Simplifying for Success: Scaling with an Abundant Mindset with Kami Guildner

As entrepreneurs, we often find ourselves caught in a whirlwind of tasks, constantly striving to grow our businesses. But in this pursuit of success, it's easy to lose sight of why we started our entrepreneurial journey in the first place. I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Kami Guildner, a fellow entrepreneur and podcast host, about rediscovering our passion and purpose in business.

Visit Kami Guildner's social media pages:

Website: https://www.kamiguildner.com/

Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/extraordinary-women-radio/id1216249277

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kamiguildner/

Join us on Extraordinary Women Ignite using the link below.

https://www.kamiguildner.com//ignite

Use EWR code to get $200 off of the ticket price.

[00:00:00] Welcome to Rocky Mountain Marketing. I'm your host, Katie Brinkley. Join us as we dive deep with the world's leading digital marketing experts every single Tuesday. It's all about giving you the strategies that are working right now, directly from those who are making an impact. With my 20 years of experience, I'm here to help you navigate the world of digital marketing.

Whether you're looking to sharpen your skills or transform your business, you're in the right place. Let's get started on today's journey to success.

Welcome back to this week's episode of Rocky Mountain Marketing. Today's 

Katie Brinkley: Welcome back to this week's episode of Rocky mountain marketing.

Today's guest. I've been running around in the same Denver circles as her. Well, honestly, I've been running around in a lot of the same business circles with her for a while. And then I realized she was in Denver. And then we started running around in the same Denver circles for business owners. And I've really fallen in love with the philosophies of today's guest.

They're kind of a big deal here in Denver. And they're one of the top podcasters. For business owners, especially female [00:01:00] business owners, probably actually heard her podcast. I've been a guest on it. And today's guest is actually a repeat guest of Rocky Mountain Marketing. Today's guest helps her clients scale and grow their businesses with an abundant approach.

And I love that this is the core philosophy, because a lot of times I think that when we're building our businesses, before we know it, We're working a job again, and we're not doing something that we love. And as entrepreneurs, isn't that why we decided to start our own business anyways. So today's guest is none other than Kami Gildner.

Kami, thank you so much for joining me on Rocky Mountain Marketing once again. 

Kami Guildner: Katie, thank you for having me back. I really appreciate it. And I adore you. I love what you put out in the world. I'm always, in fact, this week I told somebody, you need to go get Katie's book and read Katie's book. So I'm constantly sending people your way because I just believe in your philosophies.

I think we both share that. We don't want to be. You [00:02:00] know, it's just not to put in stuff out there just to put stuff out there, but truly to, to help people make an impact with their work. So, 

Katie Brinkley: and I think that it's, well, one, it's great because since I've been on your show, well, so I went to your event in 2023, the Ignite event. You have it every year. It's incredible. I went there and it really allowed me to see more of what it is that you do that's different. And since then, like I've joined the dames group. And so we've seen each other at a lot of events there. You actually came to the same place where I have an office and you were had a little bit of a mastermind here a few weeks ago.

So it's been great to get to know you. A little bit more than just what we see on social media. And like I said before, you approach business with that abundant first approach. And I think that it can be tricky for us as entrepreneurs, especially for go getters like yours truly. Um, sometimes, and it's not a bad thing, but I think sometimes like.[00:03:00] 

I almost, I'm trying to do all the things that I almost burned myself out from the thing that I became passionate with at the beginning. 

Kami Guildner: It's so easy for that to happen because we love what we do and we love our clients and we want to give back into our communities. And so there's so much that we, Just, you know, our hearts get lit up when we're doing our work, but when we're, when we just do, do, do and not make the open space, not make the pause, we can get really, um, it can get heavy.

Katie Brinkley: Yeah. And I think that with being an entrepreneur, you know, sometimes when we're building our businesses, it's doing something that we love and we sometimes fall out of love with it. I recently had a. A great conversation with Julie C Butler, on Rocky Mountain Marketing a few weeks ago, and she was sharing how she was trying to, like, she wanted to retire her husband.

