EPISODE 150 INTERVIEW WITH KAMI GUILDNER: HELPING WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS GET THEIR VOICES OUT INTO THE WORLD

Transcribed with Otter.ai

Erin Marcus  

Hello, hello, and welcome to this episode of The ready yet podcast. And I’m excited for today’s guest for a couple reasons that I haven’t even told her yet. But today’s guest is Kami Guildner. And we connected. I think I reached out to you because we had a mutual connection, who I loved so much. And that always leads to great conversations when you enjoy the same people. But I want to give people before we dive into all the cool things, why don’t you give people a little formal introduction to know who you are and what you do?

Kami Guildner  

Sure, I’m Kami Guildner. And I am a business coach who helps women raise up their voice, their vision and their visibility. And I am so passionate about women’s wisdom. And I believe that women’s wisdom is the medicine our Earth needs. And so I’m on a mission to raise up the voices and the vision and in the businesses of a million women right now. And that’s my lifetime goal right now. It really makes a difference in uplifting women entrepreneurs.

Erin Marcus  

Love it. Love it, love it. Love it. I think there’s so much truth to the fact that we do business a little differently. And in my last business, you’ll laugh at this. My last business that I had was working with families with aging parents. So I primarily networked with women. Because right Well, women, you know, it wasn’t just that one on one networking. It was for their parents, but women are aware of what their friend’s parents are also going through. And men are aware that their friends even have parents, right? It’s just a different way of navigating the world. And it’s not wrong or bad. You just have to be aware of the different ways that we navigate the world.

Kami Guildner  

And that makes so much sense that the friends of friends know exactly what’s going on and say, Oh, you’ve got to talk to Aaron about this.

Erin Marcus  

And men just are more linear if they’re if your dots don’t connect to their dots, without any speed bumps. They just kind of don’t go there.

Kami Guildner  

Yeah, and we’re connectors to the right. That’s our other superpower.

Erin Marcus  

Yes, absolutely. So how did you get into this? Tell us the backstory the the origin story, if

Kami Guildner  

you’re sure I left the corporate world 15 years ago, and I always say that the best gift was the one I got laid off. And there were no more VP of marketing jobs around in 2008. Yeah, and so it was in this space of, of, I’m supposed to be doing something different. But I don’t know what that’s meant to be. And so I took some time off. Actually, what I did is I took about a year and a half off and it was fantastic to just reconnect back to who I was. I think I’ve kind of gotten a bit lost in my own journey. And so it was good to have that, that whitespace to, you know, just reconnect to me and be out in nature. And so probably more green space in white space. And, you know, just slow down. And once I had clarity, once I got that clarity moment that I wasn’t going back to the corporate world, which I thought that for a long time,

Erin Marcus  

right? Because that is the norm especially for those of you know, you said VP of marketing. I was, you know, Senior Vice President Business Development, when you’re at that level, your instinct is to go right back totally that level like, that’s,

Kami Guildner  

Yep, that was exactly what I thought. And, but the more I kept, you know, once I started interviewing again, I was like, Oh, I don’t really want that job.

Erin Marcus  

Yeah. Same thing I knew when I left corporate before, and it took me about two years to leave, because I didn’t know what it was that I wanted to do. And at some point, I was interviewing for other jobs. And then I’m like, Okay, this doesn’t make sense. Why would I leave the top of one company to go to the bottom of a different company? Just for a subject matter? Yeah. I didn’t know what I was looking for.

Kami Guildner  

Yeah, yeah. No, I definitely didn’t know what I was looking for. And I had to discover that I had to let that unfold. And, you know, I say that being an entrepreneur is one of the biggest spiritual personal journeys that we can go on. And I definitely went down that route of just rediscovering me rediscovering you know why I’m here in this world and how I met to make a difference with me. And yeah, that’s really it was a big, big, big journey.

