December 11, 2023 • 28 mins
Are you wrestling with feelings of being a fraud or fake in your career? Here's an episode you don't want to miss. We explore the phenomenon of imposter syndrome with Kelly Olsen, a local entrepreneur who shares personal experiences and advice on handling this challenge.
Kelly emphasizes the importance of humility, asking for help, and retaining a childlike curiosity. This conversation is a treasure trove of advice for anyone grappling with this pervasive issue.
Email your questions about entrepreneurship to Natalie@tonkatalk.com and each Monday Kelly Olsen will answer them on Monday's Ask Kelly!
Shortlist Properties - Simplifying Real Estate Amplifying Success
Our skilled Lake Minnetonka team specializes in real estate development, home transactions, and provides tailored services for Snowbirds and Property Management. Let us streamline your to-do list.
https://www.shortlistproperties.com
612-523-0111
Learn more at https://www.tonkatalk.com where we share more about our Lake Minnetonka community, including upcoming events and our take on local experiences.
Connect with us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TonkaTalk/
If you have feedback, questions, or suggestions of a future guests creating community and connection, email natalie@tonkatalk.com
We appreciate your support in sharing Tonka Talk Community and Connection with someone you think could benefit from our content.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello, I'm Natalie Webster and this is Tonka Doc,
where we talk about communityand connection and on Mondays
Kelly Olson joins us and we doour segment.
We like to call Ask Kelly.
Kelly Olson, if you don't know,is a local entrepreneur here in
the Twin Cities.
She's done multiple projects.
You'll learn more about that aswe go along but we thought we
(00:23):
would do this as an opportunityfor our community to reach out.
If you have an idea, you have abusiness idea, or you have
aspirations to be anentrepreneur but you don't know
where to start.
Maybe you're struggling withsomething and getting something
going in the community business,nonprofit, whatever it is you
can go ahead and email in atnatalie at tonkacom and just put
(00:44):
in the subject Ask Kelly, askall your questions and on
Mondays Kelly Olson is going toaddress them.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
You're making me feel like peppermint patty on
peanuts, with a little advicetwo cents, that's right.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Or what it's worth.
That's right, I have to switchmy glasses, okay.
So today, our first questionwhich I think is very
interesting and I wouldn't besurprised if a lot of you can
relate to this it's how do Iovercome imposter syndrome?
But if you're not familiar,imposter syndrome is just that.
(01:23):
It's that feeling sometimes weget when you're doing a job and
you're even good at your job andit's going along, but you just
get this feeling of like I'm afraud, I'm a fake, even though
you're not Unlike that, likeTinder swindler or something
like that.
I believe those people neverhave imposter syndrome.
(01:44):
No, they really don't.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Actually, this is a really great question because I
think we all feel that at times.
But what I thought was reallyinteresting my mother-in-law was
the CEO of Great Clips for many, many years and it was probably
two weeks before she was aboutto retire.
She said oh my gosh, I mightactually make it to retirement
(02:07):
before people figure out that Idon't know what I'm doing.
Wow, I just think it'ssomething that stays with most
of us throughout our career.
But I actually think certainlyyou want to feel confident in
what you're doing, but I thinkit's actually healthy to feel
like, hey, I don't knoweverything here, and it keeps
(02:28):
you a little bit humble andwilling, I hope, to ask for
advice where it's needed.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
When you run into that, and it's so interesting to
me that somebody like yourmother-in-law, who held such an
amazing position over ahumongous company even she
experienced that, and it soundslike she experienced it up until
the end of her career when sheretired.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
In fact she probably would have me correct you on the
retirement phrase.
She calls this her performant.
She's going to do what sheprefers now.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
I like that.
I want to get to my performantyes.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I feel like I'm already there.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
True, I feel like if we do get to do some really fun
things, or I should say wecreate some really fun projects
and things and bring people intoit, do you, when you run into
that and have those momentswhere it's that imposter
syndrome, is there anything foryou?
How do you pull yourself out ofthat?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Gosh, you know what one thing I Think.
I'm pretty upfront about thefact that you know a lot of
these things I've never donebefore.
Yeah so I don't feel like I'mstanding behind a wall of where
people really have anexpectation that I'm gonna have
every answer Sure, so I thinkthat that really lessens the
burden.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
I'm not.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
I'm not out there saying I'm the expert in
everything.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
That's a really good point and that's really true,
and that's it.
We kind of talked about thatlast time too the willingness to
be able to ask for help and say, hey, I'm not totally sure how
to do this, I want to do this,and I find it really interesting
and that's why I think you'rethe perfect person for this
segment, because you have doneso many things for the first
time, things that you just neverthought you were we be doing,
(04:15):
being where you were in realestate before and then you
bought a bakery and, and justfrom there, these different
things.
You've executive produced ashow that got nominated for a
regional Emmy I mean, it's justfirst thing up Developing a
hotel on Lake Minnetonka thingsthat you've not done before.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
I ran a gymnastics gym in my 20s.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Yeah, we're in a gym, yeah do you find that each of
these experiences because it'ssomething you've not done Do you
feel that it kind of helps alittle bit with that those those
feelings we get when we fillimposter syndrome because you
know like Okay, I've not, wehave to enter into this unknown
any time we do anything and, aswe know, it's that unknown area
where it can be veryuncomfortable and it's easy to
(05:01):
default to Nope, I'm just gonnastay here in my box because I
know that and those feelings arecomfortable.
But what I see you do a lot isyou go outside of that and I
feel like that's like kind ofwhere you live.
Do you think it's becauseyou've done these different
things Multiple times and andhave been fairly successful at
it?
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Um, I really think, as a kid, you really you don't
know anything yet, right?
Yeah you're trying everythingfor the first time and you're
asking a lot of questions andthen the feedback that you get
most of the time you just acceptit, right, yeah.
