Ep. 12 Finding & Staying in Your Zone of Genius with Kimberly Whitmon

Today we're joined by Kimberly Whitmon, an Operational Growth Engineer, Founder & CEO of ASCEND Optimization, Certified AI Consultant, speaker, and author. For years, she helped women navigate personal transformation, emotional wellness, and leadership development through facilitation, coaching, and community-building.

Today, Kimberly brings those same principles into entrepreneurship, helping founders transform vision into execution through operational systems, AI, and business infrastructure. Her work sits at the intersection of personal evolution and business growth, proving that the way we build ourselves and the way we build our businesses are more connected than most people realize.

She is the author of the #1 mental health adult coloring book, Color to Clarity, and is passionate about helping people create lives and businesses that are aligned, sustainable, and built with intention.

Join us for a candid conversation about shedding old deficit-focused identities and adopting new ones of prosperity, freedom, abundance and peace.

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:22

Welcome back to Women in Bloom. I'm your host, Jacqueline Lee Vadley, and I'm joined by my mother and co-host, Helder Jackie. Today we are joined by Kimberly Whitman, an operational growth engineer, founder and CEO of Ascend Optimization, certified AI consultant, speaker, and author. For years, she's helped women navigate personal transformation, emotional wellness, and leadership development through facilitation, coaching, and community building. Today, Kimberly brings those same principles into entrepreneurship, helping founders transform vision into execution through operational systems, AI, and business infrastructure. Her work sits at the intersection of personal evolution and business growth, proving that the way we build ourselves and the way we build our businesses are more connected than most people realize. She is the author of the number one mental health adult coloring book, Color to Clarity, and is passionate about helping people create lives and businesses that are aligned, sustainable, and built with intention. Join us in welcoming Kimberly. We're really excited to have you here. One of the things that immediately drew us to you with your work is this concept of using your own. First of all, when we when I first came across you and we kind of came across each other on Instagram, I don't really remember how we like how we started following each other, but I remember seeing the your story of your healing and your own journey, which resonated so deeply with me because I am the whole in Bloom thing started because I was in a um hmm. That's a really rough patch. Yeah. Um, I was dealing with very, very, very, very difficult health um issues. And finally, after I was able to kind of stabilize myself, that became the fuel for wanting to help other women. And similarly, I know that you you that's your journey as well. Not exactly the same, obviously, but that's your journey as well. So can first of all, I would like to know like what got you like what what was that journey like and kind of what prompted that initial energy and wanting to make that offering to I'm I'm assuming women, but maybe it's not just women.

SPEAKER_06 2:58

No, well, first of all, thank you. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate being here. Uh, I've seen your work online. I also don't know how we ended up connected, but nothing is on accident. And here we are. Uh, how did I get into this healing journey and translating that into uh facilitating other women's uh ability to heal or their their courage to heal, so to speak? Well, it started because I have my own issues, right? And it mine weren't mine were mental health issues. So I was diagnosed with bipolar two when I was 18 years old, which is over half of my life now. Uh and so it was a long journey coming, just me learning how to take care of myself, right? Learning how to not continually succumb to the symptoms and the issues and challenges that come along with having a mental illness, right? So in my journey, I was very vocal about what I was doing to help myself. And that made other people, specifically women, comfortable with coming to me and telling me about their issues and their challenges and how could they possibly get through them. Because I I did my best to talk about my challenges, not from uh victimhood, but from a triumphant place, right? Waiting until I was able to make it through whatever obstacle was in front of me at that moment, and then talking about how I made it through, not just sitting in the mess of it all. And so I guess that gave women uh permission, so to speak, to share their own challenges with me. From there, people just started saying, You're really good at this, you're really good at this, you should try this, you should give this a try. You've always been a good teacher. Uh, I went to school for engineering, I was an engineer for like 11 years, training and facilitating and all of the things. So that was just kind of a part of my nature. So I decided to go ahead and give it a whirl and let's combine the two. It was right after COVID, and it was prime time for online internet entrepreneurship. So I just decided to dive on in, and it actually was a really successful uh venture, and it was a really fruitful and it was meaningful, and it felt good to my spirit as well as the women who I've helped, because still to this day, a lot of them come to me and will say I'm still using some of the principles or some of the tools that we worked on years ago is still resonant today.

