087: [Soulpreneur 411] Addressing the biggest struggle for mompreneurs

Kate Kordsmeier 0:04

Welcome, welcome, welcome. We are back with the Success with Soul podcast. I'm your host, Kate Kordsmeier. And we are officially in season two of the show now. And I'm excited because we're doing something a little different. We've just released a brand new series called Soulpreneur 411, where entrepreneurs just like you can send in questions if you want some personalized laser coaching. And I will answer each week. So if you want to leave me a message and be featured on the show and get some free coaching for yourself, which is usually only available inside the Incubator, head on over to successwithsoul.co/ask, and you can be featured and get coached as well. So with that, let's dive in to today's question.

Ana 0:52

Hey, Kate, this is Ana from your six FBA group. I was listening to the more recent podcast about baby proofing your business. And I just want to say thank you for doing that. I think that as a mom and a professional, it feels like, you know, we as women, I know, this is kind of cliche, but I think it's cliche for a reason. We have to do all the things, you know. And so it was nice to kind of get a perspective from somebody who, like yourself had figured out how to make it work. So thank you for addressing that. I think that was really helpful. For me, it's something I've been struggling with, as I've been trying to get my blog business off the ground, just, you know, trying to figure out how to have the flexibility to be a good mom, which is one of the reasons why I want to do the blog business as opposed to my corporate work, but then also be able to give enough time to the blog business, because it's honestly something I love. So again, thank you so much for doing this, and I'm looking forward to seeing who else you bring on your podcast.

Kate Kordsmeier 2:02

Hey, Ana, thanks so much for your great question. I am super stoked that you have brought up this topic, because it is something that, as you said, maybe is cliche for a reason, but also somehow doesn't get talked about enough either. So I have kind of two parts to my answer here. And as a quick preview, the first part is how to treat your blog, like a business or how to treat your online business like a business. And the second part is getting the support that you need as a woman in business. So with that being said, To start us off, I want to talk about treating your blog, like a hobby, and it paying you like a hobby. But when you treat your blog like a business, it will pay you like a business. So this is something I have to remind my clients of a lot and I get it, I don't have unlimited funds, I have a family to support and I like saving money as much as the next girl and the golden. And I know because I have learned by doing that it takes money to make money. And in fact, did you know that the average small business costs $40,000 to start in the first year alone. So I think because online businesses are so much cheaper to start, then brick and mortar, that we've somehow internalized the message that it should be free. So we get upset when we have to pay for website hosting before we're making any money when we have to pay for email service provider software before we're making money, when we might need to pay for coaching or consulting or some kind of, you know, strategy support to learn from somebody who's done it before us who can pave the way who can help you learn from their mistakes. One of the most common, quote unquote objections we get for our own programs. And I know the same is true for my other entrepreneur friends who have online offers is my business isn't making enough money yet to afford a program that is going to teach me how to get my business to make money faster and more easily than I could do on my own. Now, of course, those are my words, paraphrasing, but that's the general message. And so there's a couple things to address here. First of all, what I mentioned in the beginning is because it is so much cheaper to start an online business than for example a brick and mortar. We've internalized this message that it should be free to start but you know what's free stained couches on the side of the road. Sketchy white powder from this sketchy your guy in the park or samples at the mall Food Court that will give you a stomachache guaranteed within 30 minutes. There is always a cost for free. So yeah, you could continue doing things on your own the freest way possible are piecemealing together dozens of different courses and YouTube videos without support let alone you know cohesive advice from the scary sea of strategies that is the internet or you could treat your business like a business and make the necessary investments into that business in order to grow it, you're creating something out of nothing. And that is going to require something. And so a lot of it, what it's going to require is your time. And there's a common question that gets asked, which is like, do you have more time or money, but I feel like again, this is positioning us in this and or situation like, if you don't have money, then if all you have is time, you can create a profitable business. And I actually think that this is a myth that is doing us a great disservice because it is going to cost some money to create a business. And I think if you're unwilling to invest into your business, it's probably very unlikely that it will become a successful business. And it will just remain a hobby or a passion project. So one of the first ways to treat your business like a business is to invest in your business. And like I said, that could be investing in different software and different tools in an accountant or a VA or some kind of team support. Or it could be something like enrolling in the Incubator, if I may be so shameless to promote my own program here. So the Incubator for example, is your one stop shop for building a sustainable business and life you love full of proven holistic strategies from someone high, who has walked the walk. So I designed the Incubator to help busy overworked, ambitious, heart centered women just like you who are ready to go from burnout to building a life of aligned abundance. So it really is my mission to help you create a wildly profitable and hands off business using your feminine energy to get more done in less time. So you can focus on what truly matters, your family, your home life and your well being. Now, of course, the Incubator is just one example of different kinds of coaching programs and online courses and other sorts of support that exist to help you grow your business. And regardless of whether it's the Incubator or something else, I do recommend that everybody invest in a business coach, and I 100% get that it's a big investment. And that's not something that I take lightly, the last thing I would ever want anyone to do is put themselves in undue financial strain. So if it's not feasible, right now, if you're debating about putting food on the table for your family, or paying for an online coaching program, obviously put food on the table for your family. But if you are trying to build a business, and you just don't want to spend money right now, because you're not making money yet, then I encourage you to take a little bit of a reframe here, because honestly, the truth is that it is a total chicken or the egg scenario. So you don't currently have the money because you don't have the strategy and system and support that's going to bring in the revenue. So that expenses like investing in a coaching program will feel like just a drop in the bucket. And I know it can feel like you can't take the leap until after you've reached a certain milestone. But the whole goal of programs like the Incubator is to help you reach that result faster than you can on your own. And I'll add with more ease and flow and joy and alignment and all of those things. So I was just speaking with a coach recently who reminded me how often we follow the backwards model of have do be thinking we have to have the money before we can invest in ourselves and take action in our business, which would be the due so that we can be who we are meant to be. But the opposite is usually true. Once we're acting in integrity or be, we start doing the things that move us forward, which is what allows us to have the revenue, the business the life we want. So the other thing to think about as well. And this is whether or not we're talking about investing in a coaching program, or a course or something else for your business like website hosting or an accountant like I mentioned.

