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Kat Schmoyer: Maintaining Hope in Seasons of Waiting
Our latest podcast guest, Kat Schmoyer, has plenty of experience navigating uncertainty.
From a global pandemic shutting down her entire business to waiting on starting her family to a stalled home build years in the making, Kat has learned the hard way how to stay hopeful during seasons of waiting.
Kat Schmoyer is the owner of the KS Agency, helping creative entrepreneurs create, launch, and scale digital products. In today’s conversation, she shares her best tips to help you pivot in the midst of uncertainty – and most importantly, how to stay hopeful through it all.
Press play for the full interview or keep reading below!
Starting an Events Company
Kat started her first business, a wedding planning company, ten years ago and fell in love with hosting events. A few years later, she launched the Creative at Heart Conference.
The event was born out of Kat’s drive to connect with other business owners. “I wanted to be able to sit down for coffee or hang out with someone who understood the desire to not work a traditional 9-to-5.”
Kat didn’t see any other events like the one she was envisioning, so she created it herself. Within two years, they hosted six conferences before scaling back to one a year. The events were wildly successful, with more attendees and speakers spreading the word each year.
“I thought that was the end game for me. I was going to be old and grey hosting conferences.” But when Covid hit in 2020, Kat was forced to make a sudden and unexpected pivot.
Keeping a Positive Mindset in Business
With live events no longer a possibility, Kat decided to refund those who had already bought tickets. Suddenly she found herself lacking a revenue stream and a core piece of her identity as an entrepreneur.
“My identity was as a conference host. When something so close to your identity is taken away, there’s a lot to work through.”
Finding Opportunity in Uncertainty
While some people would have given up, Kat started looking for opportunities. One of her good friends had launched a successful membership and was lost on how to keep everything organized.
As a Type A planner, Kat raised her hand and offered to help. Planning weddings and conferences gave her the project management skills she needed to help her friend get organized. The KS Agency was born one year later.
What is an integrator?
Integrators like Kat and her team help creative entrepreneurs implement their big ideas by managing teams, streamlining operations, and keeping things organized.
The term originally came from the books Traction and Rocket Fuel, which discuss how visionaries need an integrator. The visionary is the CEO with big dreams, and the integrator brings that vision into the present by keeping the visionary grounded in reality.
An integrator can manage your team or help you build a team from scratch. In Kat’s agency model, she has a team of eight that become the client’s implementors.
“We’ll schedule the podcast, optimize your evergreen funnel, and execute the things that need to get done so you can stay in your zone of genius.”
Financial Tips for Entrepreneurs: Create Your Own Security
After almost a decade of running a successful events business, 2020 was a blow to Kat’s mindset.
“2020 is what changed things for me. Pre-2020, I had much more of an abundance mindset and I didn’t fully understand the scarcity and lack of security that could happen as a small business owner.”
Without any warning, she and her husband went from operating a successful business to pulling money from their savings account, all without knowing how long the pandemic would last.
That fear forced Kat to consider how she could give herself more security. She started taking action and growing her business savings, so that if something like this happened again she would be prepared.
If you need help putting a financial plan together to give yourself peace of mind, check out my signature program The Blueprint Model.
Tips for Navigating Uncertainty
The pandemic didn’t just have an impact on Kat’s business – it impacted her family life too. “We bought four and a half acres five years ago, and planned to start building in 2020.”
When Covid hit, that project was put on hold. Kat’s advice for anyone stuck in a waiting period is to lean into what you already have. Practice being grateful for where you are, while still dreaming about the future.
“Waiting is dreaming,” Kat says. That reframe helped her stay positive when it felt like her dreams had been put on hold.
Five years later, Kat has grown a successful agency and she and her husband are finally able to begin construction on their dream home. “It’s made climbing out of the trenches of 2020 so worth it.”
Balancing Life and Business
With three kids under age five, Kat is an expert at balancing work and family. “It is a lot of chaos in our home and I couldn’t do it if my husband wasn’t home.”
Kat stresses the importance of having open conversations with your partner. “I love my children, but I was not blessed with the patience of a stay-at-home mom.”
Luckily Kat’s husband was happy to take on the role of day-to-day parenting. “We have very different gender roles than what might be expected, but it works for us.”
If you work from home with your kids, you need to recognize that you can’t do it all. What’s most important is to find a structure that works for you, whether that’s working set hours everyday or taking the day off to work later in the evening.
Maintaining a Positive Mindset in Business
Despite the seasons of waiting and uncertainty, Kat has no regrets about her entrepreneurial journey. “While they were really hard things, they all brought me to where I am now. It’s all a part of the story.”
Her best advice for keeping a positive mindset in business is to set goals but stay flexible. Allow yourself to pivot, grow, and change. You might just find yourself somewhere better than you expected.
To connect with Kat, visit her website or follow along on Instagram.
If you’re curious about adding digital products to your creative business, check out Kat’s free quiz, You Might Need an Integrator If…
More from this Episode
To hear the rest of the story and what Kat is up to now, press play on the player above for the full interview or click here to download the transcript.
RESOURCES MENTIONED:
You might need an Integrator if… Take the Quiz!
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Kat Schmoyer
Kat Schmoyer is an integrator for creatives & owner of the KS Agency. Her goal? To help YOU make dreams & dailys happen!! With over 9 years experience in the world of small business, she has a passion for simplified goal setting and project management. She loves running her business with her high school sweetheart and their co-workers while also being the mom to 3 kids under the age of 5! 🙂
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April 6, 2023
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