Kimberly Carroll - Healing the World Through Change

Welcome to the Real People, Real Business Show where we're talking with business owners who are in the trenches. Everyday people who are working hard and have relevant and inspiring stories that you can relate to. Everyone we speak to is actively building and growing their business and is here to share their experiences, lessons, wisdom, and guidance, so you can be inspired to take action towards your own goals. Today, I'm so excited to welcome my old friend and client, Kimberly Carroll. She is a coach for Changemakers and she helps social entrepreneurs, activists, mission-driven leaders, and those who want to make a bigger difference in the world do transformative inner work and build a higher performance habits and strategies to make them unstoppable. She's also a passionate world citizen and a director of the animal justice and Toronto Vegetarian Food Bank. Kimberly also built and heads up the ground breaking Animal Justice Academy that is 5,000 members strong. I can't wait to hear that story. Welcome to the show. Kimberly, thanks so much for taking the time to share your story today.

Awesome. Thanks Stephanie. It's so good to be here and to be sort of, talking with you and this sort of audience of my colleagues. It's, it's an amazing thing to be able to hear everybody's stories every week. So I'm happy to be here.

Yeah. And you know, I've known you for a few years now. Yeah, absolutely. Watched you make a transformation in your own business and I can't wait to dive into it. So why don't we just start, like, just tell us where you came from and how you got to where you are now.

Well, so I'm not one of those people that, dreamt of starting their own business. I totally fell into it. I actually, for the first half of my adult life, I was a television host and producer. And, I, you know, I was also going on this journey of sort of self discovery and why I was here and what I could do in the world and purpose and all that esoteric thing. and I decided that I wanted to use television to do that kind of programming. And so body mind, spirit programming, personal development. And so I dove in, as I always do. And you know, me, I spend way too much time on research. I dove in, or, you know, To just really getting to know some of, the luminaries and the personal development giants and, and everything, and, you know, getting doing trainings with them. And, and, and in that I did a training, I trained in the soul coaching modality with a woman named Denise Lynn who's out of California. She's an author and a pretty world renowned healer. And there was something about this, modality and just this coaching that really brought me to life. And I really resonated with it. And, and you know, again, even from that point, I was just like, well, this is just something to have in my toolkit. you know, of course I'm, I'm doing television and then I just sort of started doing it on the side, just with family friends. And, and not only was I getting w you know, were, were the people I working with getting amazing results, but I was again finding this whole other aspect of myself. And, and so I kind of. You know what, maybe I just need to try this for a year or two, just, you know, just put some time I was, I was doing some voiceover work. It was sort of paying a lot of the bills. I, you know, I didn't have a lot that I, you know, well, I actually left a very lucrative television show, but it was time to leave anyway. And, and so yeah, there started my coaching business. I had no business experience. I had no real plan. I was really lucky that I had a little bit of fame on my side. So at least, you know, people knew of me, so when I came on the scene of whatever that was 13 years ago as the sole coach, you know, people may might've thought I was a little wacko, because nobody was doing that sort of thing at the time. But, but at least I had some fans and I had that sort of, the credentials is as somebody that was a bit known at least. And, and then from there. I, I just, yeah, after the year or two of exploring, it's like, oh no, this is it. This is I, this is my going to be my sphere of, of where, how I help heal the world, how I help wake up the world. And, and so right off the bat, Started really taking the bits and pieces from all of the things I've learned, not only from coaching, but from television, from marketing, from promotions. And, and I really created it, started creating my own modality, that really took, the idea of experiential inner shifts, married to really practical, outer strategies for one's life and work. and I started to try to apply some of the marketing that I knew inherently. and, and, and so I was really word of mouth. I w I was getting, you know, amazing results. I had a page of a hundred testimonials telling people that I changed, you know, that the work with me changed their life in all these different ways. And that was going fine, but at the sort of base of it, I knew that I wasn't just doing this to do one-on-one coaching and just make a living. I was doing this because I really saw an aching world that I wanted to change. And I knew this was a vehicle, but I had to scale up. And, right from the beginning, I was doing a group coaching. I did in-person groups. I did, I won't even say it wasn't online. It was teleco. Like I did tele groups. So I don't know if you remember that, Stephanie, but back before platforms like zoom or Skype, I had like this big conference call that I'd have every week with people from around the world and we do the course that way. And, and so thank God for zoom. It makes it a lot easier. so I guess with the scaling up, what I, you know, found. Because I'm also an activist, as, as you mentioned in my bio. I do, advocacy and environmental, in environmentalism indigenous rights and especially animal rights, animal protection, which has been a very special, The area that I has been in my heart for a very long time. And so, because I'm somebody in those circles, I just stand it up getting a lot of clients that were change makers that were working either nonprofit leaders or politicians or activists or social entrepreneurs. And I was finding, I was especially loving, working with them because they were the people in the world making the w you know, trying to make it a better place. and I knew that if I could help heal them, I was really helping to heal the world. at least doing my tiny little, you know, my tiny little bit in the corner, this corner of the world. And that's when I decided to do my big pivot. And, and that's kind of where we met, Stephanie, because. It was through doing Jenny she's, make it work online that I realized I had to niche down and my niche, you know, I, it was hard for me to let go of like the general people. Like I loved all of my clients. but I realized this was the area that was calling to me; the change makers, the people who are, are actively trying to make the world a better place, but, are burning out, are suffering from compassion, fatigue, don't have sort of the proper productivity habits, and have to do some healing to be able to be the most empowering endearing change makers possible. So, that was about four years ago. And, and, and that's the niche I've been working in ever since.