So I think if you can hang onto that sort of childlike
curiosity, hang on to a littlebit of the creativity that's
(05:43):
sort of innate to us when we'rechildren, and you can just push
that forward, I don't feel likethere was ever this finish line
where I felt like, oh, now I'vegraduated and I should know
everything.
Oh, now I've done this and nowI should know everything.
It just feels like acontinuation of that and maybe
that's why I still love to playso much, because yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
I'm trying to hold on to it.
Yeah, I think so, and that's areally good point, maintaining
your curiosity, even, I think,in Coming up against if there's
any opposition, becausesometimes we have ideas and some
people can't handle those ideas.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
That has never happened to me.
Never, not one time.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
I'm sure no one's ever gone.
Well, no, you can't do that,but you're right having that.
Even then, if you approach thatwith curiosity, you're like,
okay, well, tell me more aboutthat and I've heard you say this
a lot, I've seen her insituations and she'll just tell
the person okay, tell me moreabout that.
You can tell you're trying tounderstand it.
(06:43):
You don't try to, you're notfighting it, you're trying to
understand it.
And what's interesting in thatprocess of understanding the
other person starts to kind ofunderstand it more.
It reminds me of when my son waslittle.
I Would take him to that.
There was an indoor playgroundat Eden Prairie Mall and he'd
play with other kids and he wasprobably like about five, five
(07:04):
or six and I watched this kidcome up to him and say hey,
who's an older kid I think hewas closer tonight what's your,
what's your name?
And my son says spider-man.
And the kid goes you're notspider-man, what's your name?
And my son's like I'mspider-man.
No, you're not, you're notspider-man.
My son was yeah, I'm spider-man.
And then my son says what'syour name?
(07:27):
The kid goes Batman, and theyand they went off and and they
played.
And I just thought huh, that isjust such a great analogy of
sometimes, the things in lifethat we run into and how we can
get other people to kind of joinus in the fun and have a
different way of seeing it.
Now the next question is dearKelly, what would you consider
(07:52):
to be three important habits foran entrepreneur?
Three important habits?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
This is a really tough one for me, because I'm
not inherently someone who has alot of habits in general.
I do things differently almostevery day or in a different
order, but I do think thatallows you to, just by you know,
driving a different way.
(08:20):
You know on your way home ordoing you know, trying to see
something from a different angle, ordering something different
off the menu.
I think each of those thingsthey help you to keep yourself
from looking at something fromonly one angle.
I think you really need to lookat things from a lot of
different angles if you're goingto be an entrepreneur.
(08:41):
And I think another thing thatpeople you know maybe get stuck
in a little bit is when theyreally get married to their own
idea and they have a hard timetaking that feedback, and we
were just talking about that.
You know, sometimes I come upwith an idea and I think it's
amazing and then I ask a fewquestions and I understand that
(09:03):
my paradigm is completelydifferent than what the
situation allows.
For I think about mymother-in-law and I, in a larger
group, volunteer for anorganization in South Africa
that helps women start their ownbusinesses and they provide
microloans and financing andtraining.
But the first time I went thereI looked around and I went.
(09:25):
You know, they're making allthis really cool stuff.
How you know we should justhave them.
You know we'll build a websiteand we'll have them ship it here
to the US.
They can be bringing more moneyinto the community and then the
people here will be gettingthese really authentic.
You know handmade crafts, andthe person I was talking to said
you know, that's great, but thestreets here don't actually
(09:48):
have names and there's no, youknow, unless you told somebody
to turn at the fence and go downto the fourth house on the
right.
You know it.
Just there's no infrastructurethere yet, at least at that
point in time was noinfrastructure for it, and I
thought, oh yeah, it's.
You know, if you're taking yourset of ideas from the life that
(10:09):
you've lived and theexperiences that you've had, and
then you're going into acompletely foreign environment,
you need to be first prepared toask a lot of questions, be
prepared to listen and beprepared to like really absorb
that information and be willingto make changes.
Habits, though.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
I digress Now on the Habit Front that is something
that I would say I think is ahabit for you, because I've seen
you do it even with the hotelproject, where we hosted
different public feedbacksessions and ran them.
You know, ran ideas by them ofhey, we were thinking of doing
this, what do you think aboutthat, what do you think about
(10:50):
this, and then got that feedbackfrom them and some of it was
very different from maybe kindof what the original plan was,
and I've seen you make changesthen to these plans to fit what
people are looking for.
So maybe it is that beingwilling to, being willing to
listen.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
I mean really I think as an entrepreneur, really the
goal should be to be solvingsome kind of a problem or
filling a hole in the market.
So I think you really do needto be honest about if you really
get too married to your idea inthe beginning and you aren't
prepared to listen.
You might build this amazingthing that doesn't have an
(11:29):
audience or doesn't have aclient or a customer.
So that would be, you knowsomething, definitely to
practice up on your listeningskills.
Another one is, for me, let allthe things marinate during the
day.
I'm gathering information allduring the day and then I try to
really clear my head before Igo to sleep and just fall asleep
(11:51):
.
And I mean obviously, natalie,you know this because I'm
usually sending an email in themiddle of the night.
But I wake up in the middle ofthe night and I have an idea.
It becomes really clear for mewhat I need to do moving forward
, and I will grab my phone and Iwill scribble down furious
notes or I will email the teamin the middle of the night.
(12:14):
Hopefully they all have turnedoff their notifications.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Oh yeah, I always put my phone silent when I go to
bed.
That's why I've always said goahead and reach out, tell my
real estate clients that too.
I'm like, if you have a thoughtor something in the middle of
the night, text me, because myphone will be on, do not disturb
, but then I'll get it and youdon't lose that.
Some people keep a notepad nextto their bed and do a similar
thing.
I'm curious how do you clearyour head at night?
