PP 675: The Entrepreneur’s Golden Thread with Kimberly Weitkamp
“There is no right path to becoming an entrepreneur- everyone has their own path.” – Kimberly Weitkamp
Our society loves to put pressure on us, trying to shape us into its norms. But it is important to remember: No person & no situation can define how your journey is going to look like for you. Your way of navigating it, is what gives it value and meaning. In this episode, Kim and Kimberly Weitkamp talk about how we can own our journey. They talk about the importance of working with the right people as opposed to being tolerant, talking with your clients in their language, setting boundaries for yourself, showing up with your authentic self to gain trust, hunting for your ideal clients, and having sufficient self-time. Tune in and discover how you get back on track. You don’t want to be a sidekick. Take control, it’s your journey and you are the main character!
Highlights:
04:44 From Scratch To Growth
07:31 Know Who You Work With
17:31 Know Your Boundaries
21: 36 THE Golden Thread
26:10 YOU Have To Be In YOUR Marketing
32:53 Ideal Clients
36:35 Life Before Becoming An Entrepreneur
39:09 Work What You Love
Resources Mentioned
Freebies
Podcast
Inspirational Quotes:
“Know exactly who you’re not working with and who’s not a fit for you.” – Kimberly Weitkamp
“Boundaries are so important as an entrepreneur because there’s nobody else telling us what to do.” – Kimberly Weitkamp
“You have to be in your marketing. It has to be about YOU because people are going to buy from those they know and trust. -Kimberly Weitkamp
“The reason they’re gonna work with you instead of somebody else, is because of the way you do it.” -Kimberly Weitkamp
“Building a community is the best way for us to show up in the world and make an impact.” -Kimberly Weitkamp
“There is no right path to becoming an entrepreneur- everyone has their own path.” – Kimberly Weitkamp
About Kimberly Weitkamp:
Kimberly Weitkamp is a Marketing Strategist, Podcaster, and Conversion Copywriter. She developed the Audience Conversion Method and hosts The Audience Converter Podcast to help entrepreneurs, coaches and consultants convert their audience from strangers to loyal fans. Kimberly works with her clients to attract, build and grow an engaged audience and community to create long-term customers. She specializes in emails, landing pages and sales pages that convert. When she’s not working with her clients, she loves to travel and go dancing.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION:
Kim Sutton: Welcome back to another episode of Positive Productivity. If this is not your first show, you know that I have said over and over again, good things come to those who wait, and when conversations like this are delayed it’s for a reason. I have no doubt that our guests today, and I are going to have one of those conversations that wouldn’t have meant the same thing if we had it a year ago, but our guest today is Kim Weitkamp. Kim is a Copywriter and a Marketing Strategist. And I didn’t even ask you, I’m so used to calling myself, Kim, do you prefer to go by Kimberly?
Kimberly Weitkamp: Usually I go by Kimberly is fine, no worries.
Kim Sutton: Okay. Well, I’ll call you Kimberly, that will keep us straight and it will make the transcription a lot easier. I’m so happy to finally have you on in the midst of everything that has happened in the last year, I mean, six, I don’t know, countless? Countless extra months with my kids at home has done amazing and ridiculous things for my business, and I’m sure it’s done for so many other people’s businesses. I’d love for you to introduce yourself better to the audience, let them know what you’re up to and then we’ll jump into all the rest of the awesome stuff.
Kimberly Weitkamp: Absolutely. So, Kim, I just want to say thank you so much for the invitation to be on the show. I’m excited to be here and talk with you about Positive Productivity because it’s one of very popular topics for me as well, but I am a copywriter and Marketing Strategist. Basically, all that means is that I write the words for my clients that get their message in front of the right people for them. And the right people are really important key, because if we’re talking to the people that aren’t a great fit for us, then it’s a completely different story. So yeah, I’m a copywriter. I work at The Audience Converter, that’s my company, and I love talking copy and marketing.
Kim Sutton: That’s a big discovery that I made in the last year, is the right people. And also pursuing the right things in my business because I was pursuing money 100%. Okay, I have to ask you when we met for the very first time. We met at an event, I’m not going to say the event name, I just need to be very honest about that. Did I come up and tell you, and I was sober when I was doing this to other people. I was really hot, I was trying to cool off, I had sat down next to the pool and put my feet, my legs into the water. I’d gotten dressed flax, but I managed to sit in a huge puddle of water where you, one of the people that I came up to and said: “Hi, my name is Kim, and my butt is wet.”
Kimberly Weitkamp: I do not believe so, no. We had a couple conversations on the chairs by the pool, but not like that.
