Episode 144 - Kate Erickson Dumas This Entrepreneur Achieved Her Wildest Dreams

I do really believe 100% from every part of me that everyone has the capacity to be able to do the things that they want and not to be held back by the mental baggage that's in our head that we want to push through.

Welcome to the do the Thing podcast. In each episode, we get down and personal with people who go after the things they want to make all their wildest dreams come true. Join us as we unveil and dissect a formula for what it takes to do the thing. Here is your host, Stacy Lauren.

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the do the Thing podcast. This is your host, Stacy Lauren. So I am excited because I love getting a chance to talk to people that I've seen a lot through group settings and as an expert in different things, but when I haven't gotten a chance to really dive in one on one, to really what makes makes their drive and tick and all about their story. And I met our next guest through a community that I joined recently called Podcasters Paradise. I really wanted to be around other podcasters that were doing the same thing as me because as you guys know, I love my podcast and I've gotten so much out of it, and it's really cool to have that piece of the formula dialed in. Part of the M and I'm game is my people. And that's what that community gives me, is it gives me a place of community and connectedness that you need in order to really feel inspired and encouraged and to continually learn new things. And so I am so excited to get to talk to our next guest. She's someone that I've. Every time I've seen her talk or anytime we've talked in any kind of setting, I just feel like she has so much depth and wisdom from the way that she views life and her perspective and then the way she's able to encourage and support others. So I'm excited to welcome Kate to the show. Hi, Kate.

Hi, Stacy. Man, you've got me blushing over here. Thank you so much for those kind words.

Yeah, you know, it's so cool because, I mean, I get to see you in the community that we're in, you know, where you're helping so many people. And then I invited you to that expert panel for the Start a podcast challenge. So I got to hear you in there, and just all the wisdom that you have, and then just to get the opportunity to now talk to you one on one is just. It's just really cool.

Yeah, well, I'm definitely excited to be here. I'm so excited that you've joined Podcasters paradise and are diving in. I love seeing your posts in the Facebook group, and I just love hearing that that community aspect is like, hitting hard for people and giving them what they want and need. Because that was a huge reason why we started Podcasters paradise in the first place, was for that community aspect, because it's just so critical to be surrounded by people who are on the same path as you, who have been through what you're going through, who can support you and brainstorm with you. So ye, that's really great to hear. I totally agree with you on that aspect of business, entrepreneurship, and in life too.

I think it's so important because a lot of people don't realize just how important it is. A lot of people talk about the five people that you're around and you're the average of the five people. People that are supportive and encouraging and that are doing great things. But there's something different about. And I'm going to bring up the do the thing formula right now because it's coming alive for me. But my people, which is the M and I'm game, which is the do the thing formula. And those are the people that are doing the same thing as you, that want the same thing and they have the same goals. And the best way that I like to compare it to is running a marathon. If you're going to run a marathon and you're not around other runners and your friends are supportive and encouraging, but they don't run themselves, then it's really hard to get motivated to run or to feel inspired and encouraged. And so there's really that concept of no having those five people around you are great, but you also need to be around people that are doing the same thing as you want the same thing. So then you can grow and level up in just different ways.

Yeah, absolutely. I totally agree.

I'd love to start off and have you just share your story.

Yeah, definitely. So I grew up in a very, like, traditional corporate background, so I didn't really know what entrepreneurship was until I was well into my 20s. That's not something that I ever learned in school. And I didn't really have anyone around me who was an entrepreneur. So I graduated high school, I went to college thinking that I had to choose a major, and I thought that that major was going to have to be what I got a job in and on and on and on, just like the very guided path that we are led on. And when I graduated college and wasn't able to Get a job in the field that I was in. I am an English major and I really wanted to be a college professor. When I graduated undergrad, I realized that I would need more degrees in order to do that. So I did go to grad school. And when graduated grad school, it was in 2008, I was living in California, and we all know that that was not a great time. And, like, financially and just the world in general, jobs and everything were very down and especially in the educational system. So I thought, man, I just did everything I was supposed to do, and I thought that that was going to net me what I wanted, and it didn't. So that was kind of a life lesson that I think I probably brushed it to the side a little bit too easily and was just, okay, gotta keep going. So I continued in the field that I had been in for a while, which was banking, totally opposite of my degree. And to be honest, it wasn't really something that I enjoyed very much, but I was really good at it. I've worked probably every banking job you could ever imagine, from being a teller at a traditional bank, to working in hr, to doing layoffs and mergers and acquisitions, to doing loan processing, like, everything. So it was 2011, and I was working in an HR department doing layoffs, so that wasn't very much fun. And I received a note from my boss that a promotion was available and that she thought I would be a great fit for it. So I thought, oh, my gosh, this is awesome. Been at this job for three and a half years. I'm finally getting this opportunity to advance my career and get a raise and change my job title and like, all these things that I thought were important back then, which really don't matter to me at all anymore, and I ended up losing that promotion. That was a huge gut check for me. And that is the moment that I thought, this can't be it. I know that this is what I'm supposed to be doing according to whatever guide I was looking to at the time. And I know that everybody else does this. I know nobody really likes their job. And so I guess that this is what I should be doing. But I hated it. I hated going into my job every day. I was not challenged, not excited, not inspired. So that's really what ultimately led me to discovering entrepreneurship and knowing that you could actually create the life that you wanted to live. And in 2000, and, well, it was that same year in 2011, I finally quit my job and I dove into entrepreneurship. And 10 years later, I am still an entrepreneur. I love being an entrepreneur and as my friend Michael o' Neill likes to say, I'm officially unemployable.