And so who are these people like, are they in executive positions? Are they individuals kind of trying to be individual advocates? Like who are they.

Yeah, it is, it is a big mix. I mean, I do work with a lot of grassroots activists, you know, people who are, organizing on the ground level. Like I said, I, I'm also working with, leaders who are running nonprofits organizations. I am working with some executives who are trying to make their corporations more socially conscious. so I, I do, I do run the spectrum. I mean, what, what, brings them all together, what's at their root is, at their core, the work they do is leading to making a significant difference in the world. So that's what unites them all. So there's, there's a lot of, you know, businesses who, you know, it's important that that be a part of it, but I'm working with people where this is, this is the end goal. The end goal is I want to change the world. I want to help this aching world.

Okay. So let's talk about Animal Justice Academy too. So that was another piece that kind of came in and was a surprise for you, right?

It really was. So just organically through my work with animal justice, you know, as a board member, as, sort of volunteer campaign strategist over the years, and I haven't really wanted to take money from my direct activism because it's just, again, it's, it's so part of my soul, I just wanted to give and give and give, however the call to do this project was so strong that I really had to make it a halftime project. And so the idea was that in animal activism, animal protection, there's so many people who care about animals in this world and this, you know, in the country we're in, which is Canada and, and in the United States, and yet they don't know what to do to help animals. And I went, we as an organization, we're lean, we can't be, you know, just sort of taking a bunch of time, to get volunteers up to speed. Like we're barely, you know, we just have to, we just have to hustle and get whatever we can done with our small staff. And so I went, what if we were to create a, basically a, a course, a curriculum and a community where people could, go through basically this bootcamp and become. Wherever they are in the world, wherever their skillset are, whoever they are, whatever their approach is and just give them everything from, you know, community activism, to workplace, activism to media, you know, to giving to them, just all of, all of the basics around, what's happening in the world as far as, as animals and animal exploitation goes. And so I really thought in terms of my business, because I went, oh, I don't like, I'm not going to desert where I'm going for, for something totally different. But I went, oh, this is really, this really fits into my business plan actually. because, you know, this is what I teach. I teach people how to become more empowered and more enduring as Changemakers. Yes, it's a specific area of change makers. but this was, you know, a chance for me to really, you know, Dive deep and create this curriculum. And what happened, I mean, I was, I was gunning for a thousand people to enroll and I just, I just had an intuitive hit. I've had it for about three years that this is something that's not out there and it's, and it's something people are hungry for. And within the first 24 hours of launching the course of just opening and announcing it, we had a thousand people sign up. And then within the next two weeks before starting the actual course, we had 5,000 people sign on. And then what happened was we just had this incredible six week bootcamp to start it all off. and, again, just this, these life-changing sort of, developments for people that went from, you know, not being a change-maker to being full on, running for politics, meeting with their MPs, you know, Sweeping changes to their workplaces, you know, change, you know, making their whole family vegan, you know, things like that. And, and it was just, it was so needed and it was so exciting to this community, that we just, we decided to make it a ongoing academy. So I, all of a sudden now have a, you know, half-time contract also doing animal justice academy, but meanwhile, I've expanded my platform by now. I think we're at 6,000 people. So, it's great. I mean, I get to talk to these people, you know, a couple of times a week, by email, I'm doing live panels with them, sessions with them. And also the last week of curriculum of this program that we, you know, still work off of is my work. It's all about how to, you know, do that inner work and create the habits and strategies, to take you and your mission to the next level. So it, it all just, you know, weaves in really well. So I had to really think hard about whether it was worth putting this time in and, and I, I think it's really paid off.

Yeah. And the reason I wanted to talk about it was because it's such a great example of, of a marketing tactic that's fully aligned with who you are. Right. So, You are, like I said, like you said, you're, you're now introduced and visible to a platform of 6,000 people and you're serving them in a very authentic way that, and you would serve them regardless of their, you know, their relationship with you. But you can guarantee that, you know, some of those 6,000 people are going to want to continue their work and, and who have the experience with you as well. So this is actually one of the tactics that I teach my clients and that we've taught our clients before is to go out and just find the places that you're already really aligned and get your, and just be a good human and be of service to these people. And they it's very natural. Right. So have you found that that's the case that some of these, these people within animal justice are actually going to migrate over and become clients who are diverse.