Kim Sutton: Yeah. So this was one of the evenings, like the evening party before everything began. I was completely sober that night, I’ve actually given up drinking. So yeah, and I was sober then when we met because during daylight hours, I think I remember that now, I was sober during daylight hours. Nighttime hours after that first night, I can not guarantee, but I know that when I was telling people: “Hi, my name’s Kim and my butt is wet.” I was still sober, which is surprising. How has your business shifted? Because I want people to hear that even in the midst of chaos, we can still have amazing changes for the good, it doesn’t have to be bad.
Kimberly Weitkamp: Oh, absolutely. And you know what? My story is one of those things where it was actually the right timing. So when we met, I had a different company, it was a different name. I was still doing copywriting, but was for a very specific industry. And that industry was the travel industry. I had made the choice to start transitioning because at that event, I met so many amazing people and I was like, these are the people I want to talk with. These are the people I want to work with. They’re making changes in the world. They’re entrepreneurs, they’re go getters and they’re really invested in their own success. So I was finding that in the industry I was working in, it was a job to these people. It was like, Oh, somebody else is going to make that final decision so the process for working with people was very long, it was very drawn out and was very frustrating. And so I decided to make the change to becoming The Audience Converter, and I launched The Audience Converter Podcast and The Audience Converter brand two months before lockdown. So I was coming from an industry who had no connections to my new audience, my new network. I was like, I have to build my network from scratch. Oh, gosh, I had already built this network for four years, I have to restart over, this is not fun. And then the lockdown happened and I was like, well, I’m still having to completely rebuild my network. I’m starting from scratch. However, I had a little bit of momentum. And suddenly, everyone was open to have networking calls online instead of in person, which was amazing for me. Where I live, like all of the people kept telling me, Oh, you should go in person. You should go in person. I was like, but the people in person are those who are like the chamber of commerce, or they own brick and mortar businesses, which is not who I work with. So I was like, what is the point of me going in person that people weren’t willing to do stuff virtually. And then suddenly, lockdown happened. We were all ready to suffer totally.
So I saw so much growth just in my network and growing my list, my list is like 10 times bigger than it ever was for the four years I worked in the travel industry. I’ve made a lot of really great connections, and I’m starting to see a lot more forward momentum with people being like, okay, it’s been six months, things aren’t really going to be changing back where it was anytime soon, so I guess it’s time to move forward. So now people are getting ready and ready to move forward. And all of those connections I’ve made over the last six months are really starting to pay off. So while it was a little strange to be like, Oh, brand new business, brand new network, it was also good timing because, guess who’s not hiring people to work on their marketing right now.
Kim Sutton: Right, absolutely. Yeah. So where again are you located? Because I know, I’m in Southwest Ohio.
Kimberly Weitkamp: I’m in the St. Louis area of Missouri. However, I don’t live in the city. I live like 15 minutes away in any kind of events that would happen in person. We’re always deep into the city at like 5:00 o’clock, which meant I would have had to leave at like 3:30 to do traffic and everything, so very interesting place.
Kim Sutton: So I got that argument a lot of time, Kim, you should go in person. Kim, you should go in person. And here in my town, yes, there’s a chamber of commerce, but the local networking groups were like the car mechanics, and the salon owners, and the local chiropractor. I’m not saying anything negative about any of them, but those are not my ideal clients. I realized I had a brain fart in the middle of my thought earlier that that’s what I realized in the last year, since we met I need to stick to who I want to work with. I was working with business and life coaches and then taking on extra, but I never even got really specific on what type of business and life coaches. So I was taking on a lot of, I mean, my faith is really important to me, but I was taking on a lot more woe than, I mean, I’m Christian a little bit of law of attraction, positive thinking, Positive Productivity, go figure.
Kimberly Weitkamp: Exactly. Yeah.
Kim Sutton: But as far as astrology, and mercury retrograde, and knowing the chakras, and reading tarot cards, that’s all like Greek to me. Not even Greek, it’s like an ancient hieroglyphic that nobody understands. So I wasn’t able to connect, I didn’t understand. I need to wait for this download to come because I can’t feel it yet. I realize that so much of my network can also be having other marketing automation experts and marketing strategists, perhaps YOU who understands that language and can work with them. Because when I try to, it’s going to be an uncomfortable situation for both of us and nobody’s going to be happy in the end.
Kimberly Weitkamp: Oh, I think it’s so important really to know exactly who you’re not working with and who’s not a fit for you. So I’ve had people approach me, or I’ve even been referred to people and it’s like, Oh, they’ve built this financial software. And after speaking with them, I was like, you know what? I can’t in good faith tell you I can help you. Because what they were doing, I had absolutely no background in, I had no experience in, it would have been like 50 hours of research to catch up, to even understand what they were doing so I could then translate it to how they could help other people. And I was like, you know what? I’m going to refer you to someone else because that’s not me. And I’ve started really realizing, who are the people I can help and who are the people that sure I could help them potentially. But should I? And the answer is, no, because it’s a better fit for them to go and meet with people who have more of a background, or at least have more of an understanding in their niche.
