If anyone knows how to bounce back from unexpected (and unwanted) seasons of waiting, it’s today’s guest, Kat Schmoyer. From a global pandemic shutting down her entire source of business revenue, conferences, to waiting on starting her family, to waiting on a dream home years in the making, Kat has learned to pivot, adjust, hope, and dream even in the midst of life and business circumstances she didn’t foresee. She’ll be the first to admit that waiting isn’t easy or ideal and as a planner at heart she’d rather be in control, but in today’s conversation she shares all the incredible ways she has navigated her own entrepreneurial journey through the ups, downs, twists, and turns it’s brought along the way.
WILDFLOWER SHOWNOTES : shannaskidmore.com/kat-schmoyer
If anyone knows how to bounce back from unexpected (and unwanted) seasons of waiting, it’s today’s guest, Kat Schmoyer. From a global pandemic shutting down her entire source of business revenue, conferences, to waiting on starting her family, to waiting on a dream home years in the making, Kat has learned to pivot, adjust, hope, and dream even in the midst of life and business circumstances she didn’t foresee. She’ll be the first to admit that waiting isn’t easy or ideal and as a planner at heart she’d rather be in control, but in today’s conversation she shares all the incredible ways she has navigated her own entrepreneurial journey through the ups, downs, twists, and turns it’s brought along the way.
WILDFLOWER SHOWNOTES : shannaskidmore.com/kat-schmoyer
Kat Schmoyer (00:00):
I've had a lot of seasons of waiting. Even for my first child, we waited almost two years. Matt and I dated for seven years before we got married, and I was like, let's go. Like why? And he was very, we need to graduate college first, then we're going to get married. He had the plan in his head. So I think it was waiting there, waiting for a baby, waiting with this house. What's happening with the business? Maybe it's because I haven't learned how to wait well, but the Lord keeps having me wait. Honestly, I'm not sure. I think that waiting stirs things up in you and allows you to either lean into what you do have and to see again that contentment part of like, okay, yes, I'm waiting for this, but also what is already around me that's beautiful and that I want to be thankful and I want to be grateful for the life that is my life. Right now,
Shanna Skidmore (00:52):
You are listening to Consider the Wildflowers the podcast, episode 39. If anyone knows how to bounce back from unexpected and unwanted seasons of waiting, it's today's guest, Kat Schmoyer. From a global pandemic shutting down her entire source of business revenue conferences to waiting on starting her family to waiting on a dream home. Years in the Making, Kat has learned to pivot, adjust, hope, and dream. Even in the midst of life and business circumstances she did not foresee, she'll be the first to admit that waiting isn't easy or ideal. And as a planner at heart, she'd rather be in control. But in today's conversation, she shares all the incredible ways she has navigated her own entrepreneurial journey through the ups downs, twists and turns. It's brought along the way. If you dig professional bios, here goes.
Kat Schmoyer is an integrator for creatives and owner of the KS Agency.
(01:42)
Her goal to help you make dreams and dailies happen with over nine 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 coworkers, while also being the mom to three kids under the age of five. Okay, formal introductions over, let's dive in. Hey, it's Shannon and this is Consider the Wildflowers, the podcast. For the past 15 plus years, I've had the honor to hear thousands of stories from entrepreneurs around the world. As a former Fortune 100 financial advisor, turn business consultant, I have a unique opportunity to see the real behind the highlight reel. I'm talking profit and loss statements, unpaid taxes, moments of burnout, and those of utter victory. Or as my husband says, the content everyone is wondering but not many are talking about. And now I'm bringing these private conversations to you. Hear the untold stories of how industry leaders, founders, and up and coming entrepreneurs got their start, the experiences that shape them and the journey to building the brands they have today. Stories that will inspire and reignite encourage to redefine success and build a life in business on your own terms. Welcome Wildflower. I'm so glad you're here.
Hi Kat. I'm so excited you're here. Welcome to the show.
Kat Schmoyer (02:53):
I'm so excited to be here. I feel like we've already been recording just because we were already chatting about all sorts of things before we even started recording.
Shanna Skidmore (03:01):
I know, it was so fun. And Kyle, before he left, he was like, give me a good clap to clap us in because we record externally for me. So it's already recording. So yeah, it got so much good stuff recorded already. Yeah, I know. Kat, how long has it been since we have really seen each other? Had a good catch chat.
Kat Schmoyer (03:23):
I feel like it was your retreat
Shanna Skidmore (03:25):
That 20 19, 20 18. 2019.
Kat Schmoyer (03:28):
2019. 19. No, 2019. I was, yes, because I was actually pregnant with my second at that time. Yes, yes. So that was it.
Shanna Skidmore (03:35):
That was it. So some new babies in our lives and all the things to catch up on. Okay, I'm so excited. Will you just tell everybody who you are for those listening and then we will kick it back to life before business, the old school 10 plus years ago, let's go. Oh my
Kat Schmoyer (03:50):
Gosh, so long ago. Yes. Okay, so hey everyone. I am Catch Moyer. So excited to be here. I don't even know how to describe what I do because I feel like there's been so many pivots, especially within the last two years really since the last time we talked, the last time we talked, the since 2020 because of 2020. But in a nutshell, I am an integrator for creative. So I run the Ks Agency. We help create an entrepreneurs, create, launch, sell, and scale digital products. That is our bread and butter. I love being in the weeds behind the scenes of a business. I don't want to be the face of the business. I don't want to be responsible for doing that type of marketing. I want to be the one behind the scenes making sure that the things are happening, they need to be happening. I love working with visionaries and it's been really exciting to see that pivot happen over the last two years.
