Surviving the Side Hustle

From Accidental Entrepreneur to Business Consultant: Kara's Journey of Redefining Success and Thriving in Entrepreneurship

• Season 1 • Episode 75

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What if you could redefine success and turn your business dreams into reality with a few transformative strategies? Join us as we sit down with Kara, an accidental entrepreneur turned business consultant extraordinaire, who shares her wisdom and innovative "Balance and Scale Method." With over 15 years of expertise in scaling businesses to multi-seven figures, Kara has revolutionized the way entrepreneurs think about growth and revenue generation. Together, we uncover the common pitfalls that often trip up new business owners and discuss how prioritizing revenue over traditional marketing tactics can lead to more predictable success. Kara's insights are not just academic; they're a roadmap to expanding your impact in the entrepreneurial world.

Success isn't just about constant hustle—it's also about knowing when to pause and recharge. This episode shines a light on the delicate balance between relentless work and the necessity of taking strategic breaks. We share personal stories of how stepping back can sharpen intuition and lead to more informed business decisions, preventing the dreaded "robot mode" where productivity eclipses personal well-being. Emphasizing the value of self-care and reflection, we explore how integrating intuition with data-driven strategies can drive sustained success. Rest is not just a luxury; it's a vital component of a thriving business strategy.

Charting a course from hustle to thriving business ownership requires clarity and deliberate planning. Kara introduces us to powerful tools like the "ideal scene" and "no manifesto," which help entrepreneurs envision their future and define boundaries for their journey. These exercises are essential for aligning actions with aspirations and cutting through distractions. By focusing on what success should feel like and what you refuse to tolerate, you can navigate the early stages of business scaling more effectively. This episode is a treasure trove of strategies for those ready to elevate their entrepreneurial journey, all thanks to Kara's invaluable expertise and passion for helping others succeed.

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Speaker 1:

What's going on everybody? Today on the show we've got Kara. She's a special guest. She's got over 15 years of experience in the business consulting world and she helps individuals grow their business to multi-seven figures and increase the impact. So I'm excited to dive in and hear a little bit about the stories, struggles and some secrets that Kara might have. So, kara, how are you doing?

Speaker 2:

How's your day going Amazing. I'm so excited to be here. I love getting to share my story and helping other people grow their business, so thanks so much for having me, rob.

Speaker 1:

Of course, of course, but let's dive right in. How did you get to where you're at so you've got over 15 years experience in the world and where did you come from? How did you get to where you're at? So you've got over 15 years experience in the world of and where did you go, come from? How did you get to where you're at currently? Let's dive in a little bit.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think my story, you know, I feel like I'm an accidental entrepreneur. Honestly, I was. I'm a mother, I have four children. They're a young adult, college age now but you know, I was just trying to take care of my family all these years and trying to do good in the world, and I was never a person who had this dream of this big, fancy wedding, just like I was also not a person who had a dream of I'm going to be an entrepreneur, make millions of dollars.

Speaker 2:

That's not really my MO, and so sometimes it's interesting when you don't have that intention. I find that that's how you can become the most successful of all the people that I've worked with myself, when you have an intention to do good, you know that's always a great place to start an entrepreneurship, and that was purely my intention was. You know, I've been helping different companies over the years, working more exclusively with different companies at different times on a larger consulting scale, and I just realized that. You know I wanted to help more people. There's a lot more people out there who have something amazing to bring to the world. I think entrepreneurs are often very creative, but sometimes they struggle with executing on their own ideas and making that happen for themselves, and so that's really been my passion, and I've been fortunate enough, you know, to now bring this into working with many more entrepreneurs in the past few years, which is really exciting.

Speaker 1:

Awesome. And so where are you bringing this business now to, because you kind of said you fell into it on accident. Where are you driving your ship?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's a good question. I mean, for many years I had a lot of referrals just coming in, you know, and that's how I work with different companies. I've really liked to work with companies in the education space and special education, making that type of impact. And now I actually have a group program. You know, I work with people in a lot of ways, but we have a group program.

Speaker 2:

So I've really put together my own I call it like trademarkable method, which is the balance and scale method, and doing that has really helped me scale the business exponentially, because it takes you away from selling your time for money, which you'll always run out of, into having something that you can help people with in any way once you have a method.

Speaker 2:

And that's allowed me to start having a lot more freedom and be able to have a lot more choices. And so we, you know we have lots of leads coming into the business and lots of opportunities coming up, so it feels exciting to be able to choose who the best partners are to work with us and you know who we can help make the biggest impact now. So where we're steering it is, you know, to keep going and growing in that direction, to keep helping more entrepreneurs and just really expanding our impact, and I'd love to get to the place where I can work on some passion projects myself, you know, and kind of changing the way that education is delivered in the US. Those are some of my future goals.