And they already have, yeah, it's been great and they're the best clients ever because they're, they're so wrapped up in a line, they just really need to do that sort of, mindset, you know, inner shift work and get really more focused on, on, on their action plans. And so, yeah, so it's beautiful and I've, I've, I've got a really nice waiting list for my new signature course, which will be, specifically, my life, you know, reboot sort of program, which has been my signature program for makers. So, yeah, so it's been wonderful and, and, and you're so right, Stephanie, I mean, being able to, you know, I honestly, you know, got this wonderful, vehicle to be able to connect to, my heart, my, you know, animal advocates out there. And also just starting to work in, to getting into spaces where I can be of service to other movements, you know, racial justice and environmental ism and, and all that sort of thing. So, and that, and that again, you're right. It's so natural to me. I want to give, I want to see these people, I want to see them rise up and because I they're, they're the ones who are going to change the world. So it's so easy for me.

And I think it's T that's exactly it. It's just looking for the places. People get really worried about finding clients, right? They get, they think it's, it's like this very foreign tactic that they do. They just, they're not sales people, but all you need to do is look for the paths of the least friction in your life, you know, where, what are you drawn to already? What is very natural for you already and move towards those because people are going to be there, right?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, anytime I've tried to do something that I was told should work by some, you know, a business guru, but I'm like, I don't like, like Instagram, I just not a fan of Instagram. And I, you know, and there's different things that I've just like dug my heels in. If, if, if you just resonate with it, you're not going to do it no matter how good of an idea it is. It's not going to work for you.

No, no, not at all. We had this conversation just a couple of weeks ago and I think you were saying, you know, I just, and I can always hear it in people's voices. Their tone changes to this kind of like, Tell me how the business has evolved for you since, you know, since you started to really look at it as a, as a business, right? Like you kind of started as a coach and now it feels like it's a, it's sort of a business business.

Yeah, absolutely. so, working with, well, first of all, with them make it work online. And then I went into working with you on the six months, Growth and Profit Business Accelerator. And then I was working with Amy Porterfield with a course with Amy Porterfield that was pretty intensive. and, so really for me, scaling up has meant starting to focus on, more exposure, you know, and the way we, we just talked about, it's also been, about getting my systems in place. so, so that's, you know, has been a big part of my growth is, is, it's I have such bandwidth challenges, right? I'm you know, I'm doing coaching clients, I'm running the animal justice academy. I'm doing content. I'm, I'm doing marketing, I'm doing admin, like same as so entrepreneurs. Right. And, and so I have to get a lot smarter about how I organize my time, how I, operationalize, my different processes. So Stephanie, you helped tremendously with that. Thank you. Because you're such a systems person and I wasn't, but I am now, like I am it's it's for me, it's all about, yeah. Like what's, you know, what's the process. How do we duplicate. how do I get it off my, you know, my plate? I think one of the other, you know, just on that theme, one of the other big things is I got an assistant finally about a year and a few months ago. I was working, I was running my own business for 13 years and I finally, I just finally realized that maybe that could be of help and honestly, you know, it's been amazing and it's the only way that I'm allowed to be able to grow and keep my sort of business ticking. So that's been huge. I mean, I still have a lot to learn about, how to best optimize my assistant. and I've gotten somebody, I started off with a great, great assistant, who was, uh, you know, virtual assistant. and she was amazing. Training me how to work with an assistance. So that was wonderful. But then I had to get somebody who was a little bit more able to work with the most specialized in my content and what I was doing as far as animal justice academy. So now I, I then, so I took somebody out who I just love working with, and then I trained her, and it's been beautiful. So, you know, I think that has helped just really getting organized in my business, getting a lot more focused. And, honestly the, the niching down to the Changemakers changed everything for me. it really has allowed me to take my business from word of mouth, and, and really start getting exposure because of my, everything's so much clearer now. my messaging is so much clear. I know exactly what I'm talking to. I know exactly the language to use. I know where to find them. and, and also, yeah, the places where I promote in the ways I promote are so much clearer to me. So, so I think that has been huge. And now I'm really in this process of, going from. One-on-one coaching and some smaller scale groups to larger online programs. And, and I just told you the other day that I'm planning on I'm writing a book. So I'm really just trying to get out to a, to a bigger world audience right now. So that's really it. I went from, from, sort of being a word of mouth coach to, being a figure, you know, that, that I'm trying to, you know, get exposure again, to be able to reach as many people. Because I feel like we're running out of time with this work that we need to do in the world. And, and so it feels like there is an urgency to it for me.

I agree. Yeah. I agree. And I'm, and I'm so happy that you're out there to serve these people too, because they need an engine behind them as well. Right?