I love that. So what got you into discovering entrepreneurship in the first place?

It was really surrounding myself with other people who were doing it and I kind of did that unintentionally because again, like I said, I didn't really grow up around entrepreneurship. Probably the first exposure I had to it was my sister who was working in a very traditional 9 to 5 corporate job as well. And she had her first baby and during her maternity leave she had all intentions of going back to her job and kind of through that experience of becoming a mother, realized that the last thing she wanted to do was go back to her job. And so my sister started a side hustle at her corporate job with a four month old baby and, and was able to successfully quit her job in the next six months. And so that was kind of this very eye opening, like, oh my goodness, this actually exists. And then my next door neighbor who is now my husband and business partner, that's how we met as neighbors, John Lee Dumas, he was at home working out on the front patio and I'm getting up early and like grinding to go to the gym and then going to catch the bus to get on the trolley to get to my office. And he's just like chilling all day, this guy do to make money. And so he was actually a huge introduction for me into entrepreneurship and what it looks like to not follow a traditional path and to create something of your own.

It's cool. So because you, so you got so upset because of the or you got really frustrated because the promotion didn't happen. Right. And that's like the moment where you're, this can't be it. There's gotta be more for me. And then you see your sister who after she has her baby, she's going back to work, but then she does the side hustle and then eventually able to, to quit the regular job and then seeing your neighbor, now husband basically doing, living this life and seeing how cool it is. So you basically started to see like the more clues you got to see of people doing it and succeeding. That's what you think gave you the confidence to be able to get into it?

Yeah, absolutely. And just then having those people around me as a support team because I was scared as all get out to quit my job and I had no. Even though I now knew that entrepreneurship existed and that I could start my own business, I had no idea how to do that all the while. Very long story in the background, but I'll keep it short for purposes of describing this next step in my journey. All the while, when I quit my job, I also moved cross country to Maine, which is where John is from. He had moved back there. And so I quit my job, left everything in San Diego, where I was living at the time, moved to Maine. And so not only was I integrating myself, and I'd never been to the east coast before. It was November, so that was a rude awakening. I had no friends, I didn't know anybody except for John and his family. And I was trying to start my own business. So it was kind of like a combination of getting outside of my comfort zone and literally every area of my life at the same time, which was a lot. However, it taught me that nobody's coming to save me. If I want to make this happen, I've got to figure out what to do and I've got to figure out how to do it fast. So one of the first things that I did when I moved to Maine was I joined networking group that met once a week. They did like a happy hour mixer where it was a group of entrepreneurs and people who were kind of even. There were a lot of entrepreneurs in the group as well, people who work inside of companies, but who are given the freedom to kind of create their own role and make their own decisions and all of that stuff. So becoming a part of that group and getting that support system around me is really what encouraged me and helped give me the confidence that, okay, I can make this happen. I have people around me who have gone through this. Just we were talking about earlier how critical that support system is. So that is absolutely what helped guide me through the entire process of that transition.

I'm so glad this is coming up because I've been really exploring a lot about what gets someone to make that shift. From saying, like, oh, that's not something I could do. Like, I have no idea how to do that. To be able to say, well, let me explore this more to then, well, actually, I'm gonna. I'm gonna do it. And I love that the first step isn't some huge, massive thing. It's just joining a group with other people that are doing the same thing that you want. I think that is the coolest thing, because it feels even though that's a comfort zone shift, it's not a huge risk, right, just to join a group. So then you can at least be around the people that are doing what you want to do.

