Episode 49: The Vicki Kotris Podcast: This is A Story of a Corporate Girlie to Creative Strategist

What drives a person to leave behind the security of a corporate tech sales job for the uncertain path of entrepreneurship? This episode of the Vicki Kotris podcast shares my personal journey from burnout to the revitalizing world of entrepreneurial adventures. Discover how my husband and I turned a food truck into a catering enterprise, and eventually an ice cream brand—all while navigating the unforeseen challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. I unravel the lessons learned along the way, highlighting the profound impact of creativity, healing, and rethinking career paths in an ever-evolving work culture. This transformation reshaped my understanding of what it means to have a fulfilling career, beyond just titles and paychecks.

In a world that often equates success with position and salary, I invite you to reconsider these measures. This episode dives into the art of aligning work with personal values and strengths, underscoring how essential it is to identify what truly drives us. Exploring marketing through storytelling and the strategic use of AI tools, I reveal how these elements can build genuine connections with customers. Intentional marketing isn't just a strategy; it's a way to harness your unique talents for greater impact. Tune in to learn how to take command of your career path, embrace your individuality, and make meaningful contributions to both your personal and professional life.

Thank you again for tuning into another episode of the Vicki Kotris Podcast! I want to support you, cheer you on a HYPE you up!! If you're celebrating anything (and I mean ANYTHING), send me a DM and let me highlight you on a recent episode.

If you're looking for support in building a social media content strategy, I'm your girl! Send me an email to [e-mail] and we can set up a FREE account audit.

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Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-confetti-filled-life-podcast/id1391196589

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/00cehOlAGd5HbUpAZ4wuYY?si=4c7353dd4c1e4312

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
That's right.
You heard it here first, folks.
The Confetti Filled Lifepodcast has rebranded into the
Vicki Kotris podcast, somethingthat I have been thinking about
here and there over the past sixmonths or so, and if you've
listened to any of the miniepisodes that have been launched
over the past few months, youmight say it doesn't sound quite

(00:23):
the same.
I did some no-frills episodesmore stream of consciousness,
things that were on my mind,things that I hoped you could
connect to would help providesome insight or inspiration
based on anything that's goingon in your own life, and as I
did that, I was in a exploratorymode myself.

(00:45):
So if you have been tuning insince 2018, or this is the first
episode that you have everlistened to let me catch you up
to speed just a little bit.
One in 2018, I was feeling veryburnt out from my corporate job
in tech sales and woke up at 30and really thought there has to

(01:09):
be something different.
There has to be something more.
I can't take 30 more years ofthis kind of cubicle life and I
say that loosely because, forall intents and purposes, I am
talking from a very privilegedspace.
I worked for a great company onseemingly on the outside.

(01:31):
They supported thousands andthousands of people and families
.
Um, I worked from home, so Ihad some flexibility at the time
.
I worked for somebody that Ihad respected and liked and I
knew that actually that was.
My biggest issue is that if Ihave all of these great things I

(01:55):
have a flexible job schedule, Ihave nice benefits, I really
liked the salary and the moneyIf I have all these things and
I'm not happy, well, that is abig indicator that it is
something else.
It is something else that isnot filling my cup and I started
to feel a lot of angst withwhat I was doing.

(02:17):
I didn't feel connected to themission.
I didn't feel connected to thejob.
I felt like I was having a lotof meaningless conversations.
I was in B2B sales, so theproduct that I was selling, I
felt like I couldn't see adirect impact to the person who
I was working with.
And I think, from a big picturestandpoint, it's hard to

(02:40):
believe that we affect changewhen we are such a small cog in
a wheel and when we sellproducts that affect, you know,
teams or maybe one team memberin an organization.
We don't really get to see thiskind of massive impact, and I
truly look back and think that'swhat I was craving is that I

(03:00):
wanted more of a connection thatI could see in a transactional
way.
So if you know my story, thenyou know where we're going with
this.
My husband and I were bothfeeling the same.
He had been a CPA for someyears and we both, over a couple
of beers one night, threw outideas.
Of all of the business ideasthat we could potentially start,

