PP 306: What Makes Entrepreneurs Bad*ss with Kimi Morton and Pua Pakele Cabot

Kimi Morton & Pua Pakele Cabot are the founders of Best Life Ever and BLE Digital, and co-hosts of the Broke-ass to Badass podcast. Prior to becoming business coaches, they served as fitness trainers turned corporate productivity coaches turned online business coaches. Their passion is on  helping others fall (back) soft on with their businesses and their lives! Today, they are on a mission to support entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs able to build and grow online businesses for more FREEDOM and FUN!

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Kim Sutton: Welcome back to another episode of Positive Productivity. I am so happy that you are here to join us today, and I am thrilled to introduce our guest today. But before I do that, I want to give two disclaimers first, this is an episode with E for explicit on it, because I offer no guarantees that I will not cuss on this podcast, or that our awesome guests will not. And number two, today’s a snow day in Ohio. So if you hear the random screams of my children fighting with each other, please forgive me for this one episode. 

But with that said, welcome to Kimi Morton and Pua Pakele Cabot. I got that right?

Kimi Morton: Yeah.

Kim Sutton: I was gonna say that. And it happens more often than I would like, and no matter how hard I rehearse before we actually get into the recording. Yeah, Positive Productivity, my brain and my mouth disconnects sometimes. But anyway, Kimi and Puma are the owners of Best Life Ever. I could give you the introduction that I have, but I just want you to jump in because I know that you’re going to be able to say it so much better than I will. So share your story. Enlighten the listeners.

Kimi Morton: Yes. Well, thank you so much, Kim. It’s such a treat to be here. And yes, so together, I’m Kimi, and that’s Kua together, we have our Best Life Ever. And we’re actually Fitness Trainers, turned productivity coaches, turn business coaches. And now, we joyously serve the world by helping entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs to create businesses and lives that they love from a foundation of productivity and wellness, for really a life of true freedom and fun.

Kim Sutton: Oh, I love it. And listeners, we were chatting in the pre chat, and we realized we just needed to cut off because we were going to get all the good stuff out there. And one of the things that we were talking about was just struggles of the past, and the transparency of entrepreneurs. I know that’s what you two are helping entrepreneurs overcome to get from, and I’m just here, I’m gonna be the first one to swear on this podcast. to [inaudible] to badass. We were talking about how much, I think I just said this, but I forgot because I’m so excited. We were talking about how we don’t share our struggles. And I said that by sharing our shit, we can build better communities out there. And I know this is something that I’ve struggled with so much, because I always wanted people to think that I was better off and, I was gonna say weller off, but  that’s so bad grammar, but better than I was just to show myself as more successful and further along in my business that I was because I thought that would be able to sell me more than what I was currently going through. So could you address that just a little bit?

Kimi Morton: Totally. Yeah. I mean, this is something I love that you’re doing, because it’s really important for, especially new entrepreneurs, but really any time we are going through this journey, where you are responsible for your own financial health and well being, and really like mental, physical, emotional health as well. We actually did a podcast episode on this. And it’s interesting because when we’re starting out, or when we rebrand, or whenever we’re kind of stepping into a new level of our journey, there’s this idea where we have, what do we have to do? What tasks do we have to complete? What do we need to accomplish? How much money do we need to make in order to be the person that we’re excited to be? That’s kind of the what we’ve been taught is the logical way to go through it. What do we need to do, to be who we need want to be, so that we can do what we want to do? And what we’ve found is, there’s a lot of power in shifting our mindset so that we can already step into the person that we want to be before we do the things we need to do. 

And so instead of do be do, it’s kind of like a song, like be do be, who do you need to be now so that you can do the things that you need to do and want to do, so that you can continue to be the person that you want to be. And this I think, there’s a little bit of a blurry line because it almost sounds like there’s the fake it till you make it kind of thing, which is I think what you’re talking about. From the outside, you want people to see you as this successful person who’s not struggling, who’s making it, who’s an expert, and who has their shit together. But on the inside, there’s no alignment there because you don’t have your shit together, and you’re not where you want to be, you’re not who you want to be. And unfortunately, people can sense that on a spiritual level, and then that misalignment will be affected in your sales, and then your communication. So if we can step into the mindset in the place of like, no matter what, no matter how much money is in my bank account or not in my bank account, no matter if I have the things in place that I want to have in place, yet, I am going to be this awesome kick ass badass person because that’s who I want to be even after.

Kim Sutton: Yeah, I have to say, you were saying, dooby doo. I got Hanson brothers. I was working in a record store when that song was released, and it was, sorry, guys, but it was torture listening to our minimum because they wanted people to buy it. And then standard music doesn’t worry me. I was like, oh, yeah, there needs to be a version of this for entrepreneurs, like the do be do.