Yeah. They're absolutely. I mean, w they are, they're trying to be the hero in our world and we all need a hero. Like we all need to be taken care of. We all need, to be able to have a guidance, no matter how smart you are, and whatever, good ideas you have, you, you need help. You need, you need to, some, everybody gets to these places where they hit blocks and, and, and they, everybody thinks, well, if I just work harder, you know, I'll get through it. No, you actually have to go back and you have to do some digging and you have to do some, dismantling and you have to start building back up again. So, so to be able to, I think one of the biggest challenges I have around makers, Stephanie, is the people that are trying to make a difference in the world. Again, they have this sense of urgency. So they're of the mind, like I don't have time to get organized. I don't have time to heal myself. I just need to do it and past, and I'm like, you can't afford me to do these things okay, because you are losing, so you're losing so much efficiency. You're going to burn out and you're not going to be good to anybody. So let's just slow it down a little bit. Let's go back and do this really important work. And, and then let's start building in a really smart, sustainable way. And that's what I've I've had to do. And you've been an amazing, permission giver for that, stephanie. For me like, I, my natural, my natural sort of instinct is to hustle is to work all the time and that's not what I coach people to do. And so, you know, you were one of the first people from the business world that said to me, look, you slow down. You actually said slow down. And, and so finding that balance not easy, but it has been. Huge for me, it's been huge for me because it's allowed me to really hone in on my, on my intuition. And I, and I tell you, those gut hits that I get, like when I am tuned in, they have never you know, they've never led me astray.

Let's talk about perfectionism. This is another topic I think that you, you can speak knowledgeably about and you know, how you have been dealing with it. Right. So let's talk about your website.

My website.

Yeah. So the website is, you know, I'm a little tongue in cheek, but that was the big project that became the, the elephant in the room. I think what facilitated some new thinking for you around perfectionism and the role that it plays in how you deal with it in your own business. Right? Because I can tell you every single person who's listening also struggle.

Yeah, well, I'll start off by saying, my name is Kimberly and I'm a recovering perfectionist. yeah, Stephanie I've, I've wasted so much time waiting for the stars to align or getting everything perfect before putting it out in the world and, and it has led to incredible paralysis. So, so I don't think I have a paralysis with my website, but I decided, you know, cause it, it was hand-in-hand with my niche change. I had to have everything. Right. That's what, that was my feeling. And that ended up being a two year Odyssey of getting this bloody website up. and I'm still not happy. Like I'm still not it's know. I I'd love to change tons of things about it, but at one point I just went, oh my God, like get it out there. And, and, and that has been a big learning for me in a lot of places, you know? I'm a television host. But it wasn't until last year that I started doing regular video, because I was like, I'm like, I'm a television host. This has to be perfect. I have to have a polished. I have to have the right lighting, the right camera. I don't know. You know? And, and then, the pandemic happen and I'm like, I just need to get out and serve my people right now. And that was actually what forced my force, my hand. I'm just, and I ended up starting to go live all the time. And then I started doing videos and, and I'm like, oh, okay. So, I just need permission for it to not be perfect. And, and nobody else cared. Nobody else cared how it came across and enemies still looked good, I think. but, yeah, it was, it was that sense of, Marie Forleo says, and I just, I live by, I try to live by it, but it's launch before you're ready. I need to remind myself that on, on everything. and I have, and some of the best things I've done have been launched before I was ready. I mean, my signature program, the life reboot program. I remember I had all these plans for this, this epic program being done. And I, I, I sold it. I sold it out and then we were starting I'm nowhere near done being done. So I was only a week ahead in getting the curriculum and the recordings and the workbook and everything done for my people. I was. But the interesting thing was I was getting to know my people better. I was getting to know where they were getting hooked, where they were getting, you know, where they were getting stopped, where they needed to go deeper. And I was able to create a very robust, a more robust program because I was able to be responsive to that.

So. It's actually like a great intentional tactic to, to not finish before you launched, because you you're going to make changes as you go. And those first few weeks are the times that you get some really good information, right. About what people are interested in and excited about and what they need. And so I think this, this concept of being ready doesn't exist. Anytime you ask people, are you ready? They'll be like, well, almost right, but, but right. And we give ourselves lots of excuses. So what kind of changed for you in terms of your mindset around being quote unquote ready.