(12:39):
Do you have kind of a routinethat you do, or is it just kind
of just sitting there and Like,literally just okay, I'm kind of
finding this quiet time.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Well, interestingly, when, when I was in kindergarten
, they pulled me out of classand they did some kind of test
and they were, like we're gonnaput you in this group and
they're they called it highpotential at the time and All it
was then was once a week youwent down to the library.
There may be six kids there,and in this case it was just me
(13:12):
and two.
There were five other kids, butthey were all quite a bit older
than I was, so but in thatgroup they, you know, were just
saying that they've identifiedthese kids as potentially, you
know, just having a differentlearning style.
So that's how I would relate ittoday.
But they taught us how toReally had color.
(13:33):
It was like a lead meditation,almost so interesting.
Um, I Remember doing that fromthe time I was really young.
Then I was probably six orseven when I learned how to do
it.
But you know, it was justreally Focusing on all the
different parts of your body andjust letting them relax and
(13:54):
gosh, I can even remember beingreally little and you know when
they teach you in, you know toStop, drop and roll like you
were ever on fire and then allof a sudden you're a little kid
and you really think gosh, atsome point in my life I am going
to be on fire.
Exactly so that became a lot ofanxiety for me.
Like I, even you know, I thoughtabout the house burning down or
whatever but you know, in thismeditation I had learned how to
(14:18):
kind of isolate the differentparts of my body and I thought,
you know what?
I'm just gonna pretend that Iam reaching down to my toes with
a big strainer and I'm gonnastrain all of the negative
thoughts and all of the negativeenergy all the way up until I
get all the way To the top of myhead and I'm gonna tie that
bundle together and I'm gonnathrow it out into a black hole
(14:42):
and outer space.
Because this is the way my sixyear old brain worked, but it
works actually, even as an adult.
To just think about clearingyour mind and clearing out all
that negative energy, I really Idon't watch scary movies, I
don't watch scary things.
I don't watch the news before Igo to bed, you know, I just try
to keep as many positivethoughts in my brain as yeah,
(15:05):
humanly possible.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
And I think that's a really good habit.
That's kind of like a reallygood third habit we're talking
about on this question.
That's so interesting to methat that was when you were in
kindergarten, because you hearthese days about schools where
they're doing that with children, encouraging them to meditate
and what it does for them isabsolutely amazing that they
(15:27):
would have done that back then.
Yeah, that was the early 80s.
Yeah, that was really reallyahead of their time.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
So what if you're out there, the people who put that
on?
Speaker 1 (15:38):
yeah, and what?
And you look at all these yearslater that if you've been doing
that this whole time, that Ithink really hits home as a
habit that you've used thatentire time Not going to bed
with all these negative,negative thoughts, getting rid
of it, and you know, like yousaid, woken up with those ideas.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
I think it's just really clear space for your your
brain to be doing the thinkingat night.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Mm-hmm, oh, I love that one.
That's a good one.
All right, here is another one.
Dear Kelly, when you have anidea, how do you develop it?
Do you have set steps of?
First I come up with a name,then I find a URL which is, you
know, a website address?
I Think what this person islooking for is kind of like
(16:22):
what's your process to go fromBack of the napkin kind of idea,
because you've talked aboutthat before on Tonka talk where
you'll You'll get an idea, andit's literally on the back of a
napkin.
In fact, I've seen thesenapkins on our desk.
We don't throw anything awayoff of off of your desk because
(16:42):
sometimes you just don't knowwhat on there that you've
scribbled on it's usually like aPiece of paper and there's
something written this way andsomething sideways, and maybe
something more a little bitupside down.
Yeah, do you have a process togo from.
When you get an idea to is it,do you find yourself following
the same routine in Terms of howyou set it up, I think.
(17:04):
I think that's kind of whatthey're looking for, is they're
kind of a series of steps thatyou, that you take okay.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
So most of the time I Will get an idea and, like I
said, first thing I'm usuallydoing is scribbling it down.
It's a lot of times really aninopportune time to be
scribbling it down, like themiddle of the night, or you know
, I'll be just in conversationwith someone and I think
actually there's a lot of ideasthat come up this way You're in
(17:32):
conversation with someone,you're talking, they're giving
input, it's leading down a path,and all of a sudden you go, oh
my gosh, that's a really greatidea.
And I think for a lot of peoplethey leave it there and Usually
I'm like no, no, that really isa really great idea.
And then I will, I willscribble it down, and a Lot of
(17:53):
times I do love to think about aname first, not always, but I
like to think about a namebecause it really draws me and
it makes it feel more real.
But I try not to get married tothe name until I find out that
there's a domain availablethat's going to work for it.
So I used to just go straightto GoDaddy and I'm typing all
(18:17):
the things in, but now I go toInstant Domain Search because
you can type in three, fourletters and it's going to tell
you this is available or it'snot available.
You can just keep editing untilyou find something that does
work, which is actually how Icame up with shortlist
properties.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Oh, I was wondering.
I know we're going through theprocess and this is our real
estate brokerage of names andthere were a few different names
and then next we know you hadthis great name logo, everything
.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Oh, that's another one.
Then after that, after I getthe domain, then I go to
Smashing Logo and I go and Ijust play around until I find
something that fits.
But really I think brand is alot more important than I maybe
understood in my early career.
You need to make sure that youhave identified who is your
(19:08):
target audience and what is ityou're trying to communicate.
And then that needs to livethrough all of the ways that you
communicate.
So it needs to be in your logo,it needs to be in all of your
social media posts, it needs tobe in all of your marketing
materials.
So I would say, if you're acompany who says, gosh, we are
(19:29):
really playful and we're reallyfun and we're really X and Y and
Z, you don't want to be puttingout these super sort of somber
serious posts.
Do you want to make sure thateverything kind of follows that
whole brand guideline thatyou've built for yourself?
So, as far as process, a lot ofit's very organic, but most of
(19:52):
the time we do then end up in abrainstorming session, either
myself doing it on my own ordoing it with a group or our
team.