Right, yeah, definitely.

And before we move on, I'm just wondering because this is coming up a lot and actually I just had an interview with, I don't know if you know, Ryan Daniel Moran. He's in the entrepreneur space, he teaches people to become millionaires and he, I just had an interview with him and we were talking about, I was trying to really figure out is what gets someone from being in that mode of oh, I don't think I can do it, to actually being able to make that actual shift. And I just, I'm just wondering what else was there that really was able to get you to, to make the step.

I, I think again seeing examples of, of people around me who were making it happen. So once I joined that networking group, not only did I have my sister as an example, not only did I have John as an example, but joining that networking group not only gave me the support, emotional and just mindset wise, but it also put me around people who then I got to hear their stories of O person wasn't born with any special superpower. They used to work in corporate too, and they quit their job to start their own business. And this person doesn't have a ton of money in their bank account, but they did X, Y and Z to be able to save up funds so that they could do a side hustle or so they could quit their job so they could do this. So really seeing examples and kind of bringing it more down to earth. Because at first, entrepreneurship seemed this totally unattainable thing that was all these people making multimillion dollars a year. They hit it big with these massive companies and that's what it was to me. And so just through learning more about it, through meeting actual people who are doing it, through researching and going online and starting to listen to podcasts to educate myself about the. Entrepreneurship isn't just one thing. It can be a lot of different things. And that a lot of people who are doing it, people that I was literally standing in the same room with, they didn't have this edge or this hand up or a golden ticket or they didn't know any of these secrets. I just needed to start and do the work. I could make it happen.

And I love what you said about once you got to see other people and they don't have any special superpowers and you're then able to see, oh, like why couldn't I do this now? I would love to know what was your first thing that you did?

It was a copywriting business. I was desperately trying to pull my English degree into my life because I love writing and I love editing and I love creating. And so I started a copywriting business. I called it Kate's Copy. And my goal was to. Because John was always in my ear, being like, you have to niche. You have to niche. You have to niche. And so I started out, we lived in Portland, Maine, which is a pretty. Even though it's one of the biggest towns in Maine, it's still very small. And so I started out going to local businesses who did not already have an online presence. And I was trying to help them kind of bring their businesses online by creating a homepage and an about page and indexing them and Google and all this other stuff that didn't work out so well. Turns out those businesses didn't really want to do that. Or if they did want to do it, I wasn't very good at selling it, which I can definitely attest to could have been a factor because again, I didn't know what I was doing. I remember so clearly having an opportunity to sit down and pitch one of the local Hilton hotels. They were looking for a complete copy refresh on their website. They wanted to redo all of their copy, how they described the hotel and all of that. And I remember sitting down with the girl who was a friend of mine from that networking mixer. That's how I met her and got that opportunity in the first place. And thank goodness she was my friend because my pitching skills and being able to sit down and actually tell someone what I did was very difficult for me. Very difficult, very uncomfortable. And that really taught me that, like, whoa, I got to put in the reps. Like, it's one thing to learn what entrepreneurship is all about and get to a place where you know what you want to offer or what you want to do, but then actually being able to communicate that to your avatar, to your ideal customer or consumer, like, those are all progressions, right? It doesn't all just happen at once when you have your idea. And so, yeah, that was. That was a six month struggle for me. I tried for six months. I went all in. I did not get a single customer in those six months. And I actually ended up going back into corporate to make money.

Yeah, I was gonna ask that. How did you not give up? So you were able to then get. Get a regular job again? And then did you start a side hustle at that point or of like, what was kind of your next move?

So I kind of still had. So I transitioned Kate's copy because what I found through Some of these networking and mixers that I was going to, that was kind of when ebooks were starting to be a big thing. And I love the details and editing. And so I started offering editing services. So I went and I got a job, but then on the side was just kind of freelancing, if you will, and offering ebook editing services. And that actually worked quite well because, again, it was something that was hot at the time. I was good at editing and I had other work that I could show to those potential customers, and it was very niche. So there was no question about whether I was the right person for you or not. If you were writing an ebook and you needed someone to edit it and upload it to Amazon and get it on Kindle, I could do that. So I did that for a while. But I quickly realized that while it was great for some extra cash on the side, it wasn't really something that I wanted to build a business around. I wasn't super passionate about other people's ebooks when it came down to it. So I stayed in that job for about a year, maybe a year and a half. And that actually coincided with John, my partner, starting his podcast and asking me to quit my job and join the Entrepreneurs on Fire team, which is what I do today.

