October 24, 2024 • 11 mins
Free access to a vast depth of knowledge through SCORE Mentors can help entrepreneurs ramp up quickly! Kendra Ramirez, CEO of KR Digital and best-selling author talks about her experience with SCORE mentorship that began in 2005. She also shares her efforts to make sure minority and woman-owned businesses are not left behind with recent technology shifts including artificial intelligence.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
My name is Michael Dawson, your host of My SINSI
Small Business Stories. In this episode, I'll be talking with
Kendra Romeroz, CEO of KR Digital and best selling author.
We'll find out more about that, but first we'll be
right back after this message.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Did you know twice as many small businesses survive past
five years when they have the support from a mentor.
My SINCI Small Business Story is brought to you by
the volunteer mentors of Score Greater Cincinnati, a nonprofit organization
that helps launch hundreds of new small businesses and even
more jobs in Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, and Indiana every year.
Our vision is to give every person the support they
(00:42):
need to thrive as a small business owner. Visit score
dot org slash Greater Cincinnati to request a free business
mentor or share your own expertise. You can also listen
and subscribe for more stories about overcoming challenges, clearing obstacles,
and owning a successful small business.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Welcome Kendra, Hi Keil, thanks for having me well. I
appreciate you coming on the podcast. The last time I
saw you you were at SCORES Confluence and I believe
you were the keynote speaker.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yes, I was an honor to do that.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
That was a good session. What do you think about it?
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Oh? I thought it was a great day. The event
was well attended and the topics and I gave the
audience a lot of real action items that they could
walk out and apply.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah, that's always good when you have an event like
that if you could have something to take away with you.
So tell me about your business. When did you get
started and what's your vision.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Gosh, it's so crazy to say this out loud, but
I started my business nineteen years ago, so I was
doing digital nineteen years ago. I was very early in
the market. A lot of people didn't know what digital
was back then, and so have led that organization in
regards to website, social media management, and lead generation. And
then we started developing AI tools for our clients twenty
(02:00):
eighteen and the rest is history.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
I understand from your website you generally specialize in business
to business marketing.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Yes, that's correct, that's correct, and that's just because that's
where I grew up. That was a space that I understood.
Now I have team members that have grown up in
the B two C world as well, so they're very
comfortable with that, but it's really just my own comfort level.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
So it's also my understanding that you had a SCORE
mentor to help you when you were getting started with
your business. Can you tell me a little bit about that.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Yeah, it was so fun, you know. I just love
that Score exists to have all of these you know,
retired executive with the wealth of knowledge to help us
navigate things and understand. And I remember my very first meeting.
I was like, Hey, here's my business plan of what
I'm trying to do, and they everyone was scratching their
heads like, wait a minute, what's this digital thing? So
(02:52):
I literally, you know, because there wasn't anyone to turn
to back then nineteen years ago. I didn't know others
that were develop helping a digital agency, and so we
just you know, did some guiding principles of just business
plan in general. But there was a big fat question
mark from the team at Score. They're like, I don't
understand this, and you know, I don't know. And so
(03:13):
like every single time I'd come to a meeting, it'd
be one more SCORE advisor in our meeting and another
one I jo And at one point there was like
five mentors, you know, in the meeting and every meeting
just they kept adding and adding because they were all like, hey,
we wanted to come here about what you're doing because
we don't understand it. And and several of them like, oh,
I don't know if you should do this as a business,
you know, is it a real thing. I'm like, yes,
(03:35):
it's a real thing, and I'm going to do it
whether you tell me too or not.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
So so it was really fun.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
I love how inquisitive everyone was and curious, you know,
to learn more about.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
How long did you work with the mentors?
Speaker 4 (03:51):
Gosh, that's a good question. Nineteen years ago. I can't
tell you what it did two days ago. Yeah, you know,
I would say probably over maybe you know, a couple
of months, and then I.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Would do check ins as you know, as I was
progressing and growing and you know, running into scaling issues
as every business does. It's a good problem to have.
