Nuanced. - 16. Katie McKay: Entrepreneur & Business Owner

Episode Date: October 28, 2020

Katie McKay is a mother to two children, entrepreneur, owner of three different businesses, and community leader. Katie McKay is a part owner and Director of Marketing for Chewie Media. She is owner and publisher of What's On! Chilliwack Magazine, and owner of Connect Now Business Network. Katie is a Master Practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming and is passionate about helping you, both personally and professionally, to achieve your goals. She believes in connections and collaboration and is also inspired by the friendships and support that fellow entrepreneurs can give to one another. No one understands you and what you’re going through as a business owner like a fellow business owner does.NLP allows her to look deeply under the surface, and her very honest and real attitude to life means she will tell you exactly what she sees and how you can change things to make your life and business better. Katie is all about showing you how you can be more visible, motivated, confident, focused and empowered. Working with her is a journey, not a sprint, but she guarantees that she will help you to become a better version of yourself, whilst also making great connections along the way.Katie won Business Mom of the Year and is the proud mum to two beautiful kids, Natalie and Jake who make every day an adventure. Send us a textSupport the shownuancedmedia.ca

Hello, friends, and thank you for tuning into the Bigger Than Me podcast. My name is Aaron Pete, and I am your host. Our guest today is a mother, business owner, entrepreneur, and community leader. She is the owner of Connect Now Business Network. She is the owner and publisher of What's On Chilliwack Magazine and the director of marketing for Chewy Media. Please give it up for my guest, Katie McKay. And we're live.

Katie McKay, it is a pleasure to have you on. You've been on Chill TV and lots of different channels. So could you give us a brief introduction? Hi, so I'm Katie McKay. So I'm the owner of What's On Chililowack and Connect Now Business Network. I've got a mom, I'm a mom to two kids. And so I'm nice and busy, but really getting more and more involved within the community. Well, let's get right into that.

part then and let's talk about how you balance having a family and running so many different businesses. I don't know. It's one of those things you just kind of do it. As things come up, as challenges come up, you adapt to each thing. And I really started my entrepreneurial journey when I was pregnant with my first. So it just all built at the same time and became quite natural for me. What was that like to take that, to take that risk and to put yourself out there like that. It was, it was interesting. It was definitely, definitely a challenge, but I didn't really realize it until I took a, taken a step back and went, oh, wow, I am doing a lot. And, you know, when you're in the thick of it, you don't always see it. Yeah. So as my, my daughter was growing up,

it just became a part of what we did. You know, she came to some meetings with me, but it just became a natural thing for us, even though looking back at it, it seems a little crazy. Yeah. What was going on? What made you take that? leap and start to work for yourself rather than... So my husband at the time owned Chewy Media, so it's a website design and development company locally here. And I was on maternity leave and I was watching what he was doing and I said, oh, I know how to do some of these things. Let me help you. And so I started talking to clients. I started doing some of the changes within the business and taking on some of the smaller projects.

And I just grew, like I just learned as I was going. So then by the time she was born, I realized, oh you know what I don't want to go back to work I'm not I'm not going okay I guess I'm not going back to work and then I just never did and so I just took that opportunity and I I stayed home with her and was able to just kind of have the two coincide together but I call myself an accidental entrepreneur because it's obviously something that I'm very passionate about and that I love so much and it just gave me that opportunity that I didn't think would have been there otherwise yeah yeah because I don't think that I would have been able to take that leap necessarily or had the opportunity to realize how much I loved it without that little bit of a

break. Right. So you start out and you just start doing things. What were the little things and where did you feel like your comfort zone was within that? So I've always loved talking to people. That's always been my thing is just chatting with people. And he wanted to do the work, right? He was very good at what he did. And so it just became quite natural where he's like, hey, can you just answer this email? Or can you take this and figure out what I need to do for the day? And And this was something that I love doing anyways. You know, beforehand I had been in office administration and those little tasks. So then I started doing the books.

And I started doing just mini client updates on the websites themselves. And then it just grew. And then I started doing sales. And then I started, then we outsourced some of the little projects. And then I sold more. And it just evolved. Wow, that is awesome. Can you tell us more about Chewy Media just so we can have a better understanding?

Yeah, so we do website design and development, SEO, so search engine optimization, helping businesses get out there online, grow their business, and be found. Yeah. So that was our passion behind that, is just helping people be seen online. Yeah, because I imagine that most businesses, when they're starting out, they probably, that's something that they want to prioritize, but their passion might not be there. For example, like Bill, who runs the butcher, his mindset is probably not on how to optimize like these search engines.

what has that been like to have those sit-down conversations and go through that with people? In the beginning, every client that comes to us goes, I don't know where to start. And that's why we're doing what we're doing is because people don't know where to start. They need to spend their time focusing on what they're good at. Like, he needs to be focusing on being a butcher. Yeah. Right? And then we can take on the online side of things where it is helping them grow their business online.

Yeah. And then, you know, your online, your website, your marketing, it's a part of your sales team. And people don't really realize that. So when I sit down and have the conversation, people end up being actually quite relieved. Because it's like, oh, okay, I don't have to worry about this. Most people, when they start being an entrepreneur, they are the bookkeeper. They are the person. They typically go on and they either do a do-it-yourself website that typically does not help you

as much as you think it does. Or they spend their business isn't where it needs to be yet. And then they spend like tens of thousands of dollars on their website, but don't have a solid plan for it on where it's going to take you. Yeah. And so having that like comprehensive plan has I actually found has been quite relieving for people. Yeah. What is that like to meet with someone when maybe they aren't ready to do the big investments on, because I know the websites can cost tens of thousands of dollars. What is that like to try and help someone get to that mindset? and help build that in. So a lot of it is trust over time, helping them, like, change little things.

So if they've got a website where it's like, okay, you're doing this yourself, that's fine. Here are some things that you need to do that's going to make a difference for you. And then when they're ready to invest. So I just had somebody sign on for a site, and she and I have known each other for five years. But she just wasn't ready. She wasn't at that point. And then it came to a point where she's like, oh, I need to grow. And this is how it's going to happen.

And so we were able to be a part of her growth plan, which I thought was really, like, I loved it. So one of the things that we've done is, yeah, you can get their website with us for, like, any price. It's custom. Or you can do a leasing option where we'll own it, but they can sign up for just a monthly fee and we'll maintain it for them. But it's still a custom site for them. Yeah. So it makes it more affordable when they're starting out. Yeah.

Yeah. So we can work it into part of their marketing budget. Yeah. Yeah. Can you give us an idea of what that looks, some. businesses that you have worked out with and we can get a better understanding of that. Oh, well, we've worked with a lot of different. We don't niche down specifically because I work with like the clients. So we've got some counselors and the person that's just sign on that I was

talking about. She's a dog walker. She does like pet sitting or coming in. Her business grew with COVID because she takes pets to the vets for you. She'll come in and take them and and help you through that so that you don't have to worry about it. Wow. Yeah. So that was something where she's like, oh, okay, I need to grow now. And so we built the website for her and we're in that process of helping her through that. And, you know, we've got some people that are in construction and as we've grown with them, they're now doing home building. So it used to be like they would do additions. They would do some smaller renovation projects. And now they're building full houses. So their website has grown with them, which is why I like having the maintenance packages that we do.

That is so cool. That dog walking thing is such a unique business because that is something. something where some people have to go to work and it is a big financial sacrifice to take the day off to take your pet to work. That's a brilliant idea. Yeah, so she'll do that and she will come in and just she does check-ins and tuck-ins. So if you're away, she'll take your pet out for a walk before it has to go to bed. So she'll come in, tuck it into bed and then, you know, start the next day. And it's been really cool to watch her growth and development too. Wow, that is so cool because you get to experience all these people who put different ideas together and you get to kind of help build them up.

I love it. Like no two projects are the same. Yeah. So when people come and say, well, how much is a website? I don't know. Like, we'll talk about it. It's completely custom to you. And then, yeah, we've got a farm on the Sunshine Coast where she says, I have acreage.

I can do this, this, and this. Where do I start? And then we can come up with a plan. Wow. Yeah, because everybody's so different. Every person's different. So you can't expect the way that they're going to do every project like the same. It's just so different all the time.

Yeah. What is it like to work? with everyone throughout the because it doesn't sound like you're just Chilliwack or just one specific area you're across kind of BC you're trying to work with different areas and and in Alberta wow tell us more it's different I love it I love it because I like the changes there's still like the base principles that we follow but at the end of the day it's about the person it's about the business where do they want their business to grow how can we be a part of that growth plan to get their business to that next level yeah which is kind of how I look at look at

everything. It's like we're all growing. We're all evolving. Yeah. And how can we do that with your online marketing too? And so you started out with moving into that. Yeah. And then what next? Yes. So after my, so I have two kids when I was pregnant with my second. I didn't realize how bad like my own mental health was. So I hit a low and I felt completely cooped up. I felt totally isolated. That was like a big thing for me. And so I started networking. And I was terrified, like absolutely terrified. I walked into the room and I sat like with my friend. I dragged my friend along. I'm like, you have to come with me. And we sat at a table by ourselves and hope nobody would talk to us, which is like super ineffective for networking. Like it didn't work. And I just, I realized, okay, no, there's people that are interested in what I'm doing. I got to go. I got to go. I would go and like ball my eyes out in the car. And so that was about five, three, five years ago now. And I have people. coming up and saying, I had no idea. Like, you seemed so strong. And that's kind of how things have evolved in terms of, like, helping the person. Because when you get to the root of the problem,

you can actually help to solve it. So that networking business that I went to, I now own it. And it has, like, changed me and how I view everything. Yeah, that's Connect now, right? Connect now. Okay, tell us more. So we have nine locations across the lower mainland, and that's obviously changed because of COVID, because it was an in-person networking group. And we just can't do that now because of everything. And so we meet online. And then we have growth opportunities for people. So we do, you know, like the summit that we have and things to help grow the business owner. Because it's not enough to just have a business plan in place. You want to. You need to. So we'll help people with that. But we want to make sure that the person behind the business is okay. Because with Chewy Media,

yes, we were doing well, things were good, and then once I started taking care of myself and changing how I viewed things, my business quadrupled within six months. Wow. Right? So because I was looking at like, me, the person. I was like, oh, okay, because I was giving everything to the business. And then when I took a step back and I'm like, oh, but I am the business, okay. So taking that step back and realizing, okay, let's reassess how this is done.

And so now that's how I help, like, business owners. So within Connect Now, one of our meetings is what we call the power hour. And we do mental health for entrepreneurs. And what is that like? Because I imagine that that's a huge issue because even when Bill was on, he was our previous guest. He was talking about how he did something like 118 days straight of just work from like 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. every single day. And then he basically had a heart attack.

Like, and he had to face that. Yep. So I imagine that that is a calm. and problem. Mine was burnout. Mine was putting so much pressure on myself. I find that a lot of entrepreneurs do have a similar personality type where you expect a lot from yourself. You expect that you're going to just do all of the things and you put so much pressure on yourself. So there's burnout. There's, you know, overwhelm. Overwhelm's a huge one that people don't realize until it kind of creeps out and you crash. So we want to make it so that you don't crash. You know, you'll have

ebbs and flows. There will be ups and downs in business. That's how it goes. But how to kind of manage the stress levels behind that and how you can actually use different levels of stress in your business to, you know, fuel it. Yeah, because you definitely don't want zero stress and to have nothing. You want to have that healthy balance. Yeah, because if you're completely complacent and you're sitting back going, everything's fine, you're not going to have like that drive. Yeah. Right. And so we help people harness that drive and those stressful points to grow. Wow. And so let's get back to it. You're so you started to, you were working with Chewy Media. Yeah. And then connect now. Yeah. And how long have you been doing that for? Three years. Three years. And what is that development like? Because you said you started, you attended and then you've taken it over now.

Yeah, I bought it back in early 2018. Wow. What gave you that confidence? You were just taking it over slowly. Yeah. So I became a leader of the Chilliwack location. shortly after becoming a member. And I was, you know, making little changes just within my chapter and the way that I did things. And I would go to the owner and say, hey, so maybe this. And she eventually approached me and said, you know what? Do you, is this something that you want to do? And I'm like, oh, yeah, I love it, thinking that she was going to have me like, like, hire me on as like an assistant or something. And she says, well, I want you to buy it. I've been looking for someone for a few years now. And she says, I want it to be you. I was like, okay.

And so I was terrified at first, absolutely terrified of first. But it was the right move. And I've, like, I'm so passionate about it because, like, I thought that I could do it on my own. And then I realized I couldn't. So part of my growth has been the people around me. And I get really amped up helping other people. Like, that just makes me feel good. And so I've grown because of that. Yeah. So Connect Now has evolved into more like helping the person behind the business and making those. connections and those relationships because then you want each other to succeed. You help each other through the problems. And then I started talking about the issues that I was facing. And I went to one meeting and my hair was a mess. And my daughter, I don't even remember what she did, but I knew that I was completely frazzled. And I said, you know what? Business kind of sucks today. I don't, I don't love this. And someone started crying. She's like, I'm so relieved to hear you say that. And it just snowballed like the conversation just kind of went from there because I realized, oh, it's not just me that has days like this. And those people who had always seen me put on this faith and always seen

me so strong when I started saying, no, no, no, like after that meeting, remember when we met together? I went into the parking lot and cried. So I've had those days too. And it was like a weight was lifted off their shoulders to know that they're not alone. Wow. That's just amazing because I do think that that is the case that when you're working on a project and you're trying to grow it, your mindset is not about what your priorities are. And I do also think that coupled with that is that most people, when they're working on a project, they don't realize that they are the energy behind it and that they are the product. Because for me personally, like beyond nutrition is one that I talk about regularly because to me, the product isn't beyond nutrition.

