Stop Playing Small: The Power of Authentic Business Growth with Kimber King of Moksha Health & Wellness

0:02Kimber King:Hi, and welcome to this week's episode of the Epic Entrepreneurs Podcast, where we are all about helping business owners just like you achieve success. So we don't do fancy smancy. We don't do flashing lights. We don't do a lot of things that a lot of podcasts will do. These are just real stories about real people and their entrepreneurial and business experiences. as we go into their wins, their challenges, and their learnings. So we hope you enjoy it. All right, welcome back, everyone, to this week's episode of Epic Entrepreneurs. I am Cliff McRae, filling in for Bill Gilliland with your local business training and coaching firm, Atching Coast Business Growth Partners.

0:45I'm excited to have Kimber King with Moksha Health and Wellness as the focus for our Epic Entrepreneurs podcast episode today. So Kimber, please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about yourself and your company and what primary products or services you offer our community. Yeah, thanks for having me, Cliff. Really excited to chat with you today. So I'm a holistic health coach. What that basically means, if anyone's unfamiliar, is instead of using pharmaceutical surgery, the Western medicine route, we use diet, lifestyle, herbs, self-care, stress management, and really take this just proactive approach to health instead of just putting a band-aid on the symptoms.

1:25So the main way that I work with clients now is actually in a year-long course, which might sound crazy, but I was finding I used to work with clients one-on-one and they needed more consistency than just meeting once a month and hearing something once. They needed to hear it over and over again way more frequently and they needed more accountability, you know, instead of just a few days before they knew they had an appointment with me. Oh my gosh, I got to start taking those herbs again. You know, it was seeing these folks weekend and week out really holding each other to really high standards and community makes such a big difference as well.

2:02Healing together with people with similar values that really want the same thing. And so it's been a blast to hang out with a group of fiery women in this year long container. Yeah, no, I love it. I love it. I actually do. I'm kind of a holistic person myself as far as, you know, herbs and stuff like that. I'm big on, you know, rather than taking, you know, prescription from a doctor, hey, what can I use that's natural that can get me the same effect? So I'm big on that too. So yeah. So getting into that, if you had to start your business from square one, what would you do differently? Oh, such a good question.

2:40I think there's kind of a lot of like tangible, practical answers, but I think they can all be summed up in just a bigger picture answer of be less afraid of failure. I definitely played small and kept my voice small and tried not to ruffle any feathers and didn't take any risks and just all for the sake of keeping myself in this zone where I knew things would work and things would succeed. And while that might have been true, it definitely hindered growth and expansion and any of the things that actually make business really exciting and meaningful and also part of your own spiritual growth. So yeah, like I knew to have an email list and have an Instagram and work on my marketing, but my messaging was very bland and cookie cutter.

3:29And I didn't put any effort into, yeah, making things like pretty and like the graphic design and all of that was just all over the place. Like branding was not a thing that I knew was important. And yeah, just like really finding a way to connect with a really specific niche. I was trying to be everything for everybody. And as a result, got nobody from that. So yeah, I mean, gosh, I feel like looking back at my path of entrepreneurship, it's just like, it started as throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing a whole bunch of stuff that didn't stick. And then being resilient enough to be like, okay, I've tried so many things that didn't work.

4:09there's got to be something in here that makes sense what is it so yeah okay so you probably had a lot like like you said you had an email list and you probably had a lot of people you were sending out emails and probably a lot of people were like yeah probably don't want to read that right because it didn't stand out as much is that what you're saying yeah yeah yeah and so the type of holistic health coaching that I do it comes from ancient India and the tradition is called Ayurveda and I think I also learned that as soon as people are confused like they just tune out. And so I've actually stopped calling my business Ayurveda and it's gone way better, even though that's still the knowledge and my training and my experience and my own holistic health journey stems from that particular school of thought.

