Ep292: Kathleen Ann – Think Twice Before Leaving Your 9 to 5 Job

Andrew Stotz 00:04
Hello fellow risk takers and welcome to my worst investment ever stories of loss to keep you winning. In our community we know that winning investing you must take risk but to win big, you've got to reduce it. This episode is sponsored by a Stotz Academy which offers online courses that help investors, aspiring professionals, business leaders and even beginners to improve the finances of their lives and their businesses. Go to my worst investment ever.com right now to claim your discount on the course that excites you the most fellow risk takers This is your worst podcast host Andrew Stotz. And I'm here with featured guest, Kathleen and Kathleen, are you ready to rock?

Kathleen Ann 00:46
I'm ready and willing.

Andrew Stotz 00:49
Let's do it. Well, I'm gonna introduce you to the audience, Katelyn and is a corporate escapee. And she's known as the money and marketing champion for heart centered women entrepreneurs. And unlike men, She is the founder of power up your marketing and holds multiple money and marketing coach certifications. Kathleen works with service base women business owners to help them create and grow financially successful businesses based around their passion and unique brilliance, or marketing expertise and insight have helped women around the world to stand out and position themselves as the experts in their field, as well as move away from charging by the hour and package and price their services instead. So they can charge what they're worth, and get it. Kathleen, take a moment and fill any further tidbits about your life.

Kathleen Ann 01:45
Okay, thanks so much for that introduction, tidbits about my life Well, I've got a lot less on the calendar than I had. I'm getting down the track a little. So I'd like to think that I have a quite some wisdom. And year along the way that obviously included some things around business and personal growth. I have two adult children and I have nine grandchildren. So I figured I did something right, as a parent,

Andrew Stotz 02:16
there's some wisdom there.

Kathleen Ann 02:18
My children must have got excited about the idea of parenting. And anyway, that's a nice stage of life to be in. And also to be having been a young mum and young age friend, Mum, that got me the time really to be able to invest time in my business, but as well as you know, time to play around a little, um,

Andrew Stotz 02:40
I'll tell you a story about a young mom, my mother, she got, she got married when she was 22, my dad, and they got married in Virginia. And there's a funny story about that, because my dad was from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, kind of from the north. And he was put he was down in Virginia to get the marriage started, get the marriage certificate and all that. And so her father and she and my dad went down to get the certificate. And her father had to go because the law was you needed parent parental approval if you're under 21. But luckily for my mom and dad, her father, who I called pop was there because my dad didn't have any money. And he asked to borrow $2 that it required back then in 1958 or so to get the marriage license. And so that's a funny story that we tell we my mom was just telling it the other day. And so yes, she married very young. I mean, when you think about it nowadays with people getting married, you know, 2528 30 Look at me, I'm 55 and still not married. You say hopeless?

Kathleen Ann 03:51
Well, you never know, like some people do think would be better to be having some life before you get into having the family life and then vice versa, and really doesn't matter.

Andrew Stotz 04:02
It all comes out the same. Exactly. Well, what I always say is I skipped my first marriage. Anyways, well, now that we know a little bit about you, I'm just curious. You know, let's just talk briefly about this concept. I mean, one of the things I find interesting about what we talked about before, and also what we talked about in your bio is the idea of charging what you're worth. You mean people don't charge what they're worth? Why is that? And I think I'm guilty of that, you know, for sure. Maybe you could just give some insight on how you help people think about that

Kathleen Ann 04:39
show and, and it's one of the things I had to learn for myself. Coming out of corporate I had a really well paid position. You know, I had the corner office, the company car, and all that salary that went with it. And when I went out on my own and that's a story up on its own. I'll tell you about that. In a minute, when I did that, and I actually had to charge for my services, instead of just getting my monthly salary no matter what I did really get some bonuses because I did it well, but actually asking somebody to pay you, the individual, for the work that you deliver, when you haven't had that experience. That was quite challenging. And I realized, I had some limiting beliefs around that I really didn't believe that I could earn for my on my own account, what I was paid for when I was an employee. And then at some point, so what's wrong with this picture? Why? Why would I think that I made millions, probably billions by now for the companies I've worked for, why wouldn't I be worth paying myself that? Me meaning Why wouldn't I ask to be paid for that. So that was one of the things that got me thinking down that track about money mindset. And particularly for women, you know, we haven't actually had money of our own, go back to my mom's generation, my mother worked, but her mother never worked. So women didn't even have a job a little on income, if they had money, and they got married, you that usually went with the goods and chattels you just went along with it, and that you no longer had control. So there's a lot of baggage around that for women. So because we inherit all this, you know, truly the beliefs that we hold in any manner. inherited, we don't usually challenge them unless something comes up. And we can actually look and think, where did that come from? So it often just comes from the and then I think, you know, with all these grandchildren, what am I sending forward? What are my grandchildren observing and hearing around money. So that's part of it, unnecessarily other part of it is just the just the way people are set up in the marketplace. And that's the other part of what I help people do is get market ready. If you're not known as the specialist in your field, how can you charge top dollar, you can do just a generalist and you're a commodity, and you can be shopped around. And that's what happens when people ask, and how much do you charge, they often mean by that hour, because that's the way we were paid as employees by the time. And if you're charging by the time, then I'm letting you know, right now your income is limited, you cannot earn what you're worth, if you're being paid by the hour. So that's the other part I help people structure themselves with the products and services in the marketplaces, the specialist, and then streamline everything so that what they're doing is based on the outcome, and that's what people will pay for, if they've got a problem. And you don't solve it, they have to find somebody else who will. And where you can boy owners. Yeah, if you're known as the go to guy for that one, they'll queue up because your reputation is there. And then it gets easier and easier. And, you know, to when you get more clients, you know, praising you, it's time to raise your prices here even more specialist thing you were no better it gets, the better it gets.