Amazing. I just love this because it's so easy to get discouraged and then to think you're not going to keep going, but somehow you were still able. It sounds like a lot of it came down to that group and being involved with the people that were still doing it and probably seeing others that weren't succeeding and having problems. And then you were able to kind of rise above. Is that. Do you think that's right?

I mean, hands down, the people that I was surrounding myself with was so, so much of it. And through that group is where I met the first woman who I ever hired to mentor me. And that mentorship meant the world. I didn't have a lot of disposable funds at the time, so I didn't hire her one on one. I actually joined one of her group coaching programs because it was a lot more feasible for me monetarily. And through that group coaching that I was doing with her, I not only put myself in a room with her, I put myself in a room with five other people who were really serious about building their businesses. And that, again, my network just kept growing because of these places I was putting myself in. Was it easy? No. Was it comfortable? Definitely not. But I kept doing it because each time I met someone new, each Time I heard a new story. Each time I was able to go to an event and see someone speak or talk about how they built their business, I could feel myself getting one step closer. So I knew I had to continue doing that.

When you're going outside of your comfort zone, what's kind of the thing that you either say to yourself or how do you normally tackle that?

I mean, I think having a why is so important for me at the time. My why was that I didn't want to go back to a job. I had finally broken free of corporate America, and I was exploring what it looked like to make my own rules, to do something that I love, to make my own schedule, to not have my vacations ruled by somebody else, to have an infinite number of possibilities when it comes to the revenue that I'm able to generate. I wanted freedom. I wanted location freedom. I wanted lifestyle freedom. I wanted financial freedom. And every time I was put in a situation where I felt uncomfortable, it was, okay. Do you want to feel uncomfortable walking into this mixer where you don't know anyone and you're kind of embarrassed because you don't know how to introduce yourself, or do you want to go back and get a job? So it was pretty easy for me to be okay. I got to keep pushing my boundaries. Plus, the more that I listen and learn to the people who had come before me, and I'm talking T harv Eker and reading these traditionally amazing business books, all of them talked about getting outside of your comfort zone and how important that was. So I just kept reminding myself that it was part of the process, that I wasn't going to die because I was uncomfortable. I was just going to be uncomfortable. And that the more that I did that thing, the more comfortable I'd become, the better I would become at introducing myself. The first time I walked into one of those mixers, I'm not kidding you, Stacy. I took off my jacket, I hung it up, and I went to the bathroom, and I sat in the bathroom for probably 15 minutes, freaking out because I was just so shy. I. I, Even today, I'm. I'm a major introvert. But I've become a lot better at being in settings where I can talk to other people and introduce myself and start a conversation. But it wasn't always like that. Like, had to work at that.

It. Yeah, this is so good. I. Actually, a lot of my community are filled with introverted trying to get themselves more extroverted. So I definitely. And I'm introvert, too, so it's kind of funny how you know, the more you build the muscle and you practice it is when you're able to almost feel like you're an extrovert, if that makes sense. But you still get your energy.

Definitely.

You still get your. At least I get my energy still from when I'm by myself. But I'm also wondering when you're. If you could give advice to the people that are in your place, but they haven't gone to the networking event yet. Because I totally resonate with what you're saying with the going to the bathroom. I would always try to find a job. What do you guys need help with in the back of myself? A task. I'm just wondering, do you have any advice for how you now would approach going to something that you're uncomfortable doing and then making that first step in conversation?

Yeah, if I think about maybe more recent things that I've felt uncomfortable about or like I'm really doing something new. If you're able to invite a friend to go along or if you can meet someone who's doing that same thing so that you kind of feel not alone, that can be really helpful. I also think that maybe reaching out to your existing community or network to see if anyone has done the thing that you're about to do and that they can maybe walk you through what it was for them. I think hearing other people's experiences is really helpful because it lets you know that you're not alone and maybe being scared or intimidated and maybe they'll have some really great tips for you. Before you go. Make sure that you're able to do a a 30 second elevator pitch for people or even hopping on. If you don't have a friend or someone who's going to that thing, maybe you could ask one of your friends to role play with you and say, can you just pretend that you're a person that I'm walking up to and we don't know each other and can we just do a practice conversation? So I think there are lots of ways that you can reach out and ask for help from people who are in your world right now to help you prepare for some of those events or things that might seem really intimidating. We recommend that with podcasting all the time, if you're first getting. If you're just getting started with your podcast and you've never done an interview before, ask a friend to do an test interview with you so that you can go through your questions and kind of get those nerves out a little bit so that the first time that you're actually interviewing someone for your podcast. It's not the first time that you've been on the microphone.