Speaker 1:

Would you mind diving in a little bit on your framework, the balance scale framework. You were saying.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, the balance and scale method. It's you know, it's just the terminology that I came up with. It's really helping people get skilled to the multi seven figure mark. You know a lot of entrepreneurs. They might get started with their side hustle and you might be able to collect some revenue. And you know, you sign on a few clients, depending on what type of work you're doing. You sign on a few, sell a few products, but actually getting yourself into a scaled business, making your business repeatable.

Speaker 2:

So many entrepreneurs want to have predictable revenue and be able to count on that, and maybe they want to give up a day job and when they come to us, that's a dream for them, but they don't know how to get there, and so that's in part, why I created the Balance and Scale Methodist.

Speaker 2:

It's a repeatable process.

Speaker 2:

I think there's a lot of noise out there in the marketing space about create a freebie, do this on a website, there's a lot of things that you should do and you need a mailing list, and we've essentially disrupted in the sense that we've taken that out of being a barrier for people to get successful, because so many entrepreneurs post their freebie post on social media and they don't.

Speaker 2:

Nobody it right, nobody sees it or they go viral and nobody signs up still you know. So they don't actually generate revenue with it and they end up just kind of feeling like they should give up on themselves. And so we've developed a process that allows people to get connected with potential clients and allows you to start focusing on revenue generation first, and and that's been really successful for a lot of people and from there you can build on the repeatability of it in that sense, and that's helped a lot of people start to get success what are some things that you see newbie business people coming in, some of the mistakes that they're commonly making, because I remember when I first launched my business, there was learning something new, different strategy.

Speaker 1:

Every other day, almost like once a week, I was diving into oh I got to do this, I need to have a Facebook group, I need to switch and do that now and it would be overwhelming and I'm just like people still doing a lot of things where you're like, ah yeah, I know that one.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we've all had our learning experiences right. You either you know you have success or you learn something, and a lot of people you know what will we implement. The balance and scale method is the sell before you build strategy, which is very different than what I see entrepreneurs doing. We feel like, as entrepreneurs, that we need to get everything right. It has to be perfect. You know we can't bring it to market until we're sure, and what I want to help people do is get product market fit before you go making the time to build out all the product right, whether it's a program, your service.

Speaker 2:

You know you don't have to show up perfectly and that is one of the hardest lessons to learn as an entrepreneur. Right To do it a little messy, to trust yourself that if somebody says yes to this idea that I have, that I will be able to give them the service and the transformation without having a pretty package. You know you don't need to waste time on recording videos and setting up a platform. Those are some mistakes I made early on. Those are mistakes I still see entrepreneurs making, and it comes down to being willing to be open and curious.

Speaker 2:

I feel like that's one of the most important qualities as an entrepreneur. You know we all want structure, we all want that predictability, so we're fighting ourselves every day. You know, every once in a while, I catch myself doing things that are just button pushing, you know, because I just feel like I need to do it sometimes and I remind myself like that's not the most important thing. And if you focus on that impact that you want to make and you start taking action towards that, the easiest way that you can do it is focusing first on revenue generating activities, having conversations with people who can buy your thing right, that's really what it is. So what can you do to get people in conversations with you early on so you can sell your thing, even if it's inexpensive? A lot of people are, you know we're trying to set up these online funnels, which is important, but the quickest way that you can get started get that live market feedback, have those conversations, get those clients booked in, the product sold, whatever it is, before you systematize and automate everything.

Speaker 1:

Now you mentioned there for a second and I know for me it was pretty easy to always kind of in and making sure that I'm doing something. And I got to a point where I scaled up my business and I was working well, 15 hours a day, seven days a week, for like three years straight essentially, and I was stuck in the grind. And I know you talk a little bit about the hustle versus anti-hustle. Can you share a little bit about that?

Speaker 2:

Yes, I can relate to what you shared for yourself too, so much. I said at one point I felt like a liar. You know I was like. I'm talking about the balance and scale in your business. You know from behind my computer burning the midnight oil, you know getting work done and there is some part of that when you're growing your business and you're adding team. You know there's always gonna be some hustle in business. But the true freedom comes in when you can have that balance.