Andrew Stotz 08:26
It's a you know, the thing you're talking about made me that's what I gave a speech in Indonesia. And I was I talked about an online course that I teach about how to start building your wealth investing in the stock market. And there was a group of young people that came to corner me at the end of that, and they said, We don't understand why you gave away, you know, everything in this course or you know, what, why would you do that? You know, and, and I said, knowledge is almost worthless these days. I said, and they're like Why? And I said, just look at it this way. How many books are there about losing weight? So is the world skinny? No, we have an obesity epidemic. It is the transformation or the outcome that really makes the difference. So information is part of it. And knowing the path to go is part of it. But helping people get down that path is what people really will pay for. I know I will pay for it. I think everybody listening would pay for that. And the quicker the better. Yeah, I mean, if you can help me to avoid the mistakes that you made along the way, you know, that's so valuable. So yeah,

Kathleen Ann 09:37
yep. And this is the issue, isn't it? To be aware that there's so much free stuff on the internet, and that's what people say, you know, they could buy a book, they could do this, they could do that, but it won't solve the problem. And really what they looking for is that as you say that expert who's can take them down that path

Andrew Stotz 10:00
Hmm, great. Well, I like what you have to say. And for those people that also like, make sure you go to power up your marketing.com. And in there, you can learn, you know, and see some of the opportunities, you can have to connect with Kathleen and try to see if her services fit for you. So, now it's time to share your worst investment ever. And since no one ever goes into their worst investment, thinking it will be tell us a bit about the circumstances leading up to it. And then tell us your story

10:32
is that obviously, I've

Kathleen Ann 10:35
had more than one mistake in my life. But this one is applicable, I think, to what we're speaking of here. And I have been working in my corporate role. As I said, I had a really good position, I had a great career in direct response marketing. And that was really selling insurance and banking products through third party intermediaries. So big, massive databases and, you know, charging by credit card and cachinga Ching, that was a very lucrative thing to do at the time. And it was a long time back. And it was the first of its kind in Australia. So while I was in on the ground floor, that which is where I got my reputation and my experiences. And I've had 20 years in that industry. And the most recent company I was with, I was there for seven years. And then I get what I got what I call the don't come Monday invitation. So for those who haven't had one of those, it's a year times out. And we call it retrenchment here in Australia. And I think there's different names around the world. But basically, I got laid off. And I was going overseas the following week. And I was very happy about not coming back to that job because I'd really lost interest in the corporate arena pretty much. And I paid around Europe for about five weeks and came back and bought a set of golf clubs. So I played around some more literally deciding what to do. And here came my biggest mistake, I had a nice payout in my recurring retrenchment package. So I figured that I had such a skill and expertise and reputation and experience in everything that it made total sense that I hang out a consultant shingle in start my business consulting to exactly the same type of company that just asked me to. And that was, like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic because suddenly, my income was wildly up and down. When it was up, it was great, because I was getting some good gigs with some big companies like here in Australia, the Commonwealth Bank, and what happened, I needed them to resource it, I was a solopreneur. And this was the thing I had begun to build a business of a model that I didn't want, it was a nightmare. And I didn't wake up in the middle of it. So the nightmare was feast or famine income, and either working around the clock or twiddling my thumbs waiting for the phone to ring and seeking on pointment to get another gig. So what that picture did for me, and it took me a while to wake up from this nightmare, it was a recurring nightmare. And by the time I sort of came to my senses and thought, What's wrong with this picture? And that's, that's when I really had to change what I was doing because it obviously wasn't suiting. And and for all the reasons I just said that I was dwindling. Not only the payout that I got on a lift the company, but the money was being paid along the way only carried me so far to the next gig. So there was no no leveraging, there was nothing that I could be comfortable that I had a working model, business model. So what I ended up having to do for myself, was really found another model. Got it.