Kim Sutton: Absolutely. And then they might be the best, good fit for the client, but they might want work that you don’t do. I mean, I’ve had people come who are life coaches and want social media management and it was so tempting to say, yes, just for the money. But I realized, no, because I’m going to resent the work. And that’s a really strong word I understand, but I know I can’t charge for social media management what I can charge for my genius zone. And having to put myself in that work for hours every day versus the higher ticket that would also pay me to work on my business, I would resent every single minute of it. And what’s happened is, since I will refer to that workout, now they’ll come back because they appreciate that I sent them to someone else who was better, and they’re coming back for the higher level stuff. Have you noticed that?
Kimberly Weitkamp: Definitely. I think I’ve noticed, and at first, I was a little bit resentful of it. But now, I’m realizing it’s just another opportunity that there’s a lot of people out in the world of entrepreneurs who don’t necessarily understand what a copywriter or marketing strategist does. So marketing strategy, the word strategy is in it which means I give you the strategy. I’m not the person who implements, that’s you. Because as you said, social media, for example, I can tell you what to do daily, how to make sure that you’re leading people to the right place, how to make sure you have the right call to action in place. But if you want someone to post onto your group, and if you want somebody to go and engage on your behalf, I’m like, that’s not me. That’s not where my, as you said, your zone of genius or your genius zone is. So I’ve found that it’s really important to work in your area, but also I’ve started to grow my network of people who it’s like, Oh, this is what you’re looking for? Great. I’m going to send you to this person because that’s what they do. Or this is someone who comes to me, and I just had a call the other day, they came to me and they were looking to build their five day challenge. So that’s like a huge undertaking
Kim Sutton: Were you listening to my brain when I was in the shower this morning? Because that’s exactly what I’m thinking about right now is what my five day challenge was. Sorry to interrupt you.
Kimberly Weitkamp: Oh no, you’re fine. So they came to me for their five day challenge and they had in their head like, Oh, yeah, it’s going to be like a couple of emails. And you know, I don’t need to like making a Facebook group. And when I explained to them that there were probably about 35 to 50 different pieces of copy, and then they told me their budget, I was like, well, you know what though? Because I’ve started working on this reframe, I was like, what I can do is we can do a couple of consults and brainstorming calls instead. That’s in your budget range, and you can get a lot of ideas and understand exactly what you need, what to put in place and how to put it in place. But then you can go and take those outlines and create it yourself if you don’t have the budget to hire someone to create an entire funnel for you. Because a lot of people think, Oh, a five day challenge is so much easier than a full scale launch. I’m like, 5 challenges a launch? It really is, it’s just a different name, it’s just a different style. And it has just as many pieces in it, but people forget about that.
Kim Sutton: And that’s exactly why I’m thinking about it is because it’s leading into my launch. And then I was thinking about, Oh, my. People don’t even think about all the naming possibilities, what their people need or want. Let me clarify that, what do they want? Yeah. And I’m like, okay, now what do I name this so it makes sense. Because as a copywriter, I’m sure you’ve seen it. I mean, tons of fluffy texts and they don’t know what the heck they’re actually getting out of it because there’s all these just empty words that fell off a page, and then they’re like, okay, so you do what? What am I getting out of this?
Kimberly Weitkamp: Oh, absolutely, the names. I just attended a podcasting event and people were throwing out their potential names. My first question to every single one of those names was, is that the language your audience uses? Because I understand that, like you understand what you’re talking about, but I have no idea if I just saw that title? What on earth would I get out of it? And it’s the same type of thing with the five day challenge. Like if you tell me you’re going to do a five day challenge for, I don’t know, landing page is made easy. Okay, then I know exactly what that’s going to entail. But if it’s something like increased conversions when people join you, it’s like, okay, but in what way? What part are we focusing on? I can’t even come up with a bad name right now, but I’ve seen some five day challenges, how does that relate to what you do? I don’t know. I don’t understand.
Kim Sutton: Yeah. Okay, can I ask you a selfish question? Because this is what I was, listeners, I have chronic idea disorder. I get all ideas all the time for other people, for other people. And right now I’m challenged because I have a 30 day work smarter not harder challenge. 30 days is really long, I fully understand that, but it’s really specific. I’m breaking down each day into one actionable strategy, but I realized that is not going to work for a launch. If they want to do it in the long run, great, I probably will just convert it into a course. In your opinion, because that’s the same idea that I want to use. Like the five day work smarter not harder challenge.