You know, I remember a politician friend of mine who was trying to recruit female, other female politicians to run in, in the last election or the election before, even that. And, and she said, you know what, when I, when we approach men and say, Hey, we think you'd be a great candidate. Would you like to run for our party? They were like, yeah, sure. Yeah, absolutely. I've always thought about politics. I think that'd be great. And then the women were like, oh, I don't know. I don't know if I know enough. I think I should prep. I probably should do a, speaking, you know, a course. and I don't really know about the middle east stuff and you know, all this sort of thing. And I, and it just really hit me. I do think there is a gender thing. And again, this is obviously a generalization, but I do think as women, we tend to always feel that. We're not ready. We're not enough the way we are. And so I think, you know, one of the things I have really had to do for myself is when I get stuck and when those sort of, those limiting thoughts of, well, who are you to do? You know, you don't, you don't know enough, you know, who made you like queen of the world? You know, things like that. And those voices are there. And I just have to say, well, I'm the person who did this. I'm the person who has these, this combination of qualities and nobody else has. I've had this experience. I've had this varied life. I know this person, you know, this person, this person, this person I, you know, has had their life changed because of me. I think it's really important how almost like a right, like a master list of the reasons you should be able to go forward, the reasons you shouldn't wait. And also maybe those reasons are that sense of urgency for you. You know, the urgency of, I don't want to wait 10 years before I have some freedom in my life to be able to take vacations. You know, I don't, I don't want to wait until my children are terrified about the world they're going to live in. you know, I, I wanna, I want to move now on whatever it is, because obviously if we're, if we're launched her own business and we're running it, which is never where walk in the park, there's something like pretty deep that was calling to us to do it, whether that is, because we wanted more choice in our life or because we wanted to make a bigger difference or whatever it is. And those are pretty powerful things to want to, you know, really get in and messy with right away.

So that's your engine, isn't it? Your engine is, is this alignment with your purpose? Right? It's the, and it sounds, that sounds very like motherhood and apple pie, but when you boil it down, it's, it's alignment. It's alignment with, you know, what, who you are. And I know that you, and I've talked about this a lot is, you know, what is your sort of pillar of passion, but also with what's driving you, like, what is what's that change you hope to see in the world? So as long as everything is working to support, though, that vision. You can continue to move forward, but it's never been a straight line, has it? Right?

No. And I think, I mean, your pillars are really helpful in that way. I mean, I got very clear to me that my thing is it's it's, it's, it's what I'm teaching. It's it's, it's what I'm, you know, it's, it's the subject, it's, it's the thing that I'm passionate about. This work, that really drives me, I mean, I'm not too concerned about how it's done. I'm not too concerned about necessarily. I mean, I'm concerned, I'd like a lifestyle where I have space and joy and everything, but it's not the top thing. The top thing is, is the work. Right. So, and that's really helped to guide me.

Yup. So what are you doing to find clients right now? So you've got the Animal Justice. We've talked about that. How else have you been finding.

So, I, you know, I, on, again, some of your, a good guidance, realizing I was really, it was really trying to work social media quite a bit, and it's still part of my marketing, but I really realized that, That the amount of time I was putting into social media was not giving me the outputs. You know, it was not giving me the results I was looking for. and so I have, you know, so, so getting in front of other people's audiences, doing workshops for other organizations for, you know, for other sort of, you know, groups of change-makers, again, different shows and podcasts, that's been helping. I also, you know, I've been working with a combination of video and live, live content to grab people. And, I have, I mean, just really trying to, you know, I, you know, I have a decent little list of my own too, so really trying to cultivate that. and yeah, and then I guess, you know, again for this exposure piece, I was really. Going back and forth about what comes first, the book or the, the new program. And, and I just decided, you know, a book is something that, I can get out to a lot more people faster, with, as you said, a sort of lower level of commitment from them. And so, you know, I'm really looking at this just as an opportunity, for, for building my audience mark for, for building exposure.

And are you looking to kind of self publish or is this going to be, you know, the, the work?

Yeah, I'm, it's, it's interesting. And knowing that pillar, I remember going to. last year and it was, it was a self, it was a, it was a company that helps self publishing and they were just like, Hey, this is a marketing tool. Get it out there. You know, it doesn't have to be brilliant. Just get something out there, get, you know, get clients coming in and everything. And I'm like, oh, that doesn't feel quite right to me. Like, I mean, yes, I want it for exposure, but I also want it to make a difference and I don't expect it to be a bestseller or anything, but I, so I'm, I'm going to try to find that, That nice little balancing act between, getting it out and not it becoming my albatross, like, you know, like other things have websites. But also it being, something that I can be proud of and something that really represents, the work I believe in. and so that when people read that book, they, they, they, are, you know, they, they have, they have a pretty serious shift is what I'm looking for.

Do you think you've learned more about this ideal client through the Animal Justice Academy?

Yeah, definitely. Definitely. I think I, I probably, I got myself distracted when I was starting to talk about, one of the challenges of, of working with Changemakers is, is that they just, they don't know that they need to do this work. And that's a really hard, in, in the beginning of, of changing to this niche, it was even like, people didn't identify as change makers. Like that was a new word that was being used. And now it's finally sort of getting some traction. And then, being able to really work with, with so many of my ideal clients, I really, yeah, I really got such a good sense of what they think they want, what they think they need and what they actually need, and really, you know, to how to create what they think they need with what they do need attached to it. So that's been an important lesson for me.