Andrew Stotz 14:17
So tell us the lessons that you learned from that.

Kathleen Ann 14:22
Don't do that, again, was one lesson.

14:26
The lesson actually, the

Kathleen Ann 14:27
lesson I learned was because of the choice I then made, knowing what I knew then, and knowing that I really needed a different business model. And I'd been on the web and pedaling along and I clicked on a testimonial but one of the people that I was doing a program with had on his website, and it was a lady in the States. She was running a three day program about branding. And I thought, Oh, that's that's a good idea. I need to rebrand and Part of that rebranding was refocusing to the niche that I wanted to work with, and all those bigger, bigger questions. So I got excited when I read this testimonial, and my husband was just beside me somewhere in it. And I went, Wow, this is amazing. I said, This woman's talking my talk, it's just wood. Sounds fantastic. And he said, Those three magic words, you should go. So I just went, Wow, I ought to go. It was just one of those things as a bit of an epiphany. And I thought there's something here for me. So two weeks later, I actually flew to the States. And I went several times, because I eventually took certifications. They didn't exist when I first went, but I continued to ask what they create them, because I wanted to use all the stuff that was working so well for me with my clients in my new niche. So over time, I added the second one about the money mindset, because that's what happened. When I realized I could coach people, I could get the market ready, if they didn't get out of the driveway, because they didn't believe that they were worthy, or that they could excel in what they were doing. And it was all to deal with mindset. So that's where the money and the marketing comes in, which is what I say I've had to learn all this stuff for myself. And then when Wow, there's all these people who really need this help. And that would, that would just and that has given me a lot of pleasure and joy. And I love what I do. I love the people that I get to work with and help. And if I can short circuit the journey that I took thankful as I am, because that's what I did learn is how to fix it for myself, but then how to help other people.

Andrew Stotz 16:49
Yeah, I mean, let me summarize this a couple of things that I took away from that. The first one is I want to tell you a story about one of my businesses, my business partner, Dale, we have a coffee factory in he basically, you know, ran that it's in Thailand, he was a friend from when we were in junior high, actually, in Ohio. And then he came to see me in Thailand, and then we decided to set up this business 25 years ago. And he always joked that it particularly in the early days, you know, he would get a call at the factory. And he pick up the phone and they'd say, I'd like to start to the human resource department. And he'd say, one moment, you put down the phone, and then you pick it back up and say this is the human resource department. And then another time someone called me said, I'd like to talk to the accounting department. And he said, At one moment, he put down a phone and he picked it out. So this is the accounting department. And that's the reality of what we don't realize, when we think about running a business, you know, we go from a job to a business and a business is all of a sudden you realize that, wow, that Job had a huge amount of infrastructure in place. That allowed me to add that value. You know, if I need a new people, I could call the human resource department, if I needed, you know, more resources here, there is a little bit tweak in the advertising, I go to the marketing department, you know, but none of that exists in the small business.

Kathleen Ann 18:15
And you can send to a well I don't know, but an email or a text and say, do this. So it wasn't only that back resources, but even technology. And I'm trying to improve my relationship with technology, but we were not getting along as well as we hoped.

Andrew Stotz 18:33
Yeah, just picturing sending an email to yourself. Do this

18:38
is

Andrew Stotz 18:39
Yeah. So the second thing is that for most people, when they think of being an entrepreneur, you know, they have big dreams, what they end up is they end up with a job with the risk. When you have a job at your work, you know, you don't have the risk of the company going, you know, and all of this coming down on you. You're just an employee, but all of a sudden you end up sometimes you end up in a situation where you're an employee of your own company and you're bearing all the risk and you're living the same, you know, lifestyle as and nothing

Kathleen Ann 19:12
changed, except you're now the one at risk as you're saying that's so that's so true. And I think particularly if you get into the stage where you take on employees, then you've got that responsibility on top. That's why I wanted to be and still am a solopreneur I outsource things, but I and I love people but I don't want to manage them. I manage my corporate career with a VA and I bought Timpson and ran my campaigns, big campaigns and then sent them off, got them back next time around. So I knew that I didn't want that structure. yet. I still went down that rabbit hole because I didn't really know or think about it and I created a business that needed all that structure.

