Surviving Personal Struggles in Business: A Story of Resilience

Today’s episode of the podcast is an interview with Kimberly Swenk, where she talks openly about her experience with facing numerous personal struggles and shares how she managed them whilst still being able to run a successful business. Kimberly is a Digital Marketing Expert and two time cancer survivor. She has 15 years experience in digital marketing, including social media, websites, SEO, email marketing, and paid ads, in addition to traditional marketing like print and events focusing on small business communications and client loyalty. This episode is filled with so much wisdom, insights and important messages, and really is a must listen for all business owners.   KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST How Kimberly stopped herself from going down a rabbit hole of depression and failure The actions Kimberly took to ensure her business didn't disappear completely Kimberley's experience of guilt and how she learned to show herself grace and empathy   LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE Connect with Kimberly on Instagram Check out Swenk Social's website Connect with Teresa on Instagram, LinkedIn or Facebook   Transcription Teresa: Hello, and a really warm welcome to this week's episode of the Your Dream Business Podcast. How are you doing? I feel like I start that off the same every single time. It's hilarious. I really should have, even my voice goes up at certain points, so I do it. But you guys are used to that now, so that is fine. So I am back with a another interview today, and I am really excited about today's interview, because, well, this conversation could go anywhere. So we're going to see where it goes, but I'm interviewing the very lovely Kimberly, who has been in my world for a really long time. And it's actually so nice to get on and have a proper chat with her. Cause I don't think we've done this. So welcome to the podcast Kimberly. Kimberly: Well, thank you for having me. I'm excited. I definitely have a unique, because I've been listening to a lot of your podcasts that have been, and I don't know if you've had someone like me on here yet. Teresa: We have. I don't think we have. So start as always by telling us what you actually do and how you got to do the thing you do. Kimberly: Well, my actual job is I help I'm in the marketing and advertising world. I help anestheticians, usually smaller ones, like solo anestheticians, smaller med spas create and work on their digital marketing strategy. That includes email website, social media, and basically most of my clients need someone like me to come in on a one off because they can't afford the big agencies come in and be like, okay, this is what. You need to do these are your weak points all to do with their marketing strategy, because a lot of times an estheticians and med spas, they're not trained in marketing and advertising, you know, that's a whole they don't teach that. And their type of medical or aesthetic school, and also they're very intimidated by it. Because as I know, you know, and your listeners know, it's the digital part is very technical and that can be overwhelming. And when you get into like Google ads, Facebook ads, I mean, you know, it's technical. Teresa: And that's not what they're there to do. That is not what they've been qualified to do. That is not. And I think I see this a lot and you must see it, especially in the industry you're in. Like they come into their business because they're good at the thing they do or they want to do the thing they do. And then suddenly they're expected to have all these other skills doing all these other things, which quite honestly, why should they know about these things? Kimberly: Exactly. And they don't, they don't teach that. And it's, I'm sure you have this a lot with a lot of your clients. It's extremely, it's a long game. It's a marathon. And, you know, you keep hitting these walls and you keep failing and which is not really failing. But if you don't know, you don't know that. And you just want to give up and that's the worst thing you can do. Teresa: Yeah. A hundred percent. Kimberly: A lot of it's just telling them, like, listen, you're doing great. You may not think it's great. You may not think, you may not think a 1 percent conversion rate is great, but I promise you in this instance, it is really good. Pat yourself in the back. And so it's a lot of that. Teresa: That is something that I think as marketeers, as people who are in businesses need to talk about more, the amount of people that I speak to and they go, Oh, it didn't do very well. It didn't go very well. And I go, do you want to tell me your numbers? And then they give me their numbers now. And then I've sat here with my calculator and I'm like, that's like a 10 percent conversion. It did amazingly. Like, but they don't think it did because they don't know. And. We need to educate people a bit more. So what, cause obviously you've been in this digital marketing space for a long time and you niched into this space you're in now. Why did you decide to take that niche? Kimberly: Well, it goes back. I, I worked in the corporate world forever. Worked with, it was Danone, which is the French water company. I've worked for AT& T. All the biggies and the corporate world in the US is not very conducive to a family. And I had my first child who was premature and he couldn't go into any type of daycare. And in the US we really don't have a support system. Like legally, I could take three months off and not be fired. But you know, I was technically kind of expected to come right back. So, I had to quit because. Couldn't do that with a premature child and so I just thought I took a couple of years off to raise him because he was premature. And then I started just continuing doing what I was doing, like AT& T and Danone, but I did it for just companies just random, I did, I did a funeral home, like just random, total. Teresa: I love this stuff though. Like when you're in marketing, the stuff we learn to market is nuts. Kimberly: I mean, I did a tire company, but the most interesting one was the funeral home. And, you know, it was all the, the website, the search, the ads, you know, you're like embalming. One of them was actually a trailer park, and this was the big drama is they didn't want to like when you go into a search, you have to like Google, you have to search for what the people are thinking, not what you want them to think. So they were trying to change their branding away from trailer to mobile unit. And I'm like, people don't type in mobile unit. Teresa: No, they try to type in trailer. Like, I love this. I love it. Okay. So you were doing it for anybody. Kimberly: And then at a random shoot, I was, it was a organic soap company and I was at a random shoot and I was doing the social media, you know, all the behind the scenes. And I met at the time, the spokesperson they had hired was the head makeup artist for CNN. Which when I lived in Atlanta, that's where CNN is based. So she actually hired me to help her. And then that's how I got into it. We formed a really great relationship and I started working for her and she introduced me to people and she, and I'm like, you know what, this is kind of my dig. This is, this is what I do. It interests me very, very much. I'm very vain. And it's better than the tires. It's better than the tires. And it's better than the funeral home in the trailer parks. And I just really loved it. And I always believed that, you know, what is the riches in the, is in the niches or the niche that phrase. I know it. And. I really enjoyed it. And I got along with the people in that industry. It felt more organic, the relationship. So I started going that route and working with her and I did a lot of her personal stuff. She also owned a magazine and I did a lot of stuff for that. And then that's how I kind of organically grew into it was when my kids were older. So that helped too. Yeah. And just kind of grew into that. And that's how I yeah. I basically went with my passion. It's, is it easy? No, but I'm legitimately interested in it. Teresa: Yeah. And I think like that helps massively. And when you've had clients, you know, cause I've done it the same, you know, when I started just with the agency, we work with people that are not. Like, I have no interest in the thing that they sell and it's not that, you know, when you're a marketer, you mark, you know, you can market things, that's your job. However, if you can be interested in it, I just think it's, well, you've just taken another step, haven't you? So the reason we've got you on today isn't necessarily to talk about, social media and the job you do. It's to talk about resilience in business, because