Erin Marcus  

You will and I think that’s something that we’re not necessarily taught to do. So I’m curious how you had the confidence to do it. Because, for me, the self development journey, my first business when I left corporate was actually a franchise and that went really well. And it wasn’t until I decided to let go of that franchise and do literally my abs loop own thing, that the self discovery journey piece came in because the franchise Yes, I was a business owner, but the model was somebody else’s. Right. And, for me, what I now call 2018, I look back on as a now you’re making me rethink how I’m labeling this because I call 2018 errands you’re a failure because I went from, you know, the big fancy C suite job to number, you know, top 10 out of 200 offices and a franchise to $11,000. And I laugh now because I’ve done the emotional work to get past it and call it Aaron’s your failure. But truthfully, maybe I just didn’t have the foresight or the language to put around that that was really my version of what you’re trying to

Kami Guildner  

redirect, right. I mean, a total redirect is what I read as it’s like it is because it’s so easy to go, it would have been so easy for you to have gone down another route. And that’s sometimes I think we just really get our path. So nicely laid out for us that we don’t know why we’re on this pathway where we’re even or even realized, we’re on that pathway. But when we start to trust it and do that inner work, and that’s, you know, so back to your question, I didn’t know how to do inner work. I mean, that was not my, you know, that was just not something I ever learned. It was, it was all you know, I had done all the things to get to where I was in my career. And so really, the pause was the start of it. What actually took me into the world of becoming a coach was horses, and I’ve had horses my whole life. And somebody told me about somebody doing coaching with horses. And I was like, what, I need to know more about this. And so that took me down a journey of becoming a certified equine guided coach. What, that’s what took me into coaching initially. And I had to do all my own personal work and the horses were fabulous for enabling us to just show up as ourselves and like, open us up to the very raw core of who we are. And, you know, just discover and, and to me, it was such a very natural way to let that happen. I think if I would have looked at spirituality from any other route, I would have just put my hands up and said, No, that’s not for me. But the horses were very organic and natural for me, because I’d always have them. And so with that, I just discovered this whole new world that I didn’t even know existed. Even with horses, right? I know it exists.

Erin Marcus  

It’s interesting that you say that because right around the time that I started this business, we moved from right outside of O’Hare Airport to the far west suburbs, and I describe it as we lived in an area where the suburbs became rural, right on that edge. And even though I had volunteered for 1012 years at that point, on a weekly basis for dog rescue, being in that new environment, I tried something different. And I was volunteering every week at a wildlife rescue. Yeah, right. And my job is horrible, disgusting, gross, gross, gross, gross shrub. That was absolutely wonderful, it was what we call the forest cages. So I worked with the teenagers outside, not in the nursery. But once the animals are being prepared for release, they’re in what we call the forest cages. And I would go in there and clean and feed and it’s gross, right? And you get it and you get jumped on and it’s crazy. And you’re immersed in the forest, we are in the middle of a forest doing it. And I grew up in Chicago, I was a total city kid, but I’ve always been into animals. And now that you’re seeing that. I think there’s something I had the same thing. I’m so streetsmart, upbringing total delink when there was nothing in my, and then corporate. There was nothing in my world that was gonna let me tap into something spiritual without me thinking it was weird. Yeah, except for that.

Kami Guildner  

Yeah, yeah. And then what a beautiful gift that showed up for you because I have heard so many wonderful stories about you know, the wild animals that how they can really tap help us really open into just feeling differently.

Erin Marcus  

Yeah, I mean it because it’s just core, right? It’s just a core instinct.

Kami Guildner  

Yeah. What were the animals?

Erin Marcus  

I worked with? Possums, raccoons. A lot of squirrels. I worked in the aviary with a lot of birds. doves are by far the dumbest birds that there are. All the other birds would try to get away. The doves would land on me. While I’m cleaning, they have no soul friends. It’s so funny, right? The squirrels run all over you, the raccoons climb all over it. Like, I wouldn’t be climbing up the steps to clean the shelves. I turned around and there was a raccoon on every step right, the baby sister, like, got past being scared of the possums. But we came to an agreement. They would not try to kill me. But that immersion. Yeah, like you’re talking about with the horses, the immersion with it?