Speaker 2:

And I feel like what I've learned over the years, even more recently, I do believe you have to work hard, you know, to have success in your business. I don't believe we can just manifest everything. I think there's some work that has to go to it. But what I've learned is that taking strategic breaks and having some limits and boundaries for yourself actually helps you be more successful. Actually, recently in this past year, went away for three days. I took a three day break because everybody around me said just take a break, just do it. You know, and you're deciding what's the next phase and I went to a really nice hotel that was way more expensive than I would ever. Even, you know, feel like I needed and I had all these big plans of what I was going to get done for the business, and you know, I was going to create the next thing and get my business plan ready for this next phase, and just, I was going to do everything and, um, I just needed rest. You know, that's what I learned I just needed rest. Uh, it was quite an experience for me Hadn't been able to do that for many years and, um, it was the best thing I ever did for myself, because it reset me out of the hustle mode, and so I feel like I've learned from that.

Speaker 2:

It's like, allow yourself to do that more often, more frequently. It's okay to hustle sometimes, you know and we don't have to be embarrassed or hide that we can hustle. That's another thing that comes up, as you know, when you, when you are a hustler, right, it's like you don't want to tell people that well, I hustle. That's how I had it happen. So, just like taking care of yourself. I I hate advice out there for women, you know, take a bubble bath, and just silly advice, that's not really useful. Um, so I've just learned how to incorporate into my day. Some, you know, do some breathing. Sometimes I attend like I do business breath, work sessions. You know I do some other natural, holistic things that help me keep my body grounded. And if you can build those into your day more often and you know lessons learned from myself take a pause, have some silence, because that's probably the most valuable way to tune into yourself, and I felt like for a long time I was trying to find how to like, tune into my intuition.

Speaker 2:

I heard a lot of people talking about it. I feel like for a long time I was trying to find how to tune into my intuition. I heard a lot of people talking about it. I feel like I am very intuitive, but I was always so busy doing things in the younger, earlier years of the business it was hard to really feel what I felt right. And now that I have that, I'm reminded I need to tune it up sometimes, take a break, but I feel like the intuition, along with making data-driven decisions, that's like a powerhouse when it comes to business for anybody, and you want both things.

Speaker 1:

So you have to be well rested and not out hustle yourself and just always turning down events and things like that and reflecting back on it.

Speaker 1:

Now I refer to that as robot mode and, as you were saying, there's times to hustle and times not to hustle. And the problem for me was getting stuck in that robot mode Because, yeah, I was getting a lot of work done, I was making a lot of money, but, just like robots, I was efficient and productive, but I lacked that awareness of what was going on around my life. So relationships and my body, my health, everything started deteriorating until I was denied the distraction, so that full schedule, like too many clients were vacationing or whatever, and then that left that little bit of room for awareness and reflection. And then that's when it appeared like a light bulb turning on. It's like, wow, what is going on? Is this really my life? Is this what I'm trying to do? I'm trying to create more hours in the day. That just wasn't happening for me. So I appreciate you sharing that insight there about how important it is to kind of designate seasons or at least time to downplay and relax.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, I feel like we've all. It's like everybody has to go through that to an extent. You know, when you're an entrepreneur and again I want to say there's nothing wrong with hustling for a long time. Like you, I felt like it's a badge of honor, but you also feel embarrassed about it, right, and you know, and it's like, how do you have that balance? And just like we are humans, we're not robots, and sometimes you know we need space and to give ourselves that it's it's the best way that we can. We can really show up as our best selves. And you do have to have those moments of reflection.

Speaker 2:

I like to do quarterly planning. You know it's like am I achieving what I said I wanted? Like if I wanted to make this impact and I do that with all the entrepreneurs I work with am I hitting the mark? You know, and because sometimes it can feel like you are or you're not, but we need some numbers behind that to know is what I'm doing working? Is it getting me there and do I like it? You know you can create a business that you hate, right? Uh, we've all had those moments, I know. I've had those moments like what am I doing? Do I really want to be doing this? And um, you're no service to anybody. You know if you stay in that place.

Speaker 1:

So we kind of talked on the slowing things down and taking those down times. But for someone who is hustling and they're pushing and they're working really hard, how do they shift into the thriving business owner? How do they get into the early stages of scaling up and how do they know when it's time to start scaling up too?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Really good questions. Actually, you're making me think of a client who I recently recorded a video with, and she actually was just able to leave her day job, so it was a pretty exciting time and now she has a successful business. When she came to me, she wanted to focus on doing coaching, and she does do that, but she's also a licensed professional counselor I think is her designation and it turned out that there was a lot of opportunity in that area for her to start up both businesses at the same time and get that freedom for herself. So I think you know, in the beginning, just focus on the revenue generating activities, right? How do you know? Well, the numbers don't lie.

