January 16, 2025 • 34 mins
In this episode of Easy Style with Sami, we welcome thought leadership marketing specialist Kelly Schuknecht. Kelly shares her journey from working in corporate America to starting her own business just under two months ago. Despite being new to entrepreneurship, she has quickly grown her business, focusing on helping thought leaders and professionals build their platforms. Kelly discusses her 10-year journey that involved working in publishing, freelancing, and marketing, and how her experiences eventually led her to entrepreneurship. She emphasizes the importance of stepping out of one’s comfort zone, building genuine connections, and finding the right community for support. Kelly also talks about her plans to grow her business further by hiring a team and continuing to provide value to her clients.
In this episode we discuss
- How Kelly navigated the transition from a corporate job to starting her own business
- The importance of building a supportive community, both online and offline
- Strategies for overcoming risk aversion and building confidence as an entrepreneur
- Tips for managing the reactions of friends and family when pursuing your passion
- Kelly’s advice for others considering taking the entrepreneurial plunge
Want to skip ahead?
00:57 Kelly’s Background and Career Shift
04:24 Building a Thought Leadership Platform
06:40 Navigating Challenges and Finding Support
20:53 Future Goals and Business Growth
24:24 Trusting Yourself and Handling Opinions
28:02 Navigating Isolation and Finding Community
30:00 The Importance of Side Hustles
32:24 Starting and Growing a Business
36:17 Building Genuine Connections Online
41:53 Overcoming Opinions and Staying True to Your Vision
Kelly Schuknecht
https://kellyschuknecht.com/
https://www.instagram.com/beyondthebestseller
https://www.instagram.com/authorcoachingwithkelly
https://www.tiktok.com/@kellyschuknecht
https://www.facebook.com/author-coaching-with-kelly
Grab more resources at https://easystylewithsami.com
Follow us on Facebook at https://facebook.com/ssmulhern
Follow us on Instagram at https://instagram.com/ssmulhern
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (00:00):
Welcome to Easy Style with Sami. I'm your
(00:02):
host. Sami Bedell-Mulhern, eachepisode, I invite a friend,
family member, colleague or justsomeone I've met on this journey
called life, to come and sharetheir personal style and
approach to business, parenting,life and everything in between.
You'll hear motivational andinspirational stories that will
help you refine and build yourown personal style. Remember,
(00:25):
style is easy when it comes fromwithin.
Hey, friends, welcome back toanother episode of Easy Style
with Sami. And today, my guestis Kelly Schuknecht. I hope I
said your name right, Kelly,thank you so much for being
here.
Kelly Schuknecht (00:41):
Thank you, Sami, thanks for having me on.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (00:44):
Yeah, I'm really excited about this
conversation, and I'll have youintroduce yourself here in a
little bit. But you know,there's all of these terms that
are going around, like sidehustle and gig economy, and, you
know, leaving corporate to go toyour full time or to Live Your
Passion. I feel like this issomething a lot of us talk
about, especially on thispodcast, so I'm really excited
to learn a little bit. Littlebit more about your journey and
your experience we've never metbefore. And so I think this is
(01:08):
kind of, I'm excited to kind ofhear how you've navigated this
and hopefully inspire somepeople to take that leap
themselves. But why don't youjust kind of introduce yourself
and tell us a little bit aboutyou.
Kelly Schuknecht (01:21):
Yeah, I would be happy to so how do I start?
So I am Kelly Schuknecht and Iam so this is going to you'll
understand this, why I struggleover saying what I do? Because
this is all brand new to me. SoI am a thought leadership
(01:42):
marketing specialist. I workwith thought leaders, helping
them build their platform andreach their you know, reach
their target audience. And thereason I was struggling over
that is because I'm brand new tothis world. I started my
business about just under twomonths ago. So it feels very
new, although it's growingquickly, and I'm super excited
(02:08):
about everything that I'mworking on, but it started as
really a side hustle. I was incorporate America working a
corporate job up until the endof October, and then was forced
with deciding on what the nextstep was for me, and I dove head
on into the world ofentrepreneurship and decided I
(02:30):
was going to finally grow mybusiness and do what I had been
dreaming about for years. Sothat's, that's the world I'm in
now, but it still feels freshand new and hard to hard to
remember exactly what i What isit that I'm doing again?
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (02:49):
I love that. I love that. So kind of
walk me through the processbecause you mentioned you left
your job in October. Was it kindof a situation where you'd
already been doing some of thismarketing for on your own, or
were you just, you justliterally started your business
Kelly Schuknecht (03:08):
Yeah, so I officially started my business
two months ago?
two months ago. However, it'sbeen a, I don't know, maybe a 10
year journey or so to get tothis point, so I'll back up a
little bit, I started my well,not started, but my second real
(03:28):
job as an adult was in thepublishing industry, and I was
in that job for 10 years. I rana publishing company. When I
left that job, I really had noidea what I was going to do. I
started doing some freelancework, and I always, but I always
just had authors who would reachout to me, because I just, I
(03:53):
kind of had a name in thepublishing world. I had a
presence, like people just kindof, I had a blog, so people
would reach out to me. They'dask me to review their book. And
so for a while, I just kind ofkept dabbling in this. I would
say it's a side hustle, butlike, really, it was like a side
hobby, is probably a better wayto describe it, because I wasn't
(04:14):
really making any money, right?I was just once a while, I
would, I would get I would get aclient, I'd make some money. I
would do some coaching withauthors, on Book Marketing, on
writing their book, you know,like, so I tried some different
things over, you know, a periodof 10 years or so after, like,
again, after I left mypublishing job. And so for the
(04:38):
last seven years, I was in a jobwhere I was doing marketing, and
kind of started tying the twothings together and how, you
know, helping a business ownerestablish their thought
leadership platform ofteninvolved having a book.
And so it was this really easytransition into um. And, you
(05:00):
know, although I was doingmarketing, it also, you know,
the book piece always just fitsomewhere in whatever I was
doing, right? And so, you know,I had been dreaming the last
couple of years. My company hadbeen acquired, and I had been
dreaming the last couple ofyears about starting my own
thing that was like, the nextthing I knew, like, I knew that
(05:20):
my job was ending soon becauseof the acquisition, but I also
just didn't really have my headaround what I wanted to do. I
mean, I did, I thought I didright until I had to actually
decide. And then when it cametime to decide, I started moving
really fast and making decisionsreally quickly, partly because I
(05:41):
had already been dabbling in itfor for many years, you know,
like, I'd already kind of beenfiguring out, really, I had been
figuring out what wasn't workingwhen I had the comfort, comfort
of a steady income, that Ididn't have to really worry
about it working. And then whenI was forced with like, Okay,
this now needs to work. Istarted making decisions really
(06:03):
quickly around what was going towork and you know, how to move
forward. So that's where I gotreally focused on, not just
working with all authors, allbooks, all stages of the
journey, right? I got reallyclear on I want to work with
thought leaders, professionalswho want to write a book to
(06:25):
establish their presence in thein their industry. And when I
got clear about that, thingsjust like it went from zero to
60, like, really quickly.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (06:35):
I love that, because it sounds like you
kind of just leaned into, likeyou had the ability to, kind of
slowly over time, lean into thethings that you like, the things
that you don't like, and kind ofcontinue to evolve before you
had to make that, that finalchoice. And I know, like for me,
in my business, I think I'vedone, I've changed it up
probably four or five differenttimes as far as the services
(06:58):
that I offer and what I don'toffer, because you learn as you
experience. But kind of, do youthink that you would have jumped
in when you did if you weren'tkind of forced to, or do you
think you might still be kind offiguring it out, like was that
kind of a blessing in disguiseto absolutely force you to take
that jump?
