they’re paying me $100 an hour once you know, once I’m in business, you know, and it’s diff. And I don’t mean to make fun. I don’t it’s just that there’s so much there that entrepreneurs don’t face in terms of what’s real about entrepreneurship. So I fortunately I’ve been an entrepreneur six times I’ve been able to sell businesses and I know what it takes in order to be able to grow a business. But a lot of what it takes is getting seen and getting heard and getting out there. And so now I run a business entrepreneurs rocket fuel which is based on connecting people With the people the stages and the opportunities they need in order to get to that next level. Now that next level may just be, I need to be able to be a real business, I need to hire a VA, or I need to get on stages, or I need to get to six figures or I need to start scaling. I need to hire, you know, a salesperson, whatever that next level is. That’s kind of what we look at. But I, I’m a big believer in, you know, going out there and making it, making it fun and joyful and not just forcing it to work. Because you think you got to hang on to it. Entrepreneurship is all about, I hate the word pivot, but all about pivoting changing, everything’s a test. If it’s not working, it doesn’t mean you’re a failure, it means this particular piece of your business didn’t flesh out, you just need to try something else. And let’s make that let’s make that shift.

Heather Pearce Campbell  30:53

No, I love that. Well, and that, you know, the concept of pivot, and I know people are really tired of that word right now. But the reality is that even before COVID, our job in business is to constantly be responding to the marketplace responding to feedback that we get in our business about whether or not something is working. Right. So it is a game of constant adjustments. And I don’t think that there’s anything different about this period, it’s just more extreme right, the contraction and the, the pressure is higher. And so I think people are having to really address that in bigger ways. What are you seeing? I’m curious, because we’re in the midst of COVID, you’re doing some really interesting things, including a lot of travel, but what are you seeing for the folks that you are serving in business? Are they making big changes? Like how, and especially as it relates to this conversation around fun, right? How, how do you help people focus on the fun and what brings them joy? And also, right, build those fundamentals in their business?

Kimberly Crowe  31:58

Yeah, well, I think the big one, since you brought up COVID, I think the big one is, is connection with other human beings, right? We are, we are as human beings, I’ll put Bernie brown again, we are hardwired for connection, that’s what we are here to do is to connect to other human beings and our pets as well, I think, yes, connect with other human beings. And COVID had put sort of a little bit of a wrench in the works. And a lot of people got depressed because of that, you know, they’re, they’re not able to go into their offices or meet clients or go to Starbucks and meet their friends or, or go to the networking meetings anymore. And that was very difficult. Fortunately, for me, I was actually already deeply in the world of zoom. And we had an I did a lot of three day events, we did a lot of major events where we bring 150 to 300 people into a room and and have an event give them value. And and, you know, send them on the way we we did our first virtual 150 to 300 person event through one of the organizations that I work with. And it was a huge success, because it was on zoom. And because people were craving that human connection, right. So just because you’re not able to go drive and be somewhere or get on a plane and go somewhere, doesn’t mean that you can’t connect with other human beings. And that is what we’re all craving right now. So if you have an if you have an offering, getting out on a virtual stage, now virtual stages, people are like, Oh, it’s all zoom calls, or I don’t know, we’ve got like screen fatigue or whatever. I’m telling you right now, this is the best way to stay alive in business there is right now is getting on zoom, and virtual stages. It could be podcasts like this one. Heather’s is creating a virtual stage for many of you who could come and have a wonderful conversation with this beautiful, amazing human being and get in front of her entire audience, and be able to share your zone of genius, right, podcasts, radio shows, TV shows, web summits, webinars, all kinds of ways to be able to get on stage in front of other people and get seen and heard so that your business doesn’t have to falter during this time. I have never been so busy as I have been since COVID hit I have had more business. More checks have been written more PayPal, invoices have been closed. More activities have happened. More events have happened since since COVID. happen. And that’s because like this weekend, this is no joke. This is like, like off script. But this is no joke. This weekend. I have two back to back three day events. One is on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, one’s on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and I’m on both of them, like all three days. So I have two computers going at the same time for all three events. It’s like really a very, very important time to be able to stay connected with other human beings.