Shanna Skidmore (04:46):
And you're so gifted at that in so many ways, but because of your first business too, you are a planner. You love your timelines, you thrive in a good system. So this feels so natural. But you're right, we haven't talked about how the integrator role and agency even came to be. So we're going to get there. But first, will you tell us about your, how did you get into business? How did it all begin and how long ago was that?
Kat Schmoyer (05:16):
Yeah, 10 years ago, which makes me feel really old. I'm like, how was it 10 years ago? Crazy. So my very first business was a wedding planning company. It's actually still in existence today. I do three to five weddings a year. Right now I'm only working at one venue exclusively. And my husband Matt and I joke that it's our retirement plan because we are currently building our forever home and we can see the venue that I work at from our new home. So it's our joke that once I get there, maybe I'll build up a team, because again, I'm all about management and integration and all the moving pieces. So maybe it would be fun to have a wedding planning team and I can be 60 years old sitting on my porch watching the venue. I don't know, I'll be like that. That's hilarious. Crazy. We'll be that crazy old couple that the people getting married will be like, what is happening over there? Anyways, so my very first business was wedding planning back in 2013. I did the very cliche thing, JLo would be proud of me. I planned my own wedding and then thought I can totally be a wedding planner. I could be that movie. with Matthew McConaughey,
Kat Schmoyer (06:20):
Oh right, my husband's name is Matt. It was meant to be. So thankfully other people felt like I could also plan weddings and it ended up showcasing strengths in me with project management organization, those sorts of skills. So I jumped in Dear Sweetheart two Dear Sweetheart events. And then a year later I launched Creative at Heart Conference. So then for several years, that was a huge emphasis of my brand was the conference and our membership community and all of the ins and outs of what it looked like to have an in-person event in our industry.
Shanna Skidmore (06:56):
So creative at heart, your first year after your first year in business, how did that come to be? Why did you want to do it? And then I want to know all the things you learned from it and all the things
Kat Schmoyer (07:08):
So much to say. Okay. In a nutshell, I desperately wanted community. I mean, we all do real. That's a core part of our being is to want to belong and to want to feel like we are in a room with like-minded people. And for me, I spent a lot of my life trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I was the girl in high school that was a part of every group. I did yearbook, I did newspaper, I did softball, I did cheerleading, I did four H, I lived on a farm. I literally was like, I'll be preppy today. Ooh, I'm going to be sporty today. I didn't know what I wanted. And so when I jumped into wedding planning, I found like, oh, there's a piece of me. And it wasn't just wedding planning, which is a whole nother thing of was it the business or was it the vessel?
(07:54)
For me, it was being a business owner that was like, oh, I want that. I can do a lot of different things. I just want to own my own business. That is what I want forever. So I jumped into wedding planning, but wanted other people like me. I wanted to be able to sit down for coffee or hang out with somebody who understood the desire to not work the traditional nine to five. I grew up in a family that was traditional nine to five. So I was the outlier who did my own thing and veered away from that security. So I said, okay, well I want this and there's nothing like it, so we need to create it. We need to have it. And thankfully I had made some connections with wedding planning with some incredible, I would call them celebrities in the industry. They had large influence that I didn't have because I was so new in business, but they liked me.
(08:42)
So I could be like, Hey friends, I'm going to do this thing. You should do it too. So we had Caitlin James, we had Natalie Frank. We had some big names as our first educator lineup, but I think that that helped other people see, oh, this could be a thing. I want to be included in this space too. I want to come as well. And so within two years we did six conferences and then scaled back because then I was like, why am I doing three conferences a year? I'm a crazy person. So then we actually did a smart business move. I didn't mean to, but we built up a lot of demand by doing so many in a short period of time and then said, oh, okay, here's some scarcity. Now we're only going to do one a year. And so we sold out a lot faster because we then went backwards.
Shanna Skidmore (09:26):
Oh, that's so interesting. I didn't even think of that. Yeah. Oh wow. Yeah,
Kat Schmoyer (09:30):
So then we had a few years of just one a year just, but they were incredible and we had more attendees at those because we were just doing one a year and I felt like I could pour into them because it was one a year and that has been the journey for the last few years.
Shanna Skidmore (09:44):
Yeah. Okay. So I think everybody's wondering, maybe it's just me, you filled up three conferences a year, and these are not small conferences. What would you say, Kat, is one or two marketing takeaways that you learned from that?
Kat Schmoyer (10:03):
That is a great question. So our first year, the first year that we did the first three, we had 40, 50 and 60 attendees. I remember that just because I was, I'm very goal oriented, shocker planner, type A, also setting goals. So for me, when we sold out at 40, I made Stairstep goals for myself of, okay, the next one, we're going to get 10 more the next. So those numbers are ingrained in me forever. So we did 40, 50, and 60, and I honestly think a huge player for us marketing wise was the sphere of influence that we had within not just the educators. For the first one, yes, educator heavy, but after the first one, all of those attendee, all 40 of those people were creative at heart, creative at heart, and screaming and cheering for us, and then helping fill out and sell out those next two.