We talked about some kind of. As you're talking, I'm sort of going through how you handle the do the thing formula. I don't even know if we've talked about it, but pretty much it's I'm game. It's an acronym, and the I is identify the why, which we've talked talked about. And then mindset. You've mentioned a few things with mindset, but I'd love to hear what your number one mindset mindset tip is.

Ooh, gosh, I'm so big into mindset. I have lots of mindset things that I kind of fall back on, if you will. I mean, one thing that's really helpful for me when it comes to just coming up against frustrations or, or seeming it's a roadblock or like, how am I going to get past this? Or feeling down or angry or I'm not making progress. Any of those things that we encounter. Imposter syndrome. Why me? I'm not good enough for this or whatever it might be. I think perspective is really key and being able to. One of my friends told me one time that the very first page in her journal, all she has written on that very first page is all of her accomplishments and her achievements. And she said that anything that she kind of comes up against, something that's discouraging or that feels like it's a setback, she opens up her journal and is able to see all the amazing things that she's accomplished. And I thought that was a really good, just very practical tip for people who might feel like they're coming up against that stuff. Often that you can remind yourself that setbacks are not the end of it, or roadblocks don't mean that you're not going to get to your goal. It's just interruptions and it's lessons. I mean, I remind myself of that all the time, of whatever I'm going through. This is a lesson. This is something that I'm going to get to carry with me moving forward. It's going to help me never make this mistake again. I'm only getting better because of this. So I think having little things that in your back pocket to remind yourself that when you do come up on really tough things, that it's not the end of the world. There is a lesson there for you to learn from, and it's only going to make you stronger moving forward.

Yeah, you're making me think even it could be nice just to even record them. And then when you are struggling, you could listen to them too.

Definitely.

Yeah. This is, this is really good. And then depending on which one you're in the mood for, because, you know, sometimes you want to read, sometimes you just want to listen to something.

Yeah.

Or even better, just put it on fiverr and have someone record it for you in a, like, really cool voice.

A really inspirational one with like music in the back.

Exactly.

Okay.

And then we.

So we did.

I'm. I'm identify the why mindset such good stuff. And then game. So the G in game is goals. We kind of touched on it a little because it sounds like you really go for that next thing in line of what you want to do. What is your typical way of handling goals? Is that the main thing? Or do you have specific goals or just an overarching goal or how do you. How do you approach goals?

Yeah, I'm huge into goal setting. I actually just finished a 100 day goal challenge on my podcast, Kate's Take, where I posted episode a day for 100 days to encourage and inspire other people to accomplish, set and accomplish their goal in 100 days. My goal was to finish the 100 days, but I'm a big fan of having goals, bigger overarching goals. And then being able to set sprints or. Yeah, quick sprints, so that every five to 10 days you're kind of checking in with yourself and you have a benchmark for where you should be at that point in time and being able to look back and. And ask yourself what's working, what's not working? If it's not working, how can I fix it? And then what is my. What are my top three priorities today? So if you can do that every single day and continue checking in with yourself on your progress, there's absolutely no reason why you should not be able to accomplish any realistic goal that you set. So that's kind of the format that I follow. If I have smaller goals, then I'll just create smaller sprints for it. It doesn't have to be a hundred days. I might have a goal of wanting to accomplish something by the end of this week. And I'll use the exact same format. It's a daily check in, always with very specific goals for that day. What are the three tasks that I'm gonna focus on today that are gonna get me one step closer to my goal? And if I can knock those three things out, then I know I'm gonna be on track to accomplishing it and having those check ins. If we're just working on a seven day goal right now, I'm probably gonna check in every other day and say, okay, based on where I want to be in seven days, I'm on day two. Are things looking good? Do I need to speed things up? Are there things that I didn't consider? How do I need to adjust to still be able to hit my goal in seven days?

That is so good. I. I'm excited. I want to listen to that for sure. I want to be able to. I think that's so. I mean, you met Adam at the expert panel for Start, a podcast. He did the 365 day challenge. I think doing anything like that, where you're doing it every day, I mean a hundred days, that's a long time to do an episode a day. I just feel like there's so many to happen.

Yeah, it was a stretch, but gosh, the like reaching that goal at the end, like having that achievement, I mean there's nothing like it.

Did you do anything to celebrate?

Well, I finished on December 31 and we were on a cruise that day actually. So my nine day Caribbean cruise was sort of extended celebration.

That's awesome. I was just thinking about that the other day I was watching my dog. This may be tmi, but I was watching my dog go to the bathroom and she did the little, little like, you know, the happy dance dogs do after they go. Yeah, why don't we do that when.