Sometimes I like to think aboutwho's the audience and if I
know anybody in my sphere thatfits that audience, I reach out
to them and try to get advice,or if I can bring them in on the
(20:12):
brainstorm, that's even better.
But like I was saying before,we put down all the good ideas,
we put down all the bad ideasand we really try not to edit
that until we actually puteverything down.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
That is a really key point.
That's something I've learned inworking with you is I've done
brainstorming before on my own,but I would edit it as I go and
you always say, no, we're justbrainstorming, we're putting
everything down, there's no badideas, and I have tested out
this theory with her Like really, how about this?
(20:44):
But you're right, there'ssomething about not editing
yourself and allowing yourselfto just kind of just go through
that creative process, andthere's something that I feel in
my experience it opens up yourcreativity because you remove
this idea that there's a wronganswer.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Well, I think when you're in school and the teacher
is asking a question, you'resitting there like I think I
have the answer.
Maybe you raise your hand, butit feels like there's a little
bit of shame in shouting out thewrong thing.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
So I think when you go into a brainstorm session and
you understand that we're alloperating on the same set of
rules here, where there's nowrong answer, then I think that
opens the door for you to reallyexpand into a different part of
your brain.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
I think you're right and I've seen that happen and it
does really change the thinkingwhen you get it through your
head and honestly it was, I know, the first few times it was
difficult for me to make thatswitch and go.
I can be vulnerable and openwith my ideas and when you're
not editing, it's just there'sthis free flow of it.
It really is this creativeprocess.
(21:56):
So for your process it's,you've, like you said, you have
an idea.
You kind of take a look atbranding and the URL, having
being able to have a websitethat's related to what you're
thinking, and then you build itout for there from there.
So it's interesting to mebecause it seems like it all
starts with that core brand andthen bringing in people.
(22:18):
So, say, if it's an idea forpets, maybe you talk to people
who have pets and you flush itout more and more.
And it's interesting the waythese questions flow is it
really kind of goes back to youknow three important habits,
like you were saying beingcurious, not being afraid to ask
questions, and that self careof really getting your mind
(22:41):
quieted and getting rid of thosenegative energies from the day,
because anybody walking throughlife, especially if you're
trying to do anything slightlyoutside the box.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Yeah, you really do have to kind of let some of that
just roll off your back,because people are bringing to
the table their set ofexperiences, right, and they
don't always know exactly whatyou're trying to do.
They maybe heard the firstlittle piece of it and made a
snap judgment about whether ornot that was going to work or
(23:13):
not work.
One thing that was really hardfor me when I was getting
started was taking the negativefeedback.
I mean, there are some peoplewho you really okay, this person
has experience in this area andI really needed to tune into
this.
And then there are some otherpeople who a lot of times there
are people who are really closeto you in life but they're
(23:35):
warriors.
You know, they're reallyconcerned.
Maybe there's a littleskeptical, maybe they're.
I sometimes I think of them aspessimists, but I think most of
the time if you ask them theyjust say they're realists.
But a lot of that time thosepeople they're really trying to
(23:58):
like help you avoid somecatastrophe.
They really feel like they'retrying to protect you from this
thing, and I'm not saying youshould go out and take
unnecessary risks by any means,but I do think so.
When my it was gosh, I'm tryingto think maybe 2007, I was
(24:19):
throwing a birthday party for mylate husband's mother and we
wanted a cake for someone tojump out of for her as a gag at
the party, and we couldn't findone.
So we looked online and wefound all of these people who
were also looking for cakes forpeople to jump out of.
But you could only rent one ifyou lived within so many miles
(24:39):
of Las Vegas and it was like 300bucks for the weekend and I'm
like that's way too expensive.
And so we went back and we madethis cake and then we had
someone jump out of it dressedin costume for her birthday and
it was hilarious.
We all had a great time.
It was a really memorablemoment.
And then we thought, gosh, youknow that wasn't that hard and
there were all these people whowere looking for these cakes.
(25:01):
Maybe we should just puttogether a little GoDaddy
website five pages, put ittogether myself.
It was not great, but it didthe job.
We started getting an order aday without doing any marketing
at all.
You know, three weeks later myhusband passed away.
But then when I maybe a yearafter that I said you know, gosh
(25:24):
, that was kind of fun and itfelt good to be part of
everyone's celebration and theywere all excited.
So I redesigned it, I got apatent on it and then we started
, you know, selling them on thiswebsite and we were selling
them to Dubai and Wow.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Yeah, you got a patent on it, right.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
A patent?
Yeah, germany, canada,australia.
I couldn't believe how manypeople were jumping out of cakes
in Australia.
But anyway, like I said, thatwas just a little small idea and
I didn't have any experience inmanufacturing or patents.
That was my first patent, butit was just being willing.
Seeing this whole in the market, seeing a need, also seeing how
(26:08):
fun it was for everyone who wasyou know we had some great,
great feedback on those.
I had a 17 year old kid reachout and say, hey, I wanna jump
out of a cake to invite mygirlfriend to prom.
Oh, you know like I sent it outand then three days later I get
a text message.
It's like 11 o'clock at night.
She said, yes, oh, it was just.
We had a soldier jump out ofone to surprise his wife when he
(26:31):
came back from serving.
So we had some really greatyeah, really great stories
through that.
But I think you know thiswillingness to step out into the
unknown, where maybe you don'treally actually have any
experience, but being willing tolearn is a good spot to start.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Yeah, that is.
Those are really really goodanswers.
It's a good thing this is onvideo because I don't have to
take notes.
Yeah Well, thank you so muchagain for another awesome Ask
Kelly.
You're welcome.
Go ahead and email Natalie atTonkaTalkcom and just put in the
subject Ask Kelly, because thenwe'll know where to put that
(27:10):
and on Mondays we'll go throughthese questions, We'll get to as
many of them as we can and wecan pick a brain on how to get
your idea going, how to maybecreate some community around it.