So the other thing to highlight is that money is a renewable resource. And we can always make more money, there's always more where that came from. But time is not. You cannot get back wasted time or find fistfuls of extra time to replenish what you lost once your business is profitable. So I know that things like this can be a meaningful investment for sure. But I think ultimately, when we feel like we can't afford something, it's because deep down we're really afraid that it won't work for us. Because for example, if we knew that we can invest 10k into something and get 100k out of it. We'd find the money every single time right. But there's this underlying fear that it's not going to work that we're going to fail. And so I want you to ask yourself, whatever it is that you are debating about whether or not you should invest in for your business. Think about why are you afraid that this won't work? What are the thoughts that are coming up for you that are creating these beliefs that are determining your actions and then creating the self fulfilling prophecy result. So that is one thing to think about. And kind of the first thing that comes to mind when I think about how to treat your business like a business. The second thing is actually treating your business with the same kind of care and attention and time as you would if you were working at a company for somebody else. So for example, even if you get, let's say, a part time job somewhere for 20 hours a week, you have to dedicate 20 hours of your time to show up to go to the office to sit at your desk, or whatever you know, it is that you're doing, and get your work done. But oftentimes, we find that because you're not reporting to somebody else, it's so easy to let that time just get distracted with other things and filled up with other priorities with other obligations, etc. So what I recommend doing is deciding how much time you are going to dedicate every single week to your business and sticking to it no matter what. So if you want to work five hours a week, if that's all you can dedicate, that's fine. Things can be built in five hours a week, it's probably going to be a little bit slower, but it is possible. So if you have five hours a week, how can you make this a non negotiable activity in your calendar, you have to do it, you have to go into your office and shut the door and work on your business, moving it forward taking action and make it a priority. So I think that is the second most common thing that comes up is that people just think that having the idea or even buying into the course or the program or something is what's going to get them the result. But what is actually going to get them result is doing the work. So make sure that you are setting aside dedicated time to actually work on your business.

Okay, the third piece that I kind of teased at the beginning here was getting the necessary support that you need. So as women, we are in a particularly unique situation of working and still being responsible, at least the primary provider the default for maintaining and running our household, and particularly if we have children. So if you're listening, and you can relate to the feeling of the school calls because your kid is sick, do they call you first? Or do they call your husband first? And regardless of who they call, who is sort of the default parent who is going to go pick your kid up and bring them home and then take care of them? And this is an overgeneralization. Okay. And this is obviously very particular to heterosexual couples. However, it is still the norm. And so while I'm sure there are exceptions, I know that at least amongst my friends and I this is kind of the common way things go, you're a sort of the default parent. And you are also likely more responsible for things like grocery shopping, and meal prep, and cleaning the house and making sure that you have enough toilet paper and paper towels and cat food and shampoo and toothpaste and all those sorts of things like keeping your house stocked, right? You may or may not be responsible for coordinating other services, even if you are outsourcing certain things are you the point of contact for the yard service or for a cleaning crew? So I say all of this because I think in our society, we really have been celebrating women who can do it all by calling them super women and celebrating the fact that they're doing a million things and pulled in a million different directions. When the reality is that the women who are doing these things are stressed and burned out and exhausted and depleted and you know, left feeling very empty and unsupported. And that is nothing to celebrate. And it's also not realistic. Nobody can do it all. So something that took me a long time to get on board with but once I did, it was miraculous the shifts that I saw and how quickly it happened is getting the support that I need at home, especially during different seasons of my life.