If I'm trying, it's because you can have a nutritional store anywhere. The difference is him and his outlook and his approach. And so I imagine that that comes up a lot where the mindset is what you're paying for and what you're investing in. So, and then people have mental health issues because they're putting everything they have into it, not realizing that they need to be healthy in order for the big seed. Yeah. What is that?

Well, like, Chewy Media, we're a website design company in like the lower mainland near Vancouver. We're not the only one. And I actually had a meeting with somebody who is also in the web development field. I've had two meetings with two other companies this week. And because there are just some clients that I've realized I don't want to work with. There was one client in particular. He just, it was a bigger issue because it came down to just respect, blatant respect. I'm a female entrepreneur in a male dominated industry.

So that brings on its own challenges for sure. And I said, look, like, I'm not the right fit for you. and I was able to send him to somebody else that I knew it would be a right fit because I built that connection even in the same industry. Because having that competitive mindset doesn't help anybody. So if you can collaborate and work with other people, it's just so much nicer. Yeah, and that's been a running theme in the podcast as well, is I've heard a lot of people say that these people might just not be the clients for me.

I've heard Brett Contella say that and Johnny say that, Bill, recognizing that there are some people who are just not the right fit for what they're working on and being able to have that humility and say, I'm not going to have all the customers in all of BC. Like, I'm not, that's not my goal. It's to work with specific individual. I used to try to take on and like meld to every person. So in the beginning, it was tough because I, I didn't know about that balance. I didn't know it existed. It was like, well, Jeremy's really good at what he does. Like, of course he can do anything. Does he want to work with the people that have $10 a month? No. Like, that's just, that's not our client, but maybe we can help them in other ways. Maybe they can get some free tools from us that we're

already providing or like we can have a chat once in a while, but we're not going to spend hours upon hours upon hours building them a site because it wasn't beneficial for all parties. So it was interesting. Earlier this year, I started working with a client and I realized, look, it just wasn't a good fit. And when I release that energy of like the client that I didn't want to work with, right after that, I think it was within a week, I got like our idea. client like absolutely what like our avatar we had like down to the age it was the the exact client that we wanted and it was really an eye-opener for me that like what you put out you receive and so I was putting out that look I didn't want to work with clients that didn't

respect me I didn't want to work with clients that you know questioned absolutely everything that I did on like a values level that wasn't for me so releasing that and then I got like the exact client that I'm like, oh, everybody's happy. Like these clients are thrilled. We're happy. It's just a very good relationship because I put that out there. Yeah. But it came from me.

Wow. So you're able to build these things and now connect now is where it's at. Can you tell us more about where it is currently? Oh, it's definitely grown. And right now we're in the middle of building a course. And it's because marketing is only one piece. You know, the budgeting and finances is only, one piece. So we've been taking what people have been struggling with. And we're putting into a

program that people can do. And it's like, okay, here are all the different things that you need. This is what it comes down to is only these six things. Here you go. Let's help you. Let's meet you where you're at. Wherever you're at, it doesn't matter if you're just starting out or if you've been in the industry for 10 years. These are the six things. So let's meet you where you're at to help you grow. And COVID has definitely changed some things. You know, we were about to open up a couple locations and it just, we had to kind of take a step back. And we realized what was important to us in that was the people, helping them grow their business. Yes, obviously, we want to meet back in person and I'm so excited for when we can. But the online ones has been nice because

the way that we've set it up, it's not, you can't, it's not just like one person per location. One person can go to all locations. And so you get to meet people that you wouldn't have met otherwise. So we've got people from the Vancouver location that typically go there that are coming to the Chilliwack meeting. And they're meeting and getting acquainted with people that are not in their vicinity. And so it's really interesting to see how people are developing. Can I ask, what is the cultural differences that you might notice? Because people from Vancouver are obviously similar.

We're all from BC. But we're going to have those subtle differences. What has that been like to kind of watch? It has been very interesting. So I kind of joke that Vancouver is its own entity almost. People in Vancouver are much more like business, business, business. Let's get it done. What am I getting for this business?

And you'll get still people that want to help. But I find that, you know, our mission, Abbotsford, Chilawak locations are, there's a massive community feel, which I absolutely love. and it's, we're now taking that from these locations and because we're going to all of the other locations, it's just, it's spreading. And it's really cool to see like that collaboration mindset working. You know, we were in a meeting last week where three people were talking about something that they're working on and right in the middle of the meeting, they go, why don't we just do something together? So now I watched it happen right in the middle of the meeting and I've heard back from all three people separately saying, this is going to change my life. This is going to change my businesses.

And it's because they weren't competing with each other. It had that collaborative mindset, which is so cool to see. I love it. Yeah. Yeah, I absolutely love it. That's awesome. And so where are you taking things now? Because you're also what's on Chilliwack. That's the other hat that you are. Yeah, so I own the magazine there. So that, that's obviously gone through changes with COVID too because it's primarily a physical event magazine. So now I'm shifting that to like, yeah, there's events for sure. But there's not nearly as many as there were before. So now let's focus on the community who what's going on within Chilawak.

How are how are people handling, you know, the changes that are coming up and just getting more involved in the community with that? Yeah. Can you tell us more about what it is because I don't know if everybody knows? Oh, yeah. So it's just, it's a local event magazine. So we print out 5,000 copies. and we put it into different locations around Chiluac. And, yeah, it was primarily events, calendar, business, and community.

So now we're just pushing more of a community feel and bringing Chiluac together. Yeah. So, yeah, we've got different, you know, cerebellas does a recipe for us each time. And so it's just different companies within the community kind of coming together. Can you tell us about more of them? Cerebellas sounds good. Yeah, so cerebellas is in there. I mean, we've got a couple of, like, cowery chiropractic.

They're in there and they're giving some wellness tips that are. in there on the cover we always try to get like something with the theme something with the season so in the um october november issue nope september october like september october there was the chilewack the corn maze yes and so we put they had carved out thankful with a world and hands holding and so we put that on the front cover because it was just it felt it felt right you know like that was what the community is is we're thankful and so that was on the front cover obviously Obviously, I put showy media in there because I have to. And then it's just, yeah, it's bringing.

So this next issue, I just went for print for the November, December issue. And there was, my cover is going to have a little girl. It's Christmas opening present. And then on the bottom and then inside front cover is talking about a Christmas market that's coming up. And so it's just telling people like what they can do within the community and talking about different programs that are in there. So helping out with the special Olympics and how people can get involved. Wow, that is awesome because I do think that.

We need more outlets where we can figure out what's going on, and obviously what's on Chilac is a perfect name for it. What brought that about where you wanted to take over that business as well? Part of it was when I moved to Chilliwack, my daughter was really young, and I didn't know where to take her. You know, I could join Facebook groups and things like that, but I didn't have a place where it's like, okay, I can do this and this and this. And I thought that it was a really good way for me to get out in the community, primarily because I knew how much it helped grow, my business is in the beginning with networking. So I'm like, oh, why don't I just get out in the community more and get more involved? And the magazine I saw a post on Facebook from the owner before is saying, I'm looking to sell. Okay. So we had a chat and it was just a really good fit for

everything else I was doing anyways to kind of bring it all together. Yeah. Wow. So you're managing all these different project all the time and you have children. What has that been like to try and balance all of these different hats that you have to wear, coupled with having children who are learning about all the hats? They're learning about it pretty quickly, yeah. So it's definitely a balancing act. Some days are definitely better than others. Other days I've got it. I've got this figured out. It comes down to routine. And it's so different for every person. And for so long I had thought, I need to be up at five. I need to be doing this. And I found that I'm actually the opposite. My ideal, I love staying up late. That is my prime time. That is when I get the most and my

most effective work done. And so I found a routine that worked for me, which I was fighting against for a really long time because I thought things had to be a certain way. And I realized that they don't. They have to be my way in terms of what works for me. And so that involves staying up late and getting like a few really solid hours of uninterrupted time done. And then, you know, getting up, getting the kids to daycare or whatever it is that they're doing, and finding that balance of, okay, I really need to spend time with my babies. This is what I need today. This is what I want to do. And then this is going to be time for work. So whether it's balancing out with their dad or whether it's, you know, today, like right, as we're recording this, they're at my mom's. And again,

you know, takes a village, right? So some days are definitely harder than others. They spent the summer at their grandma's house. And they, so that was out in Alberta at Jeremy's mums. And they were there originally for three weeks. And they were having so much fun. So that three weeks turned into three months. Oh my gosh. I know. So we, the amount that we got done was I spent the past three months setting it up. So like, so much more is automated. And I realized like what I had to do. So it's just like finding the balance and where. it all fits in and taking the opportunities that you can and just running with it. Yeah, that's so important because I imagine that trying to get those tools together where

things are automated and just happening because there's lots of things with the podcast where I can automate and then you don't or you can schedule posts and you don't, but you could and that reduces the amount you have to spend all day long thinking about it, even if it's 15 minutes when it's 4 o'clock and you're picking up your children or something, you don't want to have that. I need to make a post right now. You want to be able to automate things. What have you been able to do with that? So automating is like I want to be able to spend more time with the clients or doing like actual client work or going out and getting more clients. I don't want to be spending, you know, at one point because I had done such a like thorough proposal. I realized

that I was doing a thorough proposal every time I was sending one out. And one time, you know, I was getting distracted. It took me three hours to just put a proposal together for information I already knew. So now I've made like, it's as simple as making like a massive master document and then only taking the pieces that you need. And then things like automating the posts. I know what posts need to go out. It came down to me sitting down. And I was putting it off, putting it off. I'm like, oh, I should do a social media calendar. I should do a calendar. And then this was only like three days ago that I sat down to social media calendar. It took half an hour. So I was putting off like months, like for months. And I realized, oh, it's half an hour.

And then all the posts that we wanted to make, I sit down like once a week, maybe once a month and then design a whole bunch of posts. It only takes a couple hours, but then I'm ready for the month and then I don't think about it. Yeah. And just reducing that reduces the stress on you and then you can focus on the other important things. Yeah. Yeah. So can you tell us more about what it has been like to work with clients and build these relationships? Because some of them are in the Fraser Valley.

But they're always personal and you're always hearing, I'm sure, the story behind it. Do you have any stories you can share with us? Because I think that that's where people say small businesses, small businesses, small businesses, but we don't understand the depth in which some of these people go into their businesses, the passion, the working till 1130 at night, when you're choosing between two media organizations or two butcher shops, there's a story behind each of them and that's what you're choosing. You get to interact with that all the time and learn about these small differences that make all the difference. Can you tell us more?

So the biggest thing that I learned with that was setting boundaries for myself and for the clients and just being clear on like what expectations are on both sides so that you can get to the stories and you can hear about. So the client on the Sunshine Coast, for example, the reason that they went to the farm was because her brother had had multiple strokes. And so one of the things that they wanted to do is they wanted to provide him a space where he could do like making chain mail as part of his therapy and things like that. And so they've brought that into their business because I think that people are so focused on, like, how do I make money? How do I make money? And then they forget, like, what do I like to do? What is it that I want to do? So I hear a lot of stories about that. Me finding out there why, you know, like, that's why I talk about my kids all the time is because they're a massive part of my why. And so to hear somebody else saying, look, this is why I'm doing it. You know, we worked with somebody who was, going to be going to the Olympics. And so finding out, like, yes, this is what you're doing, but like, but why? What drives you? And it's been really cool to see the evolution of people's stories. So, you know, in talking to Sarah Bellas, for example, they're a cafe. And finding out, like, that's what they're passionate about. They had somebody in their family that needed to be

gluten-free. So they started coming up with, like, gluten-free options. And it just turned and grew into this absolute passion project. Yes, COVID affected that because I can't have anybody come and sit in right now, but it was, all right, what's driving you? Let's go. And then taking their products and now going into multiple stores. So you'll go around Chiluac and you'll see Sarabella's like their mixes all over Chiluac. And because they took the opportunity to then, like the COVID, you know, it can be seen as an opportunity in some respects to then go out and be like, okay, my attention's going to go to this, this, and this, and this, and seeing how people kind of go through adversity.

It's really cool. And I think that that's so important because often when we start succeeding, we kind of turn off and we just start doing the routine. And COVID kind of forced us out of that routine where people are looking at their business model completely differently and saying, well, I'm a bookstore and I can't have anybody in my bookstore hypothetically and saying, well, how do I get the books to the people? How do I continue to? And what's the reason behind?

me giving these people these books. Yeah. And you get to hear that all the time. And you have your own reasons why you do this. So you get to grapple with background of people and why they roll out of bed, why they do what they're doing. Because through this podcast, I've heard people again and again say, like, I'm trying to do this and I'm trying to figure out how to support people in what I, in my approach.

And it's very humble. And I don't think we get to hear about that enough. So I'd like to hear more about how you approach them and how you look at different business models and different individuals, because some it might be the individual and some it might be the business. So it starts, I have that initial conversation. And I think that my ability, like when I'm being vulnerable, it kind of helps other people open up a little bit too. But just asking the right questions. And over the years, I found what those right questions are. but just in terms of being okay with asking too being okay with asking them like so what what's getting out of bed in the morning why do you want to do this and asking them where they see themselves in five years because i was working with somebody being like i don't even see past next week i don't know and so to just that's always stems like it starts a conversation that you can learn so much from conversation you know you know this with the podcast how much you can just by by by talking. And that's where I start with every client. I don't just ask business, business,

business. It's, I talk about family. I talk about what a day looks like for them. I talk about where, where they can see themselves, like, what's going on for the next month. And then I start talking about what's going on in the next five years. And then I always, always, I always ask, like, why? What would that do for you? Because instead of saying, like, what's that going to do? But what would it do for you? Is it going to bring peace? Is it going to bring peace? Is it going to bring, like, a sense of accomplishment? I found that a huge driver for me, like, personally is accomplishment. When I feel accomplished, that is, like, one of the best feelings for me.