The great thing about this isthe more you talk about and you
share your idea and what youwant to get going, because we
have such a large community, younever know, we might know
someone that can work with youon that.
(27:32):
It's just we want to do thisbasically in the spirit of just
creating more community andfinding more connection for
people.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Absolutely.
I love being a connector,trying to put people with the
people they need to make theirideas and dreams happen.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Oh yeah, dream job.
Well, thank you everyone elseWelcome.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
thank you, Nat.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
I'll talk to you later.
Bye.
Hello, I'm Natalie Webster and this is Tonka Doc,
where we talk about communityand connection and on Mondays
Kelly Olson joins us and we doour segment.
We like to call Ask Kelly.
Kelly Olson, if you don't know,is a local entrepreneur here in
the Twin Cities.
She's done multiple projects.
You'll learn more about that aswe go along but we thought we
(00:23):
would do this as an opportunityfor our community to reach out.
If you have an idea, you have abusiness idea, or you have
aspirations to be anentrepreneur but you don't know
where to start.
Maybe you're struggling withsomething and getting something
going in the community business,nonprofit, whatever it is you
can go ahead and email in atnatalie at tonkacom and just put
(00:44):
in the subject Ask Kelly, askall your questions and on
Mondays Kelly Olson is going toaddress them.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
You're making me feel like peppermint patty on
peanuts, with a little advicetwo cents, that's right.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Or what it's worth.
That's right, I have to switchmy glasses, okay.
So today, our first questionwhich I think is very
interesting and I wouldn't besurprised if a lot of you can
relate to this it's how do Iovercome imposter syndrome?
But if you're not familiar,imposter syndrome is just that.
(01:23):
It's that feeling sometimes weget when you're doing a job and
you're even good at your job andit's going along, but you just
get this feeling of like I'm afraud, I'm a fake, even though
you're not Unlike that, likeTinder swindler or something
like that.
I believe those people neverhave imposter syndrome.
(01:44):
No, they really don't.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Actually, this is a really great question because I
think we all feel that at times.
But what I thought was reallyinteresting my mother-in-law was
the CEO of Great Clips for many, many years and it was probably
two weeks before she was aboutto retire.
She said oh my gosh, I mightactually make it to retirement
(02:07):
before people figure out that Idon't know what I'm doing.
Wow, I just think it'ssomething that stays with most
of us throughout our career.
But I actually think certainlyyou want to feel confident in
what you're doing, but I thinkit's actually healthy to feel
like, hey, I don't knoweverything here, and it keeps
(02:28):
you a little bit humble andwilling, I hope, to ask for
advice where it's needed.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
When you run into that, and it's so interesting to
me that somebody like yourmother-in-law, who held such an
amazing position over ahumongous company even she
experienced that, and it soundslike she experienced it up until
the end of her career when sheretired.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
In fact she probably would have me correct you on the
retirement phrase.
She calls this her performant.
She's going to do what sheprefers now.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
I like that.
I want to get to my performantyes.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I feel like I'm already there.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
True, I feel like if we do get to do some really fun
things, or I should say wecreate some really fun projects
and things and bring people intoit, do you, when you run into
that and have those momentswhere it's that imposter
syndrome, is there anything foryou?
How do you pull yourself out ofthat?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Gosh, you know what one thing I Think.
I'm pretty upfront about thefact that you know a lot of
these things I've never donebefore.
Yeah so I don't feel like I'mstanding behind a wall of where
people really have anexpectation that I'm gonna have
every answer Sure, so I thinkthat that really lessens the
burden.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
I'm not.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
I'm not out there saying I'm the expert in
everything.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
That's a really good point and that's really true,
and that's it.
We kind of talked about thatlast time too the willingness to
be able to ask for help and say, hey, I'm not totally sure how
to do this, I want to do this,and I find it really interesting
and that's why I think you'rethe perfect person for this
segment, because you have doneso many things for the first
time, things that you just neverthought you were we be doing,
(04:15):
being where you were in realestate before and then you
bought a bakery and, and justfrom there, these different
things.
You've executive produced ashow that got nominated for a
regional Emmy I mean, it's justfirst thing up Developing a
hotel on Lake Minnetonka thingsthat you've not done before.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
I ran a gymnastics gym in my 20s.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Yeah, we're in a gym, yeah do you find that each of
these experiences because it'ssomething you've not done Do you
feel that it kind of helps alittle bit with that those those
feelings we get when we fillimposter syndrome because you
know like Okay, I've not, wehave to enter into this unknown
any time we do anything and, aswe know, it's that unknown area
where it can be veryuncomfortable and it's easy to
(05:01):
default to Nope, I'm just gonnastay here in my box because I
know that and those feelings arecomfortable.
But what I see you do a lot isyou go outside of that and I
feel like that's like kind ofwhere you live.
Do you think it's becauseyou've done these different
things Multiple times and andhave been fairly successful at
it?
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Um, I really think, as a kid, you really you don't
know anything yet, right?
Yeah you're trying everythingfor the first time and you're
asking a lot of questions andthen the feedback that you get
most of the time you just acceptit, right, yeah.
So I think if you can hang onto that sort of childlike
curiosity, hang on to a littlebit of the creativity that's
(05:43):
sort of innate to us when we'rechildren, and you can just push
that forward, I don't feel likethere was ever this finish line
where I felt like, oh, now I'vegraduated and I should know
everything.
Oh, now I've done this and nowI should know everything.
It just feels like acontinuation of that and maybe
that's why I still love to playso much, because yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
I'm trying to hold on to it.
Yeah, I think so, and that's areally good point, maintaining
your curiosity, even, I think,in Coming up against if there's
any opposition, becausesometimes we have ideas and some
people can't handle those ideas.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
That has never happened to me.