So, what do they think they need versus what they actually need?

Well, they think that they, they just need to learn skills, in order to be able to hustle and get their message out there. They think that they, they do know that they need to get more productive, but they think they need a bunch of magical knowledge. Okay. Like who to talk to, how to start a campaign, how to, who, you know, they, they need to be connected to the right people and, and really what they needed, what they need is they need to get really focused about what area they want to affect. And they need to have the habits and the action plan, and the mindset in place to be able to follow through on that.

This is sounding very familiar. It's you know, it's not dissimilar to the things that people need when they are first starting their own business. Right. They think what they need is they think they all, they all think they have a marketing problem and they all think they just need to figure out how to get more clients. What they really need to do is to figure out who they are as business hours and work and go right back to that foundation. And that opens up a whole lot of clarity for them. So I'm guessing this is something that is true for your clients too, is, is getting clear on, you know, what, where did they fit inside the, because I think there's a lot of different ways to influence change and be a change maker. So legislation there's lobbying, right?

Yeah.

So with all these options for, for their work, I would have imagined that what they really need to do is get really clear on where they fit, because not everybody is gonna want to be a lobbyist. Not everybody is gonna want to be, you know, driving non-profit right. And so are you serving them up with options?

Yeah, so we, I mean, my, my approach is, is we really, a lot of people don't know what their business they want their business to be, or their form of change-making to be. Cause they don't really know themselves enough. They don't, you know, they, and, and so, they're often limited around what they actually want to do by what their sort of inner voices and blocks are. And so, so my, the first work that I, I really try to do with people is, is, is to clear those blocks, you know, and sometimes we have to go really deep for that. but I do it in a really experiential way. I do it in a really, and we don't talk, we don't do talk therapy for five years. You know, I, I have, I have, a lot of, approaches and, and, techniques that sort of fast track that. And then from that sort of clearer, more spacious place, then we're able to go, okay, so. What is what really revs you up. Okay. What's really calling to you, you know? And, and how do you best work? Okay. Do you best work? Are you an extrovert? Are you an introvert? Do, are you, are you a writer? Are you a graphic designer? You know, like w what skills do you bring to the table? What point of view do you bring to the table? That's unique. And, you know, we, we just sort of go through this, this whole, like, process of, of what specifics, they bring to the table and, and those things that are most resonating with them. And we, we really come up with an action plan from there. And so, yeah, so, I mean, a change-making looks incredibly different from client to client. So it's been, it's been an amazing thing, too. I see happen and I, you know, and I just really enjoy the process of when people are really centered in themselves and they can really tune into, what is meaningful to them that everything else kind of is easy to navigate. It's not, I mean, it's hard work, but it's much clearer.

And I, I would, I'm making a general assumption here, but one of the assumptions I would have about this audience is that they feel, they never feel like the change is enough, right. Because we have this social conscience and we want to make the biggest change possible. And that can be I'm imagining really intimidating or overwhelming or really defeating. Right. And is that something that you deal with with your clients?

Oh, yeah. All the time. I mean, there is just, there's so much wrong with the world and there's so much right with the world. I just want to say that too. But there's so much to do and, and almost every area of change-making is this, this mountain that you can't even see the top of. So the biggest, the biggest mistake I see people make is, is that they don't have a diff sort of definable goals. they don't have, these. Sort of places where once they get there, they take a break. Okay. Even daily. so, so what I'm seeing is, is they're just, they're going at it 24 7, they're rubbing their wheels. They're, they're losing their sense of, of center. They're losing their sense of passion and love. and they're getting less and less effective. And, and so, yeah, so being able to, well, it's the work I've had to do, Stephanie. And, and that is, you know, realizing. I don't have to pay rent for being, on this planet every day, you know, like I just am, and, and I, I definitely have a deep sense of, of duty. But I, I I feel like I also need to have a life. I also need to have my own experience in my own joy. And so figuring out how to, you know, do that when you've got so much to do in this world, is, is really, is really interesting and challenging. So, so I I'm, I'm a real, I'm a real believer in, having a, weaving into, into your, you know, your life and your work life, breaks, being able to, and making those really official. So formalizing that. So for example, you know, I do big vision planning now, you know, like I actually set aside time each week for sort of more big vision planning. I, you know, I make sure I do a daily practice where it's just my time to get, you know, sort of work through some of those blocks and to find my appreciation and find my passion, and to meditate and get centered. I exercise five to six times a week. you know, those are all non-negotiables for me. Okay. And I have to. There's a little voice every day, even though I know this there's a little voice that says Kimberly, you've got too much to do. You're being irresponsible by taking this time. And I, I need to talk to that little voice and I need to say I get it. I get you're panicked. But listen, the Kimberly, who was the wisest, that was the most sort of centered and smartest. And why is this when she decided this she's the one I'm going to trust, not little panicky voice. I'm going to trust that Kimberly and then, so that's like a five-second conversation. And then I go do do my thing. So, so a lot of my work with Changemakers is to really show them how important. This work of, of them being coming from a peaceful, loving, all we're full place is to their work. Okay. So them, being in a place of empowerment, empowers the world and, and, and most of them just do not get that. And so that's a real teaching.