We do something amazing, we should do.

Our own like celebration.

Totally. I'm such a fan of celebrating your wins.

And then so now we're on to the A in game, which is accountability. And I'm imagining you have a lot of different ways of accountability. I'm just curious what's been your kind of your favorite one or if you have a couple different ones that you want to mention.

Yeah, I would say being a part of Masterminds has probably been my favorite type of accountability. I was in a Mastermind here in Puerto Rico for two plus years with six other females who are thankfully in my community. I mean, we live in an awesome community filled with entrepreneurs and it was really awesome to not only be around other female entrepreneurs, but have them be close enough that we were meeting up in person every week. And each time it was saying what we were focused on at that time. And then that next week we were held accountable to reporting back on how it was going. And I think that that's the strongest form of accountability. But you don't have to be in a mastermind to make that happen. You don't have to be meeting up in person to make that happen. In podcasters paradise, actually, we have a program where we'll match you up with an accountability partner. It can just be you and one other person, and it could be as low pro and simple as every Monday, you email each other what your three biggest focuses for the week are, and at the end of the week, you report back to each other. That knowing that somebody else is thinking about what you said you were gonna do and is gonna ask you if you did it, that can be really, really powerful.

And then do you do something with announcing it? Cause I'm thinking with the hundred day, like doing an episode every day, was it cause you did. Is that what really motivated you? Cause you said it on the podcast that you were doing it and then you just kind of followed through with it that way. Or was it the other stuff that really helped?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, putting out. I. I did a intro episode and announced that I was gonna be posting A Hundred Days in a ro. I was all right. Once that episode went live, I guess I'm posting a Hundred Days in a row. And the cool thing about doing that, which I know that you're all about with your brand and everything that you teach is I didn't know exactly how those A Hundred Days were going to go. I didn't know what every single episode was going to be about. I didn't even have an outline set when I posted that intro episode. But I knew that if I put it out there that that would hold me accountable. So, yeah, that's definitely another way is just put it out into the world.

And then the next letter. So when we're in games. So G is goals. We talked about that. A is accountability. And now we're on M, which is my people, which is one of my favorites. And it sounds like it's one of yours as well. And I was just wondering, I think we sort of talked about that. Is there anything else you wanted to add about that piece?

I mean, I think maybe just that sometimes it can feel okay, I want to have my people, but like, where do I find them? And that can be a little bit discouraging if maybe you don't have people in your community or you don't live around anybody else who you feel like is doing what you're doing. But there are so many amazing online outlets for that. Facebook groups or LinkedIn groups, or even just putting out and starting to talk about it tell people that you're engaging with, that you're looking for other people who are doing X, Y and Z. And it doesn't always have to be exactly in your industry or your niche. Anybody who's doing online entrepreneurship or whatever it is that you're doing, you know, fill in the blank. No matter they're doing something very aligned to you or not, not sometimes even better if they're not, because they're bringing a completely new perspective. So I would just say don't get get discouraged if you feel like you don't have anyone like within arm's reach. There's so many amazing things that we can do online now too for that community.

And then the Ian game is educate. And we've talked about that. With you getting a mentor and getting into all the books, is there anything else that you really like to do in terms of, of learning about whatever you're doing?

I would say books, podcasts, and then just trying to actually talk to people who have done it are probably my three go tos. Those are like top of my list. If I'm ever learning something new, do I know someone else who's already done this? Is there a book about it or is there a podcast I can listen to? And that's has worked for me very well.

And then the other part of Educate, which I, I just discovered this part of the formula I don't even know. A couple weeks ago I interviewed that had just done al anon, the 12 step program. And she was saying how the most powerful part of educate is the part of being able to not only educate yourself, but being able to educate others, which I think was really cool because then you learn more about that thing that you're doing even though you're not an expert at it. And I was just kind of curious if you had an experience maybe educating others even before you were what you would consider an expert.