Kimberly Weitkamp: Yeah. I could definitely see that.
Kim Sutton: It sounds so fluffy.
Kimberly Weitkamp: I don’t think it’s fluffy. Work smarter not harder? I think you should have subtitles. What are their expected results? Am I going to reclaim an hour a week? Am I going to suddenly find myself with a free morning? Do I get to reclaim my mornings? That’s really popular. What does work smarter not harder? I understand the idea behind it. I kind of understand the philosophy, but I think for five day challenges, people really like to know, okay, I go through these five days and this is exactly what’s going to happen.
Kim Sutton: Oh, I already know what I’m in. I just never put the two together, so thank you. Helping entrepreneurs get away from their business and back into bed.
Kimberly Weitkamp: Back into bed at a reasonable hour.
Kim Sutton: Yeah, exactly. Not 2:00 o’clock in the morning, unless you are a night owl. And there’s no like wink, wink here, that’s optional. Please sleep. I always get these raised eyebrows. Like, are you telling people to go have sex? No, actually.
Kimberly Weitkamp: That’s their interpretation. That’s because that’s their interpretation.
Kim Sutton: And I can think dirty just like everybody else. But what I mean, I just need to put it out there. I mean, I’ve had to build better boundaries, and some of those boundaries have even come from my husband. No pun intended, I told you, I can say, Oh, my gosh, I’m going to get myself into so much trouble. But here’s the hours that I’m open for business, sweetie. And when it’s my bedtime, when it’s my sleep time, and it’s a weeknight, leave me alone.
Kimberly Weitkamp: There you go. Boundaries are so important as an entrepreneur because there’s nobody else telling us what to do so we have to tell ourselves what to do. And we are the people who are most likely to then push those boundaries.
Kim Sutton: Yeah.
Kimberly Weitkamp: One of the things I teach is how to do marketing under an hour a week. And the first step is picking that hour. Like pick an hour, put it on your calendar and make sure that absolutely nothing else is allowed to be scheduled during that time because it’s really enticing to help, Oh, I’ve got this client project, I need to put that first. And you put that first, but it’s important to work on our business too. It’s so important to work on our business too. So if we constantly put us at the bottom of the list, and it’s just in business, entrepreneurs put their self care, they put their personal time, they put everything at the bottom of that list and it needs to move up a little bit.
Kim Sutton: Oh, yeah. I was thinking that when school got back in session this year, I would have so much more free time. But because I’ve gotten better at my boundaries, I’ve also freed up all this time that was previously going to client stuff for going to kid activities, which I missed so many for every other year. But last night was girl scouts. Tonight is a soccer game. Tomorrow night is soccer for my daughter. Thursday night is another soccer game for my son. And in the past, I wouldn’t have had that time. I was like the absentee mom. There was like an invisible wall. So it’s nice to have it. But now, I’m like, okay, great. My business has the time it needs. My family has the time it needs. Now what about me?
Kimberly Weitkamp: Yes. Now it’s time to make sure you have the time you need, for sure.
Kim Sutton: Without getting up at 4:00 AM.
Kimberly Weitkamp: Yeah. I’m not that person, all the productivity stuff that’s usually out there is like, Oh, you have to start your day at 5:00 AM, and with a workout and blah, blah, blah. And I’m like, no, that’s not my morning. My morning starts at 8:00.
Kim Sutton: I tried three days last week. No, I didn’t try, I actually succeeded. I got up at 5:30 [inaudible] for about 45 minutes and then rode the bike, my exercise bike, and then took my older two to high school. By 2:00 or 3:00 o’clock in the afternoon, I was dead. I mean, I had to go take a nap and I was like, what was the point of all that? When I have to go take a nap in the middle of the afternoon and for the hour before that, I’d be so tired that I could barely focus. This is not working for me. I’m going to have to find another way to get this in.
Kimberly Weitkamp: Absolutely. And when you find yourself just staring at your screen and it’s been three hours, you’re like, I did something, but I have no idea what I just accomplish. Because, ah, I got up early and I started right, but I don’t know what I just did. Because your brain’s not there and it’s not gonna work.
Kim Sutton: And getting up at 5:30 for me involves going to bed by 11:00. And while that might seem late, like reasonable to some people, my husband is not a morning person. He gets up when I tell him he needs to get up to take the littles to school, but that’s 8:00 o’clock so that they’d be out the door at 8:30. And if I go to bed at 11:00, I’ve barely seen him at night with all the kids stuff. Especially right now, I mean, we have four, they’re limiting attendance at sporting events, starting to give more context and people really need. But between my ex and I, we’re using three out of the four tickets, so I can’t take the whole family to a game. So if I were to go to bed at 11:00, it’s like, nice to see your face. Sorry, we didn’t get to talk today. That doesn’t work for me. And when you and I met last year, my husband and I were on the brink of divorce because he never saw me. I had to make a change.