Never, not one time.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
I'm sure no one's ever gone.
Well, no, you can't do that,but you're right having that.
Even then, if you approach thatwith curiosity, you're like,
okay, well, tell me more aboutthat and I've heard you say this
a lot, I've seen her insituations and she'll just tell
the person okay, tell me moreabout that.
You can tell you're trying tounderstand it.
(06:43):
You don't try to, you're notfighting it, you're trying to
understand it.
And what's interesting in thatprocess of understanding the
other person starts to kind ofunderstand it more.
It reminds me of when my son waslittle.
I Would take him to that.
There was an indoor playgroundat Eden Prairie Mall and he'd
play with other kids and he wasprobably like about five, five
(07:04):
or six and I watched this kidcome up to him and say hey,
who's an older kid I think hewas closer tonight what's your,
what's your name?
And my son says spider-man.
And the kid goes you're notspider-man, what's your name?
And my son's like I'mspider-man.
No, you're not, you're notspider-man.
My son was yeah, I'm spider-man.
And then my son says what'syour name?
(07:27):
The kid goes Batman, and theyand they went off and and they
played.
And I just thought huh, that isjust such a great analogy of
sometimes, the things in lifethat we run into and how we can
get other people to kind of joinus in the fun and have a
different way of seeing it.
Now the next question is dearKelly, what would you consider
(07:52):
to be three important habits foran entrepreneur?
Three important habits?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
This is a really tough one for me, because I'm
not inherently someone who has alot of habits in general.
I do things differently almostevery day or in a different
order, but I do think thatallows you to, just by you know,
driving a different way.
(08:20):
You know on your way home ordoing you know, trying to see
something from a different angle, ordering something different
off the menu.
I think each of those thingsthey help you to keep yourself
from looking at something fromonly one angle.
I think you really need to lookat things from a lot of
different angles if you're goingto be an entrepreneur.
(08:41):
And I think another thing thatpeople you know maybe get stuck
in a little bit is when theyreally get married to their own
idea and they have a hard timetaking that feedback, and we
were just talking about that.
You know, sometimes I come upwith an idea and I think it's
amazing and then I ask a fewquestions and I understand that
(09:03):
my paradigm is completelydifferent than what the
situation allows.
For I think about mymother-in-law and I, in a larger
group, volunteer for anorganization in South Africa
that helps women start their ownbusinesses and they provide
microloans and financing andtraining.
But the first time I went thereI looked around and I went.
(09:25):
You know, they're making allthis really cool stuff.
How you know we should justhave them.
You know we'll build a websiteand we'll have them ship it here
to the US.
They can be bringing more moneyinto the community and then the
people here will be gettingthese really authentic.
You know handmade crafts, andthe person I was talking to said
you know, that's great, but thestreets here don't actually
(09:48):
have names and there's no, youknow, unless you told somebody
to turn at the fence and go downto the fourth house on the
right.
You know it.
Just there's no infrastructurethere yet, at least at that
point in time was noinfrastructure for it, and I
thought, oh yeah, it's.
You know, if you're taking yourset of ideas from the life that
(10:09):
you've lived and theexperiences that you've had, and
then you're going into acompletely foreign environment,
you need to be first prepared toask a lot of questions, be
prepared to listen and beprepared to like really absorb
that information and be willingto make changes.
Habits, though.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
I digress Now on the Habit Front that is something
that I would say I think is ahabit for you, because I've seen
you do it even with the hotelproject, where we hosted
different public feedbacksessions and ran them.
You know, ran ideas by them ofhey, we were thinking of doing
this, what do you think aboutthat, what do you think about
(10:50):
this, and then got that feedbackfrom them and some of it was
very different from maybe kindof what the original plan was,
and I've seen you make changesthen to these plans to fit what
people are looking for.
So maybe it is that beingwilling to, being willing to
listen.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
I mean really I think as an entrepreneur, really the
goal should be to be solvingsome kind of a problem or
filling a hole in the market.
So I think you really do needto be honest about if you really
get too married to your idea inthe beginning and you aren't
prepared to listen.
You might build this amazingthing that doesn't have an
(11:29):
audience or doesn't have aclient or a customer.
So that would be, you knowsomething, definitely to
practice up on your listeningskills.
Another one is, for me, let allthe things marinate during the
day.
I'm gathering information allduring the day and then I try to
really clear my head before Igo to sleep and just fall asleep
(11:51):
.
And I mean obviously, natalie,you know this because I'm
usually sending an email in themiddle of the night.
But I wake up in the middle ofthe night and I have an idea.
It becomes really clear for mewhat I need to do moving forward
, and I will grab my phone and Iwill scribble down furious
notes or I will email the teamin the middle of the night.
(12:14):
Hopefully they all have turnedoff their notifications.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Oh yeah, I always put my phone silent when I go to
bed.
That's why I've always said goahead and reach out, tell my
real estate clients that too.
I'm like, if you have a thoughtor something in the middle of
the night, text me, because myphone will be on, do not disturb
, but then I'll get it and youdon't lose that.
Some people keep a notepad nextto their bed and do a similar
thing.
I'm curious how do you clearyour head at night?
(12:39):
Do you have kind of a routinethat you do, or is it just kind
of just sitting there and Like,literally just okay, I'm kind of
finding this quiet time.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Well, interestingly, when, when I was in kindergarten
, they pulled me out of classand they did some kind of test
and they were, like we're gonnaput you in this group and
they're they called it highpotential at the time and All it
was then was once a week youwent down to the library.
There may be six kids there,and in this case it was just me
(13:12):
and two.
There were five other kids, butthey were all quite a bit older
than I was, so but in thatgroup they, you know, were just
saying that they've identifiedthese kids as potentially, you
know, just having a differentlearning style.
So that's how I would relate ittoday.
But they taught us how toReally had color.
(13:33):
It was like a lead meditation,almost so interesting.
