Turn Overthinking into Overachieving with Kate Gilbert

Meet Kate:

Clients affectionately dub Kate Gilbert a “hand-holder/butt-kicker” for her unique blend of compassionate support and a can-do, no-bs attitude. She excels in guiding entrepreneurs past their comfort zones so they can turn overthinking into overachieving. Kate’s entrepreneurial passion was sparked at just 15 when she turned her parents’ garage into a summer art camp. 

Fast-forward to 2008, Kate found herself frustrated by the financial injustices plaguing the knitting industry. Unwilling to stand by, she launched her own magazine which she ran for a decade. 

Now, Kate has found her true calling: empowering entrepreneurs to bring big ideas to life. She fulfills this mission through one-on-one coaching, community events, and dynamic group programs. 

Links & Resources:

• Website
• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Free Resource: Content Creation Roadmap

Ready to evergreen your emails?  Let's hop on a call and see if working together is a fit.

For the transcript and show notes:
https://laurakamark.com/76

Transcript

Laura Kåmark [00:00:01]:
Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Be Bold Make Waves podcast, a show bringing you inspiring stories of women who are growing and scaling their business. I'm your host, Laura Kamark, a website and tech integration specialist who works with online business owners who love their work and not their website. Join me as we have incredible conversations about business, mindset, productivity, and, of course, the website and tech behind the business. Let's go ahead and dive in to this week's episode. Hello, and welcome to this week's show. For those of you who don't already know me, I'm Laura Kamark, Evergreen email marketing strategy, systems, and setup for coaches and consultants who love their work but not their tech. I'm so excited to introduce you to my guest today, Kate Gilbert.

Laura Kåmark [00:00:51]:
Clients affectionately dub Kate a hand holder butt kicker for her unique blend of compassionate support and a can do, no BS attitude. She excels in giving she excels in guiding entrepreneurs past their comfort zones so they can turn overthinking into overachieving. Kate's entrepreneurial passion was sparked at just 15 when she turned her parents' garage into a summer art camp. Fast forward to 2008, Kate found herself frustrated by the financial injustices plaguing the knitting industry. Unwilling to stand by, she launched her own magazine, which she ran for a decade. Now Kate has found her true calling, empowering entrepreneurs to bring big ideas to life. She fulfills this mission through 1 on 1 coaching, community events, and dynamic group programs. Kate, welcome to the podcast.

Laura Kåmark [00:01:44]:
I'm so excited to have you here.

Kate Gilbert [00:01:46]:
Can you Thank you for having me, and I apologize for the mouth full of the long bio I sent you. I didn't know I sent you the long 1.

Laura Kåmark [00:01:55]:
That's okay. And just I wanna give a little background to our listeners. So in my April 2024 income report podcast episode, I talked about how I went in April to the Experts Connect event in Las Vegas put on by the fantastic Renee Rebar. She was also been on the podcast. I'll link up her episode in the show notes. She's a fantastic sales coach, and I met Kate at the event. She was we were put on the same team together, and the fun thing about Renee and her events is she very magically curates who sits with who or whom. Whom.

Laura Kåmark [00:02:32]:
Yeah. Friends. Just can't. Not. And it was so fun. I was so happy to meet Kate. I had not been in Kate's world. Kate and I did not know each other, and I was just so excited to meet Kate.

Laura Kåmark [00:02:44]:
And the first day we met, I was like, you have to come on the podcast. I just love your story. I love what you're doing. So I'm so excited to have you here today, Kate.

Kate Gilbert [00:02:52]:
Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. Can you tell our listeners?

Laura Kåmark [00:02:56]:
I wanna hear more about this hand holder butt kicking business that you do now in helping empower entrepreneurs to bank bring bring their big ideas to life.

Kate Gilbert [00:03:10]:
Well, a lot of times people come to me because somebody has, told them about me. I get a lot of people by word-of-mouth, and, I kind of jokingly say that I'm a business therapist because people come to me with a lot of big feelings. And a lot of times, the call begins with all of their bad feelings about how they're worried and they're frustrated and they're sad and, like, the self doubt and the, you know, self blame a lot of times. And so we have to, like, take a minute to sort of process the feelings we're having. And then, and then I'm very much a, okay. Now what are we gonna do about it kind of person? So, you know, I'll sit with you and hold your hand for a little bit, but then I'm gonna be like, alright. Now let's get real. What's up? Like, what are we gonna do now? So at that point, we make a plan, and, you know, obviously, that, like, varies a lot from person to person.