Kimi Morton: Yeah. I think that you highlight and you bring up something really important too. And it’s this false idea that our ego sometimes will have, we have to be perfectly polished. And that’s actually how we best serve. Okay, once I get it all together, if I present myself as if I know everything, and I have my shit together, as we’ve said, that’s when I can really serve the world. And that’s what’s going to attract clients or people to me. But the reality is our vulnerability, it is what we’re learning in the journey to become who we want to become that is so valuable, and so interesting, and so bonding. That is actually what bond’s us with our tribe. 

Because if we focus so much on putting this really polished image out there, it’s really hard to connect with people who are on the journey. If we see somebody who totally got it together, everything is perfect, everything is polished, we feel so far removed from them because it’s this false image, this illusion of perfection, which we all know is impossible. There is no perfect. And we put an eye on it, we’re actually just having a conversation about our own personal struggles. And we’re wondering like, people often think that because our company is called Best Life Ever, that we’re just like rainbows and unicorns all day long, just skipping through our day and never getting into arguments with our significant other, never dealing with drama, never crying. And that’s just not accurate. What makes you a badass is your ability to push through the shit. Your ability to who you are going to be, and how you are going to remember your power even in those challenging moments because that’s what us badassery is all about. And that is available to anyone at all times, no matter where you are in your journey. And you can serve, and you can heal and help the world even if you haven’t made it to where it is that you ultimately think that you want to get to.

Kim Sutton: When I see perfectly made up faces on Facebook or Instagram broadcasting how great somebody is, and this is so not Positive Productivity. Sorry, to my listeners, I just want to take the garden hose to them. I usually standing in front of a pool, holding their mohito or whatever, and I just want to scream at them. Show me your under eye circles because I know you’ve been up all night.

Kimi Morton: It feels like an outdated marketing tool as well. Because maybe five years ago, it was great to see somebody who looked successful. But now, people want to see the real raw human behind the business. So to me, that doesn’t even work anymore because everybody wants to shoot them down with a fire hose.

Kim Sutton: Yeah. So what are some of the best ways that you’re finding to connect with, are you calling them a tribe or a community? What do you call your people? Do you have a nickname for them?

Kimi Morton: Well you bet, yes. So we love our tribe. We do. We love that saying that we’ve heard so much, your vibe attracts your tribe, and that’s something that’s been a part of our culture since day one. And I think our entrepreneurial journey has been simply to become more and more ourselves. I think that’s frankly everybody’s journey, not just as an entrepreneur, but in life. So as we become more and more authentically ourselves, our tribes, it blossoms to reflect that. We have a Facebook group, our Best Life Ever Tribe on Facebook. And of course, we do Facebook, Instagram, we have our own podcast, and we have our online program and that community as well. So yeah, we love it, and we love thinking about ourselves or ourselves and of our tribe. And this is, to me, what I really want to share about in this day and age, we like to think of what we do as soulful marketing. So we’re not talking to people, we are talking with people. And that’s what we coach our clients to do as well. So in the old model of marketing, you have this thing, and you tell people to buy it. Like it’s so simple, buy this thing. You’re talking to people, you’re talking to people. The new model, we feel in this day and age of authenticity, and social media, and the way technology is going now, it is all about being yourself and talking with your community, building community around you, sharing with them, being on a mission together, this like shared mission, and just sharing naturally about what it is that you do and attracting people to you, rather than feeling like you have to hustle, hustle, hustle, go out there, get more leads, get more people, get more sales. And what easier, more choice, positively productive way to live.

Kim Sutton: How do you both feel about the word hustle?

Pua Pakele: We hate it.

Kim Sutton: Thank you.

Pua Pakele: Part of our, I guess, mission statement is to encourage and really teach strategies so that entrepreneurs stop hustling, and go back to enjoying whatever it is that they’re doing. Because I feel like there’s entrepreneurs out there who are, I mean, everybody who starts a business, hopefully starts it from a place of expansion and wonder. Even if it’s for the money, which we all know doesn’t normally pan out as well. But even then, the expansive mindset is like, how much money can I make? This is so exciting. But normally, who can I serve? How can I help? What problem can I solve? And being in that place, it’s almost like Christmas morning. It’s like, the world is your oyster, and it’s so exciting. And so quickly, we just pounded into the pavement by all of the things that we ended up having to do. And we realize that, oh, my God, it’s so hard. I’m not making as much money as I want to make. I’m not serving as many people as I want to serve. How do I find them? Well, it looks like I won’t sleep until I have this many people in my program so that I can make this much money, then I can sleep. 

To me, that is the definition of hustle. And that’s just so wrong on so many levels, and so misaligned with why we start businesses. But it’s been this thing that’s been bred into the culture of entrepreneurship. There’s so many people out there who are like, if you’re not making a million dollars, you shouldn’t be taking weekends off, and sleep when you’re dead. And it doesn’t have to be that hard. 

