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Building Community and Connection

SUMMARY

In this episode, we talk with Kate Erickson of Entrepreneur on Fire about her inspiring journey from the corporate jobs world to her leap into entrepreneurship. She shares with us about how she got there and about her method to engage the community with one-on-one conversations to make them feel encouraged and supported.

About Kate Erickson

Kate Erickson is a creator, engager and implementer over at EOFire, a 7-day a week podcast that interviews today’s most inspiring and successful entrepreneurs. She is also the host of Kate’s Take: The EOFire Audio Blog and author of The Fire Path: A Beginner’s Guide to Growing Your Online Business. Kate is passionate about helping entrepreneurs create freedom in their business and life through developing systems and processes that can help their business scale and grow.

What Kate Stands For

Kate believes that two way conversation is the most important thing. People want to talk with an actual person and they feel great to receive that level of attention. Her skills in communication and engagement is what she uses to build and grow a community in a way that they feel genuinely cared about.

Key Takeaways

The 3 habits that contributed to most of Kate’s success:

  1. Attention to detail.
  2. Being open and very transparent, always offering support to people not asking for things.
  3. Just showing up every day.

Interview Links

The Doozy

You have to trust your gut and push through fear. No matter what happens, no matter how scary that next step is, it’s not going to be the end of the world. Also, it is good if it’s scary because that means it’s worth taking that step. So, push through that fear and don’t let it hold you back.

— Begin Transcript —

Hey everyone, Mel Abraham here. The author of the #1 best-selling book, The Entrepreneur’s Solution and the founder of Thoughtpreneuer Academy and welcome to this episode of The Entrepreneur’s Solution show. And in this episode, I get the extreme pleasure to get a chance to chat with someone that I’ve known for a while but I have gotten a chance to meet her for the first time at least digitally on this show.

And she is gracious enough to come on the show at a time where she is packing, getting ready to get out of the country; they’re moving and all of that. And so, I feel blessed and so, Kate Erickson which many of you may know. Kate Erickson is a, she is a creator and engager and implementer over at EOFire, John Lee Dumas’ podcast and an amazing, amazing show that’s actually got me involved in webinars and podcasts.

And it’s a 7-day a week podcast, interview style show that I can’t imagine. I mean, I do weekly shows and I can’t imagine doing 7 days a week, what’s it’s like. But the number of entrepreneurs and successful entrepreneurs that they have inspired and helped and Kate has been involved with is astronomical.

And Kate herself, is the host of her show Kate’s Take. It’s the EOFire audio blog and she is the author of The Fire Path: A Beginners Guide to Growing Your Online Business. She is truly passionate about helping entrepreneurs create freedom in their business which is really key to us. I talk about building freedom in their business and life and developing systems and processes that help you scale your business and grow.

Mel: So, welcome to the show Kate.

Kate: Thank you so much Mel. What an amazing intro; really appreciate it and I’m so excited to be here. Thanks for inviting me.

Mel: One of the things that you talk about at least I’ve seen is I’m going to go right into it, you’ve been involved with EOFire for a long time and how did that come about? Did you expect to be here? What was the journey like?

Kate: I didn’t. This is the last place I expected to be; completely honest with you. Growing up I was very corporate minded. Both my parents worked corporate jobs. I don’t really know what the whole entrepreneurship thing was about even. You know, you would like hear of these icons in the entrepreneurial industry who have like made it and they’ve created these empires and all this stuff but like it was so untouchable that I never really put myself in that place.

I was always like, “Well I’m going to go to college. I’m going to get a corporate job. I’m going to climb the corporate ladder and then, hopefully, I will make good money and have a family and we will be good to go.”

But you know, things change, luckily because that’s not the life that I wanted to live even though I didn’t realize that because I thought that was the only path. So, it wasn’t until may be about 5 years ago that I finally had like this moment. I was working at a corporate job and I lost out on a promotion that I thought was in the bag and it really hit me. It really made me realize that there are no guarantees and this thing that we call job security is really a bunch of you-know-what.

And you know, it kind of scared me into figuring out what else was possible because I knew that, that couldn’t be it. I knew that couldn’t be it for me. I was 25 years old and I was like miserable in my day-to-day. And I’m like, “If I have to spend the next 50 years of my life like this, what’s the point?”

So, yeah, that’s kind of how I found my way to thinking like, “Okay, maybe there’s another way for me to do this.”

And I took my first leap into entrepreneurship in late 2011. So, I mean, to your point I’ve been with EOFire for almost 3 years now which is incredible to think and it’s been such an amazing journey but I’ve definitely stumbled and been through many roadblocks to get here for sure.