She did it. She wanted to be able to move and be an expat, you know, and she did it. And then she found like, I'm doing all these things that I'm supposed to want to do. And I don't know if I really love what I'm doing anymore. [00:04:00] Why do you think that that happens for so many entrepreneurs? I won't, don't want to say so many entrepreneurs, but even I, I think it happens, but yeah, like, yeah, I mean, I've been trying to do all the things and like, you do this and like, you can work from anywhere and then like, I'm doing it, but like, I have to find myself less happy.

Kami Guildner: Yeah. I think a lot of things come into play here. I mean, one, I say, I think the, the being an entrepreneur, there's always something new that we're stepping into. We're always stretching ourselves into new spaces. And it can be, it can start to feel heavy if we don't make pauses for ourselves. So I think that the weight of, trying to do all the things in our businesses can be really big, you know, it can really make an impact from that perspective, but then I think the other side of it is that.

There's a lot of messaging out in the world. It's like, it's so easy to do. It's so easy to take your business to a million dollars. It's so easy to take your figure, your business to it, you know, a multi six figure business. And there's a [00:05:00] lot of rhetoric out there that I feel like doesn't really serve women entrepreneurs particularly.

It makes us feel like, gosh, they're doing everything. Why can't I get there? 

Katie Brinkley: doing wrong? Yeah. What am I doing wrong? 

Kami Guildner: And so then we get all the mind stuff going on. Right. And then the mind stuff can really make it even more difficult. And what I've been saying recently is there is no straight line path to anywhere that you're going with your business.

It's twisty. It's curvy and it gets messy some days and yes, it's wonderful and I wouldn't trade it for the world. And acknowledging that some days it can be, you know, it's not always the easiest things that we, it's not always the easiest path that we've chosen as entrepreneurs and giving ourselves a little bit of grace with that, I think can be a really good thing because that starts to take some of that weight off and say, just be where you're at right now and start to enjoy it.

Have fun with it because what you're doing is amazing. And if you can really live in the moment in your business, and yes, [00:06:00] you're going to set big goals and big dreams and that sort of thing, but also just be in this moment and appreciate the wonderful people that you get to work with. And I say this because I've had to teach myself this, right?

I mean, I've definitely been in this like, Oh my gosh, what am I doing wrong? And no, wait a minute. I have built an amazing business. And I think so often we don't even realize how far we've come in our businesses. One of the things I've been doing with my clients recently is like, let's just really look at where you started and where you are right now.

And they're like, Oh, Oh my gosh, I'm, you know, I've done a lot in this year. I've done a lot in, you know, since I've started my business. So it can be a really, beautiful thing to pause, reflect, take that in and celebrate. You know, I've been a big fan recently of, what is the book?

10 X is better than two X. I love that book. 

Katie Brinkley: Yeah. 

Kami Guildner: Because we, yeah. And it's because it's like if we can look at the gain that we've made instead of the gap, I think that that's a really good thing. 

Katie Brinkley: Yeah. I love that. They look at the gain instead of the gap. And, you know, you said [00:07:00] when you started speaking about this, that Female entrepreneurs, we tend to do this more than our male counterparts.

And that's something that you really dove into a lot at your conference last year. Like I said, it was the first, last year was the first time I'd been to the extraordinary women ignite conference, a great conference here in beautiful golden Colorado, and it's not just a bunch of business talk at this conference.

A lot of it is about mindset. And I think it is as a female business owner, our mindset is And our, with what we're doing, we, we're, we're always 10 other spots. Why do you think it's important for, I want to say female business owners, but I think it's all business owners, the mindset that you have for appreciating where you've gone in and what you've done. How do you think that we can do that successfully? If maybe we've been a little bit hard on ourself, 

Kami Guildner: I think so often we don't even realize we're being hard on ourselves. And you know, it's like, we're just, we've constantly got stories going in our heads that we're not even, you know, they're just kind of on autoplay.[00:08:00] 

And I think those autoplay stories, unless we stop and we pause and say, what is this story that I'm telling myself? All day long, every day, day after day. And when we start to realize what those stories are, we're like, we can really stop and say, okay, that's not really true, and catch ourselves in those moments.