Shanna Skidmore (10:56):
That is so true. My student com. And so that just says, have a great product. Absolutely. That people fall in love with, create fans. What is that? Is that a book or saying a thousand true fans or That is so true about creative art. I'm like Remi reminiscing back to everybody wanted to go to Creative at Heart, and that's what I feel about my suite. I love them, my students, my community, they are Shanna for life. I'm actually pretty sure your quote and testimonial on my website says, Shanna fan for life, which makes me happy. Yeah, that's so true. Okay, so how did the conferences go? I mean, what did you learn? What were some things you feel like you did really well and what would you say are some hard lessons? You had to learn
Kat Schmoyer (11:42):
Hard lessons, a hundred percent finances. That's how we connected. It was at a Loom. It was at Bonnie's alum retreat when I was like, Shanna, how do I make money doing? Literally, I love this and I want to keep doing it, but I need this to start being more profitable slash just profitable in general. So absolutely a hard lesson was the finance part of it, which I mean, you can speak to this way more than I can speak to this. Finances are a hard thing in any business model, but I think that in the in-person conference space, it's especially interesting to think through how are we structuring this so that it is profitable? And so that was definitely the hardest lesson for me
Shanna Skidmore (12:25):
Because you have to commit to so much cost before you absolutely even know how many attendees.
Kat Schmoyer (12:31):
Absolutely.
Shanna Skidmore (12:32):
Yeah. Okay. What do you feel like you did really well?
Kat Schmoyer (12:35):
The planning and organizing the things that are my zone of genius. I feel like we would frequently have both educators and attendees saying, this is the most well run event that I've been to. And I took a lot of pride in that and wanted to overcommunicate and try to really go above and beyond so that logistically it felt very smooth and very easy for everybody that was involved.
Shanna Skidmore (12:59):
Yeah. Okay. So talk to me about the last few conferences and did you think that you would do creative at Heart forever or Yeah, just walk us through how the shift happened.
Kat Schmoyer (13:12):
Yeah, so the shift happened really subtly in to the point where I look back now and I see the Lord's hand in that shift because I am a believer my entire life has been guided by him. And so I look back now and I see that shift, but at the time, I didn't realize a shift. I didn't set out and say, I'm going to start pivoting out of this, or I'm want to start seeing what else we can do. I literally thought I was going to be old and gray hosting a conference hoping that people would still come to that old lady's conference. I thought that that was the end game for me. I mean, Matt was able to leave his nine to five because we got the conference profitable. So it was a huge part of our revenue and just our overall brand. And my to-do list every week was around the conference in 2020 we're forced to make a pivot because as y'all know, 2020 shut down the world.
(14:04)
So I couldn't host the conference. We literally had to cancel our conference and when we canceled, we chose to refund. That was a very personal decision for us on yes, this is going to then put us in the red, but we felt like there are so many creatives that are now going to be potentially in the red and struggling because their weddings are like, we're primarily wedding industry, so their weddings are being canceled, they're being stripped away. We didn't feel right saying, well, we're going to keep $1,800, and you didn't even get to come. That just felt weird to us, and I understand the legal implications and I understand the things that we could have done per our contract, but this was just a decision that we chose to make so that we could sleep at night. Honestly, that's what it came down to. So when we did that, literally I was like, how do I make money?
(14:53)
I need to throw spaghetti on a wall literally and figure out what do I need to do. Thankfully, my husband is very frugal. The Lord knew, and we weren't going to be losing our home or closing down the business because of it, but we needed to figure out a way to recoup what we were going to be losing and what we weren't going to have come in. So 2020 became my open-handed, Lord, what am I good at? What should I do? Because at that point, my identity was, I'm a conference host. I was even doing less weddings because of conference host world and being an educator and being surrounded with that community. So when close to your identity is taken away, there's a lot of spiritual and mental and emotional junk that you have to work through. So not only was 2020 the year, the world had a lot going on, but me personally, I just was working through a lot.
(15:52)
I also had my second daughter, I had her and three weeks later we canceled the conference. So literally, this is such a terrible, it sounds like such a terrible story, but 2020 was hard. All that to say 2020 is really hard. One of the ways that I started slowly making that pivot was a good friend of mine launched a membership community in the midst of 2020 that blew up. Literally a thousand members that blew up. Her people were crazy for it. She was not type organized, and she was raising her hand saying, how do I do this? I had this idea and now I can't sustain it, and I'm really close with her. And literally in a Vox message said, Hey, I now have nothing to do. I just canceled everything. Could I? Could you please hire? You should hire me. I could do this for you.
(16:43)
Yeah. I started integrating for her without calling it the word integrator and knowing that that's what it was. So I'm doing that to just bring in money while also struggling mentally and emotionally and spiritually with what am I good at? What are my strengths? Making a list on a sheet of paper of these are all of Kat's strengths. That's the point I was at you guys, it was very real eight years in business and that's where I was, or seven years in business. That's where I was. So all that to say the pivot of, okay, now we're, I'm seeing integration, now I'm seeing what I thought everybody was just good at was not the case. Yeah. And there were things about me that were special, which I know that sounds so, again, that sounds so silly, but I needed that wake up call of like, oh, this is where I'm unique.