And I think God, by the way, I have a business partner who also believes that this is true, because it would be a lot harder if I did it. But we absolutely believe that the more yourself that you are, the more authentic you are with your messaging, with the vibe that you put out there, with the language that you’re speaking, the more people will just be drawn to you. And it’s not without work. We don’t just sit on the couch and say, all right, come to us people. We have Facebook ads, we have affiliate programs, we have referral opportunities, but it’s so true that the people that do come to us end up just fitting and vibing with us. And there’s really beautiful alignment there because we are able to be more authentic with who we are as people. And it’s so much easier.

Kim Sutton: Well, let me backup. My website, all of them, I started to say my websites were hacked in September of 2017 so I had to rebuild. I’m still not done, but that’s okay. Everything for a reason. I actually built it. I don’t know if listeners know that–

Kimi Morton: Wow. Beautiful.

Kim Sutton: I think this is something that so many entrepreneurs do, everything happens for a reason. Those really sucky moments happen for a reason. And usually, something better comes out of it. So one of the things that I added was a chat box to the site, and people are shocked when I actually respond. Like, that connection is missing in so many places. The responses to emails, I can’t tell you, I test people sometimes and then I unsubscribe, and they don’t respond because we get these sales pitches in email. And I’ll respond by asking a question or actually thanking them for their resource, and there’s no response. I know that some of these people are huge, I absolutely know. Those that I know have like 15 million subscribers, congratulations to them. And I’m going to give them a little bit of grace, because I know that I’m probably one of 10,000 responses that they got. But there’s others that I know that saw it. I know that there’s some entrepreneurs who get too big of a head. I actually just finished reading High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard. Have either of you read it?

Kimi Morton: I haven’t read that one yet, but I love his work.

Kim Sutton: Oh, my gosh, he’s one of the ones that I give grace to when I respond and say things like, I don’t expect a response. I’ve written him three Facebook messages. Brendon, if you’re reading, I forgive you for not responding to any of them. I had gone through a year and a half of not sleeping. I was sleeping two to three hours at night after having my twins in January of 2015. And it got to the point where, and I shared this with the two of you before the show, and I’ve shared it on previous episodes, I was ready to just end it because I was so sleep deprived that I driven myself into major anxiety and depression because I wasn’t connected to what I really wanted to be doing. And I was doing all the wrong things. There are some highly successful entrepreneurs out there who I was idolizing, and I was getting really jealous of, and I thought, okay, well, if they can make this type of money doing that type of program, then maybe I need to make my own program that’s not identical. But then a great friend said to me, Kim, you’re Kim. You’re not insert name here. It’s like, wow. And then Brendon said, you need to be sleeping. I was watching one of his programs. He said, do you need to be sleeping six to eight hours a night? Or eight hours, I forgot the number. But two to three hours a night over a year and a half. Do not listen to anybody, listeners, who tells you that you need to do overnighters until you make a million dollars because that’s just stupid.

Kimi Morton: Yes. And we really don’t make the best revisions from a place either, right? And the decisions that we make when we’re operating from lack of anything, lack of sleep, lack of resources, lack of finances, lack of support, those decisions never really ended up being the ones that are coming from our heart and our soul. They’re the ones that are coming from our head.

Kim Sutton: Oh, my gosh, absolutely. And what are the things that you do, or that you help the badasses in your [inaudible] is create stunning digital media assets. I made the most ugly once in points of tiredness and of franticness to figure out where the next dollar was coming in. They are so ugly. I look back and I’m thinking, what was I thinking putting that together? I mean, I was an interior designer in my previous career, what the heck was I thinking putting, okay, and I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with Harlequin. But what was I doing putting a Harlequin in there? Like really, Kim? I wondered at the time why I sold exactly zero. Well, it was because when I hadn’t connected with anybody, I just thought I could go into a couple Facebook groups and throw it out there without connecting to anybody, and that I would make a million dollars. Now, that’s not quite how it works at all.

Pua Pakele: Totally. It’s funny when the alignment is a little bit off, it resonates and ripples through everywhere in our lives. It’s all connected, and it’s almost like we don’t realize it until something is off kilter. And then it’s like okay, wait, how can I reassess this? Actually, Kimi and I, as we evolved our brand into what it is today, we started with productivity time and energy trading for individuals and organizations. And part of that was the time and energy component of it. People would say, oh, I need better time management. And what we’d say is, truly, the root of time management challenges is energy management. And when we’re tired, when we are not aligned, when we lose sight of what we value, when we lose sight of our big vision, some of the decisions we make, the quality of our work, our overall happiness and health all start to kind of deteriorate before our eyes. And without the awareness that that’s all is happening, it’s like a runaway train. It can go on forever and snowball, until all of a sudden, you’re in the hospital. There are tools that we would suggest to put in place like weekly planning with specific questions. Check back in with yourself to say, how am I doing right now? What are my energy levels like? How do I feel mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually? What is my big vision? What do I value in my life? And am I doing the things with my work, with my life, with my free time that are in alignment with those values? And if I’m not, what am I going to do this week to bring the train back onto the tracks? 