Kelly Schuknecht (07:19):
Yeah, I never. I am not a risk taker. So I, you
know, is, as soon as I wasforced to make the decision,
right, I was laid off, and I waslike, Okay, now I gotta figure
it out. I started movingquickly. Things started, you
know, started developing, likeovernight, like, things became
so clear. Because, I mean, Iguess, because it had to, but,
(07:42):
like, also it just, I don'tknow, it was like, I had, I had
been, it's, I didn't dive offthe deep end. I was, like,
pushed off of the ledge, right?And I had to, like, I had to
figure it out really quickly.But I think that, like all of
those experiences of I knew foryears like this, I loved, I love
working with authors, but alsoin the world that I was in at
(08:07):
the time, I was realizing, likethese authors don't really want
to pay for services. They don't,you know they want. They're
often writing their books astheir own side hustle, right?
And so they don't have a lot ofmoney to invest in the services
that I was trying to offer, andI couldn't get my head around,
why isn't this working? But Ialso had a full time job, and
(08:31):
because of that, I couldn't befully myself. And I think this
is where it comes together alittle bit, is I couldn't be
fully myself online and promotemy side hustle. So I was kind of
trying to hide it, and kind ofjust not, not hide it in a bat.
But, I mean, I was just kind oflike keeping it, yeah, yeah.
Like keeping it, you know, underwraps. I didn't want to, I
(08:53):
didn't want to post things onLinkedIn, because my
professional presence was mymarketing job, right? And the
company that I was working for.So it didn't make sense if I
started posting things aboutwriting a book, or about thought
leadership, marketing, you know,those things that weren't making
sense. But as soon as I had thefreedom to do that, that's where
it was like, oh, like, I cantalk about these things now, and
(09:15):
I don't have to worry about whatother people are seeing. You
know, now I started to figureout, like, how to take the
experience of working withauthors apply that to provide my
professional life and myprofessional network. Then was,
was was excited about what I wasoffering, and was coming to me
saying, like, I want to write abook, and I want to, you know, I
(09:37):
want to get more speakingevents, like, how do I establish
my thought leadership, presence,and it just, you know, like
overnight seemed to click. But Iagain, like going back to your
question, I never would havejust quit my job and done that.
And now, now that I look back, Igo, Man, I should have, right, I
should have a couple of yearsago, but I didn't feel that.
(10:00):
Safety to do it. And I thinkthat's the hardest thing, is
just feeling like, you know, howam I going to how am I going to
pay the bills, or how am I goingto make things, make ends meet,
right, if I quit my job? Andalso, you know, there, now I
look back and I realized therewas probably other options
(10:20):
available to me. I just wasn'topen to it, because I'm, again,
not a risk taker, so I wasn'tallowing myself to do that. And
now I think, man, I mean, I'm sohappy to be where I am at the
moment, but also, you know, Irealized now I could have done
it sooner.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (10:37):
Yeah, and my story is a little similar in
that I, I mean, I didn't getlaid off. I chose to leave my
job, but it was kind of a quickdecision, and I didn't have
anything lined up afterward,because it was just.
Kelly Schuknecht (10:53):
I've been there. I've done that too,
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (10:54):
yep. And so I just ended up starting my own
business because I was like,Well, I don't like, I don't know
what else I'm gonna do rightnow, so we're just gonna start
doing this. And it's been great.It's been a long road, but I,
for me, like, I jumped in andimmediately started looking for
community online. Because Ithink it's, we think it's easy
(11:15):
to, like, start your ownbusiness, and in a lot of ways
it is, but there's a lot ofthings that you realized you
don't know know about, like, youknow, I didn't know how to write
a contract, or how to, like,make sure, like, you know, start
a retainer with the client.Like, all a lot of those things
that I'd never done before, youdon't really know. And then I
started doing direct sales andthis passion podcast and all
(11:35):
that stuff years later, becauseI wanted to diversify income.
Because also, like, when you'reon your own, you know, a project
ends, if you don't have the nextproject lined up, you're like,
Okay, so there's a lot of thingslike that that you have to kind
of learn along the way. So Ijoined a community and kind of
built my network of peoplearound you. So have you done
something similar to kind ofhelp support you in this, or are
(11:56):
you just kind of figuring it outas you go and, like, how are you
kind of finding those resourcesfor, like, the business side of
starting your own business?
Kelly Schuknecht (12:05):
Yeah, so all of the above. So right away,
when I decided to start mybusiness, I reached out to a
friend, colleague. It's notreally a friend, but he's become
a friend now, but somebody thatI knew in the professional world
who was doing similar, similarthing, but kind of a different
(12:27):
angle, like, not, not themarketing side of things, but
he's kind of more on the HRside. I reached out to him and
said, Can you coach me? Right?Like, immediately I found a
coach. Because I was like, Ineed somebody. Like, exactly
what you were saying. Okay, Iland the client. Now, what,
what? You know, how do I, how doI send them a contract? How do
I, how do I take their payment?And those things, yeah, like
(12:47):
those things I didn't knoweither. I mean, I knew, I kind
of know what's out there, butit's like, I just didn't, you
know, you have to make a lot ofdecisions pretty quickly,
because if you want to get paid,you got to send them, you know,
got to send them an invoice,right? So, I reached out for a
coach pretty quickly, got thatlined up that's been super
(13:07):
helpful to me, because everycouple of weeks we meet, and we
just talk through the thingsthat I'm that I'm working
through, and he just helps mecome you know, just come up with
ideas and you know, then Iactually, I started my own
podcast, and my very first gueston the podcast, I happened to
(13:30):
ask her a very similar question,and she had her own she I didn't
even know she had her owncommunity. So I immediately
joined her community, which wasgreat, because then I started
meeting some people. Somepeople, yeah, and then I also
started my own community. So Ihave a community called the
author power circle for women.It's specifically for women who
(13:51):
want to write a book and andspecifically non fiction books.
So so a message that that thesewomen want to share. I very
quickly grew that also, so justgetting the word out there to
women they wanted to join. Andso that's kind of a, you know, a
service line that I'm offering,but then also is helping me
(14:14):
connect with women who are thenhelping me connect with my
target audience. And it's allkind of this full circle
approach to what I'm you know,what I'm doing and how I want to
grow?
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (14:24):
Yeah, well, and you mentioned that you're
risk averse, but it seems like,and maybe it's, I do think for
some of us that are in a moremarketing LED industry, it's a
little bit easier to do some ofthese things, because I know so
many people that run greatbusinesses, and the thought of
starting a podcast is like,feels like the biggest, most
(14:47):
daunting thing for me, writing abook, I'm always impressed with
authors. It is not somethingthat I feel equipped to handle.
It's like running a marathon forme, like it just feels so
daunting. But starting apodcast. Is, like, super easy,
and it's something that I feelcomfortable doing. So I could do
this all day long. So what wouldyou maybe say to people that are
(15:09):
kind of jumping in, if you aremore risk averse or more nervous
about kind of taking thosechances to do some of these
things that you're doing,because you've done it all
pretty quickly. It's a lot ofwork, but it's also kind of a
scary thing to put yourself outthere like that. So you know,
what might you say to people whoare nervous about that piece,
(15:29):
and how do you kind of find thewhat's the word I'm looking for?
Like you, like the to becomfortable, to just put
yourself out there like that andand see how people receive you.
So
Kelly Schuknecht (15:44):
I love this question, because this is like,
this is what I stand for. I soin 2020 2020 ish, I think mid
2020 I started dabbling inTiktok. I started doing Tiktok
videos. And I had people in mylife going, why are you doing
that right? And it's, I want tosay, it's not my personality,
(16:11):
because it that's what peoplewould tell me, but, but it, I
mean, I wanted to do it and Iwanted to explore. It felt
uncomfortable, but I was like, Iwant to put myself on video so
that I can get comfortable withbeing in front of people again.