So for example, I love to cook, I was a food writer for eight years before I started blogging, and I've written a cookbook, and I absolutely love food. And in this season of my life, I have two toddlers and a full time job, and my husband has a full time job. And no matter how many times I would have good intentions, and would grocery shop, and then plan to cook dinner, so often six o'clock would roll around, and I would have nothing prepared, and everybody's starving. And we'd end up just getting fast food or takeout or something like that. And so after enough time, I finally said, You know what, screw it, I cannot do this, I cannot prepare our meals for our family from scratch, every night, even several nights a week, will that always be the case? No, because I will not always have a one and a two year old. But that is the case for this season of my life. And so what I decided to do was find a local chef who can make homemade healthy meals from scratch in town and deliver them to my house, so that I always had a fresh, healthy home cooked dinner ready to serve my family without me having to actually do any of the work. It has been life changing. And it's also been hard because I miss cooking. And sometimes when I have had the rare occasion to cook, I get inspired to want to cook again. And I'm sure that I will. But for now I know that I need this support. And the reason it's been so life changing is because it has freed up so much emotional and mental bandwidth, the invisible labor that we as women do all day, every day. It is exhausting. And it doesn't leave much room for creative visioning and business planning and really being able to do things to move our businesses forward. So what I found was that in order to really treat my business, like a business, I needed to get the help in my personal life, that would allow me to have the bandwidth, the capacity to treat my business, like a business to work in my business to think about my business. So it's expensive, and it's not available to everybody. And I 100% acknowledge that I am coming from a privileged place when I say this, but if it is possible for you, it could be worth it, to hire some house cleaners to hire some food delivery services, to hire lawn maintenance or yard care to hire nannies or babysitters, or whatever it might be make a list of the things that occupy your time, every day or every week. And who could you outsource that to, there's lots of ways to get creative if you don't have the funds to do it. And there's also an argument to be made that says you may not have the funds now, but we'll continuing to do these the same things you've been doing, ever get you to the result where you do someday have the funds. So I always think of this example when it comes to child care of my friend who she was a freelance writer. And she had several kids, and was kind of working part time and when she could and she you know, was very flexible about it. But one day when I was talking to her, she said, yeah, it's just really hard for me to make the time to do it because I have to get childcare. And my husband will argue that, well, you're not really making any money right now, we can't really afford childcare. And I said, if you continue not having childcare, is your business ever going to start making money? Or do you have to kind of put one thing in front of the other in order to make those things happen? Once you have childcare, your time is now freed up to work, and you can work and generate income. But if you don't have childcare, are you ever going to have the time to work on your business and generate income. So again, it's kind of going back to that have to be it's the chicken or the egg and it's kind of realizing that you're going to have to make certain sacrifices and investments in order to get the results that you desire. And I'm just reminded of the of the Einstein quote, that's like, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. And while that might sound a little bit harsh, I think that we are also guilty of that where we keep trying the same things or we keep doing or not doing the same things and expecting to get different results. And if you want a different result you have to do something differently. So in summary to treat your business like a business, carve out dedicated time to actually work on your business, which may require that you hire some support and other areas of your life, whether it's childcare, or food or cleaning, etc. and invest in your business, whether it is software or coaching or online courses, whatever it might be. Okay, thanks for such a great question. I hope this was helpful Ana, and I can't wait to hear what you think. We'll see you guys next week.

All right. Thanks for tuning in y'all. If you liked this episode, and want to get coached by me and my amazing team, then come join us inside the Success with Soul Incubator where we have live q&a coaching calls every single week. Plus, you can even submit your work for feedback every week to That's right, you literally can submit everything you're working on and get personalized laser coaching feedback on your actual work every single week. I don't know many programs offering this and it is one of my favorite features. And I think our students would have great. In addition to our self paced curriculum, we have frequent live trainings with leading industry experts on topics like leadership and Enneagram, and metrics and finance and SEO and funnels. And because your business won't thrive if you aren't thriving. We also do monthly soul sessions with spiritual healers and wellness pros to ensure you get that self care in. So if you're ready to transform your business and life in holistic, sustainable and soulful way, head on over to Kate kordsmeier.com/apply To see if we're a good fit to work together. We're accepting businesses of all size, including those that are just dreams in your head and those who are making all the money but feeling totally empty and depleted by the process. Here's what one of our clients Molly Cahill from holistic marketing hub had to say about it.

Molly Cahill 22:00

I had my first $10,000 month and now I'm having consistent $18,000 months. Thanks to Kate in the strategies I learned inside the Success with Soul Incubator. It is by far the best money I've ever invested into my business it has paid off for sure not to mention the time that it saved me being able to just copy paste, import Kate's funnel. And I love that you get a lot of one on one time with Kate on the weekly group calls and that you get direct feedback and direct critiques on your specific questions that are unique to your business. And I also love that she doesn't give you this one size fits all business in a box approach. She recognizes and appreciates that every business is unique. And she helps you walk through those unique challenges for your specific business. And on top of that, I love that she's just a real human who walks the talk. So highly recommend Success with Soul Incubator. Thank you so much Kate.

Kate Kordsmeier 22:58

So if you want results in transformation like Molly, come join us inside this intimate mastermind style program at successwithsoul.co/apply. And remember if you want to be featured on the podcast to get coached in the Soulpreneur 411 series. You can leave your voicemail over at successwithsoul.co/ask and be featured on the show. We'll see you next week.

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