And so now I know how to chase that. I know how to chase that, that feeling of accomplishment. And it's so different, like, the values for every person. So finding out what those are and helping others find that within themselves, too. Because so many people are, like, they've got their blinders on. They're in this bubble. They can't, they're not even looking up. to see what's outside of their bubble.

And I would just want to help people like, look up, look out, see what's out there. Yeah, and reestablish why they're doing what they're doing. Yeah. Because going to the five year point, it's so common that I will ask people like, well, where do you see yourself in five years? And a lot of my friends in five years, hopefully they're looking at houses, looking at committing in a relationship and these types of things. And their answers are so broad and so nonsensically like, well, you could say that in 10 years and in 20 years that it's not specific enough for you to go and chase it where for me personally it's

like well law school will be done in two years and then I'll be able to start a practice and you can set up these plans but people for the most part seem to prefer leaving things in like the ether of maybe eventually one day I will accomplish something and so that's something that I imagine you run into all the time where people are like their five year plans is so broad that they have no idea whether or not it will actually occur. And I think that that makes sense because we don't want to be disappointed if it doesn't happen. If in five years we said we were going to do X and it doesn't happen, we feel bad about ourselves. But if you don't set the goal, you can never accomplish it because you don't even know what the goal is. What is that like

for you to sit down with someone and that are like, well, I want to be like a mega corporation in five years? And it's like, well, let's set reasonable real goal. Well, and the same time, you know what you want to be a mega corporation all right here are the steps that we need to do yeah is five years realistic no okay well then let's just re like reassess it so like i relate it to going on vacation right you might want to know like where you're going you might know that you want to go on vacation right we all want to go in vacation it's 2020 we need a break but if you don't know where you want to go how can you plan the steps you know like you want to go to i don't know to you want to go to europe right Well, you need to look like, what in Europe do you want to see? Where is it that you want to go? How long do you want to be there for? What does that look like? What is the cost going to be? And then you can map out. But I think that people are so big of like, oh, I want to go to Europe. Man, wouldn't that be cool to go to Europe? And then they don't take a look back at like, oh, this would make me feel really good to go here. How would I feel with that? Because people don't want to get in touch with their feelings. People avoid it. They're like, oh, no, but in business,

It's business, business, business. But as an entrepreneur, you are your business. You have to get in touch with how that's going to feel for you. So going to Europe, yeah, you got to have the big goals. Have the big dreams. Absolutely. Go for it. Let's figure out how to get there. Let's chunk it down and look at the steps and realize like, okay, is two years enough? Do you need five? Do you maybe need 10? And then I also will set smaller goals. Because if your only, if your only goal is, list to go to Europe, but you have, like, not even started saving yet. Like, set smaller goals. You get excited about those goals so that you're more invested in the process. Because if you're not invested in the process, you're not going to care about it. You're not going to be able to save the money. You know, it's not going to matter if you're spending out money here, here and here because you don't have that same connection to being like, oh, okay, no, I want to save this because I want it for Europe. You know, and every little bit counts towards going to Europe. And I also like think about the pilot. So for example, the pilot knows that they're going

here. X is their destination. And when they're flying, there's going to be wind. There's going to be things that are going to get them off track a little bit, right? And there is going to be, you know, you're going to maybe have to go to higher elevation. You're going to have to maybe take a little bit of a detour and take the longer way. But their destination is still the same. But if they were just flying and they were going off track a little bit, but they didn't know where they were going back to. You can just fly and fly and fly, right? You're going to end up in the middle of the ocean.

But knowing that, okay, no, that's our destination. Even though we need to reroute a little bit, that's okay. We're still going to the same spot. I still have that destination in mind. So as a pilot, you want, like, if you're in a plane, you want your pilot to be able to take, you know, straighten the course a little bit. You're not going to want him to go,

well, I went off a little bit. Sorry, guys. like you're so I want people to put that same trust in themselves that they know where they're going and that they're going to be able to get there sometimes it just takes a little bit longer sometimes you're going to go off the path a little bit or you know five years might take six but it's still there you still know where you're going and that's okay yeah yeah that's got to be so wild to talk to people and have them coming to that realization in your office while you're having this conversation and having to grapple with the fact that most people don't want to define those things And it can be difficult because it can be so discouraging to realize that the goal you set when you started the business of having all these clients might be farther off or the profits that you were looking forward to might be farther off. Can you tell us more about how it is that people approach those things in terms of growth and in terms of sacrifice? Because I know a lot of businesses sacrifice large profits in order to stick to their mission. What is that like to have to go through with someone who might say, like, well, I could do that, but I'd be sacrificing my brand or I'd be sacrificing my interests? I think that it comes down to values for each person. What would that do for them? Because some people that would work really well for them, because money is maybe not a driver for them. But what I would like, I would look at is, okay, is it the money that's the driver? What would the money do? It comes back to what would that money do for you. Yes, you want to grow your business and you want maybe, like don't hoard your business money, right? A lot of people do that. They are scared to spend it because they're not sure when money's coming back in. So,

we come up with like especially with that course that we're doing with connect now there's a part of that is how to effectively plan your money so that you can grow your business so not to be scared because fear is huge for every person like whether they realize it or not like fear is like a driver so people are scared to spend the money they're scared to look at anything other than what the end goal was so it comes down to the conversation i will broach like a what if all the time and we look at all angles. And I've, as I've grown, too, I know how to ask like different questions, I guess, to kind of help people see what's important. So, for example, with SEO, we're not going to be able to get you to the front page in a month. A lot of people expect that.

They come to us and say, well, I'll just be in the front page like next month. Like, no, no, no, no, that's not going to happen. So setting realistic expectations and saying, look, we'll get you there in six months. And then a lot of times look at them in like three or four. And so they're really excited, but we say six months to set like a realistic expectation. And so I do that with myself, too, to be realistic and fair. And if something like, if I say something's going to take an hour, I allocate two. And then, oh, I've got extra time. Like, there's some projects that I can work on, but just being realistic with like time blocking and figuring it out and helping the clients do the same thing. Can you tell us more about that? Because I'm, I'm very novice when it

comes to those types of things. So how does that work? How do you have to approach SEOs? And other things that you have to approach in terms of like growing like so when you say it takes four months what what causes um algorithms google they're always changing they're always changing what they're looking for because what worked 10 years ago for example is not going to work now so what people used to do 10 years ago is they would have a page with a white background and they would put white text and it would just be every keyword that they could possibly think of like tags for like half a page now Google sees that as spam and will actually not show your site as much. So if you start doing things on your site that Google likes and sticking up with their algorithm, you're going to show up more

in Google searches. So you're going to rank higher because people aren't going to the third page of Google when they're searching for something, right? Nobody has that patience anymore. They want first page. They might want second. Most often people don't even go to the second anymore. So you want to make sure that Google is able to read through your site, know what it is that you do, and know that that's a relevant thing for the people that are searching. So it takes time. And a lot of people, we're living in a society right now where it's very immediate. People want things like right away. And so to just manage expectations of like, look, like it'll get there.

You know, we're doing all the right things. Here we can tweak it if it's not working as quickly or if it's we need to just make adjustments. But yeah, making course correcting, making adjustments along the way. Yeah. And so what other things do you have to go through with the client in regards to that? Because setting expectations for SEO is, I'm sure, one thing, but I'm sure there's lots of others. Oh, so one thing that's always kind of funny is with, like, being just very specific, because some people will have keywords that they search that are, like, completely irrelevant,

but it's important to them. So we need to, like, either tell them, look, that's not a thing, or, adjusting what we're doing to meet their expectations and finding that happy medium. So yes, you want to have a good site for sure. You want it to be like gorgeous. When people come to it, if it's a bad site, they'll click out. So when you go to it, you want it to look good, but you also want Google to be able to look through it and say, hey, this is a good site. This is a trusted site. And it will help your rankings more. So we need to like let people know how it works in layman's terms so that they aren't expecting too much right away, but that they'll get what they want,

it just sometimes takes a little bit of time. So having that conversation in the beginning, but also finding out, like, what is important to them? And that will kind of change the conversation. Because if we're doing something that's important to us or we're doing something that we think looks really good, it might not to the client. So to be able to find out what that looks like for them, because it's just so different for every person. We had one client. One client, where we put, then this was, you know, before I found out, like, some of the questions that I needed to ask, but this was my favorite site. Like, Jeremy did an incredible job. I was stoked to show the client. They saw it and they're like, I absolutely hate it. They're like, did you build this from

a template? Like, what did you use this from? And I was, like, I was gutted because, no, we, like, that was completely custom. Like, we, I'm so proud of this site and he hated it. And so that made us, like, have to sit back and go, oh, okay, what are we doing here? And having to re-look at it because what was good for us was not what the client was looking for. And so we just have to kind of like temperate expectations. Yeah, that sounds similar because I had David Shearer on who he's an artist and he made this really good comment where you'll see like a great movie poster. Yeah. And you can definitely see when somebody did it wrong and when they did it right. But like layman's people like me, I have no idea why I didn't like it. Yeah. It's just

didn't like it. So can you tell us more about what a website is in terms of what you're looking for that might appeal and not appeal? Because I definitely know I've gone to websites I don't like. But what is it about websites that can have pros and cons and that can put people off so easily? So first of all, if you've got a video playing, stop it. Because people click out if they hear sounds. People just click out.

So if you have a video, just muted. So people have the option of turning that on. But it's just a design trend right now. is like clear and crisp and I think that that's what it is for everybody they want to go they want to be able to look at it no like go there and like look for something in particular and have the website jump out and say hey do this because if you have to search too long or you don't quite know what you're looking for and the website just doesn't just say it it's going to be confusing so like for connect now we have to have like you know business networking or on the for

what's on Chilliwack, you want to be able to say, this is who we are, this is what we do. And if people get confused, they're going to want to click out. So a design trend right now, you know, big, bright pictures, not a whole ton of text because people don't want to read much. It's just clean, nice, pretty, but also the functionality being there and laid out properly. Because if it's too clutter, people are going to go, I don't like it. Yeah. Is there like meta themes that you have to deal with? Because it kind of, like, what I imagine is that for small boutique businesses, that are on the front end, they're going to have a very different goal than like a construction

company. Oh, for sure. And so do you have like different areas in which you have to approach things very differently? Yeah. I mean, it comes down to their goals and what their goals are and what they want the site to do for them. So, you know, that kind of comes down to like any sort of like coaching or where are you at in your business? What is it that your goals are? What do you want clients to do when they come to you? And that will depend on whether we're getting an opt-in so that they opt into a mailing list or whether we're pushing a program or whether it's just we're just trying to funnel people to the contact page. It's all done differently, but it's still, every site has like the same, this is the homepage. This is kind of like a snapshot of everything. There's always an about

because people right now want to get to know the person behind the business. They want to know who you are because there are so many different people that you can go to for the same thing. You want to know the story. So having like a really solid about page that shows who you are is something that should be on absolutely every site, like company history, background, who you are, why you're doing it, your driver, just to humanize the site a little bit. Because the site is like a one-stop shop, essentially. It's going to be that central hub for you. But people want to know who you are. And people are starting to lose interest in that business if they don't know who the person is that they're going to be dealing with. Yeah. Because people want that person.

connection. It's why I'm so passionate about Connect Now. It's why I'm so passionate about the magazine is because people want to know the person and who it is that they're working with because people care about people. They do business with people, people who they know and trust. And so that's why, you know, gaining those referrals and from just from having conversations and people that you know. Yeah, that's so cool because I think that often during COVID, we've kind of switched over to wanting way more local and being more focused on trying to build relationships. I mean, I'm not going to talk about Amazon Prime because I think that that also went up.

But I think that that movement has really taken the foot. And you've been doing this way before COVID obviously happened. So did you notice big changes in what people were looking for when the COVID kind of hit? I noticed that people were really scared in the beginning to spend any money because they didn't know what was going to happen. They were, people were just like backing out of like for a website, for example, like, We had a lot of people say, I can't spend money right now, which I thought was really interesting because it's like, but everything's online, let's go. Let's push it. Right. And like I said, about fear. Fear drove a lot of things. Once people started getting settled into a little bit of a new normal, I guess, I don't know what that word means anymore. But once people started to kind of find their groove a little bit, yeah, they're looking at, okay, what can I do locally? What businesses can I support? And, you know, when I talk about Arabella's, for example, you know, they started supporting more in the community or I did a huge spring clean. And it was like, okay, I can go and donate all these clothes to wellness, the transition for domestic abuse survivors. And it's like, okay, this is what I can do locally. I'm not just dropping it off at Value Village, right? It's who can I support? And you know what? Just a few days ago, I walked into Nuggets bookstore. And I walked in, I'm like, hey, Neil, how's it going? He goes, hey,

how's your magazine doing during this? I haven't seen him since March. And I walked in and I had my mask. We both had masks on. I walked in. He goes, how's your magazine doing? And it was just like you're not going to get that going to like a big books, like a chapters, for example. You're going to get that from the local people that are involved, that are invested, that they're seeing people coming in every day. And it's like, oh my God, like it just felt so good to be. And we had a conversation about adaptation. yeah, he had to close down for a little while, right? Like, he couldn't have his bookstore open. But he said, you know what? It was a time to breathe a little bit. And I'm back at it. And he says, I'm excited to be here. And it was really cool to kind of gain that reflection on it.