People are like, Why do you wantto do that? I don't know. I had
(16:33):
a drive to do that for whateverreason, right? Like I so I
started doing Tiktok videos. Istarted doing YouTube videos. I
started a couple years ago, Icommitted to starting to post on
LinkedIn every single day. Whatwas I promoting? Nothing. I was
just putting myself out there.And I am telling you that has
made all the difference in goingfrom having my little side hobby
(16:57):
to to immediately being able togrow a business overnight,
because people knew who I was.And, I mean, like on this small
scale, my little small scaleworld, I, you know, I only have
4000 followers on Tiktok, butit's but I have followers on
Tiktok, and people know who Iam. You know, my my little
community. It's like that.That's my community of people,
(17:18):
same on LinkedIn, you know, Imaybe only have 2000 connections
on LinkedIn, but the people whoare engaging with me are very
aware of the journey that I'm onright now, and they're cheering
for me, and they're, you know,I've had people reach out to
meet with me, and they want tohear about what I'm doing, and
none of that would be happeningif I hadn't put myself out
(17:39):
there. I just think it is, evenif it feels like the most,
believe me, like it is the mostunnatural thing for me ever. But
even if it feels so unnatural toyou, do it if you have and I if
you have a thought that you wantto grow a business someday,
(18:00):
whatever that industry is, Ithink it's really important to
do things that make youuncomfortable, and put yourself
out there and grow your yournetwork online, even if it feels
like you don't really know whereit's going right now, you don't
know what it will lead toeventually down the road.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (18:19):
Yeah. Well, I think I love that you talked
about how, you know, maybe it'sonly 4000 people on Tiktok, but
I think that's so healthy,because you are not worried
about how many people arefollowing you. You're worried
about are the people that arefollowing me connecting with me?
Because you don't need to have500 clients. You couldn't handle
(18:40):
that right so it's like, how dowe grow authentically with the
right people that are gonnacheer you on and grow with you
and ultimately become customersof you? It's better to talk to a
quality small number than feelgood about having millions of
people that are there. And thatprobably makes it easier for you
too, because it feels like asafer community, like they're
(19:02):
holding you just as much asyou're entertaining and
providing value to them.Absolutely,
Kelly Schuknecht (19:07):
I mean that. So I love how you said that. I
mean, it's, you can have amillion followers, and if you
put something out there andnobody really cares, it doesn't
matter. I mean, so, yeah, youcan, if you have a million
followers, you may be able tomake an income on the platform,
right? Like, but that's not whatI'm that's not what I'm going
what I'm going for. I'm wantingto genuinely connect with
people, and that's that's a bigdifference. So, you know, I
(19:30):
mean, 4000 followers to somepeople, that's a lot, but, you
know, in the grand scheme ofthings, like, if you're looking
at influencers, like, I'm not aninfluencer, but the people that
I've connected with, I've met somany authors on Tiktok because
of the content that I put outand it and it in really, what I
want is to provide value forthem, right? So I it's not, I'm
(19:51):
not selling anything on Tiktok.I want to connect with people
who are going to learn from whatI'm putting out there and be
able to apply it to what they'redoing if they're writing a book.
I. Want them to be able to learnhow to market their book or, you
know, as I'm talking about my,my business now on tick tock.
Now I've taken a little bit ofbreak the last few weeks, as
I've been solely focused ongrowing the business, because
(20:12):
that's been, you know, my myonly focus right now. But, yes,
but as I as I get back toposting valuable content on
Tiktok. You know, I know that myfollowers are going to be
excited for me, and they'regoing to want they're going to
be cheering for me and wantingto send me, you know, connect me
with people in their network whowould benefit from what I'm
(20:34):
doing. Like I know I'm going tohave that because I've made
genuine connections with people,and that's what's so important.
Same on LinkedIn, I have peoplelike the coach that I just
mentioned, that's a person thatI have connected with on
LinkedIn, never met him inperson, never worked with him
professionally, just we'vecommunicated through LinkedIn.
And when I needed a coach, Iimmediately went to him and
(20:56):
said, I need your help, right?And and that has been a great,
great connection for me to havea great resource. It's been very
valuable to me. So it's notabout the quantity, it's about
the quality of those connectionsyou're making.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (21:14):
Yeah, so true. Okay, so what's next you
are you started your business,things are going well, like,
kind of, what's the next bighurdle that is kind of the scary
piece for you, or kind of thenext challenge as you continue
to build and grow? Yeah,
Kelly Schuknecht (21:30):
so I would say, you know, I'm very lucky
and fortunate in that thingsgrew quickly for me. You know,
my original goal was, I've gotto replace my income, right?
I've got to replace my corporateincome, which was not a small
task. So, okay, you know, thatwas Milestone One. Milestone Two
(21:54):
is, then I want to grow alegitimate business. I talked to
a lot of people early on who andhad several tell me, like, you
don't really want to do that,you don't want to hire people,
then you have to manage all ofthat. And, like, basically, you
know, just do your own, like,just be your own, you know,
solopreneur. And, you know, Itook that advice and I went, No,
(22:15):
I actually do want to grow abusiness. So, you know,
milestone too is and I'vealready, now, I've been able to
hire a couple of people already,which has been great, but I want
to grow the business to a pointwhere I am growing the business
and I have the team that's doingthe work and serving the
clients, and you know that we'reable to grow comfortably and not
(22:40):
feel, you know, big dreams,right? Like it might be harder
said than done, or easier saidthan done, I mean, but you know,
harder to do than it is to say,but yeah, I that's, that's the
next thing for me. Like, I gotto a really great place within
three months, and now I want towatch this business grow where
(23:02):
we're able to serve clients. Andwhen I say that, I want to
provide value for clients whowant to, you know, I mentioned
my author power circle, likehelping women write their books
and giving them that guidancethat they need through that
journey, it's so rewarding. Andthen I want to help, you know,
business owners, establish theirthought leadership platform,
(23:25):
grow their business. I want tosee them thrive because of the
skill set that I am bringingthem, and that you know that
what I'm able to provide to themthrough the the team that I'm
growing.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (23:37):
Yeah, I think that's fantastic, and I
think that's so smart that youare kind of taking the time to
think about what you want yourbusiness to do. Because I know
early on in mine, I thought thatthat was what I wanted, was a
bigger business, because that'swhat I saw other marketing
(23:57):
coaches doing, and I quicklyrealized that that's not what I
want, I want, and that's small,right? Everybody has their own
thing, but I think it's sosmart, because when you do
something like this and youreach out for help, everybody
has an opinion on what youshould or should not be doing,
and so it's really, it can bereally tricky to navigate. Okay,
(24:18):
wait, is this really bestpractice strategy that's
actually going to help me, or isthis detracting from where I
want to go and what I actuallywant for myself? Because we all
have different, different goals,and so I think that's fantastic
that you kind of took that stepback, and you're like, Well, no,
I do want to have a team, and Ido want to hire and I want to
figure all of that out. And whoknows, maybe you wouldn't have
(24:39):
gotten there without somebodytelling you what you didn't
want. You didn't want. You know,sometimes we need that too, to
see what doesn't fit to kind ofhelp us push
Kelly Schuknecht (24:45):
through. So, yeah, I love that. That was one
of the things early on that,that was one of the things I was
what I had this, like LinkedInpost rolling around my head. I
haven't written it yet, but nowyou've confirmed I should write
this. But one of the things thatstruck me early. On was how
opinionated people were aboutthe business I was growing. And
(25:05):
I that was another thing thatcame to me pretty quickly, where
I was like, I was takingeveryone's advice in and I
wanted to hear everyone'sthoughts. But then I started
realizing I don't agree with allof these things, right? Like, so
one person would tell me to dothis, and somebody else would
tell me to do something else,and I had to start filtering it
through my filtering it throughmy own lens of what I you know,
(25:26):
what I'm good at, what I reallywant to do, and what I'm good at
is growing teams. That's whatI've done. I grew a marketing
team over the last seven yearsand had this just high
performing, amazing team, andthat's what I loved. So it's
like, I don't want to be bymyself all the time, and if for
that person who does great,that's great for you, but I know
(25:49):
that that's I don't I don't wantto be doing my own thing all the
time. I love having a team ofpeople that I'm working with.