4:53Just making it more relatable to real people's stories and real people's struggles instead of trying to explain what Ayurveda is and why they need it and how it's going to help them, like skip all of that and just go to the part where people say, okay, I have brain fog, fatigue, joint pain, weight gain. Can you help me with it? Like they don't care so much about like this cool ancient tradition from India. They're just like, tell me what to do. Cause I want to get out of this discomfort and get out of this pain. Yeah. Yeah. They just want to know how do you, how do I lose the weight? How do I do this?

5:27How do I do that? Gotcha. So whatever your biggest learnings been as an owner, since you started your business, what have been the biggest things you've learned? I think it's kind of taking that question that you asked before and turning it on its head of, okay, I know what doesn't work. So the opposite is what did work, which is being bold in my messaging, being authentic in my messaging, speaking to a really particular audience instead of trying to be everything for everyone. Like now I know my people of three things. So they're women, they're this like fire hearted, driven, determined, go getter, get stuff done, make stuff happen, like get out of her way because she is in charge type of lady.

6:10And they also are faith fueled. And so I think just coming out and being transparent about my faith also was terrifying, but actually really just instrumental and positive for my own relationship with God, my own relationship with my business, and then my relationship with my customers as well. So yeah, just being not being afraid to like say the thing. And yes, that means that some people are going to unfollow you and some people are going to leave your email list. And I had heard all of that advice before listening to podcasts or reading blogs or YouTube videos about business. But I never actually took it to heart and implemented it.

6:50And once I did, that made a really, really big difference. And also, I think just entrepreneurship is hard. We're kind of sold this idea of like, well, you can just take your laptop and work from wherever and go take a vacation and spend a week at a beach resort. And it's like, no, no, no. You are the only one. You're the one that does the marketing and the sales and the accounting and the customer service and the troubleshooting and the figuring out what technology platforms you should use. Like, it's not for the faint of heart. And so I think if people are considering entrepreneurship because they think it's going to make their life easy, that's absolutely the wrong motivation to start your own business unless you just want to pay someone else to run it for you.

7:33So, yeah, I have that fire heart and I like the work and the grit and the determination. So leaning into that and then not getting overwhelmed and getting burnt out and running myself into the ground. So I've had to learn like how to maintain my own energy. But then I can teach that to my clients as well. Yeah, yeah. You kind of answered the next two questions here with that answer. Let's dig into it a little bit more. So obviously, other than what you said, that common misconception, what other common misconceptions about running a business have you dealt with? Um, I kind of thought that my because I have that work ethic, where I can just get so much done in such a short amount of time, I assumed, well, if I just work hard enough, I will be rewarded.

8:19And that was totally untrue. It's like, yeah, you have to be able to work hard, but you have to be able to work hard on the right things. And so much for me starting out was figuring out what the right things are. Like I had all the drive, but it wasn't in the right direction yet. And so, yeah, I think just also not being so prideful as to think you have to do it all on your own, like get good mentors, get good help earlier on. So you're not wasting as much time just throwing the spaghetti at the wall. And I'm hoping that's what folks do when they reach out to action coaching is saying, okay, I don't know everything yet, but there are people out there that can help me know the right things.

8:58Yeah, no, you're exactly right. You're exactly right. So, and I know I already know where you're going to go with this one here, but I'm going to ask it anyways. Do you think you're a better entrepreneur or employee and why? Definitely an entrepreneur, even though it's scary at times. I mean, when you're a really, really hard worker, trading time for money doesn't make sense because if you get more done in an hour than the average purses gets done, there's not necessarily reward for that. Like maybe if you worked in sales or something like that, where it's commission based and you're like earning your own way.

9:34But for me, I mean, before this, I had a corporate nine to five and me having a hard work ethic just got me, you know, pats on the back and atta girls. And that doesn't really help too much at the end of the day. Like once you take your pride and your ego out of it and you're like, okay, that was nice to receive that compliment, but really it wasn't helping anything. And so I love also just the freedom and the flexibility of getting to make your own schedule. So it's like, yes, I still work just as much, if not more, but I can decide when that is and I can figure out what projects I want to prioritize.