Kimberly Weitkamp: Well, it sounds like you’ve made a change, and now it’s just time to make a little bit more of wine, right?
Kim Sutton: Oh, yeah. Yeah. It’s like a quilt, I’ve had all these quilt pieces. Oh, that would be a good name for this episode, putting the quilt of business together. Because it’s very easy for all of us to have that. We have this idea here, this idea here, this idea, but how do they work together? And I’m sure you’ve seen it in your clients. They have this challenge, and they have this course idea, and they might have this, and this, and this, but they feel distracted, but just a little bit of the right thread. It’s like a magical blanket.
Kimberly Weitkamp: Yes. Actually in copywriting, we call it the golden thread, and that’s the idea that you have. A certain idea that you put throughout a sales page, or you put throughout something that’s marketing so that if you introduce this concept or this thought at the very beginning, then you have her back to it a third of the way down, two thirds of the way down at the end as well. So that it kind of makes people feel like they’re reading a story, and it’s the golden thread, it ties everything together. And when I work with my clients, I find a lot of times that they have more than they think they have. But because they’re like you and their ideal overload, they have so many different ideas. They got started and said, Oh, it didn’t work. And then turn to something else. Or they got started and said, Oh, that worked great. Now I need a new idea. Instead of realizing that, people encounter you at new times throughout your business life. So something you created three years ago, if it’s still evergreen material, if it’s still relevant, you can be purposeful, you can reuse it and get in front of brand new people. And your audience changes as your business changes. So when you get in front of those new people now, it’s a brand new opportunity, but it’s also a great untapped resource because suddenly it’s like you had this thing for years ago and now you can use it, and these are people who’ve never seen it before. It’s brand new for them, it’s a new aha moment for them and they love it. You don’t have to go and create something completely brand new.
Kim Sutton: I had, last summer, like 14 different opt-ins.
Kimberly Weitkamp: 14.
Kim Sutton: Yeah. And today, I have 3 because I realized, okay, this doesn’t go to any type of product that I want, it doesn’t go to any product because they don’t have one for it. I just had this idea, I wanted to build my list, but it’s sort of, yes, it was helping the people who opt-in, but in my mind? It didn’t feel good to me because I’m not leading them to anywhere better. Yes, they could get into my big bucket and like it, but I want them to know exactly what they’re getting in for, and I want it to be congruent with what they signed up for. So yeah, one of my three now, because I’ve become a lot more honest about who I am too. And I’d love to hear your thoughts about this because I think a lot of entrepreneurs feel like they need to have on their perfect face all the time when they actually don’t. But one of my giveaways is my next level weekly tracking spreadsheet. And I game — my week, I’m a gamer. I talk about productivity all the time, but when I have my time, I am a gamer. So I want to earn my experienced points, even in my business, and reach the next level entrepreneur. And now I’m sharing that. I mean, I have an obscene number of hours and steam from my favorite game. I will not disclose that number of hours at this present moment because it’s obscene.
Kimberly Weitkamp: You know what isn’t obscene? Because you’re running your business, you have time for your family, you have time for what you want to do, it’s something that you love. so I think it’s great that you’ve got that opportunity and that freedom to do that. But you know, I find that a lot of my clients feel that way. They feel like they always have to have their perfect face sign. And that’s kind of why part of everything I teach to my clients is, you have to be in your marketing. It has to be about you. Why? Because people are going to buy from those they know they can trust. And if they see your marketing, if it’s a social media post, if it’s an email, if it’s a podcast, whatever way they encounter you for that first time, and you’ve got one kind of persona, and then they end up working with you, whether that’s in a group program, in a course, one-on-one coaching, if they end up working with you, and the way you talk, the way you talk about things, the way you interact with people, that sense of humor they saw, if that’s not there, or if it’s completely different, or f it’s a disconnect, then it kind of breaks the trust with your audience. And so people, we have this idea of, Oh, there’s only one right way to do it. No, there’s not one right way to do it. The right way to do it is the way you do it. And the right way for you to market yourself is the marketing you will actually do, and making sure that you are in your marketing. I’m a big proponent if you have to be in your marketing, that has to be number one with the bullet points. Because if you’re not in your marketing, the miners would someone buy from you as opposed to somebody else. I don’t care what it is you do. There’s thousands of other people who do the same thing. And that’s great, because that means there are lots of people that need your help. But the reason I’m going to work with you instead of somebody else is because of the way you do it.