Absolutely. Oh gosh, that's such a fantastic point. And I would say at least the first year of my journey was like that. In joining the Entrepreneurs on Fire team, I didn't know who our audience was or what to say to them or what type of content to write or what I should say on our income reports or any of that. It was all kind of just putting myself out there and doing it, getting feedback and then using that feedback to improve over time and to learn. I think that there's kind of this maybe expectation that once you start doing something, you automatically have to be like an expert at it, and it doesn't work. That way you're constantly going to be learning, improving, and it doesn't have to be absolutely perfect for it to go out into the world. That's how you're going to get feedback and learn. And again, probably my first year working with John with that, where I remember signing up for email alerts so that every time someone opted into our newsletter list, I would get an email notification, and I would take that email notification, copy the email address of the person that just signed up for our email list, send them a personal email from me saying, welcome to Fire Nation. So excited that you're listening to the podcast and that you signed up for the newsletter. What's the number one thing that you're struggling with right now? Or what questions do you have that we can help answer? And doing that, I did that for probably six months. Every single day. I was just doing individual outreach to people and asking them these questions. And I learned so much from that. That's what started to fuel my inspiration for what types of blog posts to write and what type of content to create and how to post on social media and what to post social media. So I think that the interaction between the two kind of tipping the scale of how much you're learning and then how much you're putting out there, I think both of them can play together very well.

So good. I love that. And I think that's such a great question too, to find out what people are struggling with. So then you really know how you can contribute to what they're needing, right?

Absolutely.

And I'd love to hear about your thoughts on or advice on, because we had you on, on the do the thing thing, start a podcast challenge expert panel. And you were such an amazing contributor to that. And it's funny, I don't even think I realized it until this conversation that I think you're the one that gave me the idea to do the do the thing find your voice challenge. Because you mentioned.

Oh, yay.

You mentioned something about finding your voice through your podcast on that panel and didn't actually connect to right now that I think I got that from you is that I was really excited about doing that challenge for people, but I realized so many people were getting in their head. Cause I created a lot of people created these beta podcasts, casts, before the challenge actually started. So I could see what kind of issues they might have before the challenge officially started. And I noticed people were too much in their head. And then also there was a bunch of people that weren't ready to join just because it was too far outside of their comfort zone. So I had decided, okay, find your voice. That's a much better way to start. It's much easier. It's not. It's so pretty much they're just going to be doing. Not even podcast relating. They're just going to be basically speaking into their phone on their voice notes about different prompts that I'm going to be giving them them from even venting. Do a venting voice note. Let your inner Karen out, you know, or like, there's one like that for like, what's your ideal day? Just kind of speaking to different dares. And then the challenge will be a vehicle for them to also interview people if they want to take up those bonus stairs. So I'd love to just hear your thoughts because I think when you mentioned your podcast being the way you found your voice that is now connecting together, that I think that came from you. But I'd just love to hear your thoughts just in general, general about all of this and maybe even speak again about how the podcast really helped that or what part of it and then what part I can even take with this find your voice challenge to help people find their voice. Really?

Yeah. I think it's such an important thing for people to recognize and acknowledge, and that's something that I wasn't doing. I wasn't even acknowledging that I wasn't using my voice because I didn't realize that I wasn't. And it all went back to being afraid that I'd say the wrong thing, not wanting to feel embarrassed if somebody didn't agree with me, not wanting to offend people. But. And all of those are, like, very real fears. Right? But the thing is, if you don't use your voice as a result of all of that, then you're walking through life invisible. You're not speaking up for yourself. You're not saying what you want. You're not putting it out into the world. You're not inspiring other people and motivating other people. And I think that when we become aware of how much these fears are holding us back and using our most. One of our most powerful assets, our voice that hopefully other people realize I did, that was such a gut punch for me. I was so ashamed when I realized that I wasn't using my voice. And that came through a transformational training that I did, kind of uncovered that for me. And once I uncovered that, it was kind of okay. This is something that clearly makes me really uncomfortable, and I've got to figure out how to overcome that. Really fast. So when I joined John on Entrepreneurs on Fire, a lot of what I was doing was putting my voice out there. I mean, I was doing it through blog posts and emails and stuff like that, so I could kind of hide behind the screen a little bit bit. But those were important baby steps for me to start doing that, because it was little by little that I started putting stuff out there that I actually got great feedback. And people would say, thank you so much for this email. This was exactly what I needed to hear today, or, thank you for that blog post. It was so informative and educational, and it got me to be able to do what I needed to do. And those small steps started building that confidence for me to the point where I thought, okay, what's the next iteration of this? And it was actually putting my voice out there. So when I started doing the podcast, I didn't know what I was gonna podcast about, so I actually started an audio blog. And what I would do is I would write a blog post, and then I would speak that blog post, and that was my episode. So I was repurposing content in a really powerful way. I was overcoming one of my biggest fears. And when I started the podcast and started using my voice and started getting that feedback and started helping people and inspiring them, it just made me realize much I had been missing out on by not stepping forward like that. And it has resulted in so many incredible things for me, not only from, like, a personal standpoint, with confidence, as I mentioned before, but I've gotten speaking engagements on stage because of it. I've been featured in magazines because of it. Just so much good has come from putting my voice out there. And, you know, starting in a place where that was absolutely one of my biggest fears. And being able to overcome that through these small steps is something that I would love to see other people be able to do as well, which I think is amazing that you're doing this challenge for that reason.