And I think that autoplay of stories and things that we tell ourselves that's not very nice can just happen so easily without us knowing it. And then we start to, I mean, energetically, we just, we, we deflate. Right? And if we are really recognizing when that comes up and switching that conversation up, changing that conversation, I think energetically, we start to see, oh, my gosh, we are moving.

We're seeing what we have accomplished. Let's do more as far as what we can accomplish next. So we step into our businesses energetically different. 

Katie Brinkley: Yeah. I love that you, you said that, Cammie, because the light keeps turning off. I love that you said that, Cammie, because I found that I was in this cycle back in [00:09:00] 2022, 2023 ish.

Yeah, 2023. I took, I was talking to my friend, Carol. She's the digital buzz over on Instagram. She and I were just, you know, Having a conversation. And she said, and I've mentioned my doing my book and I was like, yeah, you should come back on my podcast, blah, blah, you know, just talking. And, uh, she was like, Katie, how are you doing all this?

And I, I wore it as a badge of honor. Like, Oh, well, I'm just super 

Kami Guildner: woman. 

Katie Brinkley: Yeah. I'm so productive. Aren't I amazing. And. I found that I was falling out of love with my business because I was trying to do, okay. I did a virtual event. Okay. I was writing the book. I had the podcast. I was uploading everything onto YouTube.

I was speaking at live events. I was doing all the things, but I was starting to fall out of love with my business. I think this is where one of your core messages of time is so important to keep in mind as you are building your business and trying to scale your business. 

Kami Guildner: Yeah. And the beautiful thing is the way we make more time for ourselves is we simplify.

And that [00:10:00] means that we start to get, and we ruthlessly simplify, like, right. Which it can be sometimes a scary thing to have to do, to go through those exercises of, does this product really fit in my business right now? Not really. Is it really taking my clients to that next level? Is it really important to where they want to go and, where they are and where they want to go know that product's not really important.

Let's take that product out. And then, you know, just continuing to get deeper into that customer journey and saying, what's going to help my client best? And how can I best serve them by a very focused approach? Avenue, if you will, so simplifying our products, which also simplifies our marketing, which simplifies just our business in general.

Katie Brinkley: Kimmy, I love that because it's so in alignment. This is probably why I'm a big fan of you. And then you're a big fan of the social share. Totally. We're very in alignment with this of simplification. Yes. I think that we're trying to do all the things. I need to write a book. I need to have a podcast. I need to do this.

I need to do that. You know, I need to [00:11:00] do all these things if I want to have a successful business. I need to be on this social media platform and that social media platform and do this and do post 28 times a day. And really, when you simplify all aspects of your business, honestly, that's one of the things really started to scale for me was once I was doing three podcasts.

In addition to doing Rocky Mountain Marketing, I had three other podcasts. I was writing a book. I was doing a summit and I mean, I thought I needed to do all these things and I think I was doing that as from like an entrepreneur standpoint, but so many people are doing that even from a social media standpoint of I need to be everywhere.

I need to post all these times. 

Kami Guildner: Yeah. 

Katie Brinkley: And one of the things that you have really. Encompassed now that I've gotten to know you more is the community and it's not about being everywhere and doing all the things. That's the community that you build. 

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Kami Guildner: Yeah. I love community. I mean, that's, it's, it's what makes it fun.

Right. 

Katie Brinkley: Yeah. And I think that, you know, you've done that. I keep talking about Ignite, the next Ignite conference is coming up though. So, tell us really quick about Ignite and if people in the Denver area are interested in attending, but the community that you've built at your conference that talks about, all of these different aspects into being an entrepreneur and growing and scaling your business.