And just seeing how people are adapting and how they're overcoming. And Luna float, for example, she, I mean, she just had a baby. So it's really cool. They're doing their, like, anniversary, like, right now for their three year. but it was really cool because she started taking in donations for a nurse fund so that she could give floats to nurses and health care workers. And how many people, like they bought one for themselves to use when she opened again, but that also donated to the nurses fund so that local, like my sister took advantage of it.

She says that it was one of the best experience, one of the best things that happened to her during all of that, especially during like the insanity in the beginning when it was so scary. she said that the ability for her to go for afloat and completely relaxed, forget about everything. She's like, I think I fell asleep. I don't know. But to just see how like the community came together to support the local businesses, especially those that were then helping the ones in their community too. 100%. And she's also right now doing any sauna purchases go straight towards domestic violence

and supporting the Purple Lights Night. Purple Lights Night, yep. Yeah. And so I want to definitely go out and support that. and that's the cool thing about local businesses is she was aware of that and she took action and she's donating 100% of the proceeds, which means she makes no money off of that until the end of, like, that's crazy that people are willing to make these sacrifices. Absolutely. In order to support the community and some people look at, well, like, they're advertising and

like they're doing it for this reason. And it's like, but they're not making the money from like they're. Sure. Like, but at the same time, so what if they're using it for advertising? Go for it. do it, you know, but they're also helping the community. They're helping the people around. I don't care if that means that they're advertising good. I want more people to know about it. Yeah. Right. I think that that's absolutely fantastic because when you help the people around you,

the community does better for it. I 100% agree. That's what this podcast is focused on because in my view, it can't be a, I'm going to succeed by myself because then you didn't really succeed. I really want other businesses to flourish and for people to know. And that's been something that I've had to kind of grapple with because instinctively you feel like you're forcing it on people that I'm bothering someone if I say you should go try floating because we've all had those experiences where people are pseudo just trying to go get you to do something because the owner told them to but it's different when you believe in it and so you have this opportunity where you would work with businesses you get to see the ins and out and see the passion behind it

what does it like to recommend people go places so I definitely like to do it for like people that I've communicated with for sure, but it's also like how other people, like the experiences that they've had. So for example, I've been for a float. My brain doesn't turn off. So I was laying in there and I was like bouncing off the size of the walls and I was like, I was just playing in the water for an hour. But she has a neurospot chair and I went into that and I fell sleep. So I call it my nap chair. So I can talk for so long about the nap chair and how much I loved it. And then I can talk from like my sister's experience with the float on how amazing that she felt. So I really like talking about like my personal experiences, which is why I try to meet more people, because who

knows who's out there. But what's really nice is I get people coming to meet literally right before I walked in here. A friend of mine said, hey, we were talking about a financial planner. You had mentioned her six months ago. Who was that? And I can say, oh, it's, you know, Chey Anglicar. Like, this is who I deal with. This is who I absolutely recommend. and I was able to pass her name off, and I know that everybody's going to be happy. And if they're not, like, if they're not a good fit, I know that Cheyenne, for example, is going to at least find something that works for them. And it just makes me feel good to, like, because when you're giving a referral, you're kind of,

you're putting your name on it, right? So referrals, you want to make sure that you're doing something that you know is going to be solid. And so, yeah, putting your name out and just getting out there and meeting new people and being able to put your trust in it and then it's always reciprocated right it's always it comes it comes around full circle absolutely with the people that you can actually believe in and trust and that you've put yourself out there for every time when you have that confidence in them that you're willing to refer them yeah they're going to do that back for you and they're going to have your back because

you have that reciprocal relationship and that i think that that's a fundamental component of like really good business is that you're not doing it one side the goal isn't to maximize your profits and have them fail. It's to try and find that middle ground where everyone can grow together. Yeah, absolutely. And I've, I've always been so passionate about that because I think that it is, like, it is more important than what people realize. And I think that for a long time, people were like, I have to do this on my own. I'm doing this on my own. I got this. I can do it. And then you realize, oh, I don't got this. This is really hard. And having that community to say, here, here's some, here's some resources. And to just have those people that you can talk to and say,

I'm stressed out, or if I'm working on a project and say, look, I've been staring at this for too long, can you give it a once over? Let me know how it looks. And having those people that can be real with you too and be like, okay, you're kind of losing it. Go for a walk. And to have that real support of like, I've never been a yes man of like, yeah, you're doing great. Yeah, do that. Yeah, it's perfect. You're awesome. It's, hey, I see you trying. What can we do to kind of help you through this? Because I see that you're also struggling. So, or if someone comes to me and said, hey, should I do this? It's, I don't know, should you? Like, let's have a conversation. I'm not just going to automatically say yes, because it's what you want to hear. I will have that very, like, friendly, hey, maybe this isn't the best thing for you right now. Or, you know, if I see a mistake, like, I'll be like, hey, fix this, this and this. Because when someone's reading this, you don't want them to focus on the things that don't need to be there. It's always like helping people, if you see them down, help them up because people remember that.

That's a really interesting one because I do notice that when I started the podcast, the people closest to me were not the people who were giving me the harsh criticism of these are the things you can improve. They were just like, well, you're just killing it. You're just killing it. And it's everything's just right. But when I went beyond my inner circle of people who are just kind of loyal to me and who are very just supportive, then you start to get that real like, well, I would change that.

I don't, you're not doing introductions. I have no idea who the person is until like 20. minutes in and then I have a better understanding. And I was like, okay, that's a really good advice. I do need to adapt. What has that been like for you where you're trying to get feedback from people and it's not always the people within your inner circle that are the people who are able to give you the critiques that actually help you improve. I've found who my people are. It is honestly trial and error because you don't always know in the beginning. You don't know like upon first meeting who's going to be that person for you. And I've lost a lot of people along the way.

It's kind of like a harsh reality, but as I'm growing, it's something that's just, it's kind of going to happen. You're going to find your new people, right? And so I know, I know the friends that I can go to if I want them to tell me that I'm pretty and that I'm doing a good job. I know who those people are. But if I want the people that are going to say, Katie, get it together, you need to fix this. This is what you need to do. I'm kind of learning that within myself, too, about like, what person do I need right now? out. So one thing that I've started doing is when people are coming to me with some problems,

I will ask them what type of friend they need me to be in that moment. Do you need me to be the friend that's going to patch you on your back and tell you that you're pretty? Or do you need the friend that's going to help you try to fix it? And that shift, people have started asking me that to be like, what friend do you need? And I can also say, like, look, I don't need you to fix it right now. I just need you to hear me out because I need to vent. And so that has been a huge shift for me too. Because like, I know you've talked to Adrian, so you've talked to my fiance. He's very good at fixing things. He has answers to everything. And so that's been something that we've had to learn because I've had to be like, I don't want you to fix it right now. I know that

you can. I want to be mad for a little bit. I want to just have a pity party. Let's circle back to this soon. Then you can help me. But right now I just want to whine and complain and be mopey. He's like, okay. And then we'll fix it later. But I've had to learn what it is that I want in those moments too. Yeah, and that's a difficult one because instinctually, like, we all want to fix the, it's not like you're against fixing the problem and you want to live there forever, but it's that moment of like, this just happened 20 minutes ago. I need a few minutes to de-grumpy. Yeah, exactly. So I also wanted to ask about what success you've seen through this because I think that it would be really interesting to hear where a client maybe started and then where they've gotten to over time

being able to work with you and have those things fleshed out over the course of working with them. Yeah. So for example, like one of the construction company, for example, they started out with like some renovations and they knew that having an online presence was the way to go. The way that they have grown and developed over the years, like they're building full houses now. It's like that's a huge, huge elite. I'm working with one client and I also do a little bit of like personal coaching with her as well. But to see one client that went from, I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know where I'm going. I don't believe in myself. I can't do this to two days ago I saw a Facebook status being like,

you know what, I can do this. I've come so far. This is what I've done. And now she's making money off of her passion. That is so cool to see. And it takes some work sometimes. It takes some work to see those changes come to beat. And I just, I love it. Yeah. It's amazing to see. That's so crazy because I do think that likely entrepreneurs are probably some of the hardest on themselves because they're just pouring themselves into something that they think's going to fix the community or help the community and they're not as worried about themselves and you have to support them in understanding that they have intrinsic value as well. What types of self-care have you, because we talked about Luna float, is there ways that you try and approach people through

Connect Now to make sure that they understand how to take care of themselves in like a more holistic way because I do think that we all say that we care about ourselves and like I think a self-care movement is huge, but nobody understands what it means. And for the most part, it just means watching TV and, like, well, I'm taking a whole day off. And it's like, you probably shouldn't take just a whole day off just to avoid. Like, if you're watching TV, you're not really, your brain's not off. You're not relaxing. If you're watching like fast and furious, like it's not a relaxing, I'm taking a nap type of decompressed kind of thing. You're in action. And so what is that like to try and talk to people about those types of things? So the biggest thing is that I

start talking from my experience and then it always stems like a full conversation like a group conversation but with each connect now meeting we do like a learning they're going to take something away to utilize in their business so we make sure that there's always a component of like how to be more productive and every time we talked about being like more productive that topic always comes up because it's like well what would that productivity do for you so it's little things like don't check your email, don't check your phone the second that you wake up. Get, you know, get up, you know, wake up, be awake first, you know, go, go to the bathroom, get a drink of water, then come back and check your phone, put out any fires that need to be put out if that's what you need to do.

And then do a routine, have a routine where it's like maybe you're going for a walk or maybe it's just that moment of making coffee. You know, what is it that you need in that moment? So for me, for example, the first thing that I do when I wake up is I go and curl up with my kids and I wake them up slowly so we always have a really nice morning because that to me is more important than checking and responding to every single one of my emails and just creating those boundaries for myself. So it's even little things like, yes, I like to work all night, or during the night anyways. So I will, if I want to send an email, I won't have it send out until the morning because I want to show people those boundaries for myself. And those little steps create a ripple

effect. It's people will look at you differently. You're creating those boundaries for yourself and for others. And then you're just being kind to yourself. So I make sure that I always post about like when I'm going out and doing something, doing something relaxing yesterday. Adrian and I finished like an entire season of Schitt's Creek because that's what we wanted to do. And we we joked about that used to make us, that would have made us feel really guilty in the past. We would have felt horrible about sitting down and watching like an entire season. But we realized, No, we've been working really hard. What do we want to do? It was raining out. We're like, so we ordered food. We had it delivered. And we sat down and watched TV because that's what we felt like.

And we both woke up this morning feeling like so refreshed, so relaxed, happy. It's just what we needed in that moment. Yeah, that's so true because we often just get into our cycles and we do not like to take care. It's either we're working or we're relaxing. And I'm really trying to push in the podcast to, get away from that and to think of how can I take care of myself and work hard in the day because it's not about finding a day to relax and finding a day to work hard. It's about finding that really healthy balance and figuring out what it is for you because it is the micro routines. It is waking up with your children that shapes you because that's maybe it is only five, 10 minutes in your day. But if it's every single day, seven days a week, that's 70 minutes

in your week and that adds up instantly in comparison to the big meeting that's once for one hour in two weeks like there's such a difference that it's more important that we get the micro routine correct where we can start to build it in a way that works for your family your friends and your community rather than trying to figure out a way i'll get everything done on one day and then it's like well you might be mean to people when you're trying to do that you're going to be more on edge because you're trying to squeeze every last drop of yourself out yeah and then trying to take a breather and then once you're at that breather your brain's still running because what else is going to do when you've pushed yourself to those limits? So that's where I used to be. I used to be

go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, crash. And then I crashed hard. Like, I wasn't talking anybody. I wasn't even able to answer the emails. And business suffered because of it, because I wasn't being fair to me. So, you know, I want to be able to go. So it's the literal, like you said, the micro routines, you know, when the kids have to go to daycare in the morning, for example, sure that I lay their clothes out the night before and give them two options because he's three and he wants to have his options and feel like he's making the decision. And then I'll make the lunch. And so in the morning, it's not like I'm screaming at them to get breakfast and they're like just do all the little things while I'm getting everything ready. It's like, no, I can sit with them and have breakfast. We can talk about it. And then it's just a much like that has completely changed our day. And it's changed their day too. And I'm trying to teach them those little self-care things. things. So my daughter is five. And so we're homeschooling her right now just until things settle. And so she has a little desk. And one of the things that she said, hey, mommy, when I finished my schoolwork, can I do makeup? Sure. Yeah, yeah, you can do that. And she was stealing all my stuff. I was getting

frustrated. So this little desk that was her homework, that was my desk, but no longer. But it's, now that's where she does her schoolwork. And so we started. hanging little pictures for her right there. And then I said, look, like, if you're going to be doing your work, you let's go get you a little bit. So I got her like some blush and I got her a little bit of Isha. And now that's her space. And so I walked in the other day and she was spraying her face with like this rose water thing that she stole for me. And she said, Mommy, I'm doing self-care. And I was like, oh, that's so cool. Yeah, you are. You know, and just teaching her to have those moments. And I've got a picture of her that I'll never forget.