Thank you. And you mentioned that idea of being invisible. And so the other part of this find your voice challenge is I'm feeling it's also their inner voice that's going to transform. Because once you see start, there's this magic right when you're speaking things out loud and you get the clarity as you're talking, it starts to shift your inner voice. And I was just wondering if you had an experience with that, too.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that that all goes along with the awareness of it, too. It's. Until you start to be able to call yourself out on negative self talk or putting yourself down or saying that you can't do something until you recognize that you're doing that and admitting it, you can't do anything about it. And that goes for vocal voice that's going out into the world, literally. And I think maybe first and foremost, what you're talking about, your inner voice, because if you can't get that together, then the outer part of it's going to be very, very difficult. So, yeah, I totally agree with you.

Well, I'd love to hear your number one piece of advice for the listeners on doing the thing.

Oh, okay. This one of the biggest pieces of advice that I turn to very often from my dad. And he always told me, trust my gut. So that's my biggest and best piece of advice that I could give. Because there have been so many times in my life in the past and present, and I know in the future, too, when I'm going to be faced with a decision or wanting to do something and I'm going to wonder if I'm making the right decision or not. And I always go back to that advice. Trust your gut. Because if you trust your gut, the worst that can happen is that you learn a really great lesson. And that's really not that bad.

Do you have a certain thing you do when you're trusting your gut? Is there something you'll ask yourself or a way that you know that it's coming from you and not from outside of you?

I think that I'm like, at heart a researcher, and I want to investigate and know all sides of everything. And I think when I dive into something and I do that, when I really look into what's the worst that can happen, what's scenario A that can happen? What would I do if this happened? And if I make a list of pros and cons, where does it stack up? After I've done all of that, I kind of feel like I've checked the due diligence box and then it's really just about all of that information at hand. What am I feeling? And that's kind of the point where I can say, okay, I have considered different scenarios. I've done research on it. I've done pros and cons. Now it's really just about knowing all of that. How do I really feel about how I want to move forward?

If someone hasn't been having a practice of trusting their gut, it could be good to just start with some small things that have no risk involved. And then you get to start to feel what that feels like.

Yeah, definitely. And I think also reminding ourselves that a lot of these things, we're already doing them in our everyday lives. We have to make the hundreds of decisions, if not more, every single day about the food that we eat, about whether or not we exercise, about whether or not we run the errands that we said we were going to run, about whether we finish the tasks that we have on our time task list. All of these are decisions that we're making throughout the day, every single day. So you could just start holding yourself accountable to, like, doing these gut checks by saying, should I do this or not do it? And what is your gut telling you? So, yeah, I think that we really are already doing this. We just need to start recognizing that.

So good. Well, please share with the listeners where they can learn more about you.

Definitely. Everything that we do is over@eofire.com and what about.

Because you have two podcasts, right?

Yes, I do. I'm the host of Kate's Take, which is a solo podcast. And then I also co host a podcast with my girlfriend Nicole called Nicole and Kate Can Relate, where we get on the mic once a week and we have a candid conversation about a topic that we think our listeners can relate to.

That's so great. I've actually listened to Kate's Take before, and it's really good, but I didn't even know about your other one until we talked right before this we came on. So I'm really excited to check that out.

Oh, awesome. Yeah. Our most recent episode that dropped is about our. The books that we're reading right now. So we did kind of like a little book review.

I just think it's so fun because anyone can do that, right? With, like, their friend or, you know, people don't realize how easy it is just to. Once you get started, and then it becomes just a much more deeper connection point with someone that you already know, but, like, you're getting to know them in a different way.

Yeah, absolutely. We've had so much fun doing. Doing it.

Well, thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate it. This was amazing, and I'm really excited to listen back and, like, take all these notes that I want to write. Oh, awesome.

Thank you, Stacy. It was really great hanging out with you and getting to chat. I hope your listeners have enjoyed it.

Thanks for listening to the do the Thing podcast. We hope you enjoyed the show. But even more, we hope you'll be inspired to do the Thing. Do you have a burning question on doing the thing that you'd like answered? How about an inspiring do the thing story of your own that you'd like to share? We'd love to hear all about it. Just leave us a voice message at do the Thing callcast co or email us@helloothethingpodcast.com.