And so that's, you know, that'sthe direction I'm going, and
that's okay. But you know, itreally, I think that that was
the most, one of the mostshocking things to me early on
was how people and people wouldtell me, you don't want to do
that. You don't, yeah, you know.And I would go, okay, you know.
(26:12):
And I think about it for about24 hours, and I go, No, I do
want to do that. I'm gonna haveto, like, start, you know, start
telling myself, like, No, youknow yourself, and you know what
you're good at, and you knowwhat you want, you know you know
what you'll enjoy down the road,so go in that direction and
don't worry about what anyoneelse is telling you.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (26:31):
Yeah, I think you absolutely have to
trust yourself. That's part ofgoing off on your own. And kind
of the last thing I want to askyou about before we kind of wrap
this up, is, you know, what wasit like with your friends and
family and your close innercircle? Because, you know, I
started my business in 2017 andI still get comments from like
(26:51):
my parents or like other, not myhusband and my kids, although my
son, my son, did tell me theother day that I'm a stay at
home mom, and I'm like, But,
Kelly Schuknecht (27:01):
oh yeah, they don't get it, which
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (27:04):
is hilarious, but I get a lot of,
are you working today? Or, like,I don't get what you do. Like,
you know, they don't understandthe job. So, like, Did you get
some of that from your family?Because I think a lot of times
that can stop us from doing someof these things. Because, like
you said, people will tell uswhat they think about what we're
doing. And while this, once youget into the online space, in
(27:27):
solopreneurs entrepreneurship,like consulting, all of that,
you see it everywhere, and itdoesn't seem as weird, but for
most people, it's like you'reyou work from home all the time,
and you do what like it. So howwas that transition for you?
Kelly Schuknecht (27:40):
Yeah, well, I've been on that journey for,
let's see, almost 18 years,because I started working
remotely in May of 2007 when Iwas pregnant with my with I
always remember, because I waspregnant with my middle child,
and so back then, remote workwasn't even a thing. Nobody
(28:03):
worked from home in 2007 so no,nobody knew I worked. I mean, I,
I have just been through thatjourney, like, where people, you
know, people thought, everyonethought I was a stay at home
mom, you know, I would havepeople just family members would
just drop by at 10 o'clock inthe morning, and I'm like, Hey,
hi, I can't hang out with you,right? I'm working. You know,
(28:25):
nobody understood that. Nowthat's more acceptable, but now
I'm in that phase, exactly likeyou were talking about, where I
realized a lot over the holidaysthis this year, how little I
have in common with so manypeople in my life. Because
although the work from homething was the differentiator
before, now it's the I'm growingthis business, and I'm doing
(28:47):
these things that, like mostpeople in my life, have not ever
experienced, and so it is kindof, it's isolating, and it can
be a little lonely becauseyou're just like, people don't
understand me or what I'm doing.Going back to your earlier
question, though, I think thatthe biggest thing to do for us,
for people who are are pavingtheir own way and doing their
(29:09):
own thing, is to find thoseconnections, those communities
online, you know, whatever thatlooks like for for You, but to
find those connections where youare frequently communicating
with people who do get you anddo understand what you're doing.
So even if you're in yourpersonal life, people don't get
it. You have those people whoare you're learning from them,
(29:32):
you're sharing experiences withthem, and you know that that you
feel that connection. Otherwise,it is very, very isolating if
you don't find that
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (29:43):
I 100% agree, I have been a part of a
group since, pretty much since Istarted my business. And that is
the sole reason why I stay. Istarted because she helps, you
know, with setting up yoursystems and building your
business and growing and gettingyou know, those things in place,
which is what I needed. But Istayed. Because the people that
are there, like, we get eachother, and we know what we're
(30:04):
going through, and it's a it's aplace to go when you're
struggling to be like, and youhear, Oh, yeah, we've been
there. We've done that. Here's,you know, you get advice from
people that are going throughwhat you're going through, and
not people that, yeah, just liketo give advice. Yeah, yeah.
Well, Kelly, any last words ofadvice, you know, if somebody's
(30:27):
thinking about stepping in orstarting a kind of their passion
project, their side hustle,their side hobby, whatever, you
know, anything that maybe youwould go back and tell yourself
years ago to kind of help youmake that choice to step into it
a little bit faster,
Kelly Schuknecht (30:43):
I think so. One of the things, like I said,
I always had that side hobby,side hustle, whatever. And my
and my husband always say to me,he read a book. I cannot think
of who wrote it. I want to sayit's maybe a Donald Miller book.
Could be wrong. But anyway,there was a book that he read
where the the person who wroteit talked about how you should
always have a side hustle. Andevery time I would think about
(31:05):
not doing what I was doing, myhusband would say, like, you
should always, even though he hedoesn't, he doesn't have a side
hustle. He has his ownbusinesses, whatever, but he, he
was always very encouragingabout that, that, like you
should always be exploring thoseside hustle opportunities. You
know, even if it's really just ahobby and you're not making any
money, but always exploringsomething outside of your nine
(31:28):
to five, because you never knowwhat's down the road for you.
And it may, it may naturallygrow into a business while
you're in your nine to five, oryou may have something to fall
back on when you, if you, if youknow, you find yourself in a
situation like I did, where youlose your nine to five, whatever
that you know, whatever thatlooks like. But I would just
say, if you're, if you'rethinking about pursuing
(31:51):
something, do it. Justabsolutely do it. And if you're
doing it and you feel like this,why am I doing this? This isn't
working. Stick with it. I justthink it's really, really
important to have that outsideof your your regular work, where
you're always kind of leaninginto something that gets you
(32:11):
excited and something that yousee potential in, even if it's
not you're not seeing thatpotential right now, but like
you think that that could bethere, I think it's always worth
exploring. So don't, don't talkyourself out of it. Lean in and
and do it.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (32:28):
I love that. I think can't remember who
said it, but somebody said theonly, or the difference between
businesses that succeed and theones that fail are that the
businesses that succeed, theyjust kept doing it. You only
fail because they quit. So Ithink that's such good advice
and such a great place to endthis episode. But Kelly, if
people want to connect with you,learn about your community, or
(32:52):
just kind of the work thatyou're doing, or maybe just hang
out with you on LinkedIn, howcan they do that?
Kelly Schuknecht (32:56):
Yeah, so my name is not easy to spell, but
I'm sure you can put it in theshow notes or something. So I'm
on LinkedIn. You know LinkedIn,Kelly Schuknecht, also Tiktok,
if you're a Tiktok fan, alsounder my name, Kelly Schuknecht,
if you're interested in theauthor power circle, if you're
(33:16):
looking to write a book thisyear, check out the author,
power circle. My website isKellySchuknecht.com,
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (33:24):
great, yeah, and we will put that in
the show notes ateasystylewithsami.com/34 so you
can grab all of those linksthere. But Kelly, it was great
to meet you, and it was such afun conversation.