And this is something that’s really hard for people to swallow when they’ve been on that same kind of snowball for long periods of time, years sometimes. And what made us change the direction of our business was when you go into organizations, thinking that you’re going to solve time management problems and you end up coaching these sad, unhappy employees through years of unhappiness and unfulfillment because they’re at this job that they hate, like that killed us, it was so heartbreaking. I mean, it’s work that must be done out there, and there are people that do it beautifully. It’s so much more expensive for us to work with the entrepreneurs who have decided to take this into their own hands and put these into place and create, and design a life for themselves. That allows them to harness their time and energy, and align with their values so strongly that they are willing to take responsibility for their own health, wealth, finances, and create the systems, and create a company that is in full alignment. So hopefully, when we’re aligned in that way, we are creating things that we are inspired to create and that inspire others. And trust me, we did hustle for a little bit. We were hustling for corporate clients, I look back at those images, like what the hell that is? That’s garbage. So it happens, and we learn from it. But it’s definitely more beautiful, easier and more joyous when we’re in alignment.

Kim Sutton: So what do you say to entrepreneurs who are in an income generating business right now, but really have lost the passion for it? Know what their passion project is, but are struggling to devote more time to it because they’re not seeing the income come in yet.

Kimi Morton: So somebody that is doing the work that they love already as their full time job, or as a side hustle, passion project?

Kim Sutton: For somebody who is working a job that they don’t like right now, but it scared to put the time and energy into the passion project because they’re afraid of the money not being there.

Kimi Morton: Yes, yes. Well, we love this subject. In fact, we just did a podcast episode on Side Hustle. And I feel like that episode should actually be called quit your job. Because I feel like that’s what we ended up saying. But there’s definitely, I joke around, we’re not really saying that everybody should just go and jump right away. It can work, it can be very scary for people and a lot of fears come up. Sure, many of us have responsibilities and things, financial obligations that we want to make sure are taken care of before we perhaps take a very large risk. But what we’d like to offer is that there are really low risk ways that you can begin doing the work that you love, and remembering that that will generate so much energy and time. Again, remember, we were talking about, people always say to us, I don’t have the time to work on this thing that I love. I don’t have the time to build this thing. I don’t have the time to do it. But it’s an energy management issue. So you’re not really recognizing at that moment that by doing what lights you up, it is going to give you energy. When they’re thinking about work in terms of probably the job that doesn’t light them up. And energetically, what that drain is upon them. 

So simply by creating some pockets of time when it is reasonable, whether that be after hours, after work on the weekends, writing that energy that comes from doing that thing that lights you up, can start to build that energy of hope, and excitement, and possibility. So there is expansiveness that can come from that. And again, it’s about sinking back into your heart connecting to what your soul wants. That thing that’s going to light you up. Because from that place, anything is possible. And it’s only our ego, only our fear that tells us, doing this thing is going to not yield the same results, not yield the same money that this other quote unquote secure job is giving me. But we like to challenge that a lot because there is limitless potential when you become an entrepreneur, when you build this thing. You’re only limited by your creativity, perhaps your resourcefulness. Whereas in a job, you are limited to what your salary is too. It’s controlled by somebody else. So there is a paradigm shift that can happen if we open ourselves up to it and recognize that we live in a new era now where anything is possible. And there’s limitless potential compared to limited potential. Perhaps, in some of these older models that were operating, we still label them as the more secure and safe option.

Kim Sutton: Oh, I love that Kim and Pua, and listeners, we’re gonna take a quick break to share a message from today’s sponsor, and then we’ll be right back to continue the conversation.

Kim Sutton: So just before the break, Kimi was talking about quitting your job, and I just say, I think all three of us will agree, don’t just quit your job if you’re not prepared. Just don’t because it will be a little bit stressful. But I actually just got an email earlier this week from somebody who was on my list, and I’m going to talk about my list in just a few minutes maybe. But she was wondering, when she’s away from home 11 to 12 hours a day, how she can find that time. And I sent an email back reminding her that, well, I hope that this is our case. But so many of us have smartphones now. We can dictate blog articles, or book ideas right into our smartphone now. We can get a suction cup thing for our dashboard, and we can do a Facebook Live. Just by taking those little small steps. I’ve never done that. I drive bad enough without having to worry about doing a facebook live while I’m driving, and I don’t necessarily recommend it to listeners. But there’s so much that we could do even in those half hour, two hour commutes. I remember from my hour each way commuting here in Ohio, I was always so enthused in the car. But then I would get home and I’d be like, kids dinner, bedtime, fights with kids just get them to stay in bed. And by the time that all got done, I was just like, oh, sleep, please because tomorrow morning is gonna come fast enough. But even just those commuting hours would be so helpful. Just use them.

Pua Pakele: Yeah, for sure. I mean, it’s something that we use a lot is the voice recording, every smartphone has them. And if you don’t, there’s apps for them. I sometimes come up with an idea while I’m driving and I can’t write it down or type it, I’ll just speak into the voice recorder. I’m gonna just admit something embarrassing, but sometimes, I pretend that I’m giving a big talk for millions of people.