So it was more, you know, a couple of months
and then check ins as as needed.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Did SCORE kind of set you up with people that
had a specific background that you needed at that particular
moment or how did that work?
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah? You know, well, nobody had no one at SCORE
had any digital experience, and so it was more of,
like I said, that foundational pieces of all the other
aspects of just running a business, right, you know, doing
the business canvas and understanding and for me, I asked
a lot of questions, like, y'all, I didn't know what
I was doing, and so being able to ask a
(04:47):
lot of questions. And then also I just I'm a
big fan of mentors, So I also just reached out to,
you know, people I knew in different types of roles,
you know, be it like CFO or legal or you know,
different aspects and asking you know, for specific guidance on
different different things. So I always said, look, it took
a village to get me where I am. This was
(05:08):
not a kinder thing. I have had many, many, incredible,
incredible mentors my whole career.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
So is it safe to say that you would recommend
SCORE to somebody that was starting out of business.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
One hundred percent? Yeah. The fact that it's free and
there's so much depth of knowledge, you know, it can
really shorten your cycle of you know, ramping up in
your business when you're working with an organization like Score.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
So what's new with K or digital?
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Oh my goodness, what's new. It's changing by the minute
because of AI. But like I said earlier, we've been
doing and using AI tools since twenty eighteen. We were
building bots, you know, the good bots, not the annoying ones,
to be able to respond to things very quickly for organizations,
and we were using those tools and then started just
teaching our clients how to use the AI tool and
(06:00):
the importance of using AI, and that led to our
clients selling other people like hey, cal Kendra, she can
help you, you know, with this, And then the next
thing I know, I did fifty four AI talks last
year and I've done sixty four AI talks this year,
and talks and facilitation and workshops across the country and
so it's just been a lot of fun. And people
(06:23):
make fun of me. They are like, I can't believe
you're doing as many talks as you are, and I'm like,
you know what, this is important work and I'm going
to stand on as many stages as possible because you know,
anytime there's a technology shift, women, minorities and nonprofits are
the ones that are left behind. And for me, on
my heart, I just don't want to leave anyone behind.
And that's why I share. If you're coming within a
(06:44):
foot of me, we're going to talk about AI.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
What would be a takeaway if someone were to read
Marketing Fusion and your other book, The micro Shift, What
would be the takeaway?
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Oh, thank you so much. Those books were super fun
to do and they were a couple of years ago.
So the Marketing Fusion doesn't have AI in it, and
but it's just it is still has. I wrote a
whole sectional strategy and that strategy still applies, so there's
wealth of knowledge there. And then micro Shift was more
about I've had a personal mindset coach for the last
(07:19):
ten years and he has really changed you know, a
lot of you know, personally and professionally for me, really
unlocking things. And so coaching is expensive and I wanted
to make it affordable. So I just put in all
of my learnings from working with that coach, some exercises,
some questions for people to ask themselves and take themselves through,
(07:39):
so through just buying a book and making it affordable.
And then I also invited other coaches in to write
that book with me, so you get to also hear
their stories and their knowledge share as well.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
So I've got a question that I asked, I think
you know Dave had or he was on the podcast. Yeah,
so the question is a savior or the devil?
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Oh? Yes, Well, you know what, there's duality in everything, right,
there's duality in the Internet, that meaning it's good and bad,
and AI is good and bad. And I always say
it's the bad actors are the ones that make it bad, right,
And so it's people like us listening to this podcasts
that are doing good out there, you know, being able
to use it. So it is that duality. And so
(08:26):
anytime we're doing any training around AI, we explain like, hey,
here's the AI foundation, what it is, how you can
use it, real world use cases, not theory, things you
could literally do today with AI. But on the flip side,
we go through pitfalls, It hallucinates, it makes things up.