Kelly Schuknecht (33:37):
Yeah. Thank you so much again for having me
on.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (33:40):
So grateful to Kelly for joining me today on
this week's episode of EasyStyle with Sami. I am just you
know, so loving meeting newpeople through this podcast and
getting to have conversationswith incredible people. If you
know somebody that would be agreat guest for this podcast has
a great story, or maybe it's youshoot us a message.
(34:02):
hello@easystylewithsami.com S,A, M, I and I hope that you
subscribe wherever you listen.We're on YouTube at Easy Style
with Sami and wherever youstream your podcasts. So please
make sure you subscribe. We havegreat episodes coming out this
year every other week, and Iwould hate for you to miss out
on them. Make sure you sharethem with somebody who you think
could be inspired by thesestories as well. I love
(34:25):
recording this podcast andsharing stories from incredible
people, and would love to haveyou help me in doing them for
now. Thank you so much forlistening, and I'll see you in
the next one.
Welcome to Easy Style with Sami. I'm your
(00:02):
host. Sami Bedell-Mulhern, eachepisode, I invite a friend,
family member, colleague or justsomeone I've met on this journey
called life, to come and sharetheir personal style and
approach to business, parenting,life and everything in between.
You'll hear motivational andinspirational stories that will
help you refine and build yourown personal style. Remember,
(00:25):
style is easy when it comes fromwithin.
Hey, friends, welcome back toanother episode of Easy Style
with Sami. And today, my guestis Kelly Schuknecht. I hope I
said your name right, Kelly,thank you so much for being
here.
Kelly Schuknecht (00:41):
Thank you, Sami, thanks for having me on.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (00:44):
Yeah, I'm really excited about this
conversation, and I'll have youintroduce yourself here in a
little bit. But you know,there's all of these terms that
are going around, like sidehustle and gig economy, and, you
know, leaving corporate to go toyour full time or to Live Your
Passion. I feel like this issomething a lot of us talk
about, especially on thispodcast, so I'm really excited
to learn a little bit. Littlebit more about your journey and
your experience we've never metbefore. And so I think this is
(01:08):
kind of, I'm excited to kind ofhear how you've navigated this
and hopefully inspire somepeople to take that leap
themselves. But why don't youjust kind of introduce yourself
and tell us a little bit aboutyou.
Kelly Schuknecht (01:21):
Yeah, I would be happy to so how do I start?
So I am Kelly Schuknecht and Iam so this is going to you'll
understand this, why I struggleover saying what I do? Because
this is all brand new to me. SoI am a thought leadership
(01:42):
marketing specialist. I workwith thought leaders, helping
them build their platform andreach their you know, reach
their target audience. And thereason I was struggling over
that is because I'm brand new tothis world. I started my
business about just under twomonths ago. So it feels very
new, although it's growingquickly, and I'm super excited
(02:08):
about everything that I'mworking on, but it started as
really a side hustle. I was incorporate America working a
corporate job up until the endof October, and then was forced
with deciding on what the nextstep was for me, and I dove head
on into the world ofentrepreneurship and decided I
(02:30):
was going to finally grow mybusiness and do what I had been
dreaming about for years. Sothat's, that's the world I'm in
now, but it still feels freshand new and hard to hard to
remember exactly what i What isit that I'm doing again?
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (02:49):
I love that. I love that. So kind of
walk me through the processbecause you mentioned you left
your job in October. Was it kindof a situation where you'd
already been doing some of thismarketing for on your own, or
were you just, you justliterally started your business
Kelly Schuknecht (03:08):
Yeah, so I officially started my business
two months ago?
two months ago. However, it'sbeen a, I don't know, maybe a 10
year journey or so to get tothis point, so I'll back up a
little bit, I started my well,not started, but my second real
(03:28):
job as an adult was in thepublishing industry, and I was
in that job for 10 years. I rana publishing company. When I
left that job, I really had noidea what I was going to do. I
started doing some freelancework, and I always, but I always
just had authors who would reachout to me, because I just, I
(03:53):
kind of had a name in thepublishing world. I had a
presence, like people just kindof, I had a blog, so people
would reach out to me. They'dask me to review their book. And
so for a while, I just kind ofkept dabbling in this. I would
say it's a side hustle, butlike, really, it was like a side
hobby, is probably a better wayto describe it, because I wasn't
(04:14):
really making any money, right?I was just once a while, I
would, I would get I would get aclient, I'd make some money. I
would do some coaching withauthors, on Book Marketing, on
writing their book, you know,like, so I tried some different
things over, you know, a periodof 10 years or so after, like,
again, after I left mypublishing job. And so for the
(04:38):
last seven years, I was in a jobwhere I was doing marketing, and
kind of started tying the twothings together and how, you
know, helping a business ownerestablish their thought
leadership platform ofteninvolved having a book.
And so it was this really easytransition into um. And, you
(05:00):
know, although I was doingmarketing, it also, you know,
the book piece always just fitsomewhere in whatever I was
doing, right? And so, you know,I had been dreaming the last
couple of years. My company hadbeen acquired, and I had been
dreaming the last couple ofyears about starting my own
thing that was like, the nextthing I knew, like, I knew that
(05:20):
my job was ending soon becauseof the acquisition, but I also
just didn't really have my headaround what I wanted to do. I
mean, I did, I thought I didright until I had to actually
decide. And then when it cametime to decide, I started moving
really fast and making decisionsreally quickly, partly because I
(05:41):
had already been dabbling in itfor for many years, you know,
like, I'd already kind of beenfiguring out, really, I had been
figuring out what wasn't workingwhen I had the comfort, comfort
of a steady income, that Ididn't have to really worry
about it working. And then whenI was forced with like, Okay,
this now needs to work. Istarted making decisions really
(06:03):
quickly around what was going towork and you know, how to move
forward. So that's where I gotreally focused on, not just
working with all authors, allbooks, all stages of the
journey, right? I got reallyclear on I want to work with
thought leaders, professionalswho want to write a book to
(06:25):
establish their presence in thein their industry. And when I
got clear about that, thingsjust like it went from zero to
60, like, really quickly.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (06:35):
I love that, because it sounds like you
kind of just leaned into, likeyou had the ability to, kind of
slowly over time, lean into thethings that you like, the things
that you don't like, and kind ofcontinue to evolve before you
had to make that, that finalchoice. And I know, like for me,
in my business, I think I'vedone, I've changed it up
probably four or five differenttimes as far as the services
(06:58):
that I offer and what I don'toffer, because you learn as you
experience. But kind of, do youthink that you would have jumped
in when you did if you weren'tkind of forced to, or do you
think you might still be kind offiguring it out, like was that
kind of a blessing in disguiseto absolutely force you to take
that jump?
Kelly Schuknecht (07:19):
Yeah, I never. I am not a risk taker. So I, you
know, is, as soon as I wasforced to make the decision,
right, I was laid off, and I waslike, Okay, now I gotta figure
it out. I started movingquickly. Things started, you
know, started developing, likeovernight, like, things became
so clear. Because, I mean, Iguess, because it had to, but,
(07:42):
like, also it just, I don'tknow, it was like, I had, I had
been, it's, I didn't dive offthe deep end. I was, like,
pushed off of the ledge, right?And I had to, like, I had to
figure it out really quickly.But I think that, like all of
those experiences of I knew foryears like this, I loved, I love
working with authors, but alsoin the world that I was in at
(08:07):
the time, I was realizing, likethese authors don't really want
to pay for services. They don't,you know they want. They're
often writing their books astheir own side hustle, right?