Kimi Morton: I do it too. Pua and I confessed to each other. We’re like, you do that? I do that.

Pua Pakele: Totally, like you find the time right. Especially in that transition, your best friend is 4:00 AM. And we actually did for years when Kimi and I were at the gym. I mean, we’d wake up at 3:30 to just get to the gym to teach a 5:00 AM class, and we’d teach until 10:00 teaching five classes in a row. Even though 10:00AM means the end of our quote unquote, work morning. We’re exhausted. It takes being very intentional with your schedule, and that’s where weekly planning really, really came into play. And we actually created a planner because we’re at this job with such funky hours, and yet, we wanted to do a podcast. So we actually had a podcast before Best Life Ever, and we would meet weekly to plan out our episodes. But in that meeting, we’d actually plan our week and we check in with each other. We’d hack our challenges. And that time spent planning was the most valuable part of our week because it helped to really make sure that our energy levels were sustainable. And that we could kind of create this project on the side that turned into our business. So yes, for sure. Do what you have to do to really nurture your idea, and start to bring it to life before you leave your job. But when you’re ready, and you will always know when you’re ready because you’ll feel that little, is just really this little thing that happened in your stomach or in your heart. And it’ll start to expand, and it’ll kind of pester you for a while, and you’ll want to ignore it because it scares you. But after a while, you won’t be able to ignore it. You’ll know it’s the right time. 

And for people who are right there where they’re like, God, what could go wrong if I leave my job? If this is something you’re thinking, you’re human. Don’t worry about it. We don’t judge you, but we encourage you to shift your mindset from the yeah but, to the yes can. So it’s kind of pessimistic beings, we end up going, I could quit my job, but I could be broke. I could quit my job, but I don’t have time for this. Instead, what Kimi and I like to do is shift that into, I could quit my job, yes. And I would have the time to do this, yes. And I would be able to launch this product, and bring yourself into that expansive place because the chance of growth and abundance coming to you is equal to the equally negative outcomes. But without actually taking the action, neither of them will come true. And also just know that you can’t mess up. Even if the stuff that you’re afraid of ends up happening, it’s okay. You can get out of it. I heard your podcast interview, I don’t remember, I think it was the most recent one where you guys talked about credit recovery.

Kim Sutton: Yeah, Rob.

Pua Pakele: Putting yourself into debt from starting a business. Yes, it was a beautiful episode. And what I loved about it was that it really brought to light. What happens for so many entrepreneurs, and it happens to us? You start a business. And when we left our jobs, I had money in the bank, I was okay. I put myself in a whole bunch of credit card debt to make this dream come true, and I am so much happier now. Recovering that debt more than I ever was when I had tens of thousands of dollars in the bank for a job that didn’t light me up. So it really is a matter of who you want to be in the world, and how you want to feel. And money doesn’t mean that you feel one way or the other. Having money is a little less stressful. But the fulfillment, it just makes the money not matter as much.

Kim Sutton: Yeah, yeah. I’m not going to talk about who I voted for. I would have to doubt that Donald Trump is any happier than any of the rest of us, even with his gobs of money. I mean, he doesn’t, yeah.

Pua Pakele: I mean, it is a blessing and it helps us to serve more. We are good people who when we have the money that we deserve to have, we will serve more and make the world more beautiful. Money doesn’t make people make weird decisions or become evil. It really is just an individual opportunity. We end up seeing the people who are rich and making shitty decisions, because that’s more interesting for the media. But I just want everyone out there to know that you deserve to be rich and wealthy, because that will allow you to live this life of service. If you love to give gifts, you let you give gifts eternally. It’s that thing that people equate with negativity and evil. And if I have a lot of money, I’m a bad person. And that’s just not true.

Kim Sutton: Oh, absolutely. That’s so beautiful. And I have to share with listeners, I don’t know that I ever shared all of this before. But car repos, electric, gas, water, internet, all of that being disconnected eviction threats from landlords. I’ve dealt with that all since opening up the business in 2012, all of it, and I’m still here. We got the car back, all the utilities have gone back on. And that was not just a one time occasion, I will be totally honest. But when there’s a will, there’s a way. And just keep your heart, keep your heart because, yeah.

Kimi Morton: And often, whatever the challenges that we’re experiencing, as resilient humans hack our way out of these challenges, that mess becomes our message. And trust, we can take faith and comfort in the fact that anything that we are experiencing, we are experiencing for a reason, as you said. And these things happen to us so that we can then serve the world through the solutions that we come up with. And so again, to go back to that idea of, don’t wait until you are completely fit, polished up and fixed all those problems. You can serve now, today, and connect with people that are going through similar challenges. So I think that there’s a huge lesson there in order to not delay service and to just take some chances. Get out there, talk about it, be vulnerable. And yeah, let your mess become your message. Because man, that is what is going to heal the world.