Andrew Stotz 19:56
Yep. And we were seduced. We are deduced at times now I want you to think about and for the listeners out there, I want you also to be thinking about this, you know, I know that a lot of the listeners are in jobs, they may not be satisfied with those jobs, they may know that, hey, it's tough time, I may lose this job. And they get it in their mind that they want to start their own business, and they're going to just leave corporate and they don't realize the realities that you've taught us today. So I'm going to preface this with that. But here comes the question, based on what you learned from this story and what you continue to learn what one action would you recommend our listeners, meaning the people I just described, take to avoid suffering the same fate?

Kathleen Ann 20:41
Hmm, I wish somebody asked me that question back into Andrew. Because had I had I thought about that. And I would say to them now, as I, as I wished I was told then is find somebody who has done what you want to do, has the type of business that you want to have, and hire them to help you pay now or pay later. That's what I learned. Because I pay it all along the way, trying to resolve the issues I came up with until I finally and you know, you if you are not prepared to invest in yourself, then stay in your job that I'm sorry, if I've given you two tips there, but you, you have to invest in yourself. And when I was in corporate invested in me, they sent me for all sorts of training and different things that I had their budget personal development stuff as well. So you must do that for yourself. If you're going to maintain you know, the right really to run a business, run your business. So find somebody who's done what you

21:53
want to do

Kathleen Ann 21:54
talk to them. And if they are willing and ready, hi him or her,

Andrew Stotz 22:00
I wrote down something, a little twist on what you said, and that is pay now, or pay now and pay later. You can pay now with low sales, and you know, you're gonna do it on your own. And if you survive, you're gonna have to pay later

Kathleen Ann 22:18
to pay anyway. Yeah. And you know, the thing I think people don't realize, too, Andrew is that, you know, if you go to university, you have to pay for all of that. And then you have to do whatever you're going to do, it might be a job, or it might be a business. But you do have to invest in yourself, unless you back in the day here in Australia used to be free, but now they hit you up with all sorts of Pennell abilities. And financially, you're behind the eight ball for your start. But that's what you're doing, really, when you're investing in building a business like that you're investing in yourself in your future. And it's the last opportunity, the last opportunity that costs the most it's not the investment you make to do things the correct way. It's fiddling around in the meanwhile, and that could be yours. And that could be a lot of money that never gets totaled up and put down to the fact that you didn't invest up front. And you didn't wised up and take advantage because nowadays there are a lot of people, I think back when I started 30 years ago, I don't think I had people around me then that. And in Australia, particularly coaching wasn't a known thing, then you can

Andrew Stotz 23:30
podcast me I think about how many podcasts I listened to. And I'm like, wow, that was valuable. I mean, we had books, obviously, in the old day. Yeah. So yeah, there's so many resources. The podcast

Kathleen Ann 23:45
is where you get into like, what we're chatting now. It's very personal, this dialogue, and we're just having a conversation. I hope it's useful to people who are listening, but that's all we're doing. We're just having a chat about what history's been and what we've learned. And hopefully it does mean that people can take something out of that and, and, and, and I trust that I have done that today.

Andrew Stotz 24:10
Yes, I think you've done very well. So last question. What's your number one goal for the next 12 months?

Kathleen Ann 24:16
Oh, number one goal? So I'll tell you the little quick story about back in the day when I was in corporate and they gave me the commander invitation. And I said to them, okay, I'm happy thanks for the money honey. I said those exact words. I immediate report was getting a bit teary and I said, I'm not unhappy. I'm very happy. So I said thanks for the money honey. I'm out of here. And one of the things about that was

24:46
my train of thought.

24:50
Where were we

Andrew Stotz 24:53
now I've lost mine too.

Kathleen Ann 24:58
Oh dia. Um, Wasn't that finding somebody wasn't it to?

Andrew Stotz 25:03
Yeah, I'm trying to remember now, man, now we're both. Well, we may have to come back to that. I'm sure we're gonna get that by the time we get to the end. So the next 12 months, what we were talking about is we were saying that Oh, you are telling the story about what was that you because you told me earlier now we're both stuck. Well, why don't we do this, we'll close out the show. And then we'll come back to that, and I think we're gonna be able to remember it. So listeners, there you have it another story of loss to keep you winning. Remember to go to my worst investment ever.com to claim your discount on the course. that excites you the most. As we conclude, Kathleen, I want to thank you again for coming on the show. And on behalf of a Stotz Academy, I hereby award you alumni status for turning your worst investment ever into your best teaching moment. Do you have any parting words for the audience?

Kathleen Ann 26:10
Good luck with your endeavors.

Andrew Stotz 26:13
Absolutely. And that's a wrap on another great story to help us create, grow and most importantly, protect our well fellow risk takers. This is your worst podcast host Andrew Stotz saying I'll see you on the other side.