And so they don't have a lot ofmoney to invest in the services
that I was trying to offer, andI couldn't get my head around,
why isn't this working? But Ialso had a full time job, and
(08:31):
because of that, I couldn't befully myself. And I think this
is where it comes together alittle bit, is I couldn't be
fully myself online and promotemy side hustle. So I was kind of
trying to hide it, and kind ofjust not, not hide it in a bat.
But, I mean, I was just kind oflike keeping it, yeah, yeah.
Like keeping it, you know, underwraps. I didn't want to, I
(08:53):
didn't want to post things onLinkedIn, because my
professional presence was mymarketing job, right? And the
company that I was working for.So it didn't make sense if I
started posting things aboutwriting a book, or about thought
leadership, marketing, you know,those things that weren't making
sense. But as soon as I had thefreedom to do that, that's where
it was like, oh, like, I cantalk about these things now, and
(09:15):
I don't have to worry about whatother people are seeing. You
know, now I started to figureout, like, how to take the
experience of working withauthors apply that to provide my
professional life and myprofessional network. Then was,
was was excited about what I wasoffering, and was coming to me
saying, like, I want to write abook, and I want to, you know, I
(09:37):
want to get more speakingevents, like, how do I establish
my thought leadership, presence,and it just, you know, like
overnight seemed to click. But Iagain, like going back to your
question, I never would havejust quit my job and done that.
And now, now that I look back, Igo, Man, I should have, right, I
should have a couple of yearsago, but I didn't feel that.
(10:00):
Safety to do it. And I thinkthat's the hardest thing, is
just feeling like, you know, howam I going to how am I going to
pay the bills, or how am I goingto make things, make ends meet,
right, if I quit my job? Andalso, you know, there, now I
look back and I realized therewas probably other options
(10:20):
available to me. I just wasn'topen to it, because I'm, again,
not a risk taker, so I wasn'tallowing myself to do that. And
now I think, man, I mean, I'm sohappy to be where I am at the
moment, but also, you know, Irealized now I could have done
it sooner.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (10:37):
Yeah, and my story is a little similar in
that I, I mean, I didn't getlaid off. I chose to leave my
job, but it was kind of a quickdecision, and I didn't have
anything lined up afterward,because it was just.
Kelly Schuknecht (10:53):
I've been there. I've done that too,
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (10:54):
yep. And so I just ended up starting my own
business because I was like,Well, I don't like, I don't know
what else I'm gonna do rightnow, so we're just gonna start
doing this. And it's been great.It's been a long road, but I,
for me, like, I jumped in andimmediately started looking for
community online. Because Ithink it's, we think it's easy
(11:15):
to, like, start your ownbusiness, and in a lot of ways
it is, but there's a lot ofthings that you realized you
don't know know about, like, youknow, I didn't know how to write
a contract, or how to, like,make sure, like, you know, start
a retainer with the client.Like, all a lot of those things
that I'd never done before, youdon't really know. And then I
started doing direct sales andthis passion podcast and all
(11:35):
that stuff years later, becauseI wanted to diversify income.
Because also, like, when you'reon your own, you know, a project
ends, if you don't have the nextproject lined up, you're like,
Okay, so there's a lot of thingslike that that you have to kind
of learn along the way. So Ijoined a community and kind of
built my network of peoplearound you. So have you done
something similar to kind ofhelp support you in this, or are
(11:56):
you just kind of figuring it outas you go and, like, how are you
kind of finding those resourcesfor, like, the business side of
starting your own business?
Kelly Schuknecht (12:05):
Yeah, so all of the above. So right away,
when I decided to start mybusiness, I reached out to a
friend, colleague. It's notreally a friend, but he's become
a friend now, but somebody thatI knew in the professional world
who was doing similar, similarthing, but kind of a different
(12:27):
angle, like, not, not themarketing side of things, but
he's kind of more on the HRside. I reached out to him and
said, Can you coach me? Right?Like, immediately I found a
coach. Because I was like, Ineed somebody. Like, exactly
what you were saying. Okay, Iland the client. Now, what,
what? You know, how do I, how doI send them a contract? How do
I, how do I take their payment?And those things, yeah, like
(12:47):
those things I didn't knoweither. I mean, I knew, I kind
of know what's out there, butit's like, I just didn't, you
know, you have to make a lot ofdecisions pretty quickly,
because if you want to get paid,you got to send them, you know,
got to send them an invoice,right? So, I reached out for a
coach pretty quickly, got thatlined up that's been super
(13:07):
helpful to me, because everycouple of weeks we meet, and we
just talk through the thingsthat I'm that I'm working
through, and he just helps mecome you know, just come up with
ideas and you know, then Iactually, I started my own
podcast, and my very first gueston the podcast, I happened to
(13:30):
ask her a very similar question,and she had her own she I didn't
even know she had her owncommunity. So I immediately
joined her community, which wasgreat, because then I started
meeting some people. Somepeople, yeah, and then I also
started my own community. So Ihave a community called the
author power circle for women.It's specifically for women who
(13:51):
want to write a book and andspecifically non fiction books.
So so a message that that thesewomen want to share. I very
quickly grew that also, so justgetting the word out there to
women they wanted to join. Andso that's kind of a, you know, a
service line that I'm offering,but then also is helping me
(14:14):
connect with women who are thenhelping me connect with my
target audience. And it's allkind of this full circle
approach to what I'm you know,what I'm doing and how I want to
grow?
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (14:24):
Yeah, well, and you mentioned that you're
risk averse, but it seems like,and maybe it's, I do think for
some of us that are in a moremarketing LED industry, it's a
little bit easier to do some ofthese things, because I know so
many people that run greatbusinesses, and the thought of
starting a podcast is like,feels like the biggest, most
(14:47):
daunting thing for me, writing abook, I'm always impressed with
authors. It is not somethingthat I feel equipped to handle.
It's like running a marathon forme, like it just feels so
daunting. But starting apodcast. Is, like, super easy,
and it's something that I feelcomfortable doing. So I could do
this all day long. So what wouldyou maybe say to people that are
(15:09):
kind of jumping in, if you aremore risk averse or more nervous
about kind of taking thosechances to do some of these
things that you're doing,because you've done it all
pretty quickly. It's a lot ofwork, but it's also kind of a
scary thing to put yourself outthere like that. So you know,
what might you say to people whoare nervous about that piece,
(15:29):
and how do you kind of find thewhat's the word I'm looking for?
Like you, like the to becomfortable, to just put
yourself out there like that andand see how people receive you.
So
Kelly Schuknecht (15:44):
I love this question, because this is like,
this is what I stand for. I soin 2020 2020 ish, I think mid
2020 I started dabbling inTiktok. I started doing Tiktok
videos. And I had people in mylife going, why are you doing
that right? And it's, I want tosay, it's not my personality,
(16:11):
because it that's what peoplewould tell me, but, but it, I
mean, I wanted to do it and Iwanted to explore. It felt
uncomfortable, but I was like, Iwant to put myself on video so
that I can get comfortable withbeing in front of people again.