Kate Gilbert [00:04:11]:
Sometimes that's you know, I've started these 3 different projects, and, I'm not I can't seem to make up my mind. And I started this, and then I thought this other thing was a good idea. And I have, like, a, like, a 80% finished course that I'm making, but I haven't actually sold it to anybody, and I haven't launched it. And and so then I started doing this other thing. You know, people come to me with all kinds of, like, lists of either ideas of things they want to do, things they've tried, things they've have tried a lot of times. And so I think I'm pretty good at looking at other people's chaos and, indecision and helping them kind of get to the heart of it and figure out, like, what makes sense. Like, what is the next best move that's going to really help them reach the goals they have? So, so, yeah, that's what I do.

Laura Kåmark [00:05:05]:
I love that. You're kinda like a chaos wrangler. Sounds like Exactly. There was something that was mentioned when we were at Experts Connect. Tracy Phillips, who's also been on the podcast. I'll link that below. She was talking about this loop Yeah. Okay.

Laura Kåmark [00:05:21]:
That you do. And I would love for you to share with our audience because it it sounded so fascinating, and I remember we were sitting at lunch, and I was like, this is fantastic.

Kate Gilbert [00:05:30]:
So, I run a program called 30 Day Sprint, and I also do it with people in the context of VIP days. But the sprint program is a group program. And what happens is, the very short story is it's about social media. Or rather people think it's a social media program, but it's really like a messaging and organization and systems program with, like, a it's applied to social media. So, people come in, and we get, like, super duper clear on why they do what they do. And I don't just mean, like, a, you know, boring mission statement. Like, I actually, the first project I made people do is write a manifesto. And I know that word is really loaded, but that's why I use it because, I mean, man like, a mission statement.

Kate Gilbert [00:06:22]:
You know, every corporation or organization has a mission statement that's like, blah blah blah. Our Laura wax is great and helps people. You know? Or, like, says something that doesn't actually communicate anything at all. It's full of jargon. And I try to get people instead to get really super in touch with what they're doing and why and for whom. And, people have come back to me after the manifesto project and said, I was feeling super burnt out. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do. And then writing this, I got really in touch touch with why I began this in the first place.

Kate Gilbert [00:06:59]:
And now I know, like, I wanna continue. I don't feel burnt out anymore. And I've had other people come to me and say, well, I was going to do a, but I wrote this, and I realized I really should be doing b. So, you know, it sometimes like, we don't take a lot of time to, like, sit with ourselves and really consider that stuff. So, anyway, that's just the manifesto piece. But then what happens is, I've created this, like, magical spreadsheet, basically, I call a toolkit. And I ask you questions and you answer these questions, and then it feeds the questions into what I call the content loop. And it is a social media plan for you.

Kate Gilbert [00:07:42]:
It's 70 posts that are built from your answers to those questions. And then so, like, an example I give in my demo toolkit is, like, I have a pretend yoga studio in my in my pretend toolkit. So for example, like, the first time I go through my loop, if I come to the prompt that says yoga is for everybody, I may address that by saying, you know, like, yoga is not just for, like, you know, your stereotypical skinny yoga lady. Like, yoga is for every kind of body shape. And then the next time I come to that post, I can like, because we do it in a loop. And the next time you go through the loop and you come to that again, you get to decide, okay. Do I wanna post the same thing? Like, how did it perform last time? Do I want to post something different? Do I want to, like, change the graphic? Do I wanna change the text, or do I wanna completely shift my, my way of approaching that idea? And so, for example, I could say yoga is for everybody. We have classes for seniors.

Kate Gilbert [00:08:46]:
You know, for example, would be the way you would approach it another time. So what happens is you're building up this, like, library of assets, and I also teach you how to, like, create like, do all of your photography in a super organized way so that you have everything you potentially need each time you do it. You're never like, oh, crap. I wish I had a a picture of this. And we try to use everything we create to, like, the its max potential. So and then, you know, we repurpose. So, yeah. So it's it's 30 days, like, going through this program, and that's the very long answer for what the content loop is.

Laura Kåmark [00:09:31]:
I love that. I just I loved it so much when you were explaining it to us at lunch. I'm like, this is brilliant how you're doing this, and I love it. And it's fantastic, and I'm excited to hear more about it as we continue on in our friendship.

Kate Gilbert [00:09:45]:
Yeah. Yeah. Nice.

Laura Kåmark [00:09:47]:
I have a I do have a very close friend who's in your program right now, and so

Kate Gilbert [00:09:51]:
Oh, okay.