it is her just laying on in the middle of the living room she found slices of cucumber and just put cucumber on her eyes and was just laying in the middle of the floor she's like I'm self-care mom I'm like yeah your self-care that's awesome yeah so it's just like teaching others like but they teach like they learn from you other people will do that too people want to emulate success they want to look at what other people are doing and go, oh, I can do that too. But I also show people the other very real side of, I have a five-year-old and a three-year-old that have, that both have very strong personalities. And I'm running all these businesses. Some days are really hard. And showing people that it's okay to sometimes not be okay. It's okay to be like, look, this is hard and I'm not doing

okay right now. It's amazing the support that will come from that. Absolutely. And I think that that is something that I'd really like to get into because I do think that that is common within people to struggle with the micro routines because people will come home from working like five days a week, seven hours. And the way they walk into their home is never healthy. It's always, because like for me, I like being noticed when I get home because I didn't like being out there. I didn't like having to be around those people or deal with all that stress. So I enjoy the relationship with coming home to have that homey feel. I don't want no one to notice when I get home. And so being able to develop those relationships and being able to have those conversations of saying, like, hey, like you being on your laptop and not even noticing I walked in, I don't like that. Like I need to know that I'm, I'm glad to be home. And so being able to develop that, can you tell us more of your childhood and what your development was like, and then we'll get into what it's like now in your home? Yeah. So always, always, always super close with my parents. Like my mom, like she and I are

it's we have such an amazing bond and we grew up like we didn't we didn't have money that wasn't a thing we like mom and dad split and mom we always lived in like pretty you know pretty small houses there was one house where it was like um i think we had like one and a half bedrooms and half of the living room we would we put a partition wall up so that my sister could sleep in there right and that was probably like one of my like my favorite places to live which was really interesting like we've had like really nice houses and there's been times where we've had money and you know it was different because like we were always so so so so close and um that's something that I've wanted to do with my kids too you know like I still I am a growness woman and I will still if

I'm sad go curl up in bed with my mom because that just like I just feel better and so I'm trying to provide that same thing for my kids so like my son is three I've like I've already had people tell him when he sat to like man up or when my daughter is upset, you know, she's just being emotional. And, you know, I refuse to do that with them. I want them to have that same safe space that I had to be able to share your emotions and share when things are not okay and to show them that, hey, you know what? Do you want to just go and lay down for a minute? So when my son is sad and everything's just overwhelming, I will pick them up. We're going to go cuddle in bed for a little bit. He's going to curl up. He's going to just feel the

calm. And it's so much better than just, like, screaming at him because that doesn't help the situation. So just taking that time to just, like, re-center was something that was really important for me that I'm showing the kids, too, to just be able to take that time to say, like, okay, we're not okay right now. You know, like, I always did really, really well in school. But there were times where my mom's like, you don't have to go today. Like, it's okay. Don't put the pressure on yourself. You know, it's okay that you only got 94%, Katie, it's fine. But I would beat myself up. And mom, like, she would teach me that it's okay to have those days where you just don't have to put that pressure on yourself. And those were days that I would like always remember

that it's okay to take like those mental health days of not putting too much pressure on because when you take that break, you'll show up better the next day. Absolutely. I think that that is the case and that's why it's so important to take care of yourself so you can show up with the right mindset can you tell us of any adversity you faced when you were growing up in some tough challenges because i do think that when a role model is developing and someone who can emulate for the community it's about those times where they had it tough and they turned that around and i think that often we find that in business that somebody was not doing well in their business then they figured it out and they turned it around do you have any experiences for yourself

that you could share. Yeah. So growing up, so growing up, I always put a lot of pressure on myself. Like, I had a black belt by the time I turned seven. I was in a baseball academy when I was, when I was younger. And by grade 10, I had scholarships. I had, at the academy, I had, like, what are the awards that I went? I won.

Top catcher, top academic, top athletic, lifetime champion, a couple of the ones, I don't remember. Where did you go to school? Yale and Abbott's heard. Okay. So they had an academy program, like a baseball program, worked into it. And I got hurt halfway through. And I've never, like, I'm okay now, but I, like, couldn't lift my hair, like, my hands up to, like, even wash my hair. Like, my mom had to wash my hair in the sink for me.

And I lost my scholarship. I still, like, I only did the program for, like, half the program because I got hurt halfway through. I still had more improvement from the beginning to the middle than other people had from the beginning to the end. So I still won all those awards based on numbers. And so I lost a lot of friends. I was like, it was so, so isolating because when I was like in grade 12, I was also like driving myself to the Children's Hospital in Vancouver to try to figure out what was even wrong with me because I wasn't, the pain was like everywhere. I was excruciating and they couldn't figure out why. Like I just, I was in my catching gear. I was running one day and then all of a sudden

and I just collapsed. And then, of course, I got up and, like, started running again because I was an idiot. But, like, that, I lost everything. And then that same year, the week that I graduated, my grandparents passed away four days apart. And then the day after their funeral, I got into a car accident that further injured me. And then a few months later, I found out that my best friend was diagnosed with cancer. And then he passed away and my aunt passed away. And we lost, like, nine people.

And I had a couple friends, one overdosed. and one committed suicide and one, my aunt and uncle both passed away. This was all within the span of two years of graduating. And I threw myself into work, actually, because it was just I completely ignored how I was feeling, because if I was sitting still, I was crying. And I was like, well, this sucks, so I might as well work. So then I started working. And it was like, that's all I did. I just threw myself into it. And it was, I realized after, like, after that it was a way to just distract myself because I was working two full-time jobs, plus I picked up a side job working like 24-hour shifts in an emergency care home. And then I was like, I've got

some spare time. I'll go to school. And so then I went to school as well. And that was at my lowest. I moved out when I would just turned, I think I was still 18 when I moved out. And I moved into White Rock, so I was away from everybody that I knew out here. And, like, it was just a really horrible, horrible time for me. And I didn't process these feelings until, like, the past few years. So I'm doing a lot better now. But I've realized that, like, experiencing that loss and knowing what it's like to have nothing. So when people come to me and being like, I don't know where to start like I get it I I know what that's like to come from nothing and to have nothing and to not even like I was talking to one business coach and she was saying if someone wants it bad enough

there's always money there will always be a way to find money I was like you don't get it you don't get it you don't get what it's like to to have nothing or to like my friend lent me at one point. And I didn't even tell anybody this. Like if my mom or dad had known, like, there's no way that they would be like, okay with me only having rice for a couple of days. But obviously pride takes over, right? But you just adapt. And so when someone says, look, I have $3. I don't know what to do. I get it. And I can help them through it so that they can go from there and pull the resources that they do have. So we look at it. It's like, okay, where are you right now? what do you have? What what do you need to get to that next level? But I also know what it's like.

So I like totally get it. So it's definitely shaped who I am in terms of how I run business, how I approach people. Because if they're saying that they're low, like I know the lows. I know what those lows are like. Like where are you at right now? Are you safe? If you're not safe, let's deal with that. But if you're safe, let's let's help you get out of this right away. Yeah, that's got to be amazing. I imagine that there are people who are just giving everything. Like Bill had talked about how he was giving everything to the business. He was not taking home any money for months on end and trying to figure out how to make that work. How often does that arise when you're working with people?

More often than what people realize. Wow. It's surprising because people are just so focused on making their business work and they'll do whatever it takes. Like what it takes for people, it's amazing what people will do. people are resilient. And so what we look at, like in that course that I was talking about for Connect now, like the way that we, like my business partner, Donna will look at it. And it's like, sure, you think that you need like, let's say, for example, you need, you know,

you think you need three grand a month, right? Okay, cool. Is that even enough for your business? Most of the time people are like, well, yeah, it'll pay my bill. all right but you're forgetting you in that so what about okay December hits how many people do you want to buy presents for and people are like oh well I just uh and okay do you want to save what about this what about if something happens what if you want to take a vacation they're like oh I don't I can't do that exactly because you're not even putting that onto your radar um so we look at

budgeting in a very different like okay so how much do you want to spend at Christmas let's break that down. Let's look at it for the year. How much do you need to put away every month for the year to be able to have a Christmas that you don't have to worry about? Let's put away, you know, even 50 bucks a month for like just unexpected stuff. And then we look at, so when I did this budgeting course with her originally, I was spending so much money on sushi. I just, I was like, I just love sushi. And so she asked me two questions. She says, is that how you want to live? I was like, I do love sushi. She says, Okay, well, you have two options. You either buy less sushi or you make more money. You have those two options. What is it that you want? I was like, I want to make more money. I love sushi. And it didn't, like, it took looking at it and a very real, like, she made me sit down with a year's worth of expenses and mark down every single expense. And I love sushi. But it was, it was surprising to see, but then we're able to look at it and go, okay. So, you. you thought you needed 3,000, you actually need like nine grand a month for saving for being

able to take home and pay your rent and to be able to do this and this and this, looking at it and being very, very real with yourself. So that's why like part of the course after the budgeting, I then do sales because I'll do sales training with people. Because if you're coming to me and saying, I need three grand, I need three grand. I'm like, done. Let's get you $3,000 a month, right? But if they actually need that five, nine, whatever it is, then what they're doing with me is going to seem unsuccessful because they're still where they were before,

or they're not any further ahead from where they were before. So then we'll look at that. So it's having to get people to be very real with themselves. Which is incredibly difficult because every single person has money issues where they're spending on things they probably shouldn't be spending on or they're spending on something that they sincerely, want but they're not they don't have the finances coming in to justify the spending like you can have your sushi but you have to make sure that you can afford it and I couldn't at the time and I didn't

realize it though because I'm like oh yeah no we've got the money yeah well because you can see the number in your bank account you think I have enough I can do for for 30 dollars worth sushi but you don't realize the long lasting impact of those decisions that is so interesting because I do think that most people have those financial problems where they have a car on payments that they can't afford or they have that coupled with insurance and that makes it unaffordable. I know a lot of people who never drive anywhere but have a $40,000 car, a $35,000 car. And it's like, but why?

Or it's even little things like subscription boxes are huge right now, which I love them. I think subscription boxes are great, like getting a box like and being like all surprised by what's in there and loving it. But and I think that that's like a guilty pleasure where if you want that, then you should find a way to make it happen. Like do little things like that that make you happy. Do little things like that for you. If you're doing that and you know you can't quite afford that extra $30 a month, there's a guilt that comes with that and guilt's very heavy. And so helping people work through that where it's like, no, no, no, like it's okay to want things. It's okay to like want to like be happy.

You're allowed to be happy. I think that people just put a lot of pressure on themselves to only do things for their business and not go and take that time to go and get their nails done or not take that time to, you know, if they want to get their eyelashes done or like little things like that that when you feel better, you show up better. And I realized like that for me, like especially when like, especially like after my accidents and all that kind of stuff and after kids and depression and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, I gained a ton of weight. And then I realized I didn't want to be on video at all, but I realized that being on video was

going to help my business. So it was just a matter of like how I showed up and it it showing up will change your business. But it's nobody. It's just interesting to see what people's priorities are on. I absolutely agree. And I've run into that with the podcast. There's been tons of guests who have come on, participated, been completely friendly. And then I talked to them a week later. Well, did you check it out? What did you think? I've never opened it. I don't want to hear my own voice and it's like you've never said that ever and we could have talked about that on the pod we could have had a real genuine conversation about how people grapple with viewing themselves because through this it took me the first few episodes were tough to do just because what do I have

to say like I don't know what I have to say everybody that is something so many people think that they don't have enough to say and I was absolutely one of those people and there's also times where like putting yourself out there is scary. I've gotten some really amazing feedback when I've put myself out there and I've gotten some really horrible feedback and it broke me for a while. I did a presentation where, and it's interesting what you focus on too. So for example, I did a presentation about two years ago and I was standing up in front of this room full of business owners and I gave a presentation and I had some people coming up to me saying, I want you to present for my company. Can you come in and speak? Yeah, for sure. So that was a really good conversation.

And I was like, oh, I feel so good right now. Someone else pulled me aside and said, can I give you a suggestion? I was like, ugh. Yeah, like obviously I can't say no. I want to do better. So yeah. He says, you should talk to a nutritionist because if you looked better, people would take you more seriously in business. No way. Yeah. They told me that if I lost weight, people would, I would do better in life in business is what he said. That, like, shattered me. I was like, I'm going to, I said some things that I probably shouldn't say on your podcast, but I said, no, no, no, like, don't speak to me like this. And I went to walk away and he grabbed me by the arm and pulled me back. This was a business thing. And I said, you're going to want to take your, you need to, you need to not do that. And that stuck

with me. And I found that people, everybody has opinions. If I chose to listen to him, it could have crum, like, I could have given up right there because I was so like mortified. Like I was sitting up like, like, who else is thinking that, you know? Like, who else is going to be looking at me going, oh my God? And I brought this up at a business retreat I did not long ago. And I said, look, like, there are times where I'm standing up here and I'm worrying, like, is that what you guys are looking at? Is that all you guys care about when you look at me? And I worry about that more often than I should.

And someone started, like, got really emotional. And she's like, Katie, I was just looking at your makeup and how beautiful you look today. And like, that got made me like all emotional because I'm like, well, think, like, it's interesting what people's perceptions are. Because like, yeah, like it. And that happens a lot. Like I went to, so Adrian used to be a personal trainer, for example. And so he's helping me with a ton of stuff, which is really awesome. and I'm loving it and I'm feeling really, really good.

And before COVID hit, we went to the gym. And we were there. We were going like three times a week and we had already been there for like an hour. And one really big buff guy came up and he was like sauntering over and he says, hey, go up there and ask for a picture of this guy. He says, that guy was me. He says, that will be, you'll be like this one day too. and he's referring to me looking like his before picture. And so it really impact, like, I had two choices.

I could have given up, never gone back, or I could be like, yeah, screw you. Like, it doesn't, it's not up to you. And so I chose to keep going because I have had to learn to not let other people dictate how I see myself. And that has definitely been a big learning curve because, like, five years ago, that would have absolutely broken me. I would have destroyed me, but now it's like, no, whatever, I'm fat, but you're rude. I can change.