Mel: It’s interesting you say that because my wife’s actually in a corporate job; been with a company for almost 20 years; the same company (wow) which you don’t find very often but they’re believe it or not going through an re-organization and again, she’s in the midst of that.

So, even after 20 years, the concept, this is a conversation that I have a lot with entrepreneurs is that: Those that want to be entrepreneurs but they’re scared to take that step because they really believe that, that job market is security and I disagree and they talk about entrepreneurs are risk-takers and I disagree with that too. We actually look at things, analyze things and reduce the risk that we’re going to take but take back control, take back that security because it’s in our hands.

Kate: It’s so true. So, funny story: The job that I was out when I lost that promotion, I was actually working in human resources and my job was re-organizations and layoffs. So, I thought like this is kind of weird that I have job security based on having other people lose their jobs who have been at this company for 20 – 30 years.

That jobs and the job that I had after that, if I would have stayed in the positions I was in at those companies, I would have been laid off from both of them by now. I’ve literally heard from the departments that I was working and that my position was eliminated in both my previous jobs. So, if I wasn’t an entrepreneur, I would have been, you know, hanging dry like the other people that I worked with. It’s crazy.

Mel: It’s so, so, so crazy but I think that, that’s the challenge. We got caught in this industrial age mentality of this is how we do things and you go and serve for 40 – 50 – 60 years and at some point, you will get this good retirement. But they never told you what good was and I think that there is another way and both you and John have done a tremendous amount to helping people find their way and find that path—whether it’s making 60 thousand a year or 600 thousand a year doesn’t matter. The fact is that you’re helping people find their own way, control their own destiny and I think that that’s kudos to you. I mean, it’s a blessing to be able to blaze that trail for folks.

Kate: Thank you so much. That’s what gets me so fired up about what we do. Like, hearing these messages from people that we’ve changed their mindset or that we’ve given them a little bit of an extra push so that they, that they have that same moment that I had when you realize like this doesn’t have to be this way.

I get to control what my future looks like and if I make a change today, I can make it look different than it does right now and that was really tough for me to grasp. And there was nobody teaching me that. Like, I didn’t learn that in school. There certainly wasn’t anybody at the company I was at telling me that or encouraging me to leave to go do my own thing. So, it is a blessing to able to help spread that message and to help other people realize that, “Hey, if you want to make this happen and you have the motivation and the dedication to do this, then the sky is the limit. It’s up to you.”

Mel: Yeah, you get a chance to design it your way and in your bio, you talk about being a creator and engager and I know that on every chance that I’ve had to communicate with you and a lot of it is digital means or online. You are the engager, you are constantly in conversation and I think that one of the things that we struggle with today is we confuse contacts with connection and what we’re starved for is connection and not contacts and likes don’t mean anything.

But you have a knack, a way to make each and every person you connect with, even digitally, to feel heard, to feel special, to do that and can you kind of talk to that process because engaging through digital means is not easy, in that process but to raise the engagement is huge in our business.

Kate: Yeah, I mean I totally agree with you. It’s something that so many people just think numbers, numbers, numbers; if I can have this many contacts or this many email subscribers or this many website visitors, that I’m going to make it to that point and everything’s just going to start happening but none of those numbers mean anything if you don’t have an engaged loyal audience—somebody who actually cares about what it is that you’re saying.

And I don’t know if I could really point to a time of my life where I realized that the two-way conversation is like the most important thing, you know, I’d imagine it comes from like I feel good when I feel important. It makes me feel good when I’m having a conversation with somebody and I actually feel like they’re listening to me and they don’t respond which is like a laugh or a yes or a no but like they genuinely care about what I’m talking about.

And if I feel great when that happens then I can assume that, that would make other people feel great too, right? And a few years ago I took this, kind of, assessment, I guess you could call it. It’s Sally Hogshead’s “How to Fascinate” and I know you’re familiar with it too Mel. For anyone who is listening who is not familiar with is really, really interesting stuff, it’s how the world sees you is what Sally has put together.

And in that assessment, my communication and engagement was something that ranked really high in how I affect other people and when I kind of caught that in the assessment it wasn’t something necessarily that I didn’t know about myself before. I had had people tell that me that before but it wasn’t something that I was using to my advantage as much as I knew I could.

And it’s those kinds of things like your biggest strengths that you need to be playing all out on because there are a ton of weaknesses I have. Luckily, John Lee makes up for those and we’re able to move forward together in a really powerful way but something that I realized when I first came on-board at EOFire is that we needed to have an element to build our community and continue making our community grow that made them feel genuinely like we cared about their journey, that this wasn’t just me and John talking at people, that this wasn’t just John getting on the mic and having a one-on-one conversation with his interviewee.