Laura Kåmark [00:09:52]:
No. You know this.

Kate Gilbert [00:09:53]:
You know this. Caitlin. Yeah. Caitlin. Yeah. I was like, oh. Of course. Of course.

Kate Gilbert [00:10:00]:
Yeah.

Laura Kåmark [00:10:00]:
We were all together at Experts Connect, just so the audience is like, Yeah. So how did you end up kinda doing this pivot from the magazine? I know I'm kinda going back, but I was excited. That's fine. That's fine. How'd you end up doing the pivot from the magazine to being this, you know, this online therapist almost for businesses who wanna talk about the big feelings and then get a kick in the butt, to get stuff done?

Kate Gilbert [00:10:26]:
Well, so I ran my magazine for 10 years, and, toward the end, I was feeling a bit burnt out. And there were, like, a number of reasons I had to just, like, leave the business. I just couldn't do it anymore. And, so at that point, I sort of took a break, and I honestly wasn't really sure what to do with myself. So, I took a little detour, and I baked very fancy cakes and sold those for a while. And then, when the pandemic hit, what happened was friends of mine who had, you know, like, businesses where they were teaching things live or doing things live started calling me and being like, I don't know what to do. How do I go online? I never post. How am I supposed to post? How am I supposed to do this thing? And so, I realized at 1 point, my friend my first friend who called me about things was like, why aren't I paying you for this? And I was like, oh, okay.

Kate Gilbert [00:11:24]:
Yeah. Let's do that. And I realized that was, like, my favorite part of the week each week. I was like I had a a 4, 5th job at a university at the time doing admin work, and and that was fine. But, I realized this was my favorite thing to do each week, and so I started kind of getting the word out, and people started hiring me for this and recommending me to someone else for that. And, people would say, can you do this? And I would say, sure. A lot of times. Or, no, I won't do that.

Kate Gilbert [00:11:59]:
Like, I decided pretty quickly. I I did a website for my cousin, and I decided

Laura Kåmark [00:12:09]:
What What were some of the fears and doubts you had? Just kind of I mean, that that it's kind of a big pivot going from cakes to this thing that you really love and are really good at, but, you know, that imposter syndrome, like, it rears its ugly head. What were some of the fears and doubts you had?

Kate Gilbert [00:12:26]:
Well, I mean, having run my magazine for 10 years, I mean, I founded it. I brought on partners at 2 different points, But, most of the time, I was by myself, and I had people working for me. So I was used to running an entire business on my own and I mean, not on my own. I had people working for me, but, you know, I was used to kind of being in charge of it all and seeing how all the parts fit together and, all of that stuff. So I don't I mean, yes, I took a detour via cakes, but but I think it's really I've just been an entrepreneur at heart pretty much my whole life and, you know, running the business for 10 years. I really wish I had had somebody like me. And I think, like, once in a while, it still bumps me out, honestly, to to think about the magazine. It's still, like, it felt like my second baby.

Kate Gilbert [00:13:21]:
Yeah. And so I still feel a little sad about that sometimes, and I think, like, wow. You know? If I had had somebody like me who could have, like, helped me get over that hump when I was feeling really burnt out or who could have, like, helped me find the right people to take the next steps, then I might have made some different choices, and I might have been able to, like, really do all the things that I wanted to do with the magazine. And instead, I got really stuck. So, I try to be the person that I wish I had had. And, I think, like, I have enough audacity to think like, oh, I can do I can do this thing, and you can do this thing too, like, most of the time. I mean, everybody who comes to me is very smart about the things they do, and they're very passionate about why they do it. I seem to attract people who who have a bigger picture of, like, the world and what they think the world should be and what how they think they can help create a better world.

Kate Gilbert [00:14:18]:
And, like, nobody's coming to me, like, selling bow ties or scamming the elderly out of money. So, you know, I've never had to say to someone, yeah. No. I'm not gonna help you do that. So

Laura Kåmark [00:14:32]:
What part in their business journey are people usually in when they come to you?

Kate Gilbert [00:14:37]:
It really varies, honestly. I get a lot of people who they're far enough along in their business that they're doing okay, but maybe they're starting to you know, when you hit that kind of plateau sort of part where you're like, oh, is is this worth it? Should I keep doing this? Is this a thing? And you start all the doubts start to creep in. Sometimes it's there. Sometimes it's further along, you know, and people who come to me for sprint come at any point. They you know, there are people all over the spectrum between, like, just beginning and, a lot more established. Although a lot of times, the people who are more established will opt to do a VIP day with me instead. So, you know, they don't they don't spend 30 days in a group program. They, you know, we we push it out the door very quickly.