You know, like, I'm happy. I'm, I'm content. Are there changes I want to make? Sure. Who doesn't? If you're like, everybody wants to make changes, everybody wants to grow and evolve, but it's really interesting what other people's perceptions are and how those can stick with you and how you have to, like, work through those.

And everyone has unconscious beliefs about themselves that they've picked up along the way that they have to fight through. Yeah. Yeah, that's crazy because the thing that comes out of that is just how they approached it was so incomprehensible because, first of all, after doing a presentation, two weeks later, I think it would be appropriate to give negative feedback, but the moment you come down off of the stage, like, I would be insanely nervous and I would just like, please leave all your criticism at the door until this is all over until everything's done. And then I'm open to hearing it. It would just be like how we talked about earlier, waiting until giving you some time, process what happened and then talk about things, but both of them just entitled themselves to thinking, even the personal trainer, he probably left that situation thinking. He wasn't even a personal trainer. He was just some dude at the gym. Okay, that's super weird. But people think that, like, I'm being a nice person. I gave some criticism. And like, for the podcast, I've always said,

I'm always open to hearing the most negative things you have to say, but balance it and make sure that I understand where you're coming from. Have you listened to all the episodes or have you listen to one. Have you ever even listened to anything? And like, you have to be able to ground people. And that's crazy because I went through that as well. When I was working at Dairy Queen, I was overweight and I was going through these things. And people were calling me chubby chicken man because at one point in time, I guess I was walking around with an A&W like chubby chicken and like didn't even think about it. And that became my name there for like two years. That's brutal. And then people would look at me like, why are you so jaded to working here? And it's like, I am,

I don't feel liked here like I don't feel valued here and people will miss those interpretations and now the person who called me that name is like one of my closest friends and he did it in the absolute worst way but for me for some reason it worked because it was like I respected him despite the fact that he insulted me and despite the fact that he tore down and he was like being on and now I can look back and you're like you were being honest but you're being like a jerk but I gained a lot from that and it's about how you approach people and it's about what your intent is because again people can always criticize there's always something i can improve but are we having a real conversation are you just looking

to tear me down a peg i would have taken criticism if it was about my presentation yeah if it was about even how i came across yeah and that's even what you said when you were telling the story is like okay i'm ready for the criticism and then when they go there it's like that wasn't it that's not it yeah that ain't that ain't that ain't tell me what i need to do a different about my presentation tell me about what I could have improved on, tell me, like, if I missed a slide maybe, or what I was saying didn't make sense, or I have a tendency to talk fast. You know, English wasn't his first language, so I'm like, maybe he didn't understand what I was saying. Maybe I was speaking too quickly. Maybe I was mom. I don't know. I just, I ramble. And it was none of that. And it was so

inappropriate. Like, that was one thing where it just shouldn't have been said. And there's always going to be times where people are going to feel like they're helping or feel like they're doing the right thing by giving you feedback feedback's not always like you have to learn how to give it it's not just a matter of being like you're not always like helpful you need to learn how to respond to people and do it yeah and be able to have a conversation of like these i listened to your presentation you did this this and this correctly i would have expanded further here and this is why because i it left me wanting more in this section and then it's like and that's the the way i approach the podcast is if you have a question I didn't ask that I should have that was sitting in

your mind and you're like, you totally missed it. It's like, well, fair enough. I should, I will do that for next time or I'll write that down and have that as a thing that I'll improve on. But if you're commenting on something completely unrelated, it's, it's unreasonable for you to expect me to take you seriously. And I think that a lot of small businesses deal with that as well. I'm sure that everyone has customers come in and say, well, like, why don't you have this? And it's like, you don't even want to buy that. You just want to point out the thing I'm, not carrying. Do you ever get that feedback from small businesses? Yes. And it's been, like I said, I'm, I'm, I'm younger, especially since I started this out,

like my early 20s and I was young mom. And I'm a young woman in a male dominated industry. So I had to push extra hard to be taken seriously. Like when Jeremy and I were together, for example, I had, I would send an email to somebody and he's like, I don't understand what you're saying. Like, none of what you're saying makes sense. That doesn't, that's not how it works. So I would send those emails from Jeremy's account with Jeremy's name on it. And they're like, oh, that's amazing. Thanks. And so it was really interesting to see just people's perceptions on, and it's people's own experiences. It's their own limiting beliefs or things that they've gone through and they're just projecting their own stuff because everybody has stuff that they haven't

dealt with. That's just, it's just human nature, right? Like, it's natural. to suppress it, but it becomes an unconscious belief. It becomes an unconscious bias. So I work very hard to recognizing like, okay, that's their thing. That's not mine. They're projecting it onto me, but I don't have to take it on. Because, yeah, there have been plenty of times where people have a, like, it's already preconceived on how they're going to feel about a situation. And I've had a lot of times where they've pushed that perception onto me. Yeah. So let's talk more about how that developed then because you are no longer with Jeremy and you're with Adrian. Can you tell, can you give us a backstory on how everything's developed to where you are today? So it's really

interesting because I still consider Jeremy like one of my best friends in the world. Yeah. Like he and I are so, so close. And we have amazing kids. We co-parent like we've never had any fights to this whole process. Like it's just, it's just kind of been how it's been, right? Things have evolved quite naturally. And yeah. So we still like, run the business together. And business is great. You know, we've got to balance. Like, I have the kids half the week. He has the kids the other half of the week. Like, we still get all, like, big events. The kids get to have us both together. The things, kids just think, oh, cool, we got two houses. And ultimately it comes down to that communication piece. So then

after we split, there was obviously that period of time. And then I met Adrian. We actually met, he came to a Connect Now meeting. So I'm like, networking builds relationships. But I'm like, you know, some results not guaranteed. But, uh, you know, you know, Yeah, so we met, and he came to a meeting that I was leading. In Vancouver? This one in particular was in Surrey. Okay. So he's from the States, and so it's really interesting how we just kind of like came together at the same time, you know, whatever you want to believe in, fade or blah, blah, blah, blah.

But we were meant to be there at that meeting together. And it wasn't even my meeting. I was covering for one of my leaders because she was off having surgery. And it just kind of naturally evolved from there. You know, I still wasn't in a position where I was ready to be with anybody. And he was American. He just came here to visit. And then, yeah, he hasn't left.

So it worked out pretty good. But we were able to build, like, that friendship. We've realized that our values are very much in alignment, but we're also very different people. And we balance each other out. What was that meeting like? Oh, it was weird because we're like, hi. Because I'm still having to be the leader. but like we saw each other and we knew like we knew right away right and it was really it was like

it was it was bizarre and we both ignored it were like no no no no like it's cool but no and then it just kind of evolved and I was we were talking business stuff and then it just evolved into like we share a lot of the same values on a very personal level like philosophically and just our values both personally and professionally were so in alignment and it was just it was just nice you know it just felt very comfortable and uh that evolved into some business values because it's like no we both got these big audacious dreams and goals and things that we want to things that we want to accomplish things that we want like the mark that we want to leave on this world is very much in alignment we're like okay well let's just let's do it so the

personal relationship um grew and then the business one evolved because like it's it's challenging to keep those separate, especially when you're so in alignment. So he and I, we see each other as like this Venn diagram where we've got, I've got my interests, he's got his interest, but we've got this big section in the middle where it just is like cohesive. And so, you know, like I think everybody has like their own little Venn diagrams, right? Like I've got a Venn diagram with Jeremy and what's really interesting is that Jeremy and Adrian get along really well. No way. Oh, yeah. We went out for dinner once. When the kids were in Alberta, we're like, okay, we should go out for dinner.

Like, Jeremy should get to see who's living with the kids, right? And I was like, do you guys want me to leave? Because they were talking so much. I was just sitting there, like an idiot, like on my phone, because they were not talking to me. I was like, bye, guys. So I just ordered dessert. And I'm like, you guys talk. So we were talking.

Then they started talking about like business stuff and how a lot of what we all do can really compliment each other in terms of. of like long-term goals because we all work really well together. I was like, sure, this is where I thought my life would be. This is normal. But yeah, it's just evolved and grown. That's awesome. Can you tell us more of your perception with Adrian and how you view him? Because I made this mistake with David and I had him on and then he was like, well, I'll let Jenna speak for himself. And I think that that was a mistake because I think it's interesting. He's not going to view himself in the same lens that you view him through.

He's going, like, obviously there's going to be overlap. Yeah. But I think one of the biggest mistakes I made was thinking, yeah, they'll tell the same story because it's not the case that what you put at the top of your hierarchy of like the things that interest you about him might not be the same things he thinks of himself as his highest qualities. Yeah. And I think that I would know like the things that he might say about himself.

But like for me, I get to see like the side that he puts out is very full of philosophical. You know, he cares about his health. But when you're with somebody, you get to know what their why is. You get to have those deeper conversations of like, no, why are you doing this? And we were talking, you know, like it's the little things. Like one day, how amazing would it be to be able to open up like an orphanage in Africa or something like that? You know, like those big things that you get to learn about a person behind the scenes. And it's like there's just so much compassion and caring. And yes, he's an amazing speaker. And he goes out and he talks. about changes and challenges and how to show up and how to evolve, but that comes from his own like need for change, his own need to kind of grow through those challenges. He always calls it growing forward. And to see like, okay, well, what do you want to have come from this? Well, he wants to be able to do all of these things and speaking, which is what he's passionate about, he loves it. He's a powerful speaker. And he's using that to get to his goal. so and for so long we all like I think that he and I both had these periods of like fighting

what it is that we wanted to do with what was going to make money and like he was in a call center like Adrian was in a call center for eight years like just that's not him like he gets antsy if he's sitting at the computer for too long because he's like nope feels like a call center of not doing it so he'll just get up and he'll wander around and he'll like take his laptop as he's walking around the apartment and it's really funny and one thing that was really important for him was the ability where if he wanted to go for a run because he felt too stuck that he can just get up and do that, right? And it was the fighting like working that nine to five because you know it's going to bring in a consistent paycheck to, no, I really need to do

this. Like I need to do this. And so seeing him take that leap, I think he had already been an entrepreneur for about a year when I met him. And just seeing the changes from that point is like astounding because we've all had to, where we started is not where we are now for every person because you learn new things, you adapt, you change the way that I thought about business six years ago, I don't think of that way now. And so to see that change in somebody else that has like a similar goal and passion, and also the ability for him and I, we are those people that can look at each other and be like, all right, you need to snap out of this. This isn't productive. and knowing that that's coming from a really good place has been really cool.

That is so cool because, yeah, as you've touched on, he started in this place and then he himself saw that he wanted to make a big change and then obviously that led him to you and now he's living in a whole different country. And so how has he been with the children and how has that developed? Oh, God, they love him. Yeah. Yeah, it's really cool. So obviously coming into it, he doesn't have kids, right?

So it was definitely interesting. But it was just very natural. You know, we made sure, you know, I talked to Jeremy about it for a long time beforehand. So like we were both talking about Adrian. And my daughter, she went to Jeremy and she's like, so do you know Adrian? And it was like she was almost asking permission to like him. And that's what Jeremy got out of it. And he said, yeah, no, he loves your mommy very much.

And Natalie said, yeah, yeah, he does. She says, Daddy, are you okay? And it was, he said, yeah, baby, I'm okay. He's, he's good. He's a good, he's a good guy. And Natalie goes, okay, because we did this and we got to play da-da-da-da-da. And it was like, it gave her that permission to like him, love him. How old was she?

Four. So she's five now. It's just crazy to think that somebody can have that level of analysis. And you're like, just a little, like, what are we capable of now? That somebody can think of that when they're four. Like, if we continue to grow in it down. Kids are, like, watching her, they're brilliant. Both of them, like my, I know everybody, everybody says their kids are brilliant, right?

Like that's, but watching it and seeing it in real time is so cool. Like the other day, she was looking at me and she goes, Mommy, look at this. And she showed me my phone and it was unlocked. And mine has like a, it has a five digit code or my face. She wasn't anywhere near me. I'm like, what do you? She says, I saw you put in your numbers. And so she was able to unlock my phone because she saw me put my numbers in and she just remembered it.

Yeah. And I was like, what other numbers do you know, Natalie? She goes, oh, Adrian's phone is this and Daddy's phone is this and Nana's phone is. And she just rattled it all off just from watching us do it. Yeah. It's like Lord, child. But it's definitely been like a growth and evolution and how Adrian came here. It was really interesting because he came up here, like he's from Seattle.

and he came out to see Les Brown speak. And when he came up here, Les Brown didn't make it. So he came all the way up here to watch him speak, and Les Brown didn't show up. So he's like, you know what? I will, I'll do what I need to do. I'll watch their speakers here. And he found one lady that is incredible. She's an incredible.

And she talks about speaking from the stage and making money speaking from the stage. And he's like, oh my God, I love you. So he signed up for her program. and it was somebody that we both know. She spoke at Connect Now, and it was her and her son that said, hey, you need to go and check out Connect Now. And they lived in Abbotsford. And I was in Abbotsford at the time.