It's biased, right, there's deep fakes. So I think it's
important just to have the awareness of both aspects, you know,
(08:49):
when using AI.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
I've read on your website that you are a morning
person and then you sometimes annoying non morning people. Is
that true?
Speaker 1 (09:00):
That's very true. It's very true. And when I wrote
that many years ago, I was working inside of an
organization and there was a gentleman there. You know, I'm
the morning person, so I'm going to greet you when
you walk on the door. And I wake up with
energy like this. This is you know, non caffeinated. And
he used to kind of look at me and put
his hand up, you know, He's like, not until, like
(09:23):
I've had coffee, not until I've woken up. And a
couple of years later he's he ended up leaving that
organization and he told me, he goes, you know what,
I think, I'm actually gonna miss you. So even my
sister is not a morning person, and she always is,
you know, tells me the same thing. She's like, don't
(09:43):
even talk to me until after ten o'clock. She goes,
I can't handle your energy, I can't handle your positivity
and until after ten o'clock.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
So that's great. So how would I connect with you
if I wanted to solicit your agency help?
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Yeah, So I'm very easy to find. Kendraramiraz so Kendramras
dot com. I'm Kendra Amiras on all the social platforms.
I'm most active on LinkedIn because that's where my community is,
and then i also have an e newsletter where I'm
writing about AI and it's called AI Simplified, so it's
not technical. It's very easy, very actionable, and I write
(10:21):
weekly and that can also be found on my website
as well well.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Kendra, thank you very much for appearing on our podcast.
Do you have anything that you would like to add
before we close out?
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah, thank you so much. One hundred percent. Go find
mentors right, people that have walked it out. You know
before you It will really shorten all that painful pieces
of entrepreneurship and not make it such a roller coaster
ride because you don't have all the answers and so
being able to find and connect with those that can
help guide you and whatever areas you don't feel is
(10:54):
strong enough for you, and then the other pieces. I
just want you to lean in with curiosity around AI.
Just leaning in from a curiosity standpoint, ask questions, ask
others who are also walking it out, and don't be shy.
The water's warm.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Thank you again. If you would like to sign up
to become a mentor or if you need a mentor,
to the score dot org and link on the appropriate button.
Hello.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
My name is Michael Dawson, your host of My SINSI
Small Business Stories. In this episode, I'll be talking with
Kendra Romeroz, CEO of KR Digital and best selling author.
We'll find out more about that, but first we'll be
right back after this message.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Did you know twice as many small businesses survive past
five years when they have the support from a mentor.
My SINCI Small Business Story is brought to you by
the volunteer mentors of Score Greater Cincinnati, a nonprofit organization
that helps launch hundreds of new small businesses and even
more jobs in Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, and Indiana every year.
Our vision is to give every person the support they
(00:42):
need to thrive as a small business owner. Visit score
dot org slash Greater Cincinnati to request a free business
mentor or share your own expertise. You can also listen
and subscribe for more stories about overcoming challenges, clearing obstacles,
and owning a successful small business.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Welcome Kendra, Hi Keil, thanks for having me well. I
appreciate you coming on the podcast. The last time I
saw you you were at SCORES Confluence and I believe
you were the keynote speaker.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yes, I was an honor to do that.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
That was a good session. What do you think about it?
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Oh? I thought it was a great day. The event
was well attended and the topics and I gave the
audience a lot of real action items that they could
walk out and apply.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah, that's always good when you have an event like
that if you could have something to take away with you.
So tell me about your business. When did you get
started and what's your vision.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Gosh, it's so crazy to say this out loud, but
I started my business nineteen years ago, so I was
doing digital nineteen years ago. I was very early in
the market. A lot of people didn't know what digital
was back then, and so have led that organization in
regards to website, social media management, and lead generation. And
then we started developing AI tools for our clients twenty
(02:00):
eighteen and the rest is history.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
I understand from your website you generally specialize in business
to business marketing.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Yes, that's correct, that's correct, and that's just because that's
where I grew up. That was a space that I understood.