Kami Guildner  

Yeah. And we get out of our heads, right? Because you’re just in the moment, you’re just in the moment

Erin Marcus  

otherwise you get assaulted by a baby raccoon. So you have to be in the moment.

Kami Guildner  

That’s so good. My mom had a baby raccoon for a long time. And it was so cool. It was the coolest crawling on your plane and touching your face.

Erin Marcus  

They’re very tactile. Yeah. Touch Touch, touch touch. Yeah. So are you still working with horses?

Kami Guildner  

I mean, I have mastermind programs. And my upper mid Level Mastermind program actually gets a two day retreat with the horses. And that’s what some of my clients will tell you all day long. It’s some of the most breakthrough work that they get to do. So I’m glad that I get to integrate that into my work.

Erin Marcus  

I love love, love horses, I have a limited exposure, I did share board a horse for a short period of time, cool that I got. He was Appaloosa and it was like having a large dog. He went there. The other option? I am currently highly, highly, highly invested. Thanks to tic tac, I’ve learned more about sheep and goats and many cows and horses. And

Kami Guildner  

that’s what’s showing up in your feed.

Erin Marcus  

That’s right. And people complain all the time about social media being so terrible. My algorithm is very aware that that’s all I want to see. Right. My algorithm

Kami Guildner  

definitely feeds me a lot of horse stuff. Exactly.

Erin Marcus  

So tell me more about the business. Who do you love helping? What do you do because, much like with me, I say business consulting and coaching. And it’s such a broad draft.

Kami Guildner  

Yeah. So I work with a lot of former corporate escapees, because that was my journey. Right? So I worked with a lot of women who had high level jobs and decided they want to really make a difference at you know, in a different way and be outside of all of the boxes that can be within the corporate world, right? I mean, we know all the stories why so many women are leaving the corporate world today. And so a lot of my clients were former executives that took the leap, and they are said, you know, I’m ready to, to do my own thing. So a lot of coaches, a lot of consultants are in my space service oriented entrepreneurs. And they really have a calling to make a difference. And they want to do it, they’re, you know, they’re gonna go down. I do soul and strategy. So when I look at it from that perspective, it’s like, the soul piece is definitely the part for me that’s always made my business very different. And from the perspective of, of, when I follow that, that kind of those universal crumbs, if you will, that show up for us. That’s where the big breakthroughs happen. That’s where, you know, the alignment happens. And so what do

Erin Marcus  

you find is the biggest sticking point, though, because I have the same story. And the biggest sticking point, one of the things I say is that so much of what makes you great at your job will tell you as an entrepreneur, how do you help people? Like if someone is just starting on this journey? I don’t know if I should ask you what they should look out for as a negative or what they should look out for as a positive. So yeah,

Kami Guildner  

yeah, no, I appreciate that. And I, you know, one of the things I think, is that we can think we know that we’re all business savvy, you know, that was certainly something that I had was like, I’m the VP of marketing, I know how to do marketing, and I know how to build a business. And so I’d say one of the things that we can fall into is thinking we know that we’re thinking that entrepreneurship is the same as, as, you know, building corporate businesses. And it’s not they’re, they’re entirely different. And so investing in, you know, support around you when you’re making that transition can really streamline that and accelerate it. So that’s a huge piece of it. But the flip side of that also is you have however many years of experience in the corporate world, and you have really good wisdom. And it’s like finding those threads that you want to pull forward into the work that you’re doing today so that you don’t lose like you don’t want to just shut the door to all those years of experience. You I want to take that and say, Okay, what are the pieces that belong with me today? And that does take inner work, right? So that takes those stories of where were you at your best? And what was it about those times in that analysis? So you’re pulling that forward, and then you weave it into. So that’s some of the soul work. But then you start to weave in some of the strategy around, you know, what’s the strategy to make this work in the entrepreneur space, so different than the executive world. And so you’re mixing both sides of that you’re bringing all of the best parts of you into the room. And then it’s like the right processes and strategies in place to make it

Erin Marcus  

and I must say, saying that because I do watch so many people, either shut it all down or try to do it exactly the same. Yeah, either those work. Yeah, totally. i