All that happens at Ignite. 

Kami Guildner: Yeah. Yeah. So this is my 10th annual Ignite, which is really super exciting, right? I mean, it's, it's fun. I've been doing this [00:13:00] for a long time and it does build community because I'm bringing together the most amazing women who really want to make an impact with their work.

So, they want their voice out in bigger ways. They want to be seen. They want to be heard. They really want to grow their business with some of the principles that we've talked about this time prosperity and wealth prosperity. And so it's three days and 

It's, and we get women from, all over the U S, even from Canada. I mean, we've got people coming from Canada, so we've got an amazing lineup of speakers and, it's just, it's a really fun event from the perspective of finding your clarity and your voice and the message that you're putting out into the world from a thought leadership perspective and in how you attract clients into your 

Kami Guildner: business. And, it's all about, walking away with a true plan for the new year. So that's, it's to me, it gives you space to do your inner work, but also, so I say soul and strategy, right? So like, what's that inner work that you want to be bringing out that, you know, that you're being called to bring out into the world, and then what's the [00:14:00] strategy to put behind it? And then what's the plan that you take into 25, 2025 to make that happen? 

So, um, 

Katie Brinkley: I know, right? 

Kami Guildner: Well, 

Katie Brinkley: I want to talk about that a little bit, like you said, working from the inside out. 

Kami Guildner: And 

Katie Brinkley: how do you think that when you say that you're talking about leading with Your heart or your soul as opposed to your head.

Kami Guildner: Yeah. So talk to 

Katie Brinkley: us a little bit about how that's different. 

Kami Guildner: Yeah It's and it's hugely different. 

I mean, I came out of the court, I was 20 years in the corporate world, right? I was, very linear thinking. I was a VP of marketing and branding. And that's what I, you know, that was, 20, 15 years, 16 years ago, I left the corporate world, but that was my background.

And when I became an entrepreneur, I just discovered this whole spiritual soulful side of me. And I was like, Whoa, what is this? And, what I know is that.

Kami Guildner: As entrepreneurs, we are being guided, we're being led with a bigger cause. Really being able to step into our passion and our purpose of how we're meant [00:15:00] to make a difference.

As, women entrepreneurs, we have this amazing gift to be able to, to, and I say women entrepreneurs, we all have an amazing gift to be able to tune into that inner wisdom and let that lead us and let that guide us. And then if we're doing that, we're building the kind of businesses that we truly love.

We can say this fits in my business or this doesn't. It's like we can start to pay attention to our intuition. We can start to say this lights me up and this doesn't. And, and if we start to pay attention to those signposts, what we get guided down the pathway of doing business in a different way.

Katie Brinkley: Talk about that a little bit more because I think that the core, all entrepreneurs are leading, like you said, with something of wanting something more. How is it, like, what advice do you have for somebody that might be listening and they just haven't taken the leap? into the entrepreneurship world yet.

They're still kind of like, well, I have the health insurance and I have the steady paycheck and I want to do it someday. What do you say to the somedayers? 

Kami Guildner: To the [00:16:00] somedayers, I'd say there's no time like now. And then you could also, I mean, there's, there's no time like now to start, right?

I mean, so that you can at least get started. I also tell a lot of my, you know, when I worked with women or men who were still in the corporate world and wanting to make that next step. It's great to build the foundation while you still have a paycheck. So, you can build a lot of the foundation of your business if you're still in the corporate world.

You can build those pieces and then, you know, then make the leap with, with a foundation underneath of you. So that's one thing that I do tell people who are still in that corporate world. But if you're hearing a calling, there's a reason that you're hearing a calling and, there's a chance that, I mean.

I would have never guessed, 20 years ago that I was going to be an entrepreneur that was just not even in my, my mindset. In fact, I had somebody say, you should be an entrepreneur. And I was like, no, no, I am a corporate woman through and through. Right? And. I just think about what a wonderful journey this has been and how it's opened me up into like, you know, [00:17:00] it's just so many places and so many things that I would have never done if I would have stayed there.