Now I have team members that have grown up in
the B two C world as well, so they're very
comfortable with that, but it's really just my own comfort level.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
So it's also my understanding that you had a SCORE
mentor to help you when you were getting started with
your business. Can you tell me a little bit about that.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Yeah, it was so fun, you know. I just love
that Score exists to have all of these you know,
retired executive with the wealth of knowledge to help us
navigate things and understand. And I remember my very first meeting.
I was like, Hey, here's my business plan of what
I'm trying to do, and they everyone was scratching their
heads like, wait a minute, what's this digital thing? So
(02:52):
I literally, you know, because there wasn't anyone to turn
to back then nineteen years ago. I didn't know others
that were develop helping a digital agency, and so we
just you know, did some guiding principles of just business
plan in general. But there was a big fat question
mark from the team at Score. They're like, I don't
understand this, and you know, I don't know. And so
(03:13):
like every single time I'd come to a meeting, it'd
be one more SCORE advisor in our meeting and another
one I jo And at one point there was like
five mentors, you know, in the meeting and every meeting
just they kept adding and adding because they were all like, hey,
we wanted to come here about what you're doing because
we don't understand it. And and several of them like, oh,
I don't know if you should do this as a business,
you know, is it a real thing. I'm like, yes,
(03:35):
it's a real thing, and I'm going to do it
whether you tell me too or not.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
So so it was really fun.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
I love how inquisitive everyone was and curious, you know,
to learn more about.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
How long did you work with the mentors?
Speaker 4 (03:51):
Gosh, that's a good question. Nineteen years ago. I can't
tell you what it did two days ago. Yeah, you know,
I would say probably over maybe you know, a couple
of months, and then I.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Would do check ins as you know, as I was
progressing and growing and you know, running into scaling issues
as every business does. It's a good problem to have.
So it was more, you know, a couple of months
and then check ins as as needed.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Did SCORE kind of set you up with people that
had a specific background that you needed at that particular
moment or how did that work?
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah? You know, well, nobody had no one at SCORE
had any digital experience, and so it was more of,
like I said, that foundational pieces of all the other
aspects of just running a business, right, you know, doing
the business canvas and understanding and for me, I asked
a lot of questions, like, y'all, I didn't know what
I was doing, and so being able to ask a
(04:47):
lot of questions. And then also I just I'm a
big fan of mentors, So I also just reached out to,
you know, people I knew in different types of roles,
you know, be it like CFO or legal or you know,
different aspects and asking you know, for specific guidance on
different different things. So I always said, look, it took
a village to get me where I am. This was
(05:08):
not a kinder thing. I have had many, many, incredible,
incredible mentors my whole career.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
So is it safe to say that you would recommend
SCORE to somebody that was starting out of business.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
One hundred percent? Yeah. The fact that it's free and
there's so much depth of knowledge, you know, it can
really shorten your cycle of you know, ramping up in
your business when you're working with an organization like Score.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
So what's new with K or digital?
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Oh my goodness, what's new. It's changing by the minute
because of AI. But like I said earlier, we've been
doing and using AI tools since twenty eighteen. We were
building bots, you know, the good bots, not the annoying ones,
to be able to respond to things very quickly for organizations,
and we were using those tools and then started just
teaching our clients how to use the AI tool and
(06:00):
the importance of using AI, and that led to our
clients selling other people like hey, cal Kendra, she can
help you, you know, with this, And then the next
thing I know, I did fifty four AI talks last
year and I've done sixty four AI talks this year,
and talks and facilitation and workshops across the country and
so it's just been a lot of fun. And people
(06:23):
make fun of me. They are like, I can't believe
you're doing as many talks as you are, and I'm like,
you know what, this is important work and I'm going
to stand on as many stages as possible because you know,
anytime there's a technology shift, women, minorities and nonprofits are
the ones that are left behind. And for me, on
my heart, I just don't want to leave anyone behind.