Kami Guildner  

That’s so true. Neither of those work. And I

Erin Marcus  

I think humans tend to think in all or nothing, just in general. Yeah. The one thing that I’m glad I kept from my corporate world is the idea of delegation. Like one, oh my god, right. One of the things I watched so many people get stuck on is trying to do everything themselves. And I’m like, Okay, if I was at my job, and I was in business development, and I decided one day to walk over and start messing with the networks, or let me make some changes to the website. She started there with pitches, torches, and pitchforks and torches, right? This seems true as an entrepreneur, don’t spend a ton of time doing things you saw

Kami Guildner  

is so true. I hired a bookkeeper right out of the gate. I’m like, Okay, I need a bookkeeper. That wasn’t my superpower,

Erin Marcus  

not what I know how to do. So that whole delegation thing, so I like, but yeah, take the parts that serve you. And don’t get stuck on the parts that don’t.

Kami Guildner  

Yeah, and you know what one of my favorite projects back in the corporate world was where we did, we were doing a thought leadership project. It was a two year long project. I had a multimillion dollar budget with over BPR, about building our thought leaders. And so we had thought leaders in the organization, the company across the world, that we were taking through a year long, a year long program that we developed, and was my favorite project that I ever did in the corporate world, right. And it was, it was really taking the company to a different level. So there was just everything about it and I loved it. And then when I left, you know, sat on a hard drive. And several years into my business, I was like, you know, I’m helping women entrepreneurs get their voice out into the world. And I have all of that training that we did. And I started pulling pieces of that forward. And it’s some of the most well loved work that I teach my clients. They’re like, Oh, my God, I love this part of it. And it’s what really helps them elevate their presence and how they’re showing up in the world. But it was stuff that got developed back there. And I didn’t even remember it for the you know, for the longest time and then was like one day just dawned on me it was like, Oh my gosh, so if we can find those, those pieces that we you know, something that we really love to do back then that really can serve our clients today, that can be really a great gift.

Erin Marcus  

Because at the end of the day, they are businesses and business is to make money. Yeah, totally. Right. If you’re not doing money making activities, you’re not a business.

Kami Guildner  

Correct. Very true. Really fantastic. We gotta make money. We gotta love it, we gotta make money.

Erin Marcus  

It’s a little upsetting when after the third year, you’re still negative, right? That they declare you a hobby and you’re not allowed to do the things anymore. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So what you are finding are some of your one of the things that I love doing for people is shortening their learning curve, right? shortening their learning curve. So what are you seeing people like some of you know, you just gave a good tip about finding that great. The thing that’s the common thread that you were great at before and bringing it forward. What else should people be? You can go either way on this, you have such a positive attitude. My approach is usually just don’t do what I did. Like what some stuff that just doesn’t work, like. Yes, we all enjoy it. We’ve learned now to take the lessons from the failures, but just don’t do this. Like what are some of your favorite

Kami Guildner  

failure? Um, don’t undercharge you know, I think that’s a big one is and I certainly, you know, early on, it was like, you know, if you want to build a business that gets you to your former corporate salary or beyond, you gotta charge you got to charge what you’re worth and you got to really own your worth. So I think that’s a big one. You have to do the math. Yeah, totally. You have to do the math. I say that all the time to my clients. You Do the math. Do the math. If

Erin Marcus  

you don’t find you don’t want to believe me. Don’t believe me? Oh, it out how many times where you want if that’s what you’re charging? Yes. 700 private clients? Yeah, that will work. Yeah,

Kami Guildner  

it totally won’t work. You can’t do that. Yeah, so that’s a big one. I would say. The other one is, I was really good at being behind the scenes and raising people up. And so that was something that I had to really shift and learn to say, Okay, it’s time for me to really take that spotlight. And I had some real fear around public speaking. I, you know, I have put all kinds of other people on stages. But I was not, I was not really very fond of that flip. And so I had to really do a lot of work very early on in my business. Over that, you’re

Erin Marcus  

saying I had to do the work to get over it. Because one of the things that I say and with your marketing background, you’ll appreciate this. Marketing is not the hard part. No, because you could buy it. Yeah, there’s really smart people out there. Or they’ll just do it for you. The hard work is getting over the fears, changing the beliefs, taking different actions, like that’s the hard work, because nobody can do it for you.