Um, I Remember doing that fromthe time I was really young.
Then I was probably six orseven when I learned how to do
it.
But you know, it was justreally Focusing on all the
different parts of your body andjust letting them relax and
(13:54):
gosh, I can even remember beingreally little and you know when
they teach you in, you know toStop, drop and roll like you
were ever on fire and then allof a sudden you're a little kid
and you really think gosh, atsome point in my life I am going
to be on fire.
Exactly so that became a lot ofanxiety for me.
Like I, even you know, I thoughtabout the house burning down or
whatever but you know, in thismeditation I had learned how to
(14:18):
kind of isolate the differentparts of my body and I thought,
you know what?
I'm just gonna pretend that Iam reaching down to my toes with
a big strainer and I'm gonnastrain all of the negative
thoughts and all of the negativeenergy all the way up until I
get all the way To the top of myhead and I'm gonna tie that
bundle together and I'm gonnathrow it out into a black hole
(14:42):
and outer space.
Because this is the way my sixyear old brain worked, but it
works actually, even as an adult.
To just think about clearingyour mind and clearing out all
that negative energy, I really Idon't watch scary movies, I
don't watch scary things.
I don't watch the news before Igo to bed, you know, I just try
to keep as many positivethoughts in my brain as yeah,
(15:05):
humanly possible.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
And I think that's a really good habit.
That's kind of like a reallygood third habit we're talking
about on this question.
That's so interesting to methat that was when you were in
kindergarten, because you hearthese days about schools where
they're doing that with children, encouraging them to meditate
and what it does for them isabsolutely amazing that they
(15:27):
would have done that back then.
Yeah, that was the early 80s.
Yeah, that was really reallyahead of their time.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
So what if you're out there, the people who put that
on?
Speaker 1 (15:38):
yeah, and what?
And you look at all these yearslater that if you've been doing
that this whole time, that Ithink really hits home as a
habit that you've used thatentire time Not going to bed
with all these negative,negative thoughts, getting rid
of it, and you know, like yousaid, woken up with those ideas.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
I think it's just really clear space for your your
brain to be doing the thinkingat night.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Mm-hmm, oh, I love that one.
That's a good one.
All right, here is another one.
Dear Kelly, when you have anidea, how do you develop it?
Do you have set steps of?
First I come up with a name,then I find a URL which is, you
know, a website address?
I Think what this person islooking for is kind of like
(16:22):
what's your process to go fromBack of the napkin kind of idea,
because you've talked aboutthat before on Tonka talk where
you'll You'll get an idea, andit's literally on the back of a
napkin.
In fact, I've seen thesenapkins on our desk.
We don't throw anything awayoff of off of your desk because
(16:42):
sometimes you just don't knowwhat on there that you've
scribbled on it's usually like aPiece of paper and there's
something written this way andsomething sideways, and maybe
something more a little bitupside down.
Yeah, do you have a process togo from.
When you get an idea to is it,do you find yourself following
the same routine in Terms of howyou set it up, I think.
(17:04):
I think that's kind of whatthey're looking for, is they're
kind of a series of steps thatyou, that you take okay.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
So most of the time I Will get an idea and, like I
said, first thing I'm usuallydoing is scribbling it down.
It's a lot of times really aninopportune time to be
scribbling it down, like themiddle of the night, or you know
, I'll be just in conversationwith someone and I think
actually there's a lot of ideasthat come up this way You're in
(17:32):
conversation with someone,you're talking, they're giving
input, it's leading down a path,and all of a sudden you go, oh
my gosh, that's a really greatidea.
And I think for a lot of peoplethey leave it there and Usually
I'm like no, no, that really isa really great idea.
And then I will, I willscribble it down, and a Lot of
(17:53):
times I do love to think about aname first, not always, but I
like to think about a namebecause it really draws me and
it makes it feel more real.
But I try not to get married tothe name until I find out that
there's a domain availablethat's going to work for it.
So I used to just go straightto GoDaddy and I'm typing all
(18:17):
the things in, but now I go toInstant Domain Search because
you can type in three, fourletters and it's going to tell
you this is available or it'snot available.
You can just keep editing untilyou find something that does
work, which is actually how Icame up with shortlist
properties.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Oh, I was wondering.
I know we're going through theprocess and this is our real
estate brokerage of names andthere were a few different names
and then next we know you hadthis great name logo, everything
.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Oh, that's another one.
Then after that, after I getthe domain, then I go to
Smashing Logo and I go and Ijust play around until I find
something that fits.
But really I think brand is alot more important than I maybe
understood in my early career.
You need to make sure that youhave identified who is your
(19:08):
target audience and what is ityou're trying to communicate.
And then that needs to livethrough all of the ways that you
communicate.
So it needs to be in your logo,it needs to be in all of your
social media posts, it needs tobe in all of your marketing
materials.
So I would say, if you're acompany who says, gosh, we are
(19:29):
really playful and we're reallyfun and we're really X and Y and
Z, you don't want to be puttingout these super sort of somber
serious posts.
Do you want to make sure thateverything kind of follows that
whole brand guideline thatyou've built for yourself?
So, as far as process, a lot ofit's very organic, but most of
(19:52):
the time we do then end up in abrainstorming session, either
myself doing it on my own ordoing it with a group or our
team.
Sometimes I like to think aboutwho's the audience and if I
know anybody in my sphere thatfits that audience, I reach out
to them and try to get advice,or if I can bring them in on the
(20:12):
brainstorm, that's even better.
But like I was saying before,we put down all the good ideas,
we put down all the bad ideasand we really try not to edit
that until we actually puteverything down.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
That is a really key point.
That's something I've learned inworking with you is I've done
brainstorming before on my own,but I would edit it as I go and
you always say, no, we're justbrainstorming, we're putting
everything down, there's no badideas, and I have tested out
this theory with her Like really, how about this?