(17:29)
This is my, yes, I could host a conference, but here's why I was good at hosting a conference. Yes. And I needed the Lord to strip everything away for me to see those things about myself and then to uncover, oh, this is another business model that can come out of that. So since 2020, the agency was born in 2021, a year later, we've quite literally just exploded in the best of ways. And so right now I just don't know if I have the time and capacity to also host a conference and keep growing the agency. So the conference is on standstill. I'm not saying we're closing the doors forever, but right now I don't feel called to host one. I don't feel led to host one. I don't have the time to host one, so I'm just shelving it and then maybe I'll pull the book out later.
Shanna Skidmore (18:16):
Oh, this is all so good. We need four hours, so just stay on. Right. Alright, fine. Right. My task management, stay on task. Okay, let's go. What is an integrator?
Kat Schmoyer (18:29):
Yeah, great question. It's such a buzzword right now. I feel like it is at least maybe it's just because I'm around it all the time. So the heart of that word comes from the book Traction, which definitely needs to be linked with these show notes, link traction, and then link Rocket Fuel. Those two books go hand in hand. Traction is, and stay with me you guys. It is an entrepreneurial operating system and I know that sounds super fancy. It's basically just here are ways that you can structure your business to grow and scale. They wrote the book for small businesses that have 35 to 100 employees, and I don't remember exactly how much it was. They researched a hundred businesses. A lot of research and things went into, okay, based on what all of these companies are doing, here's a great operating system for a small business.
(19:21)
Now, a lot of you guys listening, we don't have 35 employees. We're even smaller than what they wrote the book for, but in the book they talk about how visionaries need an integrator. So then that second book that I mentioned, rocket Fuel took that little chapter from traction and ran with it in an entire book about the visionary integrator model. And what that explains is the visionary is the c e O. The visionary is saying, here's where I want to go. I want to be full-time working 30 weddings a year with a team underneath me. That's like long-term goal. This is what you honor. I want to be a digital product creator and I want to have these products in my products be and I want to do X, Y, and Z. You are vision casting, you have the dream. The integrator comes alongside you and says, these are great dreams, but what's realistic right now, the integrator has a pulse on, okay, here's what your audience is asking for.
(20:16)
Here's what your time actual realistic with your own time management and here's what your team has the capacity to do. So when a real world setting, the visionary would be the c e o and the integrator would be the general manager. So the integrator is all the time, day in and day out, here's what we're doing, content's going here and this is happening here and we're responding to this client here and this is getting, all of those deliverables are happening and they understand the moving pieces of being in the weeds. Whereas the visionary is like, okay, but here's what I want to do. Now that all of this is going on, let's keep doing these other
Shanna Skidmore (20:50):
Things that somebody, I was on a call with another podcast interview, Brenna, and I think it was Brenna, but anyway, she was talking about her general manager and I was like, that is the role of the integrator in more of an online digital space or general manager. And that makes so much sense for another person underneath you to understand the deliverables, the goals, the deadlines, the to-dos, and it's so needed because there's so many tasks that are detail oriented. And then you've got to step into your zone of vision. It's a hard
Kat Schmoyer (21:24):
It Is. It's hard shift.
Kat Schmoyer (21:26):
It is. And where I found a hole is in the traditional visionary integrator. If you Google that and you start to read more about it, there's even a free quiz of are you a visionary? Are you an integrator? Rocket fuel? That book has a quiz about it. As you start to look at that, they talk a lot about the integrator also managing the team. That's a huge role because again, if you think about a true general manager at a store, at a restaurant, they're managing the people that are actually doing the tasks that need to get done. Well, if you're a solopreneur, you don't have a team. So a lot of people might think, well, I don't need one of those because I don't have the team. However, I beg to differ that you actually need a team because you can systemize all day long.
(22:05)
And I love a good Trello board. I love the workflow in Dosa, but that will only get you so far. Yeah. At the end of the day, there are going to be certain tasks that another human being needs to do for you because there is only one. So I decided, well, I'm going to make this an agency model where clients get to work with me on, okay, what is the 90 day plan? What do you want to make happen? And now I have a team of eight underneath me that are your implementers. So we're going to schedule that podcast. We're going to get the stuff on Pinterest that needs to get Penn, we're going to be optimizing your evergreen funnel or working on your next launch so that you can stay in zone of genius. And my team is implementing and executing the things that need to get done.
Shanna Skidmore (22:46):
It's so smart too because it works for smaller teams than that, like you said, 35 to hundred, which most of us don't have, nor one if you're right in my case. That's so smart. Okay, so tell me, because I could ask you about integrator all day long. I'm so interested. I've also talked to a friend of mine who does some integration project management work, and she did all the interviews for the ceo she worked for. So you're right, it literally is a general manager and I'm need hands up. But back to how did you figure out your pricing with this? Do you feel like your past experience helped you articulate your offers and develop this integrator agency faster because of your past experience? I mean, you have eight people working for me. How are you figuring out all of that?
Kat Schmoyer (23:35):
I definitely think my past experiences helped this transition not just from the skills I learned because wedding planning and conference planning are project management, a different type of project, but that's project management skills. Even some of the girls on my team now are wedding, we're wedding planners or are still doing wedding planning too. It's kind of ingrained in a lot of type A project managers is that style of thinking. So I think that style of thinking and the problem solving that needed to happen and even the systems when we would host our biggest creative at heart, we had almost 200 people. So that's a lot of workflows and systems that we had to set up on the backend as well as communicating things to our attendees, to our educators. I learned a lot. I made mistakes, I learned a lot. And that has helped me in what we're doing now with the agency.