Kim Sutton: Absolutely. I love that. So a couple of weeks ago I had this person leave a comment on one of my YouTube videos saying: “You might want to be mindful because being a couple generations older than you, I was offended when you said pissed.” Okay, I really appreciate the feedback. I want to say that I really love the comment. However, pissed is like the most mild of, even in the expletive?
Kimberly Weitkamp: No, because in England it’s slang for being drunk.
Kim Sutton: Oh, yeah. I wasn’t drunk. Anyway–
Kimberly Weitkamp: No, I mean, it can mean angry. I don’t feel bad–
Kim Sutton: I was angry. But my mother probably wouldn’t appreciate that word either, but I could have used so many other words. For the longest time, I wouldn’t say brain fart because I was afraid of offending people, but it’s the language that I use every single day. And learning gazumped, I was afraid about saying learning gazumped because I was afraid people would think it was sexual. No, it’s like the [inaudible] that I get, yeah. I mean, the way I got it was because I was watching some type of training video in bed and I was like, Oh.
Kimberly Weitkamp: It builds the right picture in people’s heads. But you know, the question to ask then is, okay, if this woman’s a few generations older than you, is she your ideal client?
Kim Sutton: Right, exactly. Oh, I love that.
Kimberly Weitkamp: What’s it matter?
Kim Sutton: I just had to finish that story though. So my husband’s desk is in our bedroom and he hears me go, Oh. He turns around like, no, no, no, no. I’m watching a training video, I just learned something so cool. And then it was like, that’s a, or that’s chronic idea disorder at his best. I was like, Oh, my gosh, that’s a learning gazumped. I’m going to get t-shirts made. Thank you, by the way. I love one guest named their episode, so it’s going to be the golden thread of business with you. So going back to my number of hours in that game, I think I heard, and this number could be a little bit low, but I think I’ve heard that the average American spends four hours a day watching television.
Kimberly Weitkamp: Yeah. I think I’ve heard that, or that sounds familiar.
Kim Sutton: When you add that up as 1,460 hours, when I was looking down, I was doing math. Without my phone, that’s a challenge. Look at this, I mean, for those of you who are watching on YouTube, I mean, I actually did it with pen and paper. 1,460 hours a year, times five years that I’ve been playing this game is 7,305. Now, I do not have 7,305, I have less so right now I’m feeling pretty good about myself. It’s in the six thousands, but I played it with my family. So it’s family time.
Kimberly Weitkamp: There you go, it’s family bonding time. It’s one of those things where it’s like, well, where do you want to spend your time? I was just at an event and like half of the people were like, yeah, I don’t watch TV, I don’t watch TV, I don’t watch TV. And I’m like, that’s fine if that’s how you choose to spend your free time, but I’m not going to look down on somebody because they choose to spend their entertainment time watching TV. I mean, a lot of TV shows nowadays are based on books so it’s like, okay, it’s just a different medium to people to get good novels.
Kim Sutton: Yep. I spent a bit of time during the quarantine catching up on Grey’s Anatomy. I never watched when we had cable or had access to network television. So Netflix, I’ve made it through 12 seasons.
Kimberly Weitkamp: There’s that many now? I stopped watching.
Kim Sutton: There’s 16, but I’m on season 12 now. So a couple of hours or a couple episodes a week in six months, that adds up.
Kimberly Weitkamp: It does, it does add up.
Kim Sutton: But now I know what people are talking about. I mean, I never watched Sex and the City ever. I’m not going to start that now, but I always felt like I was missing something because everybody else had like the Sex and the City jokes. Or remember when Carrie did that? I’m like, okay, I know the characters names because I’ve heard these stories. Oh, you remind me of, so until on that show, I have no idea what you’re talking about.
Kimberly Weitkamp: Yeah. There’s always shows that it seems like everyone in the world is watching. I’m like, I’ve never watched Game of Thrones. And I remember Winter Is Coming when everyone’s talking, you know, Winter Is Coming, Winter Is Coming and I was like, okay, fine. But that’s not what I wanted to watch. So it’s not what I did watch.
Kim Sutton: I started on that. They were already on Season 6, morning to you. If you start, it’s highly addictive if it fits your personality,
Kimberly Weitkamp: See? That’s kind of what I think one of the reasons I avoided it because I was like, at this point in time, I don’t want to get into a show that I need to devote six years to, so I decided to not watch it, I think. And that’s been a thought process for a lot of things, you know? And then a couple of years later I may be like, alright, you know what? Now I’m looking for a new show where I can actually spend some time, so then I’ll be open to it. But right now, that’s not the case.