Heather Pearce Campbell  34:55

I agree. And this this piece about connection. It’s interesting because people talk about Zoo Fatigue and it yet I mean, I get the job part, I’m not a sitter, as I always have a hard time sitting even at live events, right three days of sitting on your hind end at a three day event. It’s tough, but so I can relate to the city, but the connection like, I can’t get enough connection. And so I don’t feel the zoom fatigue. I mean, granted, I do a lot of connecting by phone as well. But absolutely, it’s, it’s a massive opportunity to shift the way that we are able to do business and, and it will teach us some things about how to move forward and do business and, you know, have developed these skills. I think a lot of people had not gotten online to the extent they wanted to before COVID hit and then they didn’t have a choice, right. So a lot of people have been forced into this position of having to really figure out the online space. And that’s partly why I made a big push last year to really help people get their online websites protected and get their online businesses are buckled up so that they could legitimately be there and be full on in their business and not be worried about Do they have these issues hanging out? Right. So but I think that, you know, the opportunity to connect online and the myriad of ways we get to do it, like you just listed all of the ways that you connect and that your clients Connect, you know, podcast summit, tele summit. I mean, and even the way even the ways you know, because you’re in the summit world, even the ways that summits are going down is changing and evolving, and people are doing new things even with summits. Right. So like, I have a friend who’s running a summit right now. And it’s happening inside of a Facebook group. And I was like, oh, I’ve never seen a summit done that way. Right? I’m used to like the summit platforms or them happening through a main website. And so it’s really fun to see the ways that people are expanding online. For the folks that you are connecting with. Talk to me about the range of experiences that you’re seeing, as far as you know, do you see people like you experiencing tremendous success during COVID? Despite What’s going on? And and what’s the difference? What are they doing differently from folks that are not?

Kimberly Crowe  37:17

Well, that’s interesting, you bring that up. And I don’t think I’ve ever made this connection before. But because of where we started, it actually just popped into my mind that it’s actually about the enthusiasm for it. So if you have somebody who is like, oh, zoom is terrible, and I don’t want it, like they’re not going to be successful at business on zoom, or, you know, our podcast don’t work or whatever. Like, they’re not going to be successful, because they’re, they’re, they’re putting that out into the universe, right? But Conversely, the people who are like, let’s try this, people are like, What are you trying? That sounds fun! I want to try it with you. And tell me more, you know, so I think that is really shaking things up. So it’s about that. Do you have enthusiasm for it? Do you have joy for it? Do you have excitement for it? And then in that same vein, there are some people who are holding back because they’re afraid they’re nervous, right? A lot of people will say, Well, I’m scared to get onstage or I’ve never done a Facebook live, how do I do that? Or I’m an introvert. And I hear that quite a lot in my business right now. And I would, I would give you guys hope, and ladies hope, in that chemically, that is something that’s happening in your body, right, your your heart is beating faster, when you’re nervous. Your ears might be ringing, when you’re nervous, your stomach might be doing flip flops when you’re nervous. And that is a chemical thing that’s going on in your body. So you can be secure and saying, I’m not imagining this is really happening, right. But here’s the cool thing, either. When you’re excited, your ears start ringing, and your heart starts beating faster, and your stomach starts doing flips. So if you say instead of saying I’m nervous to get on stage, if you say I’m excited to get on stage, your body feels exactly the same. But you know what that is? It’s a mindset shift, you just shift into the belief that I’m excited to be on stage. This is an exciting thing. I’m excited to be talking to Heather Pearce Campbell on her podcast, oh my gosh, I’m excited. And it’s the same chemical feeling. It’s the same reality that you’re experiencing. Because your ears are ringing, your heart’s beating faster, and your stomach’s doing flips, and you’re excited to get on stage. So I would suggest to those of you who say I’m nervous to get on stage to switch that and just do a little mindset work on that and be like, you know what, I think I’m excited to get on stage and when you get there.

Heather Pearce Campbell  39:35

I love that. Well, and going back to what you just said about the nerves and especially for people who are introverts, I know we have plenty of introverts around and I’m not one, but there are definitely times where I feel like you know my energy might be a little lower, I’m distracted. Like I don’t feel 100% there and so I understand a little bit of the trepidation about showing up. But the other thing because I do love speaking, my problem is harnessing the energy in a way that, you know, doesn’t have me just feeling too excitable. And I remember reading a book, I wish I could remember the name of it right now, but about, and maybe this is also a shift that people can make who feel some nerves around having to go live or show up online. Adrenalin can be a performance enhancer, right? Oh, yeah, absolutely can actually help us do the very best job that we’re there to do. And so even the experience of nerves like you did, the shift of nervous versus excited, can actually be a really, really positive, physical symptom. And so same thing when I feel nerves. And I think, you know, as a kid, I grew up playing classical piano. And I was just telling my son the other day, because every day he’s begging me for stories from my childhood. I was telling him that my palms would get sweaty every time – it didn’t matter if it was a performance, a competition, like there was never a time that my palms did not get sweaty before I went on to play, right. It was just that physical reaction and the excitement that happened. But I just got to where I was like, Oh, yeah, there’s my sweaty palms and getting it. I mean, like, it wasn’t, I just realized it was par for the course. And it was just part of what happens. And I think that’s also one of the ways that we can approach going live online and dealing with nerves is like, Oh, yeah, there they are. And here we go.