(24:25)
So yes, a hundred percent to past experience when it comes to that type of work. But I also think even in just the connections that I made and now clients are coming to me because they came to the conference or they spoke at the conference, are they connected with me at the conference? And there's a level of trust there. We are a premium price. I mean we're not $10 an hour. People are paying us for our level of expertise in what it is that we're doing in the digital product space and people are more likely to pay that when there is that trust there. And I appreciate that my past experience has given them that trust in me to be ready to book pretty quickly from reaching out and even allow me to start with what I would consider a line list of clientele because I'd made those connections.
Shanna Skidmore (25:16):
Yeah. Yeah. That's so good. Let's talk about money for a second. Yeah, we won't do
Kat Schmoyer (25:21):
I knew I knew it. I knew it.
Shanna Skidmore (25:23):
You knew it was coming. What would you say your relationship with money has been in the past? And you can take it however far back as you want, and then I would love to hear your relationship now with money in the sense of you have a team of eight, you are managing probably a lot of other people's businesses, just share more about the money. Sad.
Kat Schmoyer (25:49):
Yes. So I think I feel like my opinion of money 2020 is like what changed things for me. I think pre 2020 I had much more of an abundance mindset, which is good and bad. There's so many biblical things, which this, I know we're not getting into what Jesus says, but there are so many biblical things that go with living in abundance and living in that faith and that freedom. However, I do think that I didn't fully understand the scarcity that could happen and the lack of security that could happen as a small business owner. Even growing up, my family was not well off, but we were taken care of. If I wanted something, I pretty much got it, which I know that can sound weird, but that was just how, that was just our life and I didn't really think twice about it. And then in 2020 when we're literally saying, okay, now we're having to pull from our account, this is scary.
(26:45)
Where is this going? Does Matt need to go back and work a nine to five in a couple of months? How much money do we have? How far will this get us? Those are all awful conversations to have. And they had me switch my brain of, okay, how can I give myself more security? So I think that it changed things in a good way, but also in a bad way. It changed things in a good way of, all right, business savings. Now on top of personal savings, let me start to do some things to feel protected so that if something does happen and we lose all of our clients or there is something else like 2020 I, I'm not pulling it from personal. I can just pull from extra business things. So that was a great, great mindset shift that needed to happen for me. But on a of that mindset shift is now me being penny pinching. Where's all the money? What's that? And freaking out a little bit because 2020 rocked my world in 2020, maybe nervous about being the financial provider for my family.
Shanna Skidmore (27:43):
Yeah, I think that's such a good conversation to have because I teach about finance all day long. I teach about business and love it and creating a business too you love, but finance is a big part of that and understanding your money and it's so interesting because I think some people, I hear from a lot of people who just would rather not know, but I think you would say being empowered to know how to make my conference profitable was a big deal, but almost like you don't want to live in that always thinking about money. It's like, yeah, there's this interesting place of finding how to manage money well and be a good steward, but not feel scared about it, not feel like absolutely. You have to clinch onto it and yeah, absolutely. Do you feel like you've been able to find some ways? How are you trying to get back to that feeling of open hands, abundance, taking the good from 2020 lessons but not holding onto the bad of it?
Kat Schmoyer (28:40):
Honestly, I think I'm still in the muddy middle of that balance. We're also building a home this year, so that's adding to the, but wait, DA, done all of the things with that. So I think that that's something that the Lord is truly actively working on my heart, giving me a heart of contentment, which contentment is always been a struggle. I can't tell you how many times I've done Nancy's contentment challenge just to be police again. Let's try another three months of contentment challenge. What is it going to happen? So that is, again, that's just a personal struggle that's a little bit more difficult for me. So I do think that right now I'm trying to find that a healthier balance of abundance versus scarcity.
Shanna Skidmore (29:21):
Yeah, yeah. Oh, thank you for just being real about that because there's such a flip side of the coin. I teach about understanding your money all the time, but it is sometimes thinking about money too much is also feels heavy. Yeah. You just want to shake it off. Will you share about your house building project and how is it coming along? I know it was halted for a little bit. I would love to hear about building your house.
Kat Schmoyer (29:49):
Yes, we are so excited. We bought four and a half acres five years ago. So when my first child was born, literally that year we closed on that land and we were actually planning to start building in 2020. So again, 2020, it ended up working out that we did not, obviously because of everything that happened with the business and then not having to have that financial stress of, but we just signed our building loan, all of those things, the Lord worked and it worked out to not have that. But it's also made it really sweet to be in the process now because I feel like it has been five years in the making of us doodling house plans on the iPad and looking at stuff on Pinterest and going to the land just to envision what it would look like with an actual house and things like that. So it's been really, really fun. And now we went from buying the land with one child to moving in with three this summer, which is so wild. So we are so excited. We're supposed to move in this summer.
Shanna Skidmore (30:49):
This summer. That's Exciting. So is it It's framed
Kat Schmoyer (30:53):
It is framed. The roof is such a big deal. So we just did our big electrical walkthrough, which was like, holy moly, my mind is blown about all these little things to think about. I know. So yeah, it looks like an actual house.
Shanna Skidmore (31:06):
That's so fun. And you picked out the plans and everything. Yeah,
Kat Schmoyer (31:09):
We did it completely custom.