Kim Sutton: I want to know who is your ideal client?
Kimberly Weitkamp: So my ideal client is a person who’s looking to build a community around what they do. So I work with a lot of people who’ve got some really great ideas, especially in the work-life space. That’s what I really like. People who are doing stuff around productivity, around balancing your work and life, or integrating work and life, whatever you want to call it, and making sure to take care of yourself and your health as well as your business. So working with coaches who are looking to build a community around what it is that they’re doing, the difference that they’re making in the world, because I’m not interested in working with people who are like, yeah, I want to work with someone for like two months and then I don’t ever want to see them again. I think building a community is the best way for us to show up in the world and make an impact. And I want to work with people who are interested in not only getting new leads, because I feel so much marketing stuff out in the world is about leads, leads, leads, leads, leads, forgetting the fact that each of those leads is a person. And if you want to have them in your business, if you want them to become customers, you have to nurture them, you have to talk with them, you have to make them a part of what you do. So the best fit for me are people who have a group program or a course, and are looking to build a community around what they do. And usually, it’s in the world of entrepreneurs, work life balance, that kind of thing.
Kim Sutton: What’s your ideal client, Avatar 41 with five kids living in the Midwest?
Kimberly Weitkamp: So one of the things I teach, and I have a thing on the Audience Conversion Method, hence The Audience Converter is the name of my business. And the first pillar of that is the audience. And I tell people, you can have a gender and you can have an age if it’s important and relevant to what you do. So I don’t really have an age per se. I do tend to say, probably my ideal person’s over 30, just because there are someone who’s running their own business and they’ve been doing it for a little while. They have a product already. They have people who are happy with their work and are willing to share about it. And they’re ready to take that next step, systematize their marketing and like do it with a plan in place. So they tend to fall into that category. But I don’t really have that person who is like, Oh, they have to be X, Y, Z. I mean, sure. I could say somebody, my ideal, person’s probably mid to late 40’s. In this entrepreneurial world probably left corporate and decided they wanted to make a change and show up in the world. But you definitely fall into my ideal client, avatar, for sure. That is definitely something that would be the case. But you know, I want people to realize that when you’re talking about your ideal client, it’s not just an age and a gender. I meet so many people who it’s like, Oh, my ideal client is women who are 40 and looking to make a transition in their life. I’m like, that’s a really broad category. Or my favorite is, I coach women between the ages of 25 and 50. Okay.
Kim Sutton: And?
Kimberly Weitkamp: I’m like, you’ve just described half the planet, can we maybe narrow it down a little bit?
Kim Sutton: I’m not trying to be morbid here, but like widowed military wives were looking to shift their life now that they’ve lost their spouse, that is so specifically right in there.
Kimberly Weitkamp: It is specific, and it doesn’t have an age range, you’ll notice. But it is specific, it’s got a clear idea and there’s plenty of people that fall into that category of what you’re doing is going to help those people. So I tell people, put an age, put a gender last or not at all, because it’s so much more important that you know what is that problem that they’re experiencing, and how are you going to help them solve it?
Kim Sutton: What did you do before you became an entrepreneur? Or have you always been an entrepreneur?
Kimberly Weitkamp: I have not always been an entrepreneur, but I definitely don’t have a, and one of the things I talk about I think is there is no right path to becoming an entrepreneur. Like everyone has their own path. And I say, I have one of the most varied backgrounds that you can find, but then I find people who have way more of a varied background than me. I was one of those lucky people who graduated university during a recession. So I was like, well, I know exactly where I can get a job. I’ll go teach English in Spain, because I knew I could get hired. The requirements were to be a speaker, have a degree and apply early. So that’s what I did. I moved to Spain for a couple of years and did that. And then I got tired of that and I was looking for something new, and I heard about this program where you could go live in New Zealand and work and travel for a year. So I was like, okay, I’ll go do that. So I was a bartender, and I ran an accommodation in New Zealand for a year. And then I stumbled upon copywriting while doing that in travel writing so I was like, Oh, I like this. This is cool. This is so amazing. I’ve got so much potential with this thing. And I will never stop learning because I love learning. I wasn’t necessarily fond of school because school had like grades, and rules, and you could only get that very specific thing. But I love learning new things and I love being exposed to new things, that’s why I love to travel so much. So I kind of stumbled into copywriting. And while I was working 60 hours a week running an accommodation, I was also getting my copywriting training and certified in all my days off. So I definitely went all in, and as soon as I came back to the States and went to my first conference, I landed my first clients, and that was that,
Kim Sutton: Oh, that’s awesome. So I was an interior architect for a decade and lost my–
Kimberly Weitkamp: Interior architect, as opposed to an exterior architect.