Kimberly Crowe  41:37

And it’s just a symbol of we’re going and this is just part of it. Yeah. Another way to get through it is by I, I’m a big fan of a wing man or a wing wing wing woman. So if somebody tells me Oh, I’ve never done a Facebook Live, and I’m afraid to I’m like, Great. Let’s do it now. (laughing). I go, just like, let’s make that happen immediately. Right? Exactly. And we’re live. And I’m here with Heather, and we’re going to talk about this. And they’re like, yeah, I guess we are then when it’s over they’re like, “Oh, my God, I just did my first Facebook Live!” And that’s it right? … And it could be your friend that does Facebook Live all the time? Or it could be your kids or kids are great about dragging you into stuff you don’t want to do sometimes?

Heather Pearce Campbell  42:18

Totally, totally. Yeah. Channel that the right way. So I mean, obviously, you’ve had quite a career, I mean, inside of the corporate world, building your own businesses now helping entrepreneurs of all kinds connect and, you know, further build their own businesses. But let’s I mean, just based on the fact that I have a podcast called Guts, Grit & Great Business, do you mind sharing one or two of the hardest decisions that you’ve had to make in business or, you know, times where things were a little rough and how you got through that?

Kimberly Crowe  42:55

Yeah, so we can get that we can get back to that mountaintop, when I was on the top of the mountain top very, very unhappy that I had this business that was up and running, and I didn’t want to do it anymore. Well, I shared with you that I’ve been able to sell several businesses previously. So I wanted to position it for sale. And while I’m doing this fun, fun, fun, fun activity with my son, I was also hitting crisis with that, because I had told my employees, you know, we’re probably going to position for sale, and you’re welcome to find other jobs or whatever, because I’m very honest and open with that kind of thing. But let me know if you want to stay or whatever. And I positioned it for sale, and I could not get anywhere near the pricing I wanted for it. Like it just wasn’t even close. And I’m like, wow, this is a gut punch, right? And I don’t know how, like, what I’m gonna do with it. Like, I don’t want to just close the doors, I have contracts, I have responsibilities, I have to do delivery, I don’t want to go back and do it. Right. I don’t want to get into it anymore. And then while that happened, I actually had two major clients decided that they were going to limit the number of vendors they had, and so actually dropped, we actually were dropping off of their list of preferred vendors. Not that we hadn’t done great jobs, we actually got five star reviews from all of my clients, but they but they were limiting the number that they were using, which is like okay, well, the little guys cannot win on that one. Right. So it was it was like this 123 punch that was really, really rough. Well, what I ended up doing is I knew that the business would actually generate more income, if we just if we just kept it going and then sort of ran the business. It’s hard to say ran it down, but ran it through right through the finish line, right. And so what I did is I actually promoted one of my employees that was doing a fantastic job and I said, here’s what we’re doing. You know, I just want you to continue, but we’re not bringing in any new business. I want you to serve our, our existing clients with excellence. Make sure that we meet all of our obligations and beyond. But we’re not taking any new clients and we’re not taking any new business and we ended up making tons more money from that. That I would have had, I sold it for the lesser amount that I wanted. So it ended up turning into a cash machine. But the one thing that I did that I thank myself for is that I did not go back into it to rescue it. Because I was at this point where I was like, it needs me, right? Like, it needs me to get back into it to continue it. And if I walk away from it, it’s going to slowly go away. And that was a really hard decision. But it was the right one and being able to set that down. And no, just because I was good at something, doesn’t mean that I was supposed to do it for the rest of my life was a huge, huge relief. And if they don’t always turn out, you know, sunshine and roses, and like, Oh, you got a million dollar business and your life is happy forever after, it’s not always you know, it’s like, Wow, I didn’t want to do this. And now, you know, like dramas happening. And, yeah, I don’t find it. Right. And, and to be able to just say, Alright, I’m going to set this down, and I’m going to move in a different direction is difficult. But it, it was the right move at the time. And I’m so glad on the other side, that I did not go in to rescue it and go back and, and make it work. I was at the time in corporate and everywhere I was very much a make it work kind of person, like give it to Kimberly and she’ll make it work and fight through anything and make it all work and blah, blah, blah. I was I actually wore it like a badge of honor. And I like I’m gonna make it work girl kind of thing. What a mistake that was in my life. And really just being able to settle into law of attraction and feeling thing, you know, the universe is here to take care of us, we’re not just going to sit on the couch and eat bonbons. But at the same time, we’re going to do, we’re going to allow it not to like we don’t have to be the one to make it all work, some of the parts are going to be bigger than us, some of the parts are gonna be not in our control. And we’re gonna have to allow that to happen. And that that shift was huge for me.