Kim Sutton: Oh, I love that. How do you two provide yourself grace when things don’t go as you planned for them to go?

Pua Pakele: Well, I have a Kimi, which is the best business and life choice.

Kimi Morton: Yeah. Having an amazing business partner, a friend and cheerleader in your life is so huge. I mean, Pua has talked me off of the ledge many times, like last week, in fact. We really encourage people to find that in your community, find a tribe that you can belong to, find a coach, find a support system, find a mastermind, whatever it is. Finding others that can support you and that believe in you when you have those moments where you’re not believing in yourself, which is normal and human. Having a Pua in my life is my hack too.

Pua Pakele: Finding support–

Kim Sutton: Sorry, go ahead.

Kimi Morton: No, go ahead. I love TMI.

Kim Sutton: TMI, but my husband after being together almost eight years, he realized that one week every month, he needs to realize that I’m gonna be especially hard on myself. So that’s why he brings home the chocolate and the Margarita mix, and says everything’s okay. And next week, you’re going to see that again.

Pua Pakele: Man, take note, every woman gets chocolates and Margarita mix once a month.

Kim Sutton: I’ve had to start even being aware of myself. I should seriously put it into my calendar, give myself a pop up notification that the tidal wave is about to come, get prepared, because everything really is better than you’re going to see it next week. Just remind yourself.

Kimi Morton: I started doing that. Actually, I forget what app I use to track my cycle. But I just started putting it in my calendar. So when I do my weekly planning and I am looking for anticipated challenges that might pop up over the next week, it’s right there. And I’m like, oh, okay, good to know.

Kim Sutton: Oh, my gosh, I’m gonna have to borrow that.

Kimi Morton: Do it. It’s life changing.

Kim Sutton: I feel sorry for my husband and my kids, because I’m not usually a crier, unless well, this week, I found Returning the Favor on Facebook, which is such an amazing show. And I don’t usually get sucked into TV. But if you haven’t watched it, I’ll put a link to the show notes. But that’s just that one week. Oh, my gosh, every single month, I have to admit that I think to myself, I should just quit this and go back to work. I go back to my job, and then a couple days later it’s not.

Pua Pakele: You’re not alone in that, totally. I feel like it’s almost like the universe testing us. Are you sure you want to do this? Are you sure? Are you sure? There’s an easier way. It’s easy money. You’re gonna won’t be as happy, but you know what it is that you really want. If you don’t have someone in your life, or business partner, a confidant, a friend who can help you through those times, the worst thing that we can do is sit back and suffer in silence because those are the times that we disenchant ourselves from the magic of our business, or we give up. Either way, the world doesn’t get your gift. And that’s tragic. Facebook, there are billions of people on Facebook. I actually do think it’s over a billion now, and there are so many groups designed for entrepreneurs to be a place to seek support. There are programs like ours. Our program is designed for entrepreneurs in eight weeks to create a business that brings income so that they actually, ideally, never have to have their water turned off, their phones shut off, their car repossessed, which are things that, again, we can recover from. But if we can help people and give them the strategies to never go there, that would be beautiful, and it’s possible. Don’t recreate the wheel. Somebody else has been there, somebody else has done it, and they can help, but you have to ask. That’s the thing. We let our pride get in the way that we don’t want to ask.

Kim Sutton: Absolutely. One of the most recent, I’ve already mentioned Brendon Burchard in this episode, and one of the biggest eye openers for me was when he admitted that he had all of his mountains of debt paperwork on his bed, and his now wife climbed underneath the covers so as to not disturb any of the paperwork. And knowing that he recovered from that and has gotten to where he is today gives me constant hope. And there’s the fact that he’s sharing that. Look at how many huge people are out there and are not sharing.

Pua Pakele: And Marie Forleo says she’s–

Kim Sutton: Exactly.

Pua Pakele: She like worked at a bar for what, seven years? Or a restaurant?

Kim Sutton: Didn’t she have multiple jobs?

Pua Pakele: Yeah. I think so.

Kim Sutton: Overnight success stories take years. Some people it takes 5 to 10.

Kimi Morton: Definitely for all of them. There was somebody in their life telling them and encouraging them to keep going. We always joked around because as Pua and I have been on this journey for years, there have been those moments where you’re just in the trenches, and you’re just like, God, this is so effing hard. We don’t know how we’re gonna pay this or that. We’ve gotten advice from various people at different times in the form of some kind of something along the lines of, just keep going. And in the beginning, it was so annoying. Oh, yeah, just keep going. There it is again. And yet, there is so much truth to that on some level. But what we like to say now to people, because we know how irritating it is, if we tell beginning entrepreneurs to just keep going. We say keep going, but with support. Keep going and be resourceful, ask for help, reach out and that will help you to keep going. Because that advice to just keep going without a plan, without support is so empty and frustrating. But there is truth to that. Because there are many times, we’re standing where we are today because we didn’t quit. So there is truth to that.