No, this is a conversation for all of us to be a part of. This is your community; we do this for Fire Nation, our community and the way to get people involved and engaged, for a lack of a better word, is to give them that engagement.

One of the very first, things I did when I came on abroad at EOFire was check the box saying that every time somebody subscribes to our email list, I wanted to get notified of that and every single time someone subscribes to our email list, I would send them a personal message from my Gmail account (not from MailChimp or Aweber or like, some automated sequence). I would send them an email. I’d welcome to Fire Nation and I’d ask them what they were struggling with or where they were at in their business right now.

And that type of one-on-one connection, you don’t get that anywhere else and a lot of people who are struggling to realize that, you know that 9-to-5 doesn’t have to be your way. It can be your way and that’s totally fine if it is. There are a ton of people that thrive in that environment and that’s awesome.

But if you don’t want that to be the way, a lot of those people are missing encouragement and support, and if we can provide that to them through an engaged conversation and help them get on a track where they understand that it just takes one step forward every single day to make this happen, then I’m really grateful to be that person.

Mel: Awesome. That’s such an awesome message and I love the fact that you reach out and you initiate the conversation, initially by just saying, “Hey, what’s your challenge. What are you struggling with and how can we help?” type of a thing. How often do we not do that?

I remember, I was just, someone was just interviewing me on their podcast and they said, “What do you tell the nay-sayers? What do you tell the people that are going to hit the walls about getting their message out there and I said, I kind of related it to a guy, when I was in one of my, before I got married, one of the relationships I shouldn’t have been in and he said, “How long are you going to allow this woman to take up the space in your life that’s meant for someone else?”

And I said, “When I look at this, it’s easy to say I want serve the masses. I want to have a million entrepreneurs making an impact or something like that.”

But the reality is that we really just want the one; the ones that tethering in the edge that needs to hear those words that time, in the way that you get to say it and who are we to hold it back and the way you guys at EOFire and Kate, with you, doing some of this, that’s what you do and to reach out and engage them right from the very beginning, I can’t tell you how many times did people say, “Let’s just put it automated and they will subscribe and they will get this automated sequence” and it just, it is sterile.

Kate: Yeah.

Mel: Why not have a conversation, a real conversation. I mean, I love that you do it from your Gmail account and I am sure that some of those things have, you get your trolls, we all do but by and large, it’s a greater, you’re doing a greater good in the process, I think.

Kate: Yeah, I mean, I think and it goes back to people wanting contacts, contacts, contacts forgetting about the connection part. There are going to be a lot of activities that we have to do in our business that aren’t going to be scalable. I think people hear something like you email every single person who subscribes or maybe you get on a one-on-one call with someone from your audience or you know, with somebody who is may be going to be a client of yours and people automatically think, “Well, I can’t do that because I can’t scale that.”

Well, not everything is scalable in business. Contacts, relationships, connection; those aren’t scalable. Contacts are scalable. You could automate all of that and bring people into your email subscriber list but when people start replying to your automated emails because they are touched by what you’re saying and you never reply back; that’s not a good feeling, that’s not somebody I want to do business with.

Mel: It’s so true, I try my darnest to get on and post the comments in the Facebook group and do that. There’s been a couple of times where someone will just dial the phone number and I will answer the phone and they go, “W-w-w-wait, you’re answering the phone?” I go, “Yeah, I got hands. I can answer the phone.”

So, in this process of this growth because it’s seems like you started to shift some things and what I would say, if we were in a corporate environment, “Culturally” because culture comes from the top and I think culture supersedes strategy every time and culture can destroy strategy. We can have the best business strategy, the best tactics, the best product and if our culture sucks (pardon the expression) then we’re not going anywhere.

And you’re creating your own culture in what you do whether it’s Kate’s Take or EOFire or some of the other events and things that you do. During that time, what were, if you look at it, what were like the 3 habits that you think really contributed most to your success?

Kate: Wow. The 3 habits that contributed to my success, I mean, for me personally, I think my attention to detail has been really huge for me and making it a habit to not, it’s a very fine balance between like just putting something out there and not being a perfectionist but at the same time being very conscious of what you’re putting out there and I think that my habit of not settling (I guess) it’s both a blessing and a curse.

But, you know, my attention to detail has definitely helped a lot with the growth and what we’re able to put out there. This, what did you call it, “The Culture” that we’ve kind of created for the brand, I think, is really, really important. I think that attention to detail is really important for that.

I would also say, just kind of like this support, making it a habit of being open and very transparent, always offering support to people not asking for things has been definitely really huge and gosh, you kind of caught guard with this Mel. I got to be honest.