Heather Pearce Campbell  46:56

Hmm, that was such a great example the, you know, the piece about being able to say no, right? So so much of I think what defines our success, even in business is what we say no to not always just what we say yes to and, and also that piece about pushing through. I think so many people, especially in the entrepreneurial world, we pride ourselves on being problem solvers, right and creative and like we’re gonna figure out a way and sometimes it does end up feeling like pushing a rock up a hill, right? And we just keep doing it. So yeah, that shift and your, you know, your shift to law of attraction. And, really getting your mind around whether or not that approach worked for you. There’s a book I’m reading. It’s May McCarthy is the author, and I think it’s like seven laws of spiritual, I don’t know, something spiritual spirituality and business. But she has a quote in there that I just loved. I mean, it’s very simple. And it seems like so obvious. Like, I don’t do hard, right? Yes, she just – and I was like, Huh, how would that be, if more of us in the entrepreneurial field just set like, put our stake in the ground and just said, “I don’t do hard.” And that’s not to say that we’re not going to have hard days, like you said, we’re not going to have tough times. But but as a daily mantra, it does not have to be hard, hard, hard, hard, hard. Right.

Kimberly Crowe  48:28

And that whole we’re gonna power through thing can really be exhausting, right? That’s how entrepreneurs burn out. And then they feel like failures because their business failed. And they’re not they’re not a failure. It’s just there that particular business failed. And and many of them do you’re not alone. You know, like, that’s like, oh, big surprise another business people know, but that doesn’t mean you’re a failure. And, and you know, get just pick yourself up and see what else you can create out there in the world because we need you and that’s my message for entrepreneurs is be you right? Be the authentic you be the person who built a business that they you know, didn’t love by accident, you know, be like out on that mountaintop be like, please Are there answers up here and there aren’t right me that beat you? Because two reasons one, everybody else is taken. So you might as well just be Oh, that’s number one. And number two is we need you. We need you that you are and if you show up trying to be somebody else trying to be you know that your mentor or doing it exactly the way Gary Vee does are exactly the way Tony Robbins does. For example, when anybody else does, we’re not going to get your special secret sauce that’s more important than all of what you could have learned from somebody else right? We want you we want the authentic you we want the real you and being vulnerable does not mean you are weak. It actually means you are strong. So share with us you that you are because we need you to come here and lead and give us your special sauce.

Heather Pearce Campbell  49:57

Oh I love that. Well, Kimberly, for folks that are listening, sitting here and are like, oh, I’ve got to connect with Kimberly, I want to learn more I want to connect with her and her business. Where can they find you online? Where do you like people to go?

Kimberly Crowe  50:08

Yeah, so um, the best way you can do that you can join the conversation is to join the Facebook group. So you can go to entrepreneursrocketfuel.com/facebook, and join the community and the conversation. We would love to have you as soon as you join. We’re going to send you some great information about entrepreneurship and you know, some some great freebies and you’re gonna love the community. It’s  not actually – it’s not a paid community, it’s completely free to join. You can even share your logos and who you are and how you show up in the world. You can share your events, you can share your freebies with the community. It’s really about helping entrepreneurs get to the next level.

Heather Pearce Campbell  50:51

Oh, that’s so fabulous. So if you’re listening You can also check out Kimberly’s bio some additional information will have her link there and anything else you want us to share Kimberly at legalwebsitewarrior.com/podcast. Kimberly it’s been so fun to see you again and connect with you today. What what final thoughts do you have for folks that are still listening? What do you want to leave them with?

Kimberly Crowe  51:17

Be yourself, but then go out there and show up in the world. It’s not easy to be an entrepreneur. But if it’s in your heart, and that’s what you want to do, absolutely go after it. It’s a lot of fun out here. The water’s warm.

Heather Pearce Campbell  51:31

Oh, love that. I love that. Well thank you so much, Kimberly, I look forward to seeing you again very soon. Safe travels.

GGGB Outro  51:42

Thank you for joining us today on the guts grit and great business podcast. We hope that we’ve added a little fuel to your tank, some coffee to your cup and pep in your step to keep you moving forward in your own great adventures. For key takeaways links to any resources mentioned in today’s show and more see the show notes which can be found at legalwebsitewarrior.com/podcast. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and if you enjoyed today’s conversation, please give us some stars and a review on Apple podcast, Spotify or wherever you get your podcast so others will find us. Keep up the great work you are doing in the world and we’ll see you next week.