People are like, Why do you wantto do that? I don't know. I had
(16:33):
a drive to do that for whateverreason, right? Like I so I
started doing Tiktok videos. Istarted doing YouTube videos. I
started a couple years ago, Icommitted to starting to post on
LinkedIn every single day. Whatwas I promoting? Nothing. I was
just putting myself out there.And I am telling you that has
made all the difference in goingfrom having my little side hobby
(16:57):
to to immediately being able togrow a business overnight,
because people knew who I was.And, I mean, like on this small
scale, my little small scaleworld, I, you know, I only have
4000 followers on Tiktok, butit's but I have followers on
Tiktok, and people know who Iam. You know, my my little
community. It's like that.That's my community of people,
(17:18):
same on LinkedIn, you know, Imaybe only have 2000 connections
on LinkedIn, but the people whoare engaging with me are very
aware of the journey that I'm onright now, and they're cheering
for me, and they're, you know,I've had people reach out to
meet with me, and they want tohear about what I'm doing, and
none of that would be happeningif I hadn't put myself out
(17:39):
there. I just think it is, evenif it feels like the most,
believe me, like it is the mostunnatural thing for me ever. But
even if it feels so unnatural toyou, do it if you have and I if
you have a thought that you wantto grow a business someday,
(18:00):
whatever that industry is, Ithink it's really important to
do things that make youuncomfortable, and put yourself
out there and grow your yournetwork online, even if it feels
like you don't really know whereit's going right now, you don't
know what it will lead toeventually down the road.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (18:19):
Yeah. Well, I think I love that you talked
about how, you know, maybe it'sonly 4000 people on Tiktok, but
I think that's so healthy,because you are not worried
about how many people arefollowing you. You're worried
about are the people that arefollowing me connecting with me?
Because you don't need to have500 clients. You couldn't handle
(18:40):
that right so it's like, how dowe grow authentically with the
right people that are gonnacheer you on and grow with you
and ultimately become customersof you? It's better to talk to a
quality small number than feelgood about having millions of
people that are there. And thatprobably makes it easier for you
too, because it feels like asafer community, like they're
(19:02):
holding you just as much asyou're entertaining and
providing value to them.Absolutely,
Kelly Schuknecht (19:07):
I mean that. So I love how you said that. I
mean, it's, you can have amillion followers, and if you
put something out there andnobody really cares, it doesn't
matter. I mean, so, yeah, youcan, if you have a million
followers, you may be able tomake an income on the platform,
right? Like, but that's not whatI'm that's not what I'm going
what I'm going for. I'm wantingto genuinely connect with
people, and that's that's a bigdifference. So, you know, I
(19:30):
mean, 4000 followers to somepeople, that's a lot, but, you
know, in the grand scheme ofthings, like, if you're looking
at influencers, like, I'm not aninfluencer, but the people that
I've connected with, I've met somany authors on Tiktok because
of the content that I put outand it and it in really, what I
want is to provide value forthem, right? So I it's not, I'm
(19:51):
not selling anything on Tiktok.I want to connect with people
who are going to learn from whatI'm putting out there and be
able to apply it to what they'redoing if they're writing a book.
I. Want them to be able to learnhow to market their book or, you
know, as I'm talking about my,my business now on tick tock.
Now I've taken a little bit ofbreak the last few weeks, as
I've been solely focused ongrowing the business, because
(20:12):
that's been, you know, my myonly focus right now. But, yes,
but as I as I get back toposting valuable content on
Tiktok. You know, I know that myfollowers are going to be
excited for me, and they'regoing to want they're going to
be cheering for me and wantingto send me, you know, connect me
with people in their network whowould benefit from what I'm
(20:34):
doing. Like I know I'm going tohave that because I've made
genuine connections with people,and that's what's so important.
Same on LinkedIn, I have peoplelike the coach that I just
mentioned, that's a person thatI have connected with on
LinkedIn, never met him inperson, never worked with him
professionally, just we'vecommunicated through LinkedIn.
And when I needed a coach, Iimmediately went to him and
(20:56):
said, I need your help, right?And and that has been a great,
great connection for me to havea great resource. It's been very
valuable to me. So it's notabout the quantity, it's about
the quality of those connectionsyou're making.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (21:14):
Yeah, so true. Okay, so what's next you
are you started your business,things are going well, like,
kind of, what's the next bighurdle that is kind of the scary
piece for you, or kind of thenext challenge as you continue
to build and grow? Yeah,
Kelly Schuknecht (21:30):
so I would say, you know, I'm very lucky
and fortunate in that thingsgrew quickly for me. You know,
my original goal was, I've gotto replace my income, right?
I've got to replace my corporateincome, which was not a small
task. So, okay, you know, thatwas Milestone One. Milestone Two
(21:54):
is, then I want to grow alegitimate business. I talked to
a lot of people early on who andhad several tell me, like, you
don't really want to do that,you don't want to hire people,
then you have to manage all ofthat. And, like, basically, you
know, just do your own, like,just be your own, you know,
solopreneur. And, you know, Itook that advice and I went, No,
(22:15):
I actually do want to grow abusiness. So, you know,
milestone too is and I'vealready, now, I've been able to
hire a couple of people already,which has been great, but I want
to grow the business to a pointwhere I am growing the business
and I have the team that's doingthe work and serving the
clients, and you know that we'reable to grow comfortably and not
(22:40):
feel, you know, big dreams,right? Like it might be harder
said than done, or easier saidthan done, I mean, but you know,
harder to do than it is to say,but yeah, I that's, that's the
next thing for me. Like, I gotto a really great place within
three months, and now I want towatch this business grow where
(23:02):
we're able to serve clients. Andwhen I say that, I want to
provide value for clients whowant to, you know, I mentioned
my author power circle, likehelping women write their books
and giving them that guidancethat they need through that
journey, it's so rewarding. Andthen I want to help, you know,
business owners, establish theirthought leadership platform,
(23:25):
grow their business. I want tosee them thrive because of the
skill set that I am bringingthem, and that you know that
what I'm able to provide to themthrough the the team that I'm
growing.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (23:37):
Yeah, I think that's fantastic, and I
think that's so smart that youare kind of taking the time to
think about what you want yourbusiness to do. Because I know
early on in mine, I thought thatthat was what I wanted, was a
bigger business, because that'swhat I saw other marketing
(23:57):
coaches doing, and I quicklyrealized that that's not what I
want, I want, and that's small,right? Everybody has their own
thing, but I think it's sosmart, because when you do
something like this and youreach out for help, everybody
has an opinion on what youshould or should not be doing,
and so it's really, it can bereally tricky to navigate. Okay,
(24:18):
wait, is this really bestpractice strategy that's
actually going to help me, or isthis detracting from where I
want to go and what I actuallywant for myself? Because we all
have different, different goals,and so I think that's fantastic
that you kind of took that stepback, and you're like, Well, no,
I do want to have a team, and Ido want to hire and I want to
figure all of that out. And whoknows, maybe you wouldn't have
(24:39):
gotten there without somebodytelling you what you didn't
want. You didn't want. You know,sometimes we need that too, to
see what doesn't fit to kind ofhelp us push
Kelly Schuknecht (24:45):
through. So, yeah, I love that. That was one
of the things early on that,that was one of the things I was
what I had this, like LinkedInpost rolling around my head. I
haven't written it yet, but nowyou've confirmed I should write
this. But one of the things thatstruck me early. On was how
opinionated people were aboutthe business I was growing. And
(25:05):
I that was another thing thatcame to me pretty quickly, where
I was like, I was takingeveryone's advice in and I
wanted to hear everyone'sthoughts. But then I started
realizing I don't agree with allof these things, right? Like, so
one person would tell me to dothis, and somebody else would
tell me to do something else,and I had to start filtering it
through my filtering it throughmy own lens of what I you know,
(25:26):
what I'm good at, what I reallywant to do, and what I'm good at
is growing teams. That's whatI've done. I grew a marketing
team over the last seven yearsand had this just high
performing, amazing team, andthat's what I loved. So it's
like, I don't want to be bymyself all the time, and if for
that person who does great,that's great for you, but I know
(25:49):
that that's I don't I don't wantto be doing my own thing all the
time. I love having a team ofpeople that I'm working with.
And so that's, you know, that'sthe direction I'm going, and
that's okay. But you know, itreally, I think that that was
the most, one of the mostshocking things to me early on
was how people and people wouldtell me, you don't want to do
that. You don't, yeah, you know.And I would go, okay, you know.