Just showing up. (Yeah) I mean, you got to show up every day. Running your own business is crazy and I love it and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done and I’m so glad that John and I are doing this together but you got to show up every single day.

Mel: It’s yeah, truly, truly and that they’re great, they’re great traits and I can tell just from the interactions. I’m trying to think, it’s probably been a little over a year or more than year because I have been doing the podcast for well over a year now. So, it’s probably been a year and a half since I’ve been involved with some of the things that you guys are doing and it is consistent.

Just and you created; it’s one of the; I belong to a lot of communities because you get invited all the time or you join these things and but this is truly a community. A community that’s really supportive and everything that I think really shifts things because it’s a safe place, you created a safe haven for people to go and say, “Hey, I had this problem. It didn’t work. What do I do?”

And there is a ton of support. And that comes from, again from the top, and I think it’s from you and John Lee setting the stage and making that safe space for that to happen.

Kate: Yeah, that support is really like we realized very early on that in this world of like where our avatars are at, where our audience members are at, they just need support. They need support and they need resources and there are so many go-getters out there, they are ready to do whatever it takes to make this happen, they just need support because may be they don’t have from their husband or their wife or their family members.

And I totally get that. When I first told my parents that I was going to quit my job and start running a podcast with John, they are like, “What?”

Mel: I got the same thing. My mom’s still trying to figure out what I do.

Kate: And don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that my parents weren’t supportive by any means. They definitely were but I can’t even imagine if you constantly had—Pat Flynn always talks about this amazing analogy, The Crabs in the Bucket. If you are that crab trying to climb out, there’s always going to be a bunch of other crabs pulling you back down. And if we can be the person outside the bucket picking crabs out and helping them up, like, let’s do this. I love it.

Mel: Well and I know our time is running short so you are that and that’s why it was for me such a gift when you said, “Yeah, we will make some time. We will get on the show and everything” because I think that your message, the way you approach everything, it’s so important. There is so many lessons and for our audience to realize and to glom on to; to look at it and say, “If you want to examine how to do this in a digital world, to create a culture that is meaningful, that’s supportive; that’s a community” then examine what you guys are doing because you’re doing it right and you’re doing it in a way that people are finding success

  • They’re finding their lives,
  • They’re finding the energy in their dreams again, and
  • They’re finding more importantly the connection and the support that I think is allowing them

To drive with the confidence to know that when that parent or that spouse says, “I don’t get what you’re trying to do” that you have a place to go to keep on going until they understand it and everything.

So, I think that in this space truly, truly a blessing you are and so, I’ll ask you one last question. If you were looking at the audience which is typically, my audience is people that want to be thought leaders, experts and entrepreneurs and you had to give them one piece of advice, may be that piece of advice that if you were looking back on yourself and had a chance to whisper in your ear 15 years ago or 10 years ago, what would that piece of advice be?

Kate: You know, I’ve struggled with so many mindset and fear issues and I know that we all do, you’ve got to push through it. You have to trust your gut and you have to realize that no matter what happens, it’s not going to be the end of the world. Like no matter how scary that next step is, that’s good if it’s scary because that means it’s worth taking that step.

So that was, I wish I would have realize that 10 years ago; would’ve been really amazing to but hey, here I am now and I am really grateful for that. So, push through that fear, don’t let it hold you back.

Mel: Beautiful, beautiful. Beautifully done. Thank you Kate for taking the time amidst of all the craziness that you’re in to chat with me and everything. This is really cool.

Kate: Yeah Mel, I really enjoyed it. Thank you so much.

Mel: We will stay in touch I promise. Best of luck to you guys. This is, if there’s anything that any of my community or anyone can do for you guys, please reach out to us.

Kate: Thank you so much. It was really great connecting and I really, really hope that we will get to see you at Podcast Movement.

Mel: That will be great.

Kate: Alright.

Mel: Say hi to John Lee. We will talk soon.

Kate: Alright, bye Mel.

Mel: See ya.

Hey there and so that was Kate. Just like any other show, if you would, share this with someone. She has had some great messages, some great impact and some great titbits of information that I think really can shift the kinds of things that we do. So, go ahead and make sure that you subscribe. Share this with a friend and if you have questions, c omments or anything that I can support you with, or any of our team can support you with, post them, let us take that step with you, let us be on the journey together and I look forward to seeing you again soon.

And until we get a chance to see each other again,

May your vision be grand, your journey epic and your legacy significant!

See you soon. Cheers. Bye!!

— End Transcript —

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Like this? Please share it and help a few more people bring their dreams out of the darkness and give life to them again. Cheers, Mel

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