Shanna Skidmore (31:11):
This is the best. Okay, so this makes me think Katten, I don't know if you want to share how much you want to share about this, but waiting. How good are you? I'm Kat Schmoyer (31:19):
Terrible waiting. Terrible at waiting. I have no advice for the waiter. Shanna Skidmore (31:25):
How have you lived through seasons of waiting in your life?
Kat Schmoyer (31:31):
I think that I've had a lot of seasons of waiting. Even for my first child, we waited almost two years, had two miscarriages waiting for him. Matt and I dated for seven years before we got married because we started dating in high school. We dated all three. And I was like, let's go. Like why? And he was very, we need to graduate college first, then we're going to get married. He had the plan in his head. So I think it was waiting there, waiting for a baby, waiting with this house. What's happening with the business? Maybe it's because I haven't learned how to wait. Well, that the Lord keeps having me wait. Honestly, I'm not sure. I think that waiting stirs things up in you and allows you to either lean into what you do have and to see again that contentment part of like, okay, yes, I'm waiting for this, but also what is already around me that's beautiful and then I want to be thankful and I want to be grateful for the life that is my life right now.
(32:31)
So there's that side of the coin, but then there's also the side of, as much as I love having my own business and love helping people dream dreams can sometimes be hard for me because I am an integrator, so I am in the weeds of I will be the pessimist of this is why this dream is a bad dream or this is why this will be hard to make happen. Literally one of my clients calls me her dream crusher because I'm like, that is not going to happen. We're not doing that. So with waiting, you're dream, you're dreaming. So again, this two-sided of are we working on contentment and loving what we already have or are we also working on how are you dreaming and are you dreaming well and what does that look
Shanna Skidmore (33:11):
Like? This is all so good and so real. There is always this tension and pool of lately Kyle and I've, I've always been a dreamer. I am a dreamer My, I've had clients jokingly, ironically, call me the dream. Releaser great. And I'm like, I literally had an interview the other day and she was like, I just really dream of doing flowers. I'm like, girl, let's make a business plan. I don't want to make, I love dreaming and it's been interesting the last few years. I've kind of in some ways not been dreaming and it was this interesting challenge of like, well, where's that coming from? Maybe just toddler mom life, newborn mom life, toddler mom life, which I love, but being so present right here that my and my brain can't think much further than about 7:00 PM But yeah, that's so true Kat, and thank you for sharing. Waiting is so hard, but I love how you turn that around to say, but waiting is dreaming, hoping for something that is yet to come and all the ways. Speaking of motherhood, I would love for you to share, Kat how you find work life harmony in season. You have three little ones pretty close together and running this business being the main income earner. How are you handling that?
Kat Schmoyer (34:41):
So yes, I do have three little ones, three under five. I love them so much and I am so grateful. Again, it's crazy for us even with the evolution of our land that we bought this and we were holding our son holding Micah and now we're going to be there with three. We can't even hold them all. It's so amazing. I love it. It is a lot of chaos in our home because of just their ages and where we're at and lack of sleep and all of the things that come with that. I think that I could know that I could not do it if Matt was not in the house with me, and that isn't just to, my husband's so amazing. Of course I think he's amazing, but we literally pay him to be a dad. He is all the things for them so that I can be doing things like this and knowing that we have very different normal roles than what you would think about, but that it works for us and that he's supportive of this is his role in our family and the kids love that, and I love that he's right there and I can take a break from work and go downstairs and have lunch with everybody and nurse our nine month old and then I can walk back upstairs with my afternoon coffee and keep going for the afternoon.
(36:00)
That's a dream life. So I think knowing that he is so in tune with everything that the family needs and so supportive of what we're doing on the business side makes it way easier to have that balance. Yeah, I do think that it's realizing that we can't do it all when we're working at home with our kids and knowing that we have to find a structure and find a rhythm that does work well for us. So whether that's certain work hours during the day or whether that's knowing, Hey, I'm taking off today because we're doing a fun family day, but now I'm going to work three hours tonight once everybody goes to bed. Knowing that you're going to have those ebbs and flows and not feeling guilty or feeling bad about any of those ebbs and flows, but just kind of owning like, Hey, this is our rhythm and this is what we do and we love it. It is,
Shanna Skidmore (36:49):
Yeah. Do you feel like you found those roles easily or was that took time to find Matt owning his role with the kids and you sounds like are working full-time in the business. Is there ever moments of tension or it's like you fell into those very naturally because he started working with you when Micah was born or before
Kat Schmoyer (37:13):
Mike A. Little bit before? Yeah. I do think that we fell into the role naturally. A lot of that was because we had very open conversations around what will things look like when there is a baby, and we knew that that would be more on him. He would be more of the day-to-day parent while I'm working, and he was excited about that and wanted that role. We are also very different personalities in, well, first of all, I could never be a stay-at-home mom without any outlet of the business. I feel like I will always work part-time, Lord willing at least because I enjoy, again, I enjoy business, I enjoy all of this so much and I love my children, but I'm, I'm not blessed with the patience and the wonderful amazingness of the full-time stay-at-home moms. That's just not my gift and I love them for those gifts.