Kami Guildner  

Yeah. And the other part of the hard work is really owning your leadership of thought, where you’re set, you can’t outsource that you can’t outsource. What do I stand for? What is it that I want people to think, act and do differently because of my message of my work? So that’s a big piece of it, too. Is that shift

Erin Marcus  

there? And I think it’s, I get it that some people are frustrated by it. But I do think that it’s virtually impossible to create a thought leader business, if you’re not willing to put yourself out. Oh, that’s

Kami Guildner  

totally true. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it’s like, you’ve just got to, you’ve got to do that work to get over it and start to step into it and keep refining it and showing up and, you know, I mean, you know, how often it takes our messages to, to connect and reach with people. I mean, I was just listening to your podcast before we jumped on. And you were talking about this, like, you know, people can be on your email list, and they may not even be seen what you’re sending them.

Erin Marcus  

Right. We assume they didn’t care. And we assume they didn’t like it. But odds are they never saw it.

Kami Guildner  

Yeah, totally, totally. And so it’s that, knowing that we have to be there and kind of be top of mind. So for that moment, when it does happen, where they’re like, oh, my gosh, I need some support. Who do I need to talk to? You’re the one that comes to mind? Because they’re like, Oh, my God, I saw her talking about this.

Erin Marcus  

Absolutely. And for so many people, even if I can help them get over the visibility part, they might still dislike the sales part.

Kami Guildner  

So true, right? Yeah. There’s

Erin Marcus  

a big difference between Okay, fine, I’ll go do a Facebook Live. But I still can’t ask you for money. Right? Like, those are two different hurdles. And so one of the things truthfully, that I do with a lot of clients is use marketing, to turn your sales conference conversations into confirmation conversations. You can like that, all right, you can solve the challenges of sales, you’re not gonna get away from doing sales, but you can solve some of the challenges of doing sales with visibility and marketing. Yeah,

Kami Guildner  

yeah. And as this becomes conversations, every piece of that is a part of a conversation. And you’re building on that relationship. And then by the time you go into that sales conversation, they’ve experienced you, they’ve, you know, it’s like, for example, I love when people come to me on my podcast, I’ve been listening to this, I’ve been listening to your podcast. And, you know, so there’s all of this kind of listening. Yeah, yeah, exactly as I call them know, love and trust. And once they get onto that conversation, they’ve already decided because you’ve been there showing up having conversations with them in whatever form that took, you know, whether it was podcast stages, or whatever, they’ve been experiencing your content, it becomes a much shorter sales conversation.

Erin Marcus  

And to your comment earlier about not liking professional public speaking, professional speaking in the beginning. The thing that changed that for me was it’s just a different version of a conversation. Yeah, all of this is all of your marketing is just different versions of what’s essentially your conversation.

Kami Guildner  

Yeah. And it’s not about you. It’s about who’s listening to it. Right. That was a big piece for

Erin Marcus  

1. Oh, not about me, and it’s just the conversation. Now I can do this

Kami Guildner  

totally. Salutely Totally. And I love stages today. I mean, you put me on the stage. I’m very, very happy today. Right? I had to go through all the mental games for sure.

Erin Marcus  

It took a minute. So if people want to know you, continue this conversation with you. And I highly, highly recommend that they do what is the easiest way to get a hold of you.

Kami Guildner  

My website is kami gellner.com. And when you get there, you can go right to the top there at the top of the page, there’s a box up there, you can get all the updates on all my free teachings that I do each month. So you can go deeper into any of my work and it’s a great way to do that.

Erin Marcus  

Awesome. And we will make sure to have the links in the show notes as well to make it easy peasy for people. Thank you. Well, thank you so much for sharing your perspective, your energy, your ideas. This has been fantastic,

Kami Guildner  

Aaron, it’s been fun to get to know you and thank you for having me on.

Awesome. Thanks.