(20:44):
But you're right, there'ssomething about not editing
yourself and allowing yourselfto just kind of just go through
that creative process, andthere's something that I feel in
my experience it opens up yourcreativity because you remove
this idea that there's a wronganswer.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Well, I think when you're in school and the teacher
is asking a question, you'resitting there like I think I
have the answer.
Maybe you raise your hand, butit feels like there's a little
bit of shame in shouting out thewrong thing.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
So I think when you go into a brainstorm session and
you understand that we're alloperating on the same set of
rules here, where there's nowrong answer, then I think that
opens the door for you to reallyexpand into a different part of
your brain.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
I think you're right and I've seen that happen and it
does really change the thinkingwhen you get it through your
head and honestly it was, I know, the first few times it was
difficult for me to make thatswitch and go.
I can be vulnerable and openwith my ideas and when you're
not editing, it's just there'sthis free flow of it.
It really is this creativeprocess.
(21:56):
So for your process it's,you've, like you said, you have
an idea.
You kind of take a look atbranding and the URL, having
being able to have a websitethat's related to what you're
thinking, and then you build itout for there from there.
So it's interesting to mebecause it seems like it all
starts with that core brand andthen bringing in people.
(22:18):
So, say, if it's an idea forpets, maybe you talk to people
who have pets and you flush itout more and more.
And it's interesting the waythese questions flow is it
really kind of goes back to youknow three important habits,
like you were saying beingcurious, not being afraid to ask
questions, and that self careof really getting your mind
(22:41):
quieted and getting rid of thosenegative energies from the day,
because anybody walking throughlife, especially if you're
trying to do anything slightlyoutside the box.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Yeah, you really do have to kind of let some of that
just roll off your back,because people are bringing to
the table their set ofexperiences, right, and they
don't always know exactly whatyou're trying to do.
They maybe heard the firstlittle piece of it and made a
snap judgment about whether ornot that was going to work or
(23:13):
not work.
One thing that was really hardfor me when I was getting
started was taking the negativefeedback.
I mean, there are some peoplewho you really okay, this person
has experience in this area andI really needed to tune into
this.
And then there are some otherpeople who a lot of times there
are people who are really closeto you in life but they're
(23:35):
warriors.
You know, they're reallyconcerned.
Maybe there's a littleskeptical, maybe they're.
I sometimes I think of them aspessimists, but I think most of
the time if you ask them theyjust say they're realists.
But a lot of that time thosepeople they're really trying to
(23:58):
like help you avoid somecatastrophe.
They really feel like they'retrying to protect you from this
thing, and I'm not saying youshould go out and take
unnecessary risks by any means,but I do think so.
When my it was gosh, I'm tryingto think maybe 2007, I was
(24:19):
throwing a birthday party for mylate husband's mother and we
wanted a cake for someone tojump out of for her as a gag at
the party, and we couldn't findone.
So we looked online and wefound all of these people who
were also looking for cakes forpeople to jump out of.
But you could only rent one ifyou lived within so many miles
(24:39):
of Las Vegas and it was like 300bucks for the weekend and I'm
like that's way too expensive.
And so we went back and we madethis cake and then we had
someone jump out of it dressedin costume for her birthday and
it was hilarious.
We all had a great time.
It was a really memorablemoment.
And then we thought, gosh, youknow that wasn't that hard and
there were all these people whowere looking for these cakes.
(25:01):
Maybe we should just puttogether a little GoDaddy
website five pages, put ittogether myself.
It was not great, but it didthe job.
We started getting an order aday without doing any marketing
at all.
You know, three weeks later myhusband passed away.
But then when I maybe a yearafter that I said you know, gosh
(25:24):
, that was kind of fun and itfelt good to be part of
everyone's celebration and theywere all excited.
So I redesigned it, I got apatent on it and then we started
, you know, selling them on thiswebsite and we were selling
them to Dubai and Wow.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Yeah, you got a patent on it, right.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
A patent?
Yeah, germany, canada,australia.
I couldn't believe how manypeople were jumping out of cakes
in Australia.
But anyway, like I said, thatwas just a little small idea and
I didn't have any experience inmanufacturing or patents.
That was my first patent, butit was just being willing.
Seeing this whole in the market, seeing a need, also seeing how
(26:08):
fun it was for everyone who wasyou know we had some great,
great feedback on those.
I had a 17 year old kid reachout and say, hey, I wanna jump
out of a cake to invite mygirlfriend to prom.
Oh, you know like I sent it outand then three days later I get
a text message.
It's like 11 o'clock at night.
She said, yes, oh, it was just.
We had a soldier jump out ofone to surprise his wife when he
(26:31):
came back from serving.
So we had some really greatyeah, really great stories
through that.
But I think you know thiswillingness to step out into the
unknown, where maybe you don'treally actually have any
experience, but being willing tolearn is a good spot to start.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Yeah, that is.
Those are really really goodanswers.
It's a good thing this is onvideo because I don't have to
take notes.
Yeah Well, thank you so muchagain for another awesome Ask
Kelly.
You're welcome.
Go ahead and email Natalie atTonkaTalkcom and just put in the
subject Ask Kelly, because thenwe'll know where to put that
(27:10):
and on Mondays we'll go throughthese questions, We'll get to as
many of them as we can and wecan pick a brain on how to get
your idea going, how to maybecreate some community around it.
The great thing about this isthe more you talk about and you
share your idea and what youwant to get going, because we
have such a large community, younever know, we might know
someone that can work with youon that.
(27:32):
It's just we want to do thisbasically in the spirit of just
creating more community andfinding more connection for
people.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Absolutely.
I love being a connector,trying to put people with the
people they need to make theirideas and dreams happen.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Oh yeah, dream job.
Well, thank you everyone elseWelcome.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
thank you, Nat.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
I'll talk to you later.
Bye.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.