10:08Like there's just, there's a lot more autonomy and that's just a value of mine, just as a person, that's really, really important. And being an entrepreneur lends itself to so much more autonomy than being an employee for someone else. So I mean, I could have stayed at my nine to five corporate job for a really long time and been really good at it, but it would have felt, I guess it would have felt complacent. It would have felt easy. Whereas entrepreneurship definitely is scary and challenging, but I have to welcome that challenge and that growth and pushing me to new edges because that's good for me as a human, mentally, spiritually, all the things.

10:49Okay. Okay. So how do you handle taking vacations while running a business? Yeah. Basically, I just try and make sure that financially I'm going to be okay and then take the time off and just assume I'm not going to make any money while I'm gone. So just some planning ahead of time. And because in the health and wellness space, you know, there are clients that could say, oh, yeah, I have a question about my herbs or like I want to reach out. I'll find a peer that has similar levels of training that I do. And I'll tell all my clients like, hey, well, I'm out of office. If you have a question, if there's something urgent, like here's someone you can reach out to that will be able to answer those more health related questions.

11:34And really, really grateful to just have a really awesome group of people around me that I can rely on and ask for that help and that support when I need it. And I mean, that maybe fits into some of the other questions that you've asked too, but just having community as an entrepreneur makes a huge difference because it can feel kind of lonely. Like you're just working by yourself on your laptop all the time. I don't know if that's others' experience, but it definitely was for me at times. And so finding networking groups and finding business groups and finding folks that either are in your industry or have similar values that you can just talk shop and ask questions and bounce ideas off of.

12:13I think that just makes a really, really big difference. And just keeping your morale up the times when it's challenging or hard or you've just thrown a big batch of spaghetti at the wall and seen nothing from it. Okay. So now you did say something about networking groups. Are there any networking groups that you'd like to highlight in particular? Sure. I am a big fan of BNI, Business Networking International. And so I know a couple other folks that have been featured on this show. Maya Pataki from Carolina Outdoor Lighting. Calvin Denny from Carolina Mountain, Atlas Mountain Contractors. Yeah, just building relationships.

12:53You know, you can't go into networking just thinking, how many business cards can I hand out or what am I looking to get out of this? It really has to be almost like speed dating, I guess. You go into a room full of crowded people and you just figure out, OK, who's my people? Like, who am I drawn to? Who do I have a connection to? Who would I just legitimately want to go get coffee with after this is over? And then when you care about someone, you naturally want to pour into their business and support them and help them however you can. So it doesn't feel forced or transactional. So that's a big one.

13:24I used to really love to go to Flourish of Asheville. but unfortunately that one has stopped meeting. So I'm actually kind of looking for just women only small business owners around in Asheville that could take that one's place. Cause that one was really, really great. Shout out to Missy Fritsch and her coaching business for running that one. Nice. Nice. So yeah. And I'm not sure how you're going to answer this, but how do you balance your personal life with the demands of running a business? Are you kind of a 6 PM, 7 PM? Hey, I'm done for the day. I'm not taking any calls. I'm not doing anything else.

13:58Or do you kind of work around the clock? How do you handle that? Great question, because this is kind of what I teach a little bit in my course. So if I'm catering to these driven, go-getter, fire-hearted women, we can all very easily tend towards just working all the time because that's what we're good at. That comes easily to us. That feels productive, which makes us feel good. And so So the things that I've learned, I pass directly on to my clients. So yeah, I think you absolutely have to have a boundary, have a hard stop, because especially if you have that like go-getter mindset, it's very easy to blur the lines and say, oh, I'm just going to do this one other thing.

14:37It won't take me longer. I'm just going to send this one other email or I'm just going to do this. And so, yeah, I actually instruct clients to kind of bookend your day. Like when does your workday start and when does it end and have some sort of practice, whether it's a breathing exercise or, you know, I have a lot of background in the yogic tradition. So lying in Shavasana, just taking a rest at the end of the day, doing your exercise, something that just kind of turns you from that on to off mode. And it's really a skill that you actually have to work on being able to flip that switch from on to off when the default is just on, on, on.