Kate Gilbert [00:15:32]:
We we build the content loop together, sitting together, and then, you know, they have access to me for a certain amount of time and some follow-up calls to make sure that they're able to implement it.

Laura Kåmark [00:15:45]:
So And is the content that you're creating typically, like, social media posts?

Kate Gilbert [00:15:50]:
Mhmm. Yeah. And then how Depending on the person, that can really mean lots of different things. I mean, it can mean, my my program is platform agnostic. My program is not an Instagram program. A lot of people are on Instagram, but it is not an Instagram program. I've had people who are on LinkedIn. I've had people who are on YouTube.

Kate Gilbert [00:16:11]:
And then also, because I work really closely with everybody and I'm I'm you know, I I always say, like, I won't let you fail. Like, if you wanna if you wanna drop out, if you wanna stop participating, you gotta work really hard because I'm really, like, in your DMs. Like, hey. What's up? How's it going? Like, I'm not gonna let people just disappear. And, and so I also sometimes have 1 on 1 meetings with people where we customize their toolkit. And I teach people to customize their toolkit, and I I encourage them to do it. And, we modify them so it works for whatever their case is. If they're speaking to different audiences on different platforms or if they are speaking to similar audiences on multiple platforms or integrating it with, like, their blog posts or their emails.

Kate Gilbert [00:17:01]:
There are lots of ways to set up the system and customize it to work for you.

Laura Kåmark [00:17:07]:
Oh, I love that. How did you come up with the idea for this, like, toolkit spreadsheet, like, on steroids that, like, you put things in it, like, spits things which, like, that's what you're supposed to do with, you know, Excel or Google Sheets, but, like, it's cool when it we can put that together.

Kate Gilbert [00:17:22]:
I just love spreadsheets. I don't know. I mean, I think part of it is having been a knitwear designer. Like, I spent a lot of time in spreadsheets. It's all math and logic and that kind of stuff. And so, you know, if I'm going on a trip, you should see my spreadsheets. So it's just something I do naturally, and it seemed like it was an easy solution that didn't really involve programming. You know? My programming skills are very rusty, and it was a simple way to build something that anybody could use and we could share online, and I could see things they updated.

Kate Gilbert [00:18:01]:
So it seemed to be, like, the most, you know, low tech, easy solution.

Laura Kåmark [00:18:07]:
I love a good spreadsheet. Like, you're that you're speaking my love language right there.

Kate Gilbert [00:18:12]:
Yeah. And even people who are afraid of spreadsheets, like, make it through. They're not, like, that terrified. They figure it out.

Laura Kåmark [00:18:19]:
Yeah. I feel like spreadsheets now like, with so many of the things happening now, like, with Notion and Airtables, like and I love me some Airtable, but it can with all the connecting and all the things, that can get a little overwhelming. So I feel like a spreadsheet is still kind of, like, a little more less.

Kate Gilbert [00:18:36]:
Yeah. Well, fortunately, you know, like, you don't have to set any of that stuff up. You just have to answer the questions. So when you're in my program, I've already done that stuff for you. And if there's something fancy you wanna do, like calculating out dates for posts or whatever, which isn't even that fancy, I help you do that kinda thing. So

Laura Kåmark [00:18:57]:
If someone is kind of in that plateau feeling, some of you know, in that plateau place, not feeling. Mary talked about feelings. In that plateau place that we were talking about, and they're listening, what would be something you would suggest to them as a way to get out of that plateau?

Kate Gilbert [00:19:15]:
Well, I mean, I know I've already said it, but sometimes sitting down and just writing why you're doing the thing in the first place can really help, and it can help, you know, get you moving again. I mean, sometimes it's just you need rest actually, and you have to do the opposite of what you think. You really need to take some time to sit down and rest. Although, I would tell I will say, I think the smartest thing I did for my business in all of 2023 was I hired a house cleaner to come every 2 weeks. And I know that doesn't sound exactly related, but I'm a single mom, and, you know, there's only so much I can do in a day. And the other smart thing I did was I bought a dishwasher. I didn't have a dishwasher. That functioned.

Kate Gilbert [00:20:02]:
And, seriously, between those 2 things, like, I feel better in my house. I it takes me a lot less time to keep things in order. And, you know, and I also recognize that's a privilege that not everybody has, and I was honestly concerned about making the investment at the time, but I'm so glad I did. It made a huge difference in my year.