(03:21):
and one that we kept comingback to was in food and Bev,
because it has such a lowbarrier to entry.
I mean, you could bake cookiestoday, take them to a farmer's
market tomorrow and sell allyour cookies.
There is an easy path to getstarted.
And we also knew that weweren't ready to leave our

(03:42):
corporate jobs, so we neededsomething that was a nights and
weekends venture, that kind ofsatisfied that thirst that we
had for being creative and doingsomething new but wasn't going
to take all of our time.
If you're an entrepreneur or abusiness person, you have to
know how asinine that turns outto be, because anytime you start

(04:02):
a business, anytime you decideto do something different or
start something for yourself, ittakes all your time and it
takes all your energy and it alot of times pushes you to
limits that you feel like you'regoing to curl up in a ball and
die, and I have been there.
So if that has ever been you,then I feel you, I see you, I

(04:25):
respect you, and that's exactlywhat was happening.
So we launched our business in2018.
It started as a food truck.
It's primarily now a cateringcompany and then, in 2020, we
opened up a brick and mortar icecream brand.
That, at the time, was my dreamvision for franchising and

(04:46):
growing a multi-unit businessthat I was so, so, so excited
for.
And then COVID hits and itchanged the dream that I had.
It changed the vision that Ihad and it changed me as a
person.
Maybe you could relate to that,maybe you can't, but I think as

(05:07):
a society, it's changed us alland sadly, I think a lot of the
things that made us human fourand a half years ago are the
things that are being forgottenmore now.
So it's kind of crazy to seehow we as a world came together
and said okay, how are we goingto keep each other safe?
How are we going to follow someof these new rules that you

(05:31):
know again we're new toeverybody and respect people a
little bit more, give people alittle bit more grace.
And I'm seeing a littlereverting back to that,
especially as in corporateAmerica, a lot of companies are
forcing return to work.
If you're not returning to work, then you are no longer a
valuable team member.

(05:51):
They will be replacing you oreliminating your position.
So all's to say that corporateAmerica is the power wheel that
will continue to turn, willcontinue to focus on profits,
some more than others.
Some have really startedreinventing overall work culture
, which I think is fantastic.

(06:13):
But for me, what happened for mewhen I was talking about
earlier that something inside ofme wanted more?
What I know now to be true isthat what I needed was not just
a creative outlet.
It was not just a creativeoutlet.
What I needed was to heal apart of myself that allowed me

(06:37):
to express and be curious andcreate something in a world that
I felt like.
I wasn't given the means or theresources to do that, and so so
many things have changed.
I look at the idea of workdifferently, of a career
differently.
I used to think that there wasonly one career path, and now

(07:01):
I'm so open to the ideas of howto make money and making money
support your lifestyle, howeverthat looks to you.
I have taken ego out of a lot ofthat because I think many of my
peers have higher titles.
They are getting biggersalaries with bigger

(07:22):
responsibilities, and where weall once started, as you know
lonely sales execs or salesassistants or whatever are now
in the senior management roles,and there is a certain ego that
goes with that.
You feel like you are deservingof those roles and if you leave

(07:43):
a company, you want to go toanother role that's exactly the
same or a higher, because that'swhere you've kind of come from,
and I say that as it's noteveryone, but it's.
Something that I have learnedis that the roles and the
salaries mean nothing if thework that you're doing is not
reflective of what makes youtick as a human being.

(08:07):
I have co-workers that I'veworked with who are amazing at
sales, who are incrediblehunters, who have really
strategic visions andconversations, and their jobs
feed that part of them.
Mine didn't, and what I'velearned from being a business

(08:28):
owner is there are so many waysto feed that part of ourselves
and it is our responsibility tofind that for ourselves and it
might be in your corporateposition today to raise your
hand and say there's more thatI'd want to do, or it might be
your responsibility to take alook and say, if I want to start

(08:50):
something for myself, if I wantmore freedom to express my
creativity, I want to do it, orI want to make additional income
, or I want flexibility in myschedule, that I have to take
ownership of that and figure outhow I'm going to do it.
And that's really what I did,and so I have taken the past six

(09:14):
months to evaluate what it isthat I love about being an
entrepreneur and how thatrelates to what this new act in
my life could look like, and thesame thing may be true for you.
I had my first baby last year,which completely changed my
psyche forever and what I valueand how I value it and how it

(09:40):
compares to other things in mylife, and so it's made me more
open to what the possibilitiescould look like in my own life,
and as a part of that, I'vetaken these past six months to
figure out what that looks like,and what it looks like for me
is helping and serving others.