Kim Sutton: You know what’s the absolute worst is when you leave your computer to escape those messages. This is what’s happened to me, and you may have just heard one of the twins scream, I would go out there and watch a Disney movie with them. And all of a sudden, I hear Dora’s name. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming. I tried to escape that. My desk, and here you are putting it into my freaking face. You know? There are so many Disney movies. I can’t escape it from my desk because I gotta go out and spend time with my kids. I never realized how many messages there are in Disney movies that are, yeah. One of my favorites is Meet the Robinsons, and it keeps moving forward. Like seriously kids.

Pua Pakele: It’s almost like exercise. Think about lifting weights to get stronger. The most effective way is if you lift weights every day. If you’re conditioning the muscle, you strengthen over time. If you stop, you don’t see the progress that you would have had in the time that you stopped. Same thing with anything. It’s consistent. It’s that 10x rule. But we are very big proponents of like, again, this is true in something physical, but you need to also have that balance, and that integration have a rest, re energizing so that you’re not burning the candle at both ends. So giving your muscles a day or two to recover, and rest is important just as being consistent. But also listening to your body, listening to your heart over your head that’s telling you to push, push, push, push, push. Don’t throw in the towel and give up, but don’t kill yourself with that

Kim Sutton: Amen. Okay, it’s been way too long since I went to the gym, just full disclosure. But I remember when I was really being great about going to the why, and getting on the elliptical every day. I would come home and my legs would kill. But a friend who was in fitness said, go back tomorrow, you have to keep on going. That’s your muscles telling you, great job. And it’s just like entrepreneurship. There’s going to be pain, but just keep going. I want to jump into productivity just for a moment. What are some of the tools that you use in your business to help you maintain and be the most productive?

Kimi Morton: We love this question. We geek out on productivity so much. So there’s many, many tools that we use, and strategies, both low tech and higher tech, I guess you could say. We definitely are big fans of time blocking and just creating that balance of deep work time with rest. So not sitting down and trying to drive through a whole day without getting up and stretching, and resetting your energy. So whether that’s working in pomodoros or some type of broken up work day that’s important to us. We also do a lot of batching. So creating content, and then scheduling it out so that we’re able to create more time and space for other types of work. So Pua and I, the way that we work is we record our podcasts remotely. So that’s kind of fun, and it’s a time saver for us. 

So even though we’re in the same town, we still record remotely so that we just save that travel time, and we’ll have content creation days. And then we have days where we work in real life together at a coworking space, and that’s where we do more meetings and brainstorming days. So there are some themes to our days, in a sense, but we love that we’ve had this foundation of product years of productivity training and coaching that we’ve done. Because we think of top of mind for us at all times that we’re making sure that we’re being efficient, and not just like any time that we start feeling really busy or overwhelmed. We have this instant clue of like, okay, something is out of alignment, something can be tweaked in order to make this a smoother process. So I think just having that embedded in our culture is really so awesome.

Pua Pakele: Yeah, totally. And I think one of our favorite things is, I mean, we’ve talked a lot about our weekly planning, and that’s really huge for us. Actually, we haven’t been as good about it lately, but we do it individually. And then when we’re really on it, we also do it every week as a business. We do like an abbreviated version lately. But essentially, our weekly planning process is just a series of questions asking pretty much, how are you doing?What can we celebrate? And how can we make this week easier and more joyful? It’s really the foundation of it. And there’s a bunch of questions that we ask. And then we look at our calendar, and one of the best productivity hacks that we’ve put into place is theming our days. So we talked to a lot of people who feel just overwhelmed with all the things, especially if you’re a solopreneur, you do everything. Maybe you have a VA, maybe you outsource a couple things, but you’re really the CEO, the CFO, everything. 

And so to alleviate that overwhelm within the day. We always give ourselves Monday’s off. And we can work if we want too, but we don’t normally talk to each other or ask each other anything business related so that we can have a day to breathe, especially after the weekend. Tuesdays have been kind of deep work days for us. We’ve been building modules in our course and stuff like that. Wednesdays, we work together at our co-working space. Thursdays, as podcast days, we record, we edit, Kimi edits. And then Fridays are kind of another deep work day. So what that allows us to do is to focus on one thing, and also it relieves the pressure of not doing something on that day because you know that you have another day dedicated to it. And it’s just been life changing for me. But the one thing that we do that has been the best productivity hack of all time is that we never do something that doesn’t feel good to us. And it saves so much time analyzing whether or not we should move forward with it. So like, we have an idea, and we kind of go with it for a little while. And we’re like, something about this doesn’t feel right. We just cut it and we move on. 

Or if someone comes to us and they’re like, oh, we have this opportunity, and it’s awesome and great, and we love it, we do it. Otherwise, we bow out. It’s amazing because we’re very aligned. So thankfully, normally, we’re kind of on the same page. But other people can really trust that when we accept an offer, that we’re really excited about it. We never end up doing anything that’s not in alignment with our business and our tribe, and what we value. So it just strengthens our brand, and it’s just the best and it’s really a muscle that we’ve had to work at because we have to get out of our heads and into our hearts to do this.