And so then he and I, we would just like, after Connect Now meetings, it's like, hey, do you want to just go for a walk? And then it just kind of like, it was so natural how it grew and progressed. And like eventually one day it was, hey, do you want to just like, I'm taking the kiss to the park, do you want to just come with me? And it was just little, little things like that. And then, then COVID hit. And we had to make a decision because we're like, are we quarantined together? Like, what are we? So he moved in with us, like, right as quarantine hit. And, like, daycare stopped. We couldn't go to playgrounds. I'm like, you're dumb. So he spent a lot of time

with the kids, like really early on. And it just has worked, you know? And then, like, with the kids being away, like there was that time where he and I got to spend, like, three months. quarantined. So we got to learn about each other very, very quickly. It was like fast-tracked, almost. And, yeah, when the kids came back, it was just, that's just how it was. So we've come up with a really good routine. He loves mornings. So he wakes up early in the morning. He does his, does his exercise, he'll check his, do his morning routine. And then, you know, he'll always read and journal. And then he'll get the kids breakfast ready. So that by the time the breakfast is ready, the kids are waking up, and then I can do the slow wake up with them, and then he'll take the

kids to daycare while I then get ready. Wow, that is a perfect schedule. It works. You know, like, people have asked us saying, like, well, your schedules are opposite because he's a morning person. I'm a night owl. They're like, well, how could that even work? Both of us get alone time. Both of us are very happy. Like, he gets his morning where it's just him, because everybody needs that. Everybody needs that time to just be. And so I get that at night. house is quiet. I'm able to just be with my own thoughts, get some work done. And then he and I will always, like, we'll have like lunch and dinner together, but he drops the kids off at daycare and he'll go for a run. And I will start getting ready. Or if I've been up super late, I'm going

back to sleep. Yeah. I mean, and now with Natalie, we've decided to homeschool at least for the first portion of the year. So now I'll be able to like get up slowly with her and she and I will cuddle up and we'll talk and I'll read her a story and then we'll get into some of the schoolwork that her school is sent and then we've extended my desk so that she gets to work with mummy so that she gets to see kind of what it days like and she's learning like hey mommy's got a meeting right now like you have to be quiet and so I have set it up where she's like out of the camera but she's always like right there and so she writes notes to people that I'm having meetings with like she'll copy she'll write out their name and she'll put like one person she really liked so

she gave them an A plus, and she puts it in front of, oops, sorry, she puts it in front of the camera so that they can see it. And the other day, Adrian woke up to a note on his computer with a big F plus, because apparently she's grading everybody. Oh my gosh. So we had to have a conversation. Yeah. It was really funny. So what is it like to be able to share the business side with Adrian? Because he's obviously very good at speaking, communicating, and he, but you also have like overlapping goals of building other people up and showing people. a way to access success and to look forward and try and build up the community by building up the individuals. Like you said, you're not just about like a website optimization. You're about

how do we get the person behind the website to feel good and to continue their business so that we have a long-term client because if all your clients are like retiring because they just can't hack it anymore because they're burnt out, obviously that affects you. And then on top of that, Adrian's also building people up and trying to speak to them and talk about how to succeed. We just made a very big move in the business. So I've got a couple of business partners that have come on. We have just made the decision to amalgamate. Yeah.

Because we couldn't figure out where Connect Now started or stopped and then Champing Up started or vice versa. And we're like, what if we just, what if we do it? What if we go for it? We have the same, like, target market. What if we have the programs within Connect now? And instead of it being Champion Up, bringing people in, it's Adrian Stark speaking. And there was a lot of growth for him in that, too, in, like, hiding behind the Champion Up name.

And it came down, like, he talks about this all the time about being seen. He thought that being seen as, like, as Champion Up and this big, like, I'm like, no, people want to hear you. they want you so when we came to that realization and he was kind of able to like grieve a little bit over champion up but recognize that it's him that people are listening to when when he's up on stage and talking to an audience they're not like oh that's champion up no they're like that's adrian starks and so we've made the decision that he is now part owner of connect now and we're just doing it all together because we've got similar goals. So obviously, like, the goal is, you know, we make a lot of money and then that can fuel

some of like his passion projects or other things like that. And, you know, he does, he does voiceover, so he'll read audiobooks and getting his voice out there more. So he, and that's things that he loves doing. You know, might as well make money doing something that you love, getting his voice out there. And yeah, he's going to be on a few, like the voice actor for a few books on Audible. No way. Yeah. That's so cool. Yeah. So it's, it's doing things that he loves doing. And so, yeah, so we're doing that because we realize that we have a similar target market of entrepreneurs. And so we've niched that down a little bit. So he'll do that power hour with me where we talk about the struggles that people are facing.

Because he's got a Bachelor of Science and Exercise Physiology. And he works with how the stress. And that call center that he was in was at the Children's Hospital in Seattle. So he looks at it from a very, like, physiological point of view of how can you use stress in your business? How can you use that to fuel or how? Like, let's look at good stress versus bad stress, how your body responds to that. Let's look at the nutritional side of things. And he doesn't be like, no, this is the diet that you need to follow.

It's like, no, this fuels your body. Yeah. Let's look at this. And so we're bringing that into Connect Now, so now we can share those efforts instead of, like, battling on, like, what goes where. So any of the clients that I work with, it's all through Connect Now. That's awesome, because I do see where Adrian's coming from with the champion. champion up and having to let that go. Because when I started the podcast, I was trying to think of, well, what should the name be? How should I, it's not the Aaron Pete podcast for a reason, because one day I don't think that I'm going to be the host anymore. And I view myself as more of a host of the bigger than me podcast than the owner and creator and the person responsible for it. I think that one day somebody else could do a better job because the qualifications for this is somebody who recognizes the importance of,

having someone to look up to in the community and people like Amber Price hypothetically are doing crazy things for the community like if she were to take my spot it would not be me like feeling sorry for myself that I lost the position it's like you you have all the credentials and more than me in this field and I think you could do a really good job it's not and that's why I could never name it the Aaron Pete show about role models is because it's not about me it's bigger than me it's about other people it's about giving other people the opportunity to have the conversations. And so that's so interesting that Adrian had to go through that because I do see where he's coming from where that is something where you thought that that was going to be

the brand and the thing you built all the way up and then you realized that it's you. Well, and it's actually interesting because his podcast is called The Purposeful Life Show. And that's obviously changed like his meaning behind that. But as we're going and we're going to be merging that and it's going to be the Purposeful Life show on the Connect Now podcast is what it's going to be. And it's still like finding that purpose in your life and we're just kind of merging it and like down the road yeah it'll be him talking a lot but maybe we'll have somebody like introducing him maybe we'll have somebody doing like the behind the scene stuff so that he doesn't have to think about that right like who knows where it'll go and it's just it's really cool that's awesome can you share just a

little bit on small businesses here in chillowack that you're a really big fan of and that you'd like to give a shout out to just so we have a better idea because I think often we miss out on where people go to find their community because I have the town butcher, like beyond nutrition, these are places. I feel when I go in there important, like the owner knows me. And I imagine that you go through that a lot within all your hats. Yeah, I think I've brought up a good portion of them. Like I know so many people like within the different industries. Like I like the people can come to me and I can give like a really solid recommendation. So places like Luna float or Nuggets used books. Like Neil is absolutely fantastic, right? And just those small town feel like I go to

the chiropractor, I go to Aaron at Kari Chiropractic, and he looks at it from a very like neurological point of view, like a health, like let's look at you. And going like instead of going to the big shopping center is going to the produce store and like the local produce store and getting to see local people making it happen. Yeah. It's just so cool. What made you choose Chilliwack just out of curiosity because you were obviously in Abbotsford. What told you? So I was in Langley and ultimately like it came down to housing prices at the time because this was back in 2016. And so Jeremy and I owned a townhouse in Langley and we could sell it and like get a full house in Chilliwack on promontory for like almost the same price.

And when we were looking at Chiluac when we first came here, like he grew up in Coquitlam. And the coquitlam of 20 years ago is not the coquitlam that's there now. So 20 years ago when he was growing up, he felt that same vibe in Chilliwack when we came here. And he's like, oh, this feels like home. And so this was just the place to be. You know, it mixed with the housing prices at the time just worked. And it combined with just that feel of like the community, the fact that you could go down like, the um on promontory that close to home grocery i go in and every time it's hey how you doing

how's natalie how's you know how's jake and daycare and they just know me like i can go in there right now and because they've got the the point system i don't even have to give my name anymore she's just like okay okay yeah here you go and it's just something that i don't have to think about because she's like like they're just so nice there but it's about the community and to see when COVID first hit, he was posting to the promontory Facebook page and to see the amount of support that he got when he's like, hey guys, so these are the things that I have to do because I want to stay open. And the amount of people that went in and supported him and was like telling him that he was just doing such an amazing job, it just makes you feel good. So the places like the close to home

grocery is just you want to go there. You want to support local. You want to help them succeed because they were so open with like how you were doing and like seeing it was a few weeks ago someone's house flooded and these people had just gotten into a car accident as well and to see elevated pizza up on promontory they're like hey come and get a free pizza like just pizza son come get come get dinner for your family seeing that is just it just feels so good that is awesome I didn't know about elevated pizza doing that because we had talked about him with Chanel, and Chanel is actually the person who connected both of us and said, you have to have Katie on.

Yeah. And so can you tell us a little bit more about how you know Chanel? Oh, so he and I are and B and I together. Okay. Yeah, so we do business networking every Tuesday morning. We're in a meeting together every single week. And so you just get to know the people that you spend time with, right? And it's nice when you're around other people that have similar values.

Like, a lot of people will say don't mix business and personal, which I completely disagree with because, like I said, business is personal, but it's also people that share those same values with you. My closest people are the people that get it because they're also entrepreneurs. Those are just my people, right? And so it's nice to, like with Chanel, seeing him every single week, we know that we share those values. And so you just get to know people. You get to learn about who they are and what they're about, what makes them tick, you know, their family, they're. Just everything. Yeah.

What is that like to do it in Chilli? I'm just curious because obviously you've been in other areas Langley. And so what is it about Chilawak? Do you notice any differences? Massive. Like the, I don't know, man, it's the vibe, the energy, whatever you want to call it. Like, it just feels good to be in these meetings. Chiluac, like, our BNI chapter is everybody really genuinely cares about the people that are in the room.

They want them to succeed. You know, like when we pass, in B&I, you pass referrals. But when we're passing referrals, it's like, it's not a forced thing. It's like, no, no, no, you want to, you want to be with these people. You want them to succeed. You want them to do well in business. And so some of my people, like Cheyenne, for example, she's the financial, or she's the investments, she has the investment seat there.

And it's like to have that vibe of people that just, that's how I know Nina, too. Yeah. Like Nina and Chanel, they're like Cheyenne and Carri Carapractic, they're all in this BNI chapter. And the business coach that has the business coach seat there, she has an opportunity to win a contest and there's like certain things that you can do. And just to be able to go to those people and say, hey, like, help me out here and to see like everybody coming together. And that's, you know, what I, the vibe that I've trying to create with Connect now as well is bringing everybody together. Yeah. that's so important because I do think that most people end up working by themselves thinking that

it's all on me and that is a good mindset to a certain extent to put it on yourself and not assume anyone else is going to do it for you but you do need resources and connections and I think that that as a few people have said the idea of doing those networking meetings can be hard at first when it feels superficial and fake and when you feel like you're having to put on like a math, but when you can make it more personal and when it feels like you're all in the room and you all want each other to succeed, that's a different environment. I was literally terrified when I first started networking. Like, absolutely, I was like, I'm never doing this again.

I was scared. I was scared of putting myself out there. And I was so comfortable of wearing the mask behind the scenes that taking that mask off at all. Like, I remember one meeting where I went and my son was a newborn. And I was still going to meetings because I'm an entrepreneur, I got things to do. But he couldn't come into the meetings. I was like, okay. So I had my mom come and my mom was driving around with him so that he could sleep in the car because that's what he did.

But he needed me. He wouldn't take a bottle. So he was only, like I was nursing him, right? And that was the only way that he would eat at that time. And I was in the meeting and I was texting my mom like, is everything okay? You know, I'd sneak it and then like put my face up and smile. and I was talking to somebody and she said, oh, I was so jealous of you. You had it all together. You were coming up and you were showing up and like you just, you had it all figured out.

And I laughed. I laughed. I laughed right in her face. I was like, you're insane. Because as soon as the meeting was done, I ran out there. I nursed him in the backseat of my car and I sobbed. And then I realized that I forgot something inside. So it's like, all right, you know, hand him back to my mom, wipe the tears. take a deep breath go back in get my stuff and be all cheery and it was like people were they couldn't believe they're like oh man you're doing it you're doing it and i was like i'm not doing i have no idea what i'm doing um and then now it's like oh no i am doing it this is just my way of doing it i am not trying to pretend to be something that i'm not i just i am and i'll share the good the bad the ugly and with both business and life yeah yeah and that's

That's really what it comes down to is that nobody has it perfectly figured out. It's about figuring out how to figure out where you are and figure out how to move forward in a way that benefits your community, your family, your friends, your children, yourself. And that's not an easy task. And that's one of the reasons I enjoy having people like yourself on is because it's not just about having anyone on who had an idea. It's about having people on who are trying to make being a parent, being, like having these different relationships. Like you're juggling a lot when you think about the fact that you do have a positive relationship with Jeremy and obviously Adrian, but trying to make sure all these relationships work,

that is what makes someone so interesting. And what makes someone a role model is because that could not be the case. And things would be a lot harder and a lot more stressful if there was a negative relationship there. if there were more like disagreements that could all take away from your ability to focus on the businesses and it's the fact that you're fixing all of those micro things making the micro routine work the way it does in order for you to be able to flourish and be able to focus on the things that matter to you and so I think that that's so valuable for people to hear about can you tell us more

about what it's like to try and push these boundaries as a female in this male dominated world because I do I think people say that a lot but it's the story. that come with it than make it more interesting of like, I had no idea that that could happen to someone after speaking. Those types of things. And I don't think that that would happen if a man had that happened to them. And that's not dramatic to say. I do think that there's tons of people who treat women differently. And I'd like to hear your thoughts on where those moments arise so that maybe younger people can prepare for those moments. I don't know if there is a way to fully prepare for those moments. Like there is a way to

where you can be like, okay, this might happen. Like, for sure, I knew that that could happen. But I think that it's easy to go, oh, that'll never happen to me. You know, that's, that does happen, but not me. And when you're thrown into it and you go, oh, it does happen. So, like, obviously ending my marriage, especially with Jeremy, he's like, he's such an incredible guy. Like, it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows.