And that's why I share. If you're coming within a
(06:44):
foot of me, we're going to talk about AI.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
What would be a takeaway if someone were to read
Marketing Fusion and your other book, The micro Shift, What
would be the takeaway?
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Oh, thank you so much. Those books were super fun
to do and they were a couple of years ago.
So the Marketing Fusion doesn't have AI in it, and
but it's just it is still has. I wrote a
whole sectional strategy and that strategy still applies, so there's
wealth of knowledge there. And then micro Shift was more
about I've had a personal mindset coach for the last
(07:19):
ten years and he has really changed you know, a
lot of you know, personally and professionally for me, really
unlocking things. And so coaching is expensive and I wanted
to make it affordable. So I just put in all
of my learnings from working with that coach, some exercises,
some questions for people to ask themselves and take themselves through,
(07:39):
so through just buying a book and making it affordable.
And then I also invited other coaches in to write
that book with me, so you get to also hear
their stories and their knowledge share as well.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
So I've got a question that I asked, I think
you know Dave had or he was on the podcast. Yeah,
so the question is a savior or the devil?
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Oh? Yes, Well, you know what, there's duality in everything, right,
there's duality in the Internet, that meaning it's good and bad,
and AI is good and bad. And I always say
it's the bad actors are the ones that make it bad, right,
And so it's people like us listening to this podcasts
that are doing good out there, you know, being able
to use it. So it is that duality. And so
(08:26):
anytime we're doing any training around AI, we explain like, hey,
here's the AI foundation, what it is, how you can
use it, real world use cases, not theory, things you
could literally do today with AI. But on the flip side,
we go through pitfalls, It hallucinates, it makes things up.
It's biased, right, there's deep fakes. So I think it's
important just to have the awareness of both aspects, you know,
(08:49):
when using AI.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
I've read on your website that you are a morning
person and then you sometimes annoying non morning people. Is
that true?
Speaker 1 (09:00):
That's very true. It's very true. And when I wrote
that many years ago, I was working inside of an
organization and there was a gentleman there. You know, I'm
the morning person, so I'm going to greet you when
you walk on the door. And I wake up with
energy like this. This is you know, non caffeinated. And
he used to kind of look at me and put
his hand up, you know, He's like, not until, like
(09:23):
I've had coffee, not until I've woken up. And a
couple of years later he's he ended up leaving that
organization and he told me, he goes, you know what,
I think, I'm actually gonna miss you. So even my
sister is not a morning person, and she always is,
you know, tells me the same thing. She's like, don't
(09:43):
even talk to me until after ten o'clock. She goes,
I can't handle your energy, I can't handle your positivity
and until after ten o'clock.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
So that's great. So how would I connect with you
if I wanted to solicit your agency help?
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Yeah, So I'm very easy to find. Kendraramiraz so Kendramras
dot com. I'm Kendra Amiras on all the social platforms.
I'm most active on LinkedIn because that's where my community is,
and then i also have an e newsletter where I'm
writing about AI and it's called AI Simplified, so it's
not technical. It's very easy, very actionable, and I write
(10:21):
weekly and that can also be found on my website
as well well.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Kendra, thank you very much for appearing on our podcast.
Do you have anything that you would like to add
before we close out?
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah, thank you so much. One hundred percent. Go find
mentors right, people that have walked it out. You know
before you It will really shorten all that painful pieces
of entrepreneurship and not make it such a roller coaster
ride because you don't have all the answers and so
being able to find and connect with those that can
help guide you and whatever areas you don't feel is
(10:54):
strong enough for you, and then the other pieces. I
just want you to lean in with curiosity around AI.
Just leaning in from a curiosity standpoint, ask questions, ask
others who are also walking it out, and don't be shy.
The water's warm.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Thank you again. If you would like to sign up
to become a mentor or if you need a mentor,
to the score dot org and link on the appropriate button.
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