(10:01):
So I took an audit and maybethis part will help you.
But I sat down and startedgetting very, very clear on what
were the things that I was goodat, what are my talents and
where, what are the things thatI, what kind of services can I
provide and how can I providethem.

(10:23):
I didn't lean in and say what ismy passion, and I recently
heard someone talk about this Ithink it was Scott Galloway on a
podcast about your passionmeans nothing, because you can
be passionate about so manythings.
I am passionate about the RealHousewives of Salt Lake City,
but that does not mean I want toturn that into a service that

(10:45):
I'd like to offer and make moneyfrom.
I love gabbing about it with myfriends, but it's not something
that I will look to and turninto a business model for myself
, and I think that's what'sreally important.
And something that I got wrongis I thought I had to be super
passionate about the work that Iwas doing, when, in fact, I

(11:07):
don't believe that anymore.
I think passion is amazing ifyou have it.
I think you need some kind ofpassion to get you started to
create momentum, but ultimately,what I think that you need is
you need an assessment of thetalents that you bring to the
table, so what you do reallywell, how you can do them and

(11:29):
then getting a little clearer onhow you will offer them to
people.
And that goes for anyone whohas ever thought about starting
a business and that is a bigpart of what it's been for me
Always.
The guiding light as I'vestarted each individual business
is how can I bring my talentsto the table and make this idea

(11:52):
stronger and make this businessstronger and help this business
grow?
And so, as of recently, what Irealized is I love marketing, I
love building, I love branding.
I think it's all rooted in theidea of storytelling and how can
you connect your product, yourservice, your brand to the

(12:12):
general market or so it feels sointimate that it connects with
an individual consumer and theyfeel like they have absolutely
no choice but to buy yourproduct because you are creating
such a compelling story throughmarketing to help connect that
product to that individual.
How incredible is that?

(12:34):
I mean that is so wonderful.
And I think back and what I'veloved so much about building my
food and beverage brands, whichis being part of special events
for our customers, and to methat was always a, the biggest,
the biggest kind of business hugI could ever have, is someone

(12:58):
who says I am celebratingsomething in my life and I want
you to be part of it, becausethat creates a memory.
When you get older, you mighttell your friends hey, we had a
cookie dough food truck at ourbirthday party or in my summer
birthday, I took all my bestfriends to remix ice cream and

(13:19):
we shared a scoop together andit was one of my best birthdays
that I'll ever remember.
I have a passion for that, forimpact, for memories, for
nostalgia.
I love that and I really try toembed it into everything that I
do or everything that I create.
So, as a platform, I want tocome back to this podcast and

(13:44):
start telling more of thosestories, more of the ways that
I've used marketing in mybusiness, talk about some of the
ways that I should have useddifferent marketing strategies
but failed, and how I'm helpingbusiness owners today grow their
digital marketing footprintthrough storytelling, through AI
tools, automate things so thatthey become more ingrained in an

(14:09):
everyday practice, so that theycan find those customers who
need their services or productsso badly.
And that's what we forget thatmarketing is not bragging.
Marketing is not just sendingout something for no reason, but
it is putting intent behind itso that our customers can find

(14:29):
us, who need us so badly, andthey need us because we are the
only ones who can provide thiswonderful product or service to
them.
So my goal with this podcastrevision is to share more of
those stories with you.
I would love for you to tune inevery week.
Please share feedback on anyepisode that resonates with you.

(14:52):
If you are starting a business,I support you, I respect you.
I'm sending you so much love.
If you are currently running abusiness, I feel you, I know you
, I am there.
If there is anything that I cando to individually support you,
provide direct marketingstrategies, just kind of come up
with something that could workfor you Would love to chat, so

(15:13):
please make sure that you checkout the episode info so you can
contact me directly.
Enjoy the rest of your week,sending so much light and love,
and I will talk to you next week.