(38:04)
He has more of that gift even in being a man versus being a woman. He has those gifts and it's wonderful to be able to see that come out. He's also loves our business, but he loves our business because of the outcome that we receive in terms of the freedom that our family has, not because he likes the things the business does. Does that make sense? Absolutely. He absolutely, he doesn't dislike it. Absolutely. He's just not passionate about it. I am. So he's not jealous of me working five days a week and I'm not jealous of him being with the kids five days a week. It's like a great ebb flow for
Shanna Skidmore (38:35):
Us. Yeah. Oh, that's so good. Yeah. That's so helpful. Oh, Kat, this is so good and it's been fun just to catch up and hear how your business has pivoted and shifted. And the one last question I should say is what's the best thing you've learned about money? But what I want to ask you is your business has ebbed and flowed and pivoted. It's always centered around project management planning, so there's like a central, have you ever struggled with all of these questions today have been totally off script. So sorry, I just throw you all the curve balls. Hi. But I'm so curious, have you ever struggled or felt frustrated in a way that it's not a straight path or that you're, that quote unquote word, multi-passionate is such an interesting word to say, but have you just embraced the journey or do you feel like you've wrestled with the changes in the shifts?
Kat Schmoyer (39:28):
I think that 80% of the time I embrace the journey 80% of the time. I love that every week looks a little bit different depending on the projects at play, depending on what's going on. The 20% struggle for me comes back to that 2020 security mindset of, okay, yes, but I also want to know that things are being provided for because of that weight of income provider for the family knowing like, okay, what's the enough line, good, better or best? Where are we at? Okay, great. Now I can breathe a little bit easier and I'm going to lean into this 80% of me that really enjoys all the ebbs and flows versus feeling stressed out about where it's coming from.
Shanna Skidmore (40:09):
Yeah, that's good. Okay, so I am going to ask you, what would you say is the best thing you have learned about money?
Kat Schmoyer (40:15):
It's actually a sticky note on my computer. I feel like I didn't mean to talk about Jesus so much I should have. That's okay, right? We're just like, I'm talking about Jesus a lot.
Kat Schmoyer (40:25):
Literally my sticky note says He will bless me just to bless me. And I think that that has been something that my type a action oriented personality, and again with it goes discontent, wait, all the things of knowing, Hey, he's going to bless me just to bless me and do I want to be to have provision and have security? Yes, but also at the end of the day, I just need to let him bless me. I just need to let him provide and give that to him. There's only so much that I can do.
Shanna Skidmore (40:56):
Do you think that's your achiever? A hundred percent feeling you have to earn it?
Kat Schmoyer (41:01):
Yeah. Yeah. In strengths finders, two of my top five are achiever and activator. So it comes from what's the achievement and how are we taking action and then needing that compass of, but wait a second, I'm, I'm actually not in control. I, I'm actually not the end all be all in this scenario
Shanna Skidmore (41:20):
In so many ways. 2020 was like,
Kat Schmoyer (41:23):
I'm telling you
Shanna Skidmore (41:24):
Because for someone who likes to control to have so many things,
Kat Schmoyer (41:31):
Yeah, it was like a let, let's like rip cat wide open and dissect the ugly things and walk through a lot of mental and spiritual things that I did not want to touch. I did not want to uncover do it postpartum and then there we go. Thank you Jesus,
Shanna Skidmore (41:52):
So much to say about, I could have so much I could say about that, but I'm going to keep us on time because you'll be so proud of me. Cat, stick to the sketch. Let's go into a quickfire round.
Kat Schmoyer (42:03):
Oh boy. All right.
Shanna Skidmore (42:04):
I'm going to put you in the hot seat. I think I've put you in the hot seat this whole time. Totally went off script. It was the one. Thank you for sharing. Okay, first question. One thing you would be embarrassed if people knew
Kat Schmoyer (42:15):
Currently my quarterly calendar is empty. I haven't even written what month is it on the calendar right now? I feel like that's embarrassing for somebody that is so organized and type A that my current calendar has zero things, not even dates on it.
Shanna Skidmore (42:32):
I'm laughing only because you and I both teach about goal setting and I love that we both love that and I would say the exact same thing. Sometimes I get so embarrassed that it's like, yeah, I haven't taken my own advice.
Kat Schmoyer (42:44):
I was supposed to do all these reels in January about Q1, and my calendar is still blank about q1. It's fine, it's fine.
Shanna Skidmore (42:51):
It's fine. It's fine. Q one's almost over. Q2 is your time. There we go. There we go. Okay. Number two, any regrets or wish you could do over moments?
Kat Schmoyer (43:05):
Is it cliche to say no? Because I feel like all of them add to where I am now. It's all a part of this story. It's all a part of the journey, and while there were really hardy, yucky things, every single thing has brought me to where I am right now.
Shanna Skidmore (43:20):
Yeah, that's beautiful. That's not cliche. All right. Number three, big win or pinch me moment.
Kat Schmoyer (43:27):
I feel like I have a lot just because I love my business and it's been so fun over the years to see lots of things. I think when we were selling out conferences, those were always honestly big win moments, just crazy for me and so humbling that people wanted to come and that educators were saying yes, and I'm standing on a stage with 200 people. That was just huge pinch me moments. I think right now, being able to grow this agency and doing something new, building our forever home, just this season has been like this. Oh my gosh, this is a reality. Especially in light of how low I felt in 2020 and literally climbing out of that trench. So that's also been a huge pinch me moment.
Shanna Skidmore (44:14):
Yeah. Okay. Something that just popped in my head with what we were talking about earlier. When you wait for something, the joy of it is so increased. I think about when you feel low lows, you can feel high highs. High
Kat Schmoyer (44:28):
Highs. Yeah. Thank you. And I feel like that's this year since the climb out.