15:15So I think something else is just asking for accountability, maybe from the people that you live with or however you spend your evenings. And so for me, my husband is super great for that. He just like relaxes my nervous system, says, hey, put the work away. Let's connect. Let's make dinner. And it's just over time, like that neural pathway becomes stronger and stronger and stronger where it's easy to make that choice of like, oh, right, this is my routine. I come home. We make dinner. I can relax. I can set work down. But sometimes it requires a little more finagling than that. Like sometimes you have to really just like tire yourself out enough in a day mentally and physically for your body to be able to say, okay, it's time to actually relax and turn off and I can feel good about that.

16:03And so I have some also some herbal remedies that I can recommend to folks, like I said, from the yoga perspective, some really amazing breathing exercises, like no one should ever doubt the ability of your breath to regulate your nervous system makes a huge difference. And then faith comes into it as well. You know, just trust your higher power with the to-do list that is undone, that it's going to be okay that those things are left undone because there's always going to be a to-do list. So making peace with the fact that it's there instead of letting it own you and realizing your to-do list is not the most important thing in the world, which we can sometimes place too much emphasis there.

16:44I think that really, really helps as well. Yeah. And there's always tomorrow, right? Exactly. Yeah. It'll be there. It's not going anywhere. So we're going to go ahead and head into what's called the quickfire round. So what this is, I'm going to ask you, I'm going to say one word. And basically, when you hear that one word, I want you to give me the first idea that pops into your head when it comes in regards to running your business. Okay. You're like, oh, gosh, what am I getting into? Education. Necessary. Now, your response doesn't have to be one word. Oh, OK. I thought I only got one word to answer.

17:23OK. No, no, no. Now, let's go ahead and do that again. So education. Necessary. And I don't think that means that you, you know, have to have a bachelor's degree or an MBA to run your business. But by the very qualities of owning and running a business, it requires that you constantly be learning and open to learning. And if you're just doing the same things the same old way without being able to understand what has happened before and maybe wanting to do things differently in the future, I mean, you're never going to grow. You're going to stay stagnant. And that's boring and unhelpful. So, yeah, seeking out resources and help and mentors and trainings and all of that, I think is incredibly useful as well, as long as you're not using that as a crutch and procrastination to not actually build your business until you're quote unquote ready, because you're never going to feel 100 percent ready.

18:13there's always going to be some part that scares you. So you just kind of have to jump, kind of have to go for it. And you can figure out what you don't know along the way and learn it. But being willing to learn feels absolutely necessary. I love that answer. That's awesome. Next word is planning.

18:33But to be honest, the first word that popped into my head was annoying. But I guess I could dive into that a little bit. I mean, similar to education, maybe I wonder if there will be a theme that comes up across my answers that, yes, you need to plan, but you also have to be prepared for the plan to change. So it's finding this middle ground, kind of like what I said for education. I mean, you can't wait until you're perfectly ready and have all the degrees and all the certificates and all the trainings you could possibly ever need. But at the same time, you don't want to just go in foolhardy and blind.

19:06I think it's the same for planning. You don't want to just procrastinate by planning and taking all of your time figuring out, what about this? And what about this? And what if this and planning for every possible contingency that likely will never happen. But at the same time, if you just totally fly by the seat of your pants and don't have any plan, that probably won't work either. So I think it's got to be somewhere in the middle. So I probably do less, I would guess, than most entrepreneurs do. But kind of knowing what is my plan this week? What is my plan this month? What is my plan this quarter.

19:44And I have like very, very rough ideas of that. But if you're a person that's kind of just been flying on autopilot or not really engaged with any of the metrics of your business, I mean, leaning into planning and knowing some of the intricacies could probably be really beneficial and helpful. Inspiration. Beautiful. I find that with us fire hearted folks, where sometimes, and this isn't true of everyone, just broad generalization here, we're sometimes more of the workhorse and the doers and the executors. And we're not so much the dreamers and the ideas and the what if, you know, 30 ,000 foot view.