Katie Brinkley: So we've talked about the community that you've built through extraordinary women, radio through your events. You know, I think that. When you have the right people around you that have your best interest in mind, it makes a world of difference. Like I said, you and I start like ever, I know, like you and I met online, I think on Facebook before we were actually like met in real life, which is crazy to me.

But I think that once you find your people, it's so important to have that community and having that community that knows what your mission is and what lights you up. Will help you grow your business. Talk to us a little bit about the whole aspect of how you were able to start building your community.

That's like one of my biggest things is, you know, if you have your community, that's always there to support you. You don't have to worry about your follower count. You don't have to worry about, you know, a lot of the vanity metrics. You, you have your community that's going to shout your name in a room full of opportunities.

Kami Guildner: Yeah. [00:18:00] I love that. You know, early on, one of the things that I was always doing was I was like, you need to meet this person. So I was always connecting people. So I'm a connector. So, and I was, and I often tell this story that I was in this space of, I was with my business coach actually. And I was saying, you know, I'm meeting the most amazing women.

And what if I put together an event, I could bring these amazing women together in a room and she's like, well, what's stopping you? And I was like, well, what if nobody comes and, you know, and that was just this little hesitation that was going on for me. And she's like, would you just please go do it?

And, you know, so I did. And, you know, that was, you know, 15 years ago. And it's like that, those connections and those community, um, community members, every person that comes into that circle, creating space for people to connect and build real relationships is a big value of mine. And so if I can create a circle of women and say, okay, I want you to walk away from this circle with at least, you know, [00:19:00] five new, like real connections, like real meaningful relationships.

And I. Not where people are just throwing business cards at you, that sort of thing, but you've actually got to know them from a heart and soul perspective. So if you go to any, if you go to any of my events, I mean, even, you know, like I'm always bringing in my mastermind meeting I did last week, we are always bringing in breakouts where people are diving deep into story and they're diving into You know what it is about them that is their strength, their light, and that they want to be, what's their big dreams, what's their big visions.

So giving people time and space to express that is really powerful and it builds community. It builds really amazing community. And that's one thing I am blessed with every single day. I'm like, I just, love my community. 

Katie Brinkley: Yeah. And it makes, I don't know. Not just being a business owner, but it makes life so much easier when you have a community that you surround yourself with.

Oh, you said too, you know, your business coach at the time, 15 years ago, said to you, [00:20:00] well, what's stopping you? Yeah. And I think that that is, that was such a great question to ask that we all need to keep up. In mind with our dreams, like, right, what would you say to somebody that's maybe like, never really had that in the book traction, they call it your BHAG, you know, your big hairy audacious goal, you know, what do you say to people that maybe haven't ever written down their dreams and written down, like, this is, this is What I, you know, this would be amazing to have, 

Kami Guildner: you know, when I first started coaching, I was working with a lot of executive women who were, hearing a calling for something more, but they had no idea what that was.

And in fact, they were like, I don't even know how to dream like that. It was a really common thing. And I, I would start out conversations like, if you can make anything happen, what would it be? And they'd be like, my gosh, I don't know because we get caught in, and we can do this as, as executives. We can do it as entrepreneurs.

We get caught in the day to day doings that we never make the pause. [00:21:00] We never make the space to listen to that, that deeper desire that's within us. So the only way to tap into that is to pause and to listen and to ask yourself questions and to journal and, you know, make. Lit ideas come forth. So giving yourself prompt is a good way to do it.

And, but I think you have to really learn to, have I just been on autopilot in life or have I actually been pausing and making space for myself to think and to dream and to play with what's possible? I think that's a, it's such a beautiful gift to give yourself. 

Katie Brinkley: It really is. And you know, it, doing that allowed me to do a lot with my business this year because I was, I wrote down, well, this would be nice to do.