Shanna Skidmore (44:33):
Yeah. And I need to send me pictures of your house. Okay. Best advice or just really good advice that you have received?
Kat Schmoyer (44:42):
So one of my good friends is the total opposite of me, polar opposite. I'm nanogram three, she's an nanogram seven, she is type B, I am type. Everything about us is like, why are you guys friends? How do you not fight all the time because your whole brain is wired differently? But I think that that's what makes our friendship so beautiful is that we challenge each other in really unexpected ways, just in sharing life and sharing about our husbands and our kids and our families and all of that. And she told me it's been a while and it's been several years now. She told me there will always be another to-do, and that simple sentence for the activator and the achiever in me was literally a knife to my heart of like, you're right. You are right. I will never get it all done, and that's okay.
Shanna Skidmore (45:29):
Achiever is one of my strengths as well. I don't think activator is, that has been one of the hardest lessons for me to know that the list just keeps continu. I want to be done. I was telling to some of my students on a call the other day when we were talking about your product website. It's like, have you ever gone? I'm the one who gets on the product website and I scroll through everything. I want to see all the options before I choose, and that's why with social media and the grid, it never ends. Now I like to get through all the posts and be done. I'm glad I'm not on there anymore because I would never be done with it. Yeah, no, that was one of the hardest lessons for me to learn in business is that I can't check everything off.
Kat Schmoyer (46:11):
Absolutely.
Shanna Skidmore (46:12):
And I don't like it.
Kat Schmoyer (46:14):
Right. It's hard for me just in general, but then it was also been a really freeing thing now that I'm scaling a service, so not that y. Yes, of course you still have to-dos when you're not scaling a service. Absolutely. But with scaling a service, I have other, so it's like I have my to-dos, I have your to-dos and their to-dos, and we have 14 clients right now. There's a lot of to-dos, but giving myself permission that I'm still going to follow through and hopefully hit every deadline that I've set, but I don't need to stress out and try to work 18 hours in one day. There will always be another to-do.
Shanna Skidmore (46:49):
Yeah. Because that is our 10, I mean, that's my tendency too. Old chan when she had the energy so young, Shanna, when you had the energy to just be like, okay, I'll just keep working and then I'll get That is the cycle you get into. Yes. And that's hard to break. Yeah. Ooh, that's good. Okay, last quick fire question and then we'll send this thing off. What are you working on now or one resource that you would like to share
Kat Schmoyer (47:12):
Working on now growing the agency? That has been so unexpected and really fascinating for me because I understand digital products and I understand the growth of digital products and understanding growing and scaling a service has been a whole new challenge, and so that is a huge project that will continue on hopefully all year. How am I doing this? What do we need to do here? Has been a really big one. I do also, if you guys are thinking about what is integration, how does this work, all of those things. I know we mentioned a couple of books, which you should definitely check out. Grab them on Audible, get the real copy, whatever you want, but I also have a quiz on my website. You might need an integrator if, and so that could potentially even help guide you on where are you right now and what is going on, and do you need one? Maybe you don't. Maybe there's some other things that you know could start doing to grow and scale in the ways that you want.
Shanna Skidmore (48:07):
Yeah. I love that. All right, Kat, let's send it off. It's sad to see you go. What would you tell yourself if you were to go back to day one of starting a business? What would you tell yourself? Looking back 10 years,
Kat Schmoyer (48:21):
You don't need to have a concrete plan. I had no idea that all of this was going to happen when I started my business, and yet here we are 10 years later and it has truly been a journey, and so my type A self needs to tell myself 10 years ago, you don't need to have a concrete plan. Is being strategic in your business helpful? Yes. Do we want to set goals? Yes, but we want to be really flexible with what those are and what that looks like so that you can see where is movement going to happen? How do you need to pivot? How do you need to make changes? Whether it's because the industry's telling you to, whether it's because the Lord is telling you to, whether it's because financially you're being told to, your passions are changing. There's so many different ways that you might decide to change things up, so just let yourself change things up as you need to.
Shanna Skidmore (49:13):
Yeah. I love that cat because I think the picture and model we have of a business is start small, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, end big, and it's like, yeah, it is so much just a journey and a path and that you're allowed to just enjoy it along the way. Having, yeah, like you said, strategic things in place, of course, but giving yourself permission to shift and change and maybe we would not be so hard on ourselves when we want to take time off or shift our offers and
Kat Schmoyer (49:42):
Absolutely.
Shanna Skidmore (49:43):
Yeah. Absolutely. I love that. Kat, thank you so much for sharing your story and hanging out on the podcast today.
Kat Schmoyer (49:49):
Thanks for having me. This was so fun, and I feel like we talked about so many unexpected things and now I need to go journal or something. I don't even journal, but I'm like, I feel like I have a lot of thoughts still in my brain. I need to get out.
Shanna Skidmore (50:01):
I'm still stuck on the waiting. I know. I'm feeling all the feels. I know, know was fun. Hey, wildflower, you just finished another episode of Consider the Wildflowers the podcast. Head over to consider the wildflowers podcast.com for show notes, resource links, and to learn how you can connect with Kat. One final thought for today from Socrates, the secret of change is to focus all your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new. As always, thank you for listening. I'll see you next time.