Laura Kåmark [00:20:23]:
Yeah. I think that's amazing. I we have someone that comes every 2 weeks as well. And it's it's amazing because I'm not sitting at home trying to focus on work and thinking, oh, but I need to be vacuuming. I need to like, there's dusting that needs to happen. How's all this stuff gonna get done, which, again, there's only so many hours in the day. Like, once the kids are home, work I don't work when my kids are home. That's not possible.

Laura Kåmark [00:20:48]:
They're too little, still in need too much.

Kate Gilbert [00:20:52]:
I mean, I still have vacuuming I need to do. I still have dusting I need to do right now at least. But, you know, somewhere along the line, I realized that if my house was in chaos, then I had a really hard time sitting down and concentrating. Mhmm. So the I think the other thing I did for my own productivity was I started to do a lot of co working within the last few years. And, at certain points, I've had friends who I met with almost every day to just sit and do the work together. And I also had to just, like, really decide to put aside time for my business and not, like, my the work I was doing. I had to actually do the things that I wanted to do to grow my business and change it.

Kate Gilbert [00:21:41]:
And also that that also meant letting go of the stuff that I had already done. You know, I at 1 point last year, I re reshot a bunch of the videos for my program, and I still sit around thinking, like, oh, they're not good enough yet. Like, I could do them better, but I've had to say, like, okay. Come on, Kate. Hold on a second. Like, they're really fine. And are you just, like, reshooting them would be a comfortable and easy thing for me to do rather than maybe working on other things that would be more useful to me.

Laura Kåmark [00:22:16]:
Yep. The uncomfortable stuff that we put off doing and instead do the other, yeah, the rerecording of the things and the other tasks. But, again, they're still they're on the list, but the income producing tasks are the things that sometimes I know I put off at times. 1 of the things I did last year that was kind of a game changer for me is I implement a CEO week on my calendar. Oh, wow. And so it actually blocked that week off in, you know, Google Calendar, which then in turn blocked it off of my acuity. So I had 1 week every month, and it was the 1st week of the 1st Monday through Friday of the month. So sometimes it kinda fell, like, half you know, the 2nd week of the month if Yeah.

Laura Kåmark [00:22:58]:
The week started not on a Monday. Right. And it was amazing. It Mhmm. It locked off my calendar, so so peep I couldn't have podcast interviews scheduled. I didn't have any discovery calls. I just had a week without calls, and I was able to either really focus on my business during that time. I Wow.

Laura Kåmark [00:23:17]:
I also found sometimes that, like, I had a client project that just needed I need a quiet space to not, again, have that, like, interruption of different calls Zoom calls that, like, it kinda breaks your concentration. Not kind of. It does break your concentration when you're in a flow. And so that was game changer for me last year.

Kate Gilbert [00:23:34]:
Yeah. I, I tried to implement some things like that. It's a little hard to explain just, like, verbally. I would have to show you what I did. Like but in smaller blocks, I didn't do a week. I did, like, smaller blocks, and the blocks were, like, very task related or very theme related. So I was doing that for a while, and I should I should really revive that. Thanks for the inspiration.

Kate Gilbert [00:24:00]:
I should do some more blocking off of time. So

Laura Kåmark [00:24:04]:
Yeah. I was realizing as I was thinking about the CEO week when you were talking, I was like, oh, that's what I was doing that really kinda changed things. I at some point, it wasn't making sense because I had other time off scheduled, and then, like, my calendar was just filling up or not able to fill up because those weeks were blocked. And so I turned it off at some point this year, and I probably need to go put it back on just to, again, try to block off some time to just have the space to sit in my business and think about my business and be focused on my business.

Kate Gilbert [00:24:32]:
Yeah. And I think also when you have that connection to your purpose and all of that, it's easier to just get things done. You know, it's when you start to spiral a bit and, you know, that imposter syndrome can sink in or, you know, that self doubt, all that stuff, then it's really hard to, like, force yourself sometimes to get those things done. But I always feel like getting something small done helps me get more things done. And I've seen this also, you know, with my clients is like, okay. We make a plan, and then it's, like, momentum. You know? They need to, like it's it's hard at first to get the wheels turning and to get moving, but then once you do, like, you start flying down the hill.

Laura Kåmark [00:25:23]:
I love that. Yeah. I had a coach I worked with a few years ago, and when I would I was in a place where I was very overwhelmed. I had all the balls in the air, and I'm like, I just don't know what to do or to start with, and she was very good at, like, getting me focused on, like, okay. Here's what makes sense. This is what you need to be working on, and we're gonna break this down into the most mini microtask possible. Mhmm. Because if it's something you're avoiding and it's like, you know, write the first chapter of my book.