Speaker 2:

So if you start to have it's, it's not, um, I would I go by. If it's not a hell, yes, it's a hell, no, Like I live by that advice a little bit, and so if it's not crystal clear for you, it's probably not the right time. You know you need to start having some numbers that feel a bit predictable, that may replace what you have. You do have to take a risk, that's true, but if you can take a risk, this is where the hustle may come in, right, If you can keep hustling and keep that day position or wherever that revenue is coming from, while you're building the other thing. Put everything into building consistency. Excuses can't get in the way. Right, If posting on social media is what gets you leads, you have to do it. If running ads does it, if it's outbound, whatever your thing is, don't judge yourself if you're not having the success you want yet. Look at your actions and what are you doing and what can you change. What happens before those results is the actions that you take. So I say, focus on that in the early side and spend some time getting really clear on what you want.

Speaker 2:

One activity I can share with your audience that I still use and that's really helpful I call it the ideal scene and I put a big heart in the center of a paper and write my business at the top. I write for the highest good of all concerned. That way it's not really up to me who gets the site. I'm putting it out there to God, the universe, whatever people believe, and I go around that heart kind of in a circle and focus on how do I want to feel in the future. So not how much money I want to make, not how many things I want to sell. You know, not that stuff. It's how do I want to feel.

Speaker 2:

So if you're looking for a new job, one of the examples might be I want to feel valued at work. Or if you're focusing on your own thing, I want to make a bigger impact and help more of these people If you let yourself get in touch with what you want to feel in the future. It's scary to do at first, but it gives you so much clarity. And then the second activity I put with that and I use this for all my decision making is what I call the no manifesto. Big deal for me, this was the other part of the no hustle was getting in touch with what I'm no longer available for.

Speaker 2:

And you know it's like we don't really do that right, when you're hustling, when you're trying to get something going, there's no space to say I might not like this because we got to keep going. But if you just allow that little bit of space, I just start writing down what am I not available for in the things that are happening to you? Right, I'm not available to not get to where I want to go. You might not be available to not show up for yourself and do what you say you're going to do. You're not available for distractions from your ultimate goal. Like, whatever your things are, take a few days and just kind of open a note in your phone and start getting in touch with that.

Speaker 2:

And those two tools together the ideal scene and the no manifesto are a really powerful way to move forward towards your goal. So you know, what do you? What would it look like if you were having that success? Because you do have to start living into that. You won't know you're there if you don't know where you want it to get to. So those tools, I use them always in business to make decisions, but it's a great place also when you're just starting out to think about what do you want to happen? What would it feel like when you got that and then start to align your actions with that and cut out whatever's in the way you know, whatever's in the way of you making that impact or achieving your dream. Cross it off the list you know, cut down on the people you're talking to or the time you're spending on the things that aren't mattering.

Speaker 1:

That's really great advice and sometimes it's difficult to kind of do some of that internal reflection. When you're working with people do they have a lot of limiting beliefs and kind of like slow themselves down with this whole internal, like checking out thing like that. How do you help handle individuals like that?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, right, that's the biggest problem. It's not about business, it's about ourselves. And it's about, you know, how do we change to become the person we say we want to come faster. Suffering is optional, I like to say, and so that is a part of how I work with people and I include that work. You know, I think we have to have actionable business strategies to get in a position to scale. I like to help people come up with their own trademarkable method, and I have a specific process for that that really helps them be in a position to scale and get those activities in place.

Speaker 2:

And it's, you know, it's it's just about continuing to do what, what you say you're going to do, and keeping yourself in that like positive mindset. And it's about habits. Right, it's about habits. It's about habit stacking, it's about doing personal work during different periods of growth. You have to do more of it, right More journaling, more meditating, more exercising, whatever the things are for you, and try different things. You know, everybody who's successful in business also hires other people to help them be successful.

Speaker 1:

You know, I've learned that right Coaches, have coaches.

Speaker 2:

We know that. That's how you get successful. You know, if you want to make a change in life, you get around the people who already have what you want. Don't spend your time around the people who are trying to get the same things as you. Get around the people who are already there as much as possible and, like I guess I just like to say, take that leap of faith. You know, anytime I've ever invested in myself or I've tried something new, yeah, it was scary as hell, but it always is worth it because it's you committing to yourself that you mean what you say and you're going to do the work and put it in.