(26:12):
And I think about it for about24 hours, and I go, No, I do
want to do that. I'm gonna haveto, like, start, you know, start
telling myself, like, No, youknow yourself, and you know what
you're good at, and you knowwhat you want, you know you know
what you'll enjoy down the road,so go in that direction and
don't worry about what anyoneelse is telling you.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (26:31):
Yeah, I think you absolutely have to
trust yourself. That's part ofgoing off on your own. And kind
of the last thing I want to askyou about before we kind of wrap
this up, is, you know, what wasit like with your friends and
family and your close innercircle? Because, you know, I
started my business in 2017 andI still get comments from like
(26:51):
my parents or like other, not myhusband and my kids, although my
son, my son, did tell me theother day that I'm a stay at
home mom, and I'm like, But,
Kelly Schuknecht (27:01):
oh yeah, they don't get it, which
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (27:04):
is hilarious, but I get a lot of,
are you working today? Or, like,I don't get what you do. Like,
you know, they don't understandthe job. So, like, Did you get
some of that from your family?Because I think a lot of times
that can stop us from doing someof these things. Because, like
you said, people will tell uswhat they think about what we're
doing. And while this, once youget into the online space, in
(27:27):
solopreneurs entrepreneurship,like consulting, all of that,
you see it everywhere, and itdoesn't seem as weird, but for
most people, it's like you'reyou work from home all the time,
and you do what like it. So howwas that transition for you?
Kelly Schuknecht (27:40):
Yeah, well, I've been on that journey for,
let's see, almost 18 years,because I started working
remotely in May of 2007 when Iwas pregnant with my with I
always remember, because I waspregnant with my middle child,
and so back then, remote workwasn't even a thing. Nobody
(28:03):
worked from home in 2007 so no,nobody knew I worked. I mean, I,
I have just been through thatjourney, like, where people, you
know, people thought, everyonethought I was a stay at home
mom, you know, I would havepeople just family members would
just drop by at 10 o'clock inthe morning, and I'm like, Hey,
hi, I can't hang out with you,right? I'm working. You know,
(28:25):
nobody understood that. Nowthat's more acceptable, but now
I'm in that phase, exactly likeyou were talking about, where I
realized a lot over the holidaysthis this year, how little I
have in common with so manypeople in my life. Because
although the work from homething was the differentiator
before, now it's the I'm growingthis business, and I'm doing
(28:47):
these things that, like mostpeople in my life, have not ever
experienced, and so it is kindof, it's isolating, and it can
be a little lonely becauseyou're just like, people don't
understand me or what I'm doing.Going back to your earlier
question, though, I think thatthe biggest thing to do for us,
for people who are are pavingtheir own way and doing their
(29:09):
own thing, is to find thoseconnections, those communities
online, you know, whatever thatlooks like for for You, but to
find those connections where youare frequently communicating
with people who do get you anddo understand what you're doing.
So even if you're in yourpersonal life, people don't get
it. You have those people whoare you're learning from them,
(29:32):
you're sharing experiences withthem, and you know that that you
feel that connection. Otherwise,it is very, very isolating if
you don't find that
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (29:43):
I 100% agree, I have been a part of a
group since, pretty much since Istarted my business. And that is
the sole reason why I stay. Istarted because she helps, you
know, with setting up yoursystems and building your
business and growing and gettingyou know, those things in place,
which is what I needed. But Istayed. Because the people that
are there, like, we get eachother, and we know what we're
(30:04):
going through, and it's a it's aplace to go when you're
struggling to be like, and youhear, Oh, yeah, we've been
there. We've done that. Here's,you know, you get advice from
people that are going throughwhat you're going through, and
not people that, yeah, just liketo give advice. Yeah, yeah.
Well, Kelly, any last words ofadvice, you know, if somebody's
(30:27):
thinking about stepping in orstarting a kind of their passion
project, their side hustle,their side hobby, whatever, you
know, anything that maybe youwould go back and tell yourself
years ago to kind of help youmake that choice to step into it
a little bit faster,
Kelly Schuknecht (30:43):
I think so. One of the things, like I said,
I always had that side hobby,side hustle, whatever. And my
and my husband always say to me,he read a book. I cannot think
of who wrote it. I want to sayit's maybe a Donald Miller book.
Could be wrong. But anyway,there was a book that he read
where the the person who wroteit talked about how you should
always have a side hustle. Andevery time I would think about
(31:05):
not doing what I was doing, myhusband would say, like, you
should always, even though he hedoesn't, he doesn't have a side
hustle. He has his ownbusinesses, whatever, but he, he
was always very encouragingabout that, that, like you
should always be exploring thoseside hustle opportunities. You
know, even if it's really just ahobby and you're not making any
money, but always exploringsomething outside of your nine
(31:28):
to five, because you never knowwhat's down the road for you.
And it may, it may naturallygrow into a business while
you're in your nine to five, oryou may have something to fall
back on when you, if you, if youknow, you find yourself in a
situation like I did, where youlose your nine to five, whatever
that you know, whatever thatlooks like. But I would just
say, if you're, if you'rethinking about pursuing
(31:51):
something, do it. Justabsolutely do it. And if you're
doing it and you feel like this,why am I doing this? This isn't
working. Stick with it. I justthink it's really, really
important to have that outsideof your your regular work, where
you're always kind of leaninginto something that gets you
(32:11):
excited and something that yousee potential in, even if it's
not you're not seeing thatpotential right now, but like
you think that that could bethere, I think it's always worth
exploring. So don't, don't talkyourself out of it. Lean in and
and do it.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (32:28):
I love that. I think can't remember who
said it, but somebody said theonly, or the difference between
businesses that succeed and theones that fail are that the
businesses that succeed, theyjust kept doing it. You only
fail because they quit. So Ithink that's such good advice
and such a great place to endthis episode. But Kelly, if
people want to connect with you,learn about your community, or
(32:52):
just kind of the work thatyou're doing, or maybe just hang
out with you on LinkedIn, howcan they do that?
Kelly Schuknecht (32:56):
Yeah, so my name is not easy to spell, but
I'm sure you can put it in theshow notes or something. So I'm
on LinkedIn. You know LinkedIn,Kelly Schuknecht, also Tiktok,
if you're a Tiktok fan, alsounder my name, Kelly Schuknecht,
if you're interested in theauthor power circle, if you're
(33:16):
looking to write a book thisyear, check out the author,
power circle. My website isKellySchuknecht.com,
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (33:24):
great, yeah, and we will put that in
the show notes ateasystylewithsami.com/34 so you
can grab all of those linksthere. But Kelly, it was great
to meet you, and it was such afun conversation.
Kelly Schuknecht (33:37):
Yeah. Thank you so much again for having me
on.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (33:40):
So grateful to Kelly for joining me today on
this week's episode of EasyStyle with Sami. I am just you
know, so loving meeting newpeople through this podcast and
getting to have conversationswith incredible people. If you
know somebody that would be agreat guest for this podcast has
a great story, or maybe it's youshoot us a message.
(34:02):
hello@easystylewithsami.com S,A, M, I and I hope that you
subscribe wherever you listen.We're on YouTube at Easy Style
with Sami and wherever youstream your podcasts. So please
make sure you subscribe. We havegreat episodes coming out this
year every other week, and Iwould hate for you to miss out
on them. Make sure you sharethem with somebody who you think
could be inspired by thesestories as well. I love
(34:25):
recording this podcast andsharing stories from incredible
people, and would love to haveyou help me in doing them for
now. Thank you so much forlistening, and I'll see you in
the next one.
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