There's this layer of guilt. Right. And I see it in business owners too, that they're, they're like I should be working. I should be working. I should be working. I should be working. I have a responsibility I'm going to, and you cannot, you just cannot be effective or at of your, at half capacity.

Sometimes you do more harm than help. Like, and again, as a change maker, if you are taking, an energy out there, you know, into the thing, the places you care about and it's scattered or it's angry, or it's really sad sack, or, you know, like, or it's just not present. I mean, you can do more damage. you know, we're cleaning up messes in, in sort of the activism, arena all the time of people that are just knee jerk reacting and they're plowing through without any sort of forethought or, or connection to, you know, again, the love and the passion that brought them to, to their, issues in the first place. So yeah, so I, I think it is, it really is being able to say, Look. Your time off your downtime is an investment. It's an investment in your work. Your work is only going to get more creative, more intuitive, more powerful, more focused. it's going to become more expansive if you give yourself time. And again, Stephanie, you've been a great reminder because, you know, again, the shoemaker's children go shoeless. I, you know, I have to be, I teach this because it's what I have to stay on myself for all the time. And that, that when I take breaks, regular breaks. And when I give myself that space, oh my God, that's when the best ideas come to me. That's when I get organized, that is when I get really focused. And that's when the panic takes a back seat and my inspiration takes it from.

Oh, gosh, I love that you couldn't have said that better and it's not just the breaks. It's also making sure that you have allocated time for the rest of your life. Like just, just the personal stuff and, you know, getting your car serviced and, and going to take care of, you know, some, some, some chore down, you know, in the city or whatever it might be. One of the things that I talk a lot about in my program, and you've heard me say this a billion times is that structure creates freedom. And so being able to work within structure is you are no less of a change maker. If you are spending your time making change in like pockets, as opposed to being completely dedicated to it, 24 7, you'll burn yourself out and you don't bring the right message to the rest of the world. Right?

Structure is freedom is one of my other big mantras. Thank you, Stephanie. It really is like, I, I, I, again, I'm a little bit of a creative type and so I rebelled against being too hemmed in and everything. But seriously, every little bit of structure I put in, has just let me relax a little bit more.

Of the mental space making decisions constantly because you haven't heard them already.

Right. You're not creating the wheel over and over again. You're just like, I, you know, I've got enough to do and build, that I, I don't want to have to struggle over like getting my engine revved up. I just want to be able to, when I, when I've got the time I go and I'm like, there it is, it's set up. I got the focus, I've got the items. I, you know, I, you know, I've got the processes. I'm good. I'm good.

Yeah, the hostile cultures is dying fast and hard death.

Yeah. Thank God. Thank God. It just doesn't make any sense. And, and if we're not, if we're not fully realized people, if we're not people who've who have fun in our lives and, and, and have connections and love and wonder in our lives, we just, we don't really have a lot to bring to our businesses. You know, we just, we're, we're a little bit starved. Right.

I agree. What's next for you? Hmm.

So.The book is next, and launching my new course, those are the next year's, plans. And, yeah, and like I said, that was, that was a total pivot in the last couple of months with doing the book. And that was only because I had a little bit of space and I was really, my intuition came up strong around that. So, and again, just, always trying to build, build my list. I'm always trying to cultivate, my, my, my audience and relax. Oh yeah, absolutely. I think that's, I think that's one of the things that is appealing to me a little bit about the book writing process is, is really just to have some of that more reflective time. I know, writing is not easy and it's not, it's not a skill that comes easiest to me, but I, when I have time to do it and when I can really get into it, it's, it's, it's, it's pretty satisfying. And, and I really do, I think a lot of people think I'm an extrovert because it's easy for me to go in front of people and speak or to be on video or whatever, but I'm such an introvert in a lot of ways. I really need to be alone to be able to find my energy, to build my energy again. And so, so I, I need to balance a lot of that outward facing stuff that I do in my work with, with that sort of deeper reflective work as well.

Yeah. And I've seen this really, you know, come to fruition in your business too. I would say that your energy changed maybe a year ago and the success of your business. Like they kind of, the struggle bus has changed a lot as well, too. Like I've seen, I, this feels very confident, clear, and like you're on an upward. Upwardly mobile growth pattern. And it just, you know, just as an outside observer, I think that when you let go of the chains you'd created for yourself, your business started to make a whole lot more sense and it started to grow itself.