Kim Sutton: Yup, yup. And I wrapped up my career designing schools and lost my job during the recession of 2008 hit. So we had a little wavy road after that, ended up rolling burritos at Chipotle where I was promptly kicked off the line because my burritos would fall apart. We had another little job in between that and this, but where I am in Ohio, it’s not exactly the make of interior design, but I also realized that wasn’t my calling. Just because I had a degree in it, didn’t mean that I had to stick with it. And I think that’s a little bit jarring for my family because when people in my family would choose careers, that’s what they would, or when they would choose majors, that was their lifelong career. That doesn’t work for me.
Kimberly Weitkamp: It doesn’t work for most people nowadays. I think they say, you’re going to get like five to seven careers in your life now.
Kim Sutton: But my oldest is a senior this year. My youngest are twins who are in kindergarten, deep breath, Kim.
Kimberly Weitkamp: Deep breath.
Kim Sutton: Yes. So he’s about to start applying to college and I’ve been having this discussion with him for a couple of years, what do you want to do? This first thing was accounting. And I said, why? Well, I heard they made good money. I said, well, you might want to talk to a few more people, but does that sound like something that would make you happy? Oh, I don’t know. Okay, then let’s think about this a little bit further. Because I’m not going to tell them to go become a doctor or a lawyer because I know, you know, they could make more, no way. My seven year old wants to have an ice cream truck. That is her career dream right now.
Kimberly Weitkamp: Great, cool.
Kim Sutton: Yeah.
Kimberly Weitkamp: Yeah. And it’s one of those things where it’s like, okay, is it? Yes, okay. You make more money, but you know? I know a couple of accountants and they’re like, yeah, I can’t do anything between the months of February and April though, because of tax season. So what’s that balance? Yes, you make more money. But do you have the time to enjoy that more money?
Kim Sutton: Yep. Yep. He’s also a gamer too. I’m like, okay, let’s, expand this. What could you do that would bring your passion in a little bit more? So he revised that, now he’s looking at Computer Engineering because he’d love to work on better components for computers that gamers use to work better. Like there you go, dude.
Kimberly Weitkamp: That’s pretty cool.
Kim Sutton: Yeah. He’s like, I want to build a better graphics card. I’m like, okay. That, you understand that you can stand behind and you can use what you make. Kim, I’d love to know where people can find you online, the best way to connect with you and all that great stuff.
Kimberly Weitkamp: Absolutely. So you can find me at theaudienceconverter.com, don’t forget the, T-H-E, theaudienceconverter.com. And I’m on LinkedIn, I’m on Facebook, those are pretty much my places right now. I also have the podcast, The Audience Converter Podcasts, you can hear more about me talking about marketing and going on rants there. And I have a gift for your people, if that’s okay?
Kim Sutton: Oh, I’d love.
Kimberly Weitkamp: So if you go to theaudienceconverter.com/giveaway, we’ve talked a lot about being yourself in your marketing and how important that is, and I actually lay out how to create emails that help you do that, help you be yourself, and a couple of other guidelines to make sure that you can start building that community. That is going to be the driving force behind your message and what you’re doing.
Kim Sutton: Amazing. Now, listeners, if you are driving, trying not to burn dinner, don’t want to fall off the elliptical, what have you, you can go to thekimsutton.com/pp675 and you’ll be able to find all the links. All of Kim’s social media links, theaudienceconverter.com/giveaway, I got that right, right?
Kimberly Weitkamp: Yes, you did.
Kim Sutton: All of those links plus a transcript, everything and more will be right there. So again, thekimsutton.com/pp675 do not try to go there while you are driving, please.
Kimberly Weitkamp: Please, no.
Kim Sutton: Yeah. That’s one of the things, having a senior who’s working on his license and a freshman who wants to get his as soon as he can, that’s like the scariest thing for me, so just don’t do it. Okay, listeners, I want you to be listening for years to come. Kim, this has been amazing. Thank you, I mean, I’m working on my community right now. I love what we talked about. I thank you for the tagline, or the tagline idea for my challenge. And listeners, I would also love to hear what inspired you so make sure to go over to that page and leave a comment below the show notes.
Kimberly Weitkamp: Thank you, Kim, so much for the invite. It’s been so much fun talking with you today.
Kim Sutton: You too, do you have a parting piece of advice or a golden nugget that you can leave listeners with?
Kimberly Weitkamp: Absolutely. We’ve talked about this before, but no one else can be you. You are uniquely you, so you need to be you and your marketing. Your marketing is you, you are your marketing. Your marketing is your business and you are your business to make sure that you are you in your marketing.