Laura Kåmark [00:25:49]:
I don't have a book, but this was an ex this is an example. Yeah. And you can't do that. It might be as simple as just open a Google Doc and give it a title.

Kate Gilbert [00:25:57]:
It's, I don't know if you read, like, Atomic Habits, but it's why you, the idea is, like, at 9 o'clock each morning, I'm going to put on my sneakers. It's you decide to put on your sneakers, not I'm going to go for a 5 mile run. It's I'm going to put on my sneakers. And, like, I actually heard about something like this the other day too where someone was saying, you know, there are certain number of buttons, so to speak, like metaphorical buttons you have to push or task you have to complete in order to even make a thing happen. Like, if I wanna make a salad, you know, I have to, like, wash the lettuce and I have to, you know, cut up the peppers and cut up the carrots, and I I always make my vinaigrette, so I have to make a vinaigrette. You know, like, you had that's a lot of buttons leading up to the salad, so no wonder I'm not eating a salad for lunch. So the the thing is, like, how can you reduce the number of buttons you have that lead up to a task? How many you know, how can I make that faster either, like, buying something that's prechopped or prewashed or, like, maybe I make more vinaigrette so I don't have to make it each time or whatever? You know? So that's also something I've been thinking about too. Like, how can we make each task as streamlined as possible so that you aren't, you know, overwhelmed just by getting started?

Laura Kåmark [00:27:23]:
I love that. I mean, we started going back to the food analogy. We started doing a meal kit, I mean, 8 years ago, I think. Yeah. And we switched around some of the different ones, but, yeah, the I taking the whole what am I making for dinner this week task of, like, figuring that out off my plate was huge. I just go in. There's all these meals. I select from the menu of options.

Laura Kåmark [00:27:49]:
Mhmm. And they send it to me, and they tell they send me all the ingredients, and then I cut it up. You know, now we're using 1 that I think we're using Home Chef now. A lot of it comes pre chopped even. Oh, wow. I'm not a fast chopper. Like, it would when it says it take

Kate Gilbert [00:28:06]:
topping vegetables, actually. Mhmm. I'm 1 of those people I look

Laura Kåmark [00:28:07]:
at a knife, and I start bleeding. Like, I am just not good at

Kate Gilbert [00:28:09]:
kitchen skills is not on my Oh, if if there is, a vegetable soup on the menu, you know I've had a really bad day. Because if I am, like, chopping mass amounts of vegetables, that is the thing I do for relaxation.

Laura Kåmark [00:28:29]:
Yeah. I, Yeah. We I love I love the meals that come, and I can just pour it all into a dish and pop it in the oven. I'm like, this is amazing. I didn't have to touch a knife.

Kate Gilbert [00:28:39]:
Yeah. I think it's like we we have so many things we have to think about in the day. I mean, those of us who are moms or, you know, have other responsibilities of, like, parents or even pets or whatever, there are so many things you have to do in a day just to keep, like, all the plates spinning. And then you're making decisions all the time for your business. So, yeah, things like that can really, reduce that. I've always kind of joked that I wanna have a uniform for myself. Like, I want, like, a super chic uniform. That's but that's not true.

Kate Gilbert [00:29:11]:
I I love clothes too much, so I wouldn't like only wearing 1 thing.

Laura Kåmark [00:29:16]:
I have that's on, like, my super high up on the dream list of, like, after, like, hiring a personal chef in my dream world where I can, you know, wave my magic wand and have anything, you know, after that. And, like, the person who comes and does all the laundry and folds it and puts it away.

Kate Gilbert [00:29:31]:
Oh, I will wash it. I just someone needs to put it away from me. Like Yeah.

Laura Kåmark [00:29:35]:
I don't I don't wanna fold it, and I don't wanna put away. That's really hard. I don't mind the washing doesn't bother me too much. It does for some reason, our dryer takes a few cycles some time to actually dry it, and I'm like, why? Why can't you just dry in 1 cycle? But the other thing on my list would be to I would love to have someone, like, come a stylist come through, look at all my clothes Yeah. And be like, here's what you can wear with what, and here's what makes sense, and here's the stuff you haven't worn in years. Just get rid of it. And then, like, kinda like the Cher from clueless closet, and I could just Yeah. You know, it would tell me what to wear each day.