It's not like, we were like, hey, so I'm just going to like, you know, this is not working for me, right? There's a lot of stuff that goes that I don't necessarily share, but it comes down to the communication. It comes down to seeing the bigger picture. It came down to like, you know what? We could have been like, all right, you get one week with the kids. I get one week.

We could have fought over custody. We could have fought over the house. We could have, like, I could have, like, tanked the business. Like, I could have. There are so many things and so many variables that could have happened. But to have that conversation of like, all right, let's see the bigger picture. It sucks now. but it's going to have to suck for a little bit for us to get through this.

And we even said that straight up, like, it's going to suck for a bit. This is, this next bit's going to hurt. And it did for both of us. Like, we were both hurting, but we saw the bigger picture. And when we went to the lawyer to get like everything finalized because we had the house, the business, the kids, the, blah, blah, she's like, she couldn't believe that we were so amicable because we had figured out everything before we went to her. And she's like, okay, so you need to protect yourself.

because of this, this and this. And his lawyer was like, yeah, Katie could do this. He goes, yeah, I know she could, but she won't. And his lawyer was like, well, how do you know? He says, well, I have to trust. And that was just something that we had to. Sometimes you've got to go into a blind. You got to go into it just trusting that it's going to work.

And trusting that we weren't going to turn around and screw each other over because it really wouldn't have benefited either one of us. So to see that bigger picture of like where things could be despite the challenges that we were obviously facing at the time. And, yeah, going into a male-dominated industry, when I'm presenting, like Adrian and I just presented together, and it was our first time presenting together. And I was constantly challenged by somebody

who was questioning what I was saying or just challenging what I was saying. And it pushed me outside of my comfort zone. We were actually talking about feedback and how sometimes it's not appropriate. And I told that same story of like, sometimes it's just not appropriate or here are some ways that you can go about it and just giving different strategies. But every time Adrian was up, people were just soaking it up, like smile and nod, like taking it all in, really impressed by what he was saying. And then I would go up and I was challenged every time.

So it came down to me being very self-assured that what I was saying was right. And I'm always willing to be like, I screwed up. there. That's not right. I was, I was incorrect. I have to, you know, don't let ego take over. I have to sit back and be like, nah, screwed up. That was, that was on me. Sorry about that. But to go back and say, oh, I screwed up and hear, like, people are forgiving. And I think that we're so worried about making those mistakes that people don't step up. But being very assured in my, in my own skin, in terms of, like, the decisions that I'm making and the choices and having a lot of conversations with myself. I talk to myself a lot.

And, you know, sometimes I've got to hype myself up. Sometimes I've got to help myself through that. And I also turn to people that I look up to that have made it or that I think that are doing a really good job to see, because success leaves clues, right, to see what other people are doing in similar industries. So looking up to, like, especially online, you can access so much information online and seeing what other women are doing in male-dominated industries. Yeah. Can you tell us more about who you look up to as role models or who you try and emulate from? Because I think that that is a part. A question I've been lacking in the podcast is figuring out what do you look for in people who set an example for your field and for the things that you're passionate about?

So for websites specifically, there's not many. So I'm having to create my own path in terms of being a female in that industry. so with that I really look up to like people in my life like even even things that I learned growing up from like my mom of what values I want to instill in business and I look up like there's someone online Amy Porterfield for example she is she's she's got a a social media marketing business and when I'm looking at someone like that it's not just looking at like the things that they're providing but it's also looking at what it is that they're doing. So there's another lady. Her name is Sarah Prout. She does, forget her business, but it's all about like manifestations and things like that. And seeing where she came from and how challenging it used to be for her.

She was in an abusive relationship. Not that I was, Jeremy's fantastic. But like she was an abusive relationship with two young kids. And when she left, she had nothing. So how she came from nothing and then the tools that she used. and I soak up all of that information but then I'm like oh I see you everywhere what are you doing in your business to get out so much

and then I just look at what other people are doing and emulate that sort of thing so I try to find people both online but then also in my personal life where I was like no I like what you're doing and then just kind of model and take in some of what they're doing and I don't think

that there's any one person where I'm trying to model you I take bits from everybody that I learn because every person comes into my path for a reason and I can take either what I like about them or maybe what I don't like and be like, I don't want to be like that. And then just coming into my own person and creating my own path. That's awesome. Can you give us like a pitch on each one of your businesses just for people who might be listening and might be like, ah, this might be the thing for me. I might want to

connect with Katie. Can you give us just that quick idea of if somebody was interested in working with you on each different front and what person might need go. How much time ago? Okay, so, so for Chewy Media, it is the people looking that they're ready to take that next step. They have been either doing it on their own for a while and are kind of like floundering a little bit and know that they need a solid online presence but aren't sure where to start. Those are my people, especially like in the trades industry where people, they know the importance of it. They know that it can grow their business and they just don't know where to start. Those are, like a real sweet spot for us. We really enjoy working with clients like that. And then also coaches

because I get the coaching world. I get what that kind of takes. So what that looks like for online marketing. That is, that's where my happy place is. And then for Connect Now, again, entrepreneurs or business owners or people that are looking to connect, especially those that have a very collaborative mindset, not the competition. We don't need competition. We don't, we want people to be able to come, come to a room of entrepreneurs and learn and get involved and have insight to provide for other people in terms of helping them grow to and just being well connected and helping people connect within their different communities. And then with the magazine, obviously like always looking for advertisers just because I am a business and that's how I

pay for the magazine to get out. But people that are making a difference in their community, you know, like I want to hear about the nonprofits. I want to hear about the sports teams that are having events that are doing like a fundraiser and things like that and just learning and giving tips and tricks. And, you know, Cheyenne's always got something in there about how to plan your finances during COVID, you know, and things like that and constantly changing kind of what's in the magazine. I want to hear from local people. I want to hear what's happening in the community so that and maybe even any events that are coming up that I can help to promote. I want to do that too. And even like in the heritage barn where they have

the events, me going in there and being able to like hand out magazines and help and talk to people and get them excited about the event. I love doing stuff like that. And then with any sort of my coaching, I'm a master practitioner of neurolinguistic programming. So I look at it from a very like, let's find the root of the problem so that we can grow your business. So anybody that is kind of, I'm also a hypnotherapist. So if there's anything like, consciously that's just eating a way that is preventing you from being successful in your business. Those are the people that I help. Yeah. What has that been like? That is what changed my life. So when I was at my lowest, I found NLP. And I didn't realize like I was so

depressed. I was so anxious. I couldn't pick up the phone to talk to anybody. Like I was scared to email back. And so that's when I would like, I would only email in the middle of the night when I knew that people were asleep because, okay, I can send it and they won't email like that. Okay, I can just run, right? Like, that's not a way to run a business. And so I found an LP and I took the, I took a weekend course and I was like, oh, I like this. This is helping me see things in a different way. And then I took the practitioner training and I saw an immediately, an immediate increase in

my sales in the way that I viewed myself. And then I took the master practitioner training. And that changed my life. and so I'm now able to help others do the same thing with the with the training that I've done and realizing that's what really made me realize that it's me like as soon as because as soon as I took that I quadruple my business like within two months yeah like it's I am the business and so I want to help other people do that too so the client that I'm working with right now for example they like when I first met them a couple years ago they couldn't get through the sentence without crying. And it was, we knew that we had a connection. And it just came down to being the right time for them. And then now that it is, we were able to go through the coaching process.

And her business is not, like she's got a business before she had an idea. Now she's got a business. And that's a huge differentiation. Because everybody has ideas. Yeah. Everybody constantly has ideas like, oh, I could do this. I could do this. But putting it into action.

but helping to get through the limiting beliefs that you have on yourself or a success or your beliefs around money or what that looks like. And then hypnotherapy has just, it's changed me because it's so unconscious, right? It's getting to the deep, unconscious root of problems or the way that you view things or the way that you perceive life and the challenges that you face. Yeah. That's so important for people to be able to put into their own life. and try and get help on how to move forward in a better direction, because some people are just stuck.

Yeah. And I, for the longest time, I was like, ah, hypnosis, no thanks. I thought it was, like, what you see on TV and, like, the shows that are, and it's, it's not. It's not at all because, and that's one of the weird things is we often see it on TV, and we start to think that that is how hypnosis works, but there are, like, clinical psychologists who use hypnotherapy. There are real ways of utilizing it, and it has been proven. to reduce smoking. There is evidence of its effectiveness. And it is one of those things where we kind of delegate it to TV nonsense rather than, and if we saw it on like a billboard, we start to doubt it. Can I make somebody cluck like a chicken? Probably. Is that the type of person that was going to do that at a party anyways when they're drunk? Yep. But people aren't like in hypnosis. They're not going to do anything that they don't want to do. They're in complete control. And I think

that that's what people are worried about, like, the only time that the people that you're seeing are going to clock like a chicken is because they feel safe to do so. They're okay with doing that. If they don't want to, they won't. But hypnotherapist can pick out the people that would, like, in like the audience setting, right? So it's really interesting how it all works and how the mind, how powerful it is, because people don't realize how many things are happening unconsciously. right so with with hypnotherapy i worked with somebody recently that had insomnia and they messaged me like two months later and they're like oh i didn't get much sleep last night i was like well how much what is not enough or what i forget what i said but um they're like oh i only got

six hours but they'd only been getting like one before or they were getting like one in the middle of the night maybe or like taking a nap they're like oh last night i only got six hours last night. I'm like, wow, yeah, it's a tough night, right? Like, to see that change in people is so powerful because it changes their life. Yeah, well, and I think that that's true with dreaming as well. We delegate that to the nonsense kind of like, well, who knows dreaming? And it's all random. And it's like, it's a lot of things, but random isn't one of it. If you're a character in your own dream, it's not random because you're a character in it. So it would be Sally down the road that would be the character in your dream if it were random. But it's not random because it's you.

And, like, dreams are well understood to be the birthplace of really good ideas, and a lot of people try and take advantage of that. They do. And your unconscious mind works in symbols. So dreams are often a symbol from the unconscious mind about what you need to deal with and what's coming, what's bubbling up because everybody pushes stuff down. So, you know, like, there's a reason people have the best thoughts in the shower, you know, when there's, like, it's just a monotonous task where things kind of come up or when you're in your car driving. Or floating. or floating, right? Like, it's just, that's when things kind of come up unconsciously. Like, have you ever driven somewhere and you have no idea how you got there? I've talked about that on

the podcast, yes. Exactly. That's a real thing that affects people. You're in trance. Yeah. That's hypnosis. Yeah. And so getting into that state allows things to come up, but the things that are coming up is because they're ready for resolution. And so when people are facing that in their business, it's because it's something that they're ready to resolve. They're ready to deal with it. and a lot of people are taught to just push their feelings back down, and that gets really heavy. So when it comes up to be able to deal with it, process it get through it, you know, so your bouts of anxiety and depression, like mine are gone. I don't, I never say, like, I'll cure somebody. Like, I won't say that.

But, like, if they don't have the symptoms anymore, I'm happy with that. Yeah. So I am one of those people where I used to have such bad depression I couldn't get out of bed. and my anxiety would like was terrifying for me, absolutely terrifying. I haven't had any issues in years. That's awesome. And going back to the driving thing, I notice, and I just wish that we were more honest with ourselves when we're in that trans state, but we never are.

If somebody says something and it's off the cuff and it's kind of rude or disrespectful, the instinct should be that person probably wasn't even paying attention. And they weren't even focused on what they were driving the car, didn't even know where they were going. but the instinct is you offended me and it's your fault and that person is never going to say I was zoned out not paying attention my apologies I'm an idiot sometimes and sometimes I'm not paying attention it's always well like I meant to say that because you did this two weeks ago and it's like don't try and justify it admit you weren't there's been things I've said when we're driving down the road and I'm not paying attention I say it and then it's like that didn't land well and it's

like I wasn't even paying attention it's not my intent I apologize still it's not excusing the behavior but it's understanding those things and I think that that's really important. The other thing I'll ask you is can you tell people how to find you? I know that that's going to take you a minute or two to describe all the different places people can find you. I'm online. Like for each of the businesses, you search them online, you find it either. Can you say it just so people know? Yeah. So like on Facebook, it's either what's on Chilliwack magazine, Chewy Media, Connect Now Business Network. And then the same thing for like the website, chewymedia.com, what's onchillowac.com and CNBN.com. And so I'm also in LinkedIn, you know,

all that good stuff. Yeah, you're just starting out on there, right? Or rearranging? I want to get excited to vote LinkedIn. It's just, it's, I have to. I'm learning. Yeah. I enjoy LinkedIn.

For some reason, it seems to be a good place for the podcast where I get a lot of, a lot better responses. I know that it's a good place. It is definitely my weakness. I, I'm trying, but I don't post enough on there. But I am learning to get on there because I know how valuable it is. Well, awesome. Well, we just did two hours and 20 minutes.

Really? Yeah. Wow. that doesn't feel like it that's crazy it was a pleasure to have you on i really appreciate you taking the time i do think that you're an excellent example of somebody who can do the business work have the family put them together try and make it work and put in work every single day into those types of goals i think that this is really important for people to look at and try and emulate the example you're setting oh thank you so much i appreciate that thank you

Thank you. I'm going to be able to be.