Yeah. Yeah, there is a little bit of a, fuck it mentality, you know, that I've adopted. Just, you know, again, just to sort of balance out that, that urgency that my work contains it is just sometimes it's at the end of the day, it's just like, oh, it's let it go. Kimberly, just, you know, it doesn't have to be perfect and it doesn't have it. And who says it has to be done now, you know, like I think that's one of the things you asked me at one point and he said, I said, well, I have to have this launch by this point. And you said, who says, and I'm like, it's true. It's

everybody else is out there being busy and they're not going to be sitting there going where's Kimberly's it has launched her website on, you know, I agree.

Yeah, totally. So, so that's, that's been, that's been a huge, and I think one of the other big things that's changed my energy too Stephanie is it's finally getting support. And, like it took me. 10 years, nine years into my business before, again, not just the assistant, but to, to do programs, you know, to invest in learning how to run my business and to be parts of communities and, and, uh, you know, membership groups and, and all that sort of thing. And it's been really great. Like, I don't know why I thought I had to do it alone. and it was, I know it came down to money. I'm sure it's like, oh, until I've made this much, I, I can't afford, well, I, again, I couldn't afford not to have other voices. I couldn't afford not to be in more supportive communities where I could exchange ideas and get, you know, advice and, and, you know, it was, it was huge. It's been a huge thing.

I think, a lot of people overlook that. Right. And they also think, well, I don't, I don't belong yet because I haven't made it. And it's like, well, actually that's the right time to be part of a supportive community is when you are just building right. So last question. Yeah, last question. Cause I ask everybody this, but, I'm sure you'll have a lot to say on this one. What's different between what we kind of hear out there in the world about online business and in the business world and what's real.

So I, I do, I think, the PR the marketing, approach that claims it is the answer. Okay. Like, oh my God. I just realized, especially again, just being in communities with entrepreneurs, now for, for quite a while that it's just all dependent on your style, your audience, your offerings. Certainly there are some overall, important elements to keep in mind, but, but every step of the way we have to be asking her. Does this work for me, like I know me and my business better than this person that's never met me. And does that actually work? So, you know, being able to have the permission to realize that, that you maybe know more than, you know, than you think, you know right. And that you can be comfortable. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I think social media is also one of those things. I think I see such an emphasis on social media, you're, you know, marketing through social media and content. And, and I honestly, it's not just me that isn't like that seeing that it isn't worth the results, like all of that effort and really, really starting to, bring down your inputs into social media, that in a way that makes equal to what your, your, your results are. And so I think there's so, so much of an emphasis on social media as your, as your marketing. And, and again, I work with my clients that are change-makers and they're like, okay, well, if I just get my social media numbers up and it's like, oh, no. and so, so yeah, so it is just realizing that's just one part of it. It's one part of the, the puzzle, right? It's just one slice of the, of the vegan pizza.

And I, I actually think so. I mean, you and I have had this conversation, but I think social media is a great, is a great place for you to help people get to know you once they've found you. But I think the urgency and the fear around that being your audience building tool is actually really challenging, like really difficult. But the great news is that we've been all these different options and for some people that's their thing, right. It just really makes sense to them and they love it. Awesome. It's one more tactic, but there are, I think what people don't realize is that there are a whole pile of different ways to quote unquote sell and do marketing that vary from, you know, social media and all the way through to really unique. And, and we're just like, we're just trying to create relationships and become known. That's all we need to do. Right. And there are lots of, lots of different ways.

Oh, yeah, for sure. For sure. And it's, it's been, yeah, it's been great sort of again, getting permission from you around that. and it's great giving other permissions to people to be able to do that.

Well, you're certainly doing your part with your people. Kimberly, I love talking to you and we could go on forever, but we're going to wrap up the episode. Can you tell people where they can find you? And of course, we'll put all the links in the show notes.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, go to that, the website, but the website we keep talking about, I'm at kimberlycarroll.com and, and on my homepage, you can also find free course. I do, power tools for change makers, five-part video series, and it's a really great way to get to know me, my style, the kind of work I do and it's completely free of course. And, and you can find me, my main social media hangout, would be on Facebook. and I'm, Kimberly Carroll Page is my, is my business page. And, and I am on Instagram. So you can find me at, coachkimberlycarroll, but don't expect her to be overly engaged, but I am. That's the one thing I'm trying to post less and engage more. Right. So, yeah, it's not too much. I just don't like being on social media that much.

All right. So we're going to wrap up the episode, such an amazing conversation. Make sure you go and check out Kimberly and all of her incredible offers. And if you are a change-maker yourself, this is the lady you need to, speak to, that you need to get to know because she knows who you are as a person, as an individual and how you're going to do the best for yourself to make more change. So, thanks again for being here. If you've enjoyed today's content, I would love for you to give us a review on whatever platform you're on. This helps us share these stories with an even bigger audience. And until next time, keep building, keep dreaming and keep being real.