Laura Kåmark [00:30:09]:
I'd be like, I feel like wearing this shirt. I mean, that's that's really

Kate Gilbert [00:30:13]:
a doable thing. I mean, I have a friend who is I'm very fortunate that she's a good friend of mine, and she came to my house. And she she calls herself a chaos counselor, actually. That's the title she's come up with. And she came to my house, and she has really helped me with, like, the organization and the setup of my house. And, so, I mean, that's also why it's partially easier to keep my house clean. But, also, I have an app where everything well, it's out of date now, but everything in my closet at 1 point like, I think it was 1 of my pandemic projects where I was like, I don't know what to do with myself. So I, like, logged everything that was in my closet.

Kate Gilbert [00:30:53]:
And you can, like, log when you wear things, then it tells you, like, what your cost for wear is and all that stuff. It was really interesting.

Laura Kåmark [00:31:02]:
I someone told me about an app like that, and I was trying to, like, find my things, and then I just got overwhelmed with, like, having to catalog it all.

Kate Gilbert [00:31:08]:
And I'm, like, forgetting cataloging is a big job. Yeah. Yeah.

Laura Kåmark [00:31:12]:
But, I mean, like, for me, because I have that same, like, every day, I'm just like, oh, what am I gonna wear today? Like, it's you know, I make I have my kids pick out their clothes the night before so they don't have that overwhelm every morning of what am I gonna wear. Yeah. So I should implement that for myself, but I don't for some reason. Anyway, going back to business, that was a fun tangent.

Kate Gilbert [00:31:34]:
Well, I think that this all ties in. Right? Or you know?

Laura Kåmark [00:31:38]:
What are ways that we can like, we should always be trying to find ways to streamline things and make things simpler. Like, 1 of the things I'm doing right now, as I've talked about a lot on the podcast lately, is pivoting down my offer into evergreen email marketing. And the idea there is taking off my clients' to do list off their task list off their hamster wheel of, like, creating more content, taking something like what they would create in your program, and putting it in place in an evergreen email system so that they don't have to again, like, what am I emailing my list this week? And they just get that time back.

Kate Gilbert [00:32:14]:
Yeah. That I mean, that's amazing. I love that. Like, I think I need your system.

Laura Kåmark [00:32:20]:
Yes. Yes. We can talk about that. What would you say so I am so big on celebrating the our wins. I celebrate all my VIP days with cheese plates. I post them all over social media. They're so that. What are you really proud of when it comes to your business that we can celebrate you for

Kate Gilbert [00:32:40]:
today? Well, I've really, like, grown things in the last couple years. And quite honestly, I you know, I'll I'll be very honest and vulnerable here. But in 2021, it was the very beginning of 2021, I lost my job at the university because of funding cuts, And my boyfriend who had been living with us for years moved out the same week, and I was left in an apartment I couldn't afford with my daughter who then went through some cyberbullying. And the 1st 6 months I gotta tell you the 1st 6 months of 2021 were, like, the worst, the absolute worst. And I, you know, I look back at then. I was already starting to try to, you know, grow what I'm doing now, and, I stuck with it. And I'm here. I survived, and I'm, like, making a living.

Kate Gilbert [00:33:33]:
And, and I love what I do. I'm really happy doing what I do, and I feel like I've really finally found my calling. I I mean, I loved my magazine, and I had you know, I really felt that it was important, but, what I'm doing now just feels like such a good fit for me. Like, I'm happy every day to, like, sit down at my desk. It's kinda wild.

Laura Kåmark [00:33:57]:
I love that. I know I feel like I've been doing this online business thing for a really long time, and I feel like I'm always still, like, trying to find that thing that I do because I do a lot of things. And that was kind of what was stemmed behind my business coach being like, you need to niche, and you need to niche right now.

Kate Gilbert [00:34:15]:
Well, she would probably tell me the same thing, honestly, but, I also like giving myself the flexibility at this point to be able to explore. And, you know, who knows? Maybe, you know, maybe I'll niche down. Maybe I'll shift focus a little bit. But, yeah, I like having kind of the room to play and explore and meet new people and try new things.

Laura Kåmark [00:34:39]:
I love that. I could sit and talk to you all day, but we are getting close to our time. I don't know where the last hour just went. Flew out the window. But I do have 1 question I ask everyone who comes on the podcast, and that is what is 1 piece of advice you would give someone when they are growing and scaling their business to help them be bolder, be louder, and make waves.