Kim Sutton: Wow. It took me three and a half, four? Okay, let’s just be honest, I still have trouble every day saying no. But that is something I’ve definitely gotten better at. I’m still not as far along as I would like to be, but it’s a great hack.

Pua Pakele: We call ourselves recovering people pleaser.

Kim Sutton: Yep. I’m going to have to borrow that. Just in the last month, I found a new tool called Focuster, or focuster.com that allows me to schedule my to do, my task list items into my calendar. And I tell how long a task is going to take, it schedules it into my calendar. But one of the things that I’ve really realized is that I wasn’t scheduling enough time for my family. I wasn’t scheduling enough time for me. And when I was putting these tasks into my calendar and telling it, okay, I want to do this tomorrow, and I do have certain days as well. I would wind up with 18 to 20 hours of work that would just take up any unscheduled time. And then I realized, okay, what am I going to cook for dinner? It’s gamifying the system for me because I want to keep up with what it’s telling me that I scheduled for today. But if we’re not scheduling that time in, then we’re not going to get it. And there are some days, I love how you brought up the Credo Principles and took those 25 minute work time, and then took a five minute break. There are days that I realized that I’ve gone six hours without standing. I mean, all of a sudden, my bladder feels like it’s about to burst. And I realize I’ve been sitting here all day, that’s not good.

Kimi Morton: I swear, part of our partnership too, I can’t tell you how many times Pua and I tell each other to go pee. You said you have to pee, go. Like that’s our accountability built in. It’s nice to have somebody else reminding you of how to listen to your own body.

Kim Sutton: Oh, yeah. And my husband is home on Tuesdays. He works outside of the home in retail, but he has Tuesdays off. So thank goodness for those days because he actually brings me food. I tell you that you should do these things, but that does not mean that I’m always doing that myself. But he’ll come out and chat with me. And if I’m really quiet because I can chat like this with him too. But if I’m really quiet, he’s like, what did you eat last? And I’ll just look at him and smile. He’s like, do you have it [inaudible] today?

Kimi Morton: He needs to lead a workshop for men. I think.

Kim Sutton: If you are single and looking for somebody, I want you to tell you, do not discount Craigslist. That’s where I found mine. There might be another one on there for you too.

Pua Pakele: That’s awesome.

Kim Sutton: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. No monthly chart. But I was there looking for furniture and I just happened to come across him. This has been an amazing chat. Thank you both so much for being here. I’ve enjoyed every single second of it. Can you share with the listeners where they can find your Facebook community, where they can get in touch with you, find your podcast and all that great stuff?

Kimi Morton: Absolutely. Thank you so much. This has been so fun. People can find us on Facebook. We have a Facebook Group called Best Life Ever The Tribe, you can search for it. Or if you want an easy link, you can go to bit.ly/bletribe. And our podcast is called Broke-ass To Badass by Best Life Ever, and it’s on iTunes, any podcast player, you can find it Google Stitcher, all that good stuff. And our website is bestlifeever.buzz, B-U-Z-Z. And when you go there, you can click that link and you’ll actually be able to download a really fun free guide that we have. A free checklist, five secrets for building a badass online business. So fun little goodies for you if you check out our website.

Kim Sutton: Oh, amazing. Thank you so much, listeners. If you’re driving or at the gym right now, you can find those links when you are available at thekimsutton.com/pp306. I’d love to ask each of you to share a parting piece of advice or a golden nugget with listeners.

Kimi Morton: All right, a parting piece of advice. Well, I always just like to say, if you are listening to this right now, it is not by accident. And there are, as you said, wherever we go, the world is speaking to us. And whether that be through a Disney movie or a podcast that you just happened to come across, you’re listening to this for a reason. So from this moment, ask yourself what inspired action will you take? What excites you from this conversation? What is lighting up that song in your heart? And take some inspired action today, even just a small little step in the direction towards your dreams, and know that there’s so much support out there? Kim’s wonderful community, I mean, my goodness, if you’re listening to this, you’re listening to it for a reason. So definitely, take some inspired action today.

Pua Pakele: So parting thoughts, I just really want to reiterate how cool of a time we’re living in right now. This is just the most expensive era where things are possible now that were never possible before. You can create a business entirely online without ever leaving your house. Even though I don’t recommend that. Make all of your wildest dreams come true easier, faster, and more joyfully than really ever before. And if there’s something inside of you that’s just screaming at you, this is what I want to do, this is what I want to do, that this is the time more than ever that we need your gifts in the world. Again, the universe is perfectly balanced. And although we are in this beautiful, expansive era, the world is in a funky place. And there’s so much fear, and there’s so much negativity out there. We can help to counteract that by bringing our gifts out into the world, exposing them and solving the problems that people have, and uplifting the people out there with what we are here to do. So if that speaks to you at all, definitely, follow it as Kimi said because the time is now.