And I think that sometimes like with our significant others or close friends, you say like, Oh, well, if you won the lottery or if you did this, what would you do? And if you haven't asked yourself that for a while, I think it's really smart to revisit it and write it down because how, how [00:22:00] You know, if for me, you know, a while ago, it was, I'd love to have a place in the mountains.

That was something, a goal of mine forever. I wanted, you know, I said that out loud to my husband and what was it about six years ago? We made that happen. We got our condo and steamboat, you know? So, I mean, like, and now we have it and it's great. We use it all the time. We love it. But I mean, if you don't express it or say it out loud, or even just write it down, it could never happen, you know, because it's.

It's just living. It's just like a fleeting thought.

Kami Guildner: Dream with it too. Right. It's like, have fun with it. Like what if, I mean, I think what, and I think as, as entrepreneurs, we have the beautiful ability to be able to create our lives in whatever way we want to. And so often we get caught into, this is what I should be doing.

And what, what if we changed it up and say, what is possible here? And you know, how many, you know, do you want to work 20 hours a week? Then design your business around that. I was listening to a podcast this morning with a woman who has a million dollar plus business. And she's, um, she works 20 hours a week.

She's got a [00:23:00] team of three part timers underneath of her. It's like, that's inspiring. I love stories like that. She started it with the. Let's dream this way, right? What do I want to create for myself? So I think for all of us, it's important to say, what do I want to create? And then how do I build the business model that fits that?

Katie Brinkley: I love that. Well, Kimmy, I know that you talk about this a lot at the Ignite conference. You talk about it and all of this on your podcast. If people are interested in attending Ignite, or want to listen to your show, connect with you, what's the best way for them to do that? 

Kami Guildner: The best way to do that is to go out to cammygelner.

com forward slash ignite. And I'm just starting to think I didn't set up a special code, but so just use the code EWR, which is my podcast EWR and you'll get 200 off a ticket price. Um, yeah, so that's a good way to, get in for a little less, but, so use that code and, yeah, come join us.

We've got amazing speakers lined up and lots of good people, lots of good women really joining in the room. 

Katie Brinkley: Yeah, it, like I said, I went last year, it was [00:24:00] absolutely incredible. Such a great experience. And it allowed me to, say to myself like, well, what if, and what do I want and helped drive a lot of the decisions that I did for 2024 and the scaling for me and my business this year.

And 

Kami Guildner: I hear that a lot. I hear that a lot from people that it's like giving themselves space to, to pause and say, what do I really want? And then they make it happen that way. 

Katie Brinkley: Yeah. Well, fellow podcast listeners, check out Cammie's podcast, Extraordinary Women Ignite Radio. Go to cammiegildner.

com. We'll have all this in the show notes, backslash, ignite and then use EWR for 200 off. Cammie, it is always a pleasure to speak with you. Hate this light. It is always a pleasure to speak with you. Thank you so much for joining me again on Rocky Mountain Marketing. 

Kami Guildner: Thank you so much for having me.

I really appreciate you so much, Katie. 

Thanks so much for listening to this week's episode of Rocky Mountain Marketing. I hope you're leaving with valuable insights and the inspiration to lead your market. If you've enjoyed our time together and found today's podcast episode useful, [00:25:00] I have a small favor to ask of you. Please hit that subscribe button to stay updated with the latest episodes.

And if you know someone who could benefit from these episodes, maybe a fellow business leader or an aspiring entrepreneur, go ahead and share this episode with them. Let's spread the knowledge and grow together. Also, I'd love to hear from you and continue the conversation beyond the podcast. Visit me at katiebrinkley.

com to connect, to find more resources, or just to share your journey. And be sure to pick up your copy of my new book, the social shift at katiebrinkley. com slash book. Thanks again for tuning in. I'm Katie Brinkley, and I can't wait to dive into more strategies and stories with you on the next episode of Rocky mountain marketing.

Let's keep on taking your marketing to new heights.