Kate Gilbert [00:35:02]:
Don't be your own bully. So I think that a lot of us, you know, and I deal, because my program is about social media, and I'm constantly talking with people about how they feel about social media and their, you know, their social media. I see people do this all the time. They are bullying themselves. They are I hear I'm afraid of public failure. Like, I don't wanna show up and talk about what I'm doing because I'm afraid people will see me fail. And I'm like, okay. But you gotta show

Laura Kåmark [00:35:38]:
up and talk

Kate Gilbert [00:35:38]:
about what you're doing so you cannot fail. But, also, the thing is, I think the reality is is that more people are rooting for us than we think they are. And then the people who aren't rooting for us aren't paying that much attention in general. I mean, you know, here and there, we might have a nemesis of some sort, but I really don't think that many of us are dealing with, like, trolls or actual, bullies, but we're bullying ourselves. We're bullying ourselves out of, like, showing up or and out of believing that we can do the thing that we wanna do, and we're limiting ourselves in a way that's not actually helping anybody. We're hurting ourselves, and we're hurting the people we're trying to help because we're not able to show up for them.

Laura Kåmark [00:36:25]:
I love that so much, and it's so true. It really is. Do you have any like, when you find yourself, do you ever do you still do this to yourself? Because I know I do it to myself.

Kate Gilbert [00:36:34]:
I am pretty good at shutting it down. Okay. Usually, if I spiral, it's a pretty big spiral, though. Like, I'm I'm I I'm pretty good at catching myself when my thoughts start to go in that direction. You know, for example, like, each time I launch my program, of course, I start talking about, like, social media and doing better on social media, like, on my social media. And then, of course, my entire feed is suddenly filled with people who are, like, coaches, who are doing nobody's doing quite what I'm doing, but similar stuff to what I'm doing. And and I you know, if I were to, you know, look at their numbers or, I could think like, wow. They must be doing really, really well, and there were so many people doing this.

Kate Gilbert [00:37:22]:
Why am I even doing this? But the reality is I don't know how they're doing. You just don't know, how they're doing, and so I'm I've gotten pretty good at shutting down that conversation immediately with myself. I don't wanna be my own bully. And I also, know that I am helping people. I know my program's really good. I know that the people who go through it are happy and that my completion rates are, like, out of this world compared to the industry standard. And and so, I remind myself of those things. And, also, when people send me, like, a nice text or a nice email, I have a little folder on my desktop called, gosh darn it, people like me, and I throw screenshots in there.

Kate Gilbert [00:38:09]:
And if I'm feeling really bad, I'll start to go look in the screenshots. I'll be like, okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, like, I need to keep going.

Laura Kåmark [00:38:18]:
Oh, I love that. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah. Can you tell our listeners where they can come find you, where they can hang out with you, find out more about your program, all the things.

Kate Gilbert [00:38:30]:
They can find me on kategilbert.com. And right on my home page, there is a freebie if you'd like it. It's called the content creation road map. I've been told I should really take it down and sell it instead, but I had not yet. So get it while it's hot. And it takes you through, like, all these ways of streamlining your system so you can create content faster and then get more out of each piece of content and each, like, photo you take or each asset you have. And you can also find me on Instagram at, it's at kategi, like, the first 2 letters of my last name. And my name is so common.

Kate Gilbert [00:39:09]:
I can never get, like, my actual name as a handle. Yeah. And I'm on LinkedIn. I'm I'm pretty easy to find, I guess. I'm Kate Gilbert, and I'm in Montreal if that helps.

Laura Kåmark [00:39:19]:
Wonderful. I will link all that up in the show notes. Kate, thank you so much for coming on the show today. I just loved this conversation.

Kate Gilbert [00:39:26]:
I'm just sad you're on the other side of the continent, so, like, I can't have lunch with you. I wanna participate in the cheese plate.

Laura Kåmark [00:39:33]:
Yes. We will do that. Virtual cheese plate. Virtual cheese plate. Well, thank you again. This was great. Thank you. Thanks so much for listening to this week's episode.

Laura Kåmark [00:39:47]:
Be sure to check out the show notes at laurakamark.com/podcast. And if you're ready to turn your website into a marketing machine, get more sales, save time, and simplify the back end of your business, Grab my free resource, power integrations for your website. Head on over to laurakamark.com/ power. If you enjoyed today's episode, make sure to subscribe. And, also, I'll just love you forever if you leave me a review. It helps get this podcast in front of other people that can help inspire. Thanks so much for listening. I'll see you next week.

Laura Kåmark [00:40:23]:
Bye now.