Speaker 2:

And everybody has setbacks, you know. So it's like, if you get in touch with that ideal scene of what you want to happen, turn those into affirmations for yourself. Put that on your mirror, say that every day. Make that become your reality. I believe it's a choice. I believe everybody can be successful. I don't think it's only certain people or only certain products. It's just a matter of being willing to iterate and continue to grow and change, and it's available to us all if we want it to grow and change, and it's.

Speaker 1:

It's available to us all if we want it. So you've you've got your, your method. What is, what does it look like for individuals who are working with you Cause I know you said you've got the group coaching also coming out is um explain to me a little bit more about what it's like? Uh, someone who just hires you or just gets into your ecosystem? How do what does that look like for them?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, you know I'm happy to speak to people If they have any questions about that. Really, what we do is we generally try to work with people in a revenue sharing partnership. Depending where your business is at, you know, there may or may not be a cost associated with that, depending on what systems you already have in place. Um, but we like to work together for an entire year. It takes a little time to scale a business, help get that set up, and I work with people individually. I work with them in Slack one-to-one. I work with them in meetings one-to-one. We also have some group programs, like we have a sales process role play where we can practice calls together.

Speaker 2:

This is what I've learned, rob, you know there's so many people out there talking about like boundaries, so you don't have to hustle right and only meet with people this often and cut back your sessions or whatever the thing is you do, and I've learned the opposite of that. Give people access to the support that they need and they're not going to take advantage of it. I never have to put a limit on anyone giving them like unlimited access, even just to me and my team. They always just utilize it because we all get stuck. So if we can just help people get unstuck in some way in their journey, you don't have to waste so much time on that. You know that's how people move forward.

Speaker 2:

So if anybody is interested, I'm happy to. You know they can fill out an application. They can look on my website it's KaraRenningercom. They can find me on Instagram, send a DM. I'm happy to have, you know, personal chat for any questions and you know we'll be super honest with you. We're looking for people who want to get to scalable impact. Those are the people that we partner with and that we work with, and we have a really good process to find out if you're at that place yet and if you're not, we might have some other tools we can share with you to help you get yourself into that place to help you get yourself into that place.

Speaker 1:

Very awesome, very awesome Instagram DMs into the website Also. Just first and last name KaraReningercom right.

Speaker 2:

Yep.

Speaker 1:

Yep, cool, cool, cool. That's where you got to go. Find out more, if you are. And so, I guess, with the impact, how do you so? What does it look like? How do you know? Like, oh, am I making enough impact or is it my? Um, my goals are aligned. How do you determine that for an individual or company?

Speaker 2:

yeah, I mean we find out what their goals are. We look at what they have going on right now, what's happening and you know some of it's how we connect our intuition, what we want to happen and to see. You know, sometimes, when you're really early starting out, like, like I said, I would focus back on the revenue generating activities. We have a free Facebook group. You can join as well and to help you with that, I would focus solely on that. And then you know, once you start to generate some revenue, once you're bringing in you know five to 10 K in a month, then you can start thinking about scaling up, I think, a bit from there.

Speaker 2:

But it is different for everybody. It really is, and that's why you know I'm happy to do a call. You know we have a team. We can get on a call with you. We're, we're a small company, Um, we're not super large, so it's an intimate team, but we can have a call and kind of help. You know what, where you are on the path and if there's that you could become a potential partner with us in the future.

Speaker 1:

Very cool, Very cool. Well, I appreciate you taking the time here today to share a lot of your insights and your tips and all with everybody here. I know they're getting a lot out of it. And just thank you for taking the time too, because I know it's difficult to find, to carve it out, to hop on shows and share your insights, Because you could be out helping other individuals, making money yourself and doing a lot of other things. So I really appreciate you taking the time today. But before I let you roll, though, I got to ask you if you were to break it all down. I know you were saying I think I might know where you're going to go with this, but if you were to give that one piece of advice for those guys out there starting their side hustle, leveling up, starting to level up, or just have the dream of getting rolling, what would be your number one piece of advice for those individuals?

Speaker 2:

it did work out. That's what I'd be focused on. What if it did work out? What would it feel like? What would it look like? And back to the activity I shared on how to get clear on what your ideal scene is. I would say that's the number one thing you can do. You can try lots of different business strategies. A lot of different things might work, but get in touch with what you want to happen so that you can actually start working towards it. Get out of the chaos of jumping around trying a million different things and really believing yourself you know, believing yourself that it is possible for anybody who wants to put the work in.

Speaker 1:

Oh wow, love it, love it, love it. Kara, thank you so much for hopping on today. I really appreciate chatting with you. You're an awesome individual, great guest too, so thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you so much for having me, rob, and that's all we got today, guys, We'll talk to you next.