20:26And so when I feel genuinely inspired by something, that doesn't happen all the time, I guess, in that kind of like creative, fresh, new ideas way. And so, yeah, I take that as a gift and run with it, but know that I have systems and discipline that will keep me going when even when I don't feel all of the just rainbows and butterflies inspired by my business. But in general, since I've switched to the year long model, it is really inspiring. Like every group call that I have with my ladies, I just think, wow, this is so amazing. This is the way I want to show up. This is the way that actually gets people to the health that they truly desire.

21:09And so that is inspiring right now, for sure. And last word is commitment.

21:18Easy. That's just for me again. I'm just kind of this person that you got to be all in and you got to show up and you're not going to flake. You're not going to back out. You're not going to stop when it gets hard or you don't want to. I think there's just some grit and determination. And I was lucky enough, praise God, to learn those lessons before coming into entrepreneurship, just from intense physical sports, weightlifting, running ultra marathons, things like that. But But I think if you don't already have that quality, you can definitely learn it from entrepreneurship. It will teach it to you.

21:56It will make you learn it. But yeah, I think it's just one of my favorite qualities in other human beings, like showing up when you say you're going to show up, being true to your words, sticking to things, even when it's uncomfortable. Because our whole society now is just focused on comfort and easy and quick and painless. And entrepreneurship is not like that. And I think real life is not like that if you're actually committing to the process and not running away from it. Yeah, no, I agree. Totally, totally agree with that. I love that answer. Thanks. All right. So, yeah. So what words of it and you can be as candid as you'd like on this answer.

22:34What words of advice would you offer to other business owners, specifically small business owners who are looking to grow their business? hmm you probably already have a lot of strengths and your strengths are probably easy for you but there's probably some part of your business that you're avoiding or telling yourself a story that you're not good at or just kind of letting that part of your business limp along and so I think you'll probably get more bang for your buck more growth more return on an investment of time and energy to focus on the things that you're not good at. And that's not to say you have to become an expert and the things you're not good at, but bring the things that are lagging behind and bring them up to just middle of the road, bring them up to par.

23:23Because the things that you're already good at, you're already really good at, and you're probably already leaning into them. And that's probably already great. And so I do think that there is the ability in your business to not have to hopefully eventually do all of those just tedious, awful things that you really can't stand. I love the idea of delegating in your business if it's something that doesn't just like give you inspiration or joy. So it's kind of once again, the middle road of you can't just do the things you like all the time. And you can't just avoid the things you're not good at.

23:57I think there comes a time there where you have to look every part of your business in the face. And if there's a part that you're avoiding and a part that you're wishing that you don't have to deal with, even if it's not you, like get some help in that area, hire out for that area, hire a coach in that area, a VA, whatever it might be. But that part is probably holding you back more than if you were to just keep focusing on your strengths, pulling you forward, the backwards momentum of that piece, you're probably underestimating. yeah no that was great i love that i love that good advice um yeah i wanted to leave some time here at the end to highlight you have an open enrollment for a course first week of march is that correct and can you talk about that yes yeah so my course is called sacred seasons and it's for those fire-hearted and faith-forward women that want a transformational health journey they don't want to just keep starting over every january they don't want to just sift through the internet and figure out, is coconut oil actually good or bad for me?

24:59What am I supposed to be doing with creatine? They just want a one-stop shop for just proven, time-tested, trustable advice. And they want to do that in a container of other like-minded women that are just going to hold them to really high standards and really understand their brain because they have a very similar one. So we go through the 10 essential habits of a healthy life. And we do that four times a year. So the benefits there are we can really lean into how those habits can be slightly changed each quarter, how your diet can match the seasons, how your exercise routine can match the seasons.

25:38Winter is a season of restoration and rest and rebuilding, you know, and summer is a time of you don't need as much sleep. You can eat a little bit lighter. You don't need the meat and potatoes meals. So things like that. But also the repetition after working through something four times in a year. My goal is for all of these habits to be so automated that you're just on autopilot when you leave the course. You're not having to waste mental energy talking yourself into things or deciding if you're going to do that healthy habit that day. You've gotten enough reps in the tank that it's just what you do.