SPEAKER_04 5:45

Wow. In that, do you feel like you in helping other women it also helped facilitate your own healing?

SPEAKER_06 5:53

Yes, yes, until it didn't. Okay, yeah, okay, until it didn't, but in the beginning, in the in the good, in the beautiful stretch of things, yes, it did because it forced me to continue to stay one to two steps ahead, so to speak. Not ahead in a higher than type of way, but ahead in that I cannot guide you anywhere that I haven't been.

SPEAKER_03 6:19

Been, I say.

SPEAKER_06 6:20

Wow, and so I have to continue my own personal growth and development if I'm gonna continue to try to lead others in that same direction. So, yes, it continued to perpetuate my own healing until that was all that I could see was the pain and the healing and the challenge of it all. And that was when the shift needed to happen.

SPEAKER_04 6:44

Okay. I actually that resonates with me. I think as someone who is dealing with you know, chronic pain, chronic illness, and wanting to help women, and you know, not necessarily with this specific issue, but also like any women who find themselves in a wilderness. I like to use the word wilderness because one of our previous guests used that and I was like, yes, because you don't know, you just gotta feel your way out, kind of thing. But it also is one of those things that it's like I can't be preaching mindfulness, I can't be preaching self-care. If work is stressing you out, how about you take a mental health day? I can't be preaching touchgrass and all of these things, and I'm like churning, churning, churning the workout, pumping the workout. Because I think that's my thing, is just like work, work, work, work, work. Um so and the like the weight of the work. So anyway, um you so Eldris, I see you want to chime in.

SPEAKER_03 7:48

Uh well, no, um, I'm I actually I'm I'm listening. Um, I just I had a um an experience uh yesterday. Um and I'm I'm just sort of in the process of thinking about some of my overcoming moments, right? Things that you've gone through um and overcome. And when you get to be my age, you know, the story is still there, you just don't talk about it as often. And so yesterday I had an experience where I really wanted to share and to support someone and was thinking about those things that I've come through, and sounding um very much very similar. You know, you get to a point where you where whatever the challenge is that you say, um, I this can't, this is I'm not gonna let this undo me or do me in, right? And so you start thinking differently. But then the thing that makes us um I won't I want to say human, but um it's really is sort of like the engine for our community is how we use our experience to help others, right? Not so that it's not just a oh, okay, I I got through that, now I'm on to the next thing. It's yeah, I I I did that. I wish somebody did this for me. Let me do this for somebody else. So I'm just resonating in your story.

SPEAKER_04 9:12

Yeah, I definitely like when I and we're gonna get back on track, but I would definitely I didn't mean to make us go.

SPEAKER_06 9:20

No, all good. We love a tangent, okay? We love to go off on a tangent.

SPEAKER_04 9:24

She kind of goes into what the next question because um there like in when you receive a diagnosis, just for me, I'm speaking for my journey. You look for you, you want somebody who knows exactly what you've been through to be able to kind of guide you through, right? Maybe not precisely, you know, but if it's chronic pain, if it's mental health, if it's chronic um disease management or divorce or grief or what have you, you kind of want a woman, for me, preferably a black woman, someone to be able to say, sis, like you're gonna be all right. Let me show you how. But I digress. Um you've said, Kim, that you've stopped believing pain is the only way to purpose, that pain is the only major highway to purpose. That's um that sentence stopped me in my tracks. And Eldris, I'm speaking about um Kim's uh accountability work that she's been doing um over the last 30 days. At Women in Bloom, we spend a lot of time talking about healing, and we're really interested in asking what comes after healing.

SPEAKER_06 10:35

Living, living and and I don't even say it comes after healing because nobody reaches a point where they are healed uh that is not the purpose of the human experience. We are continually going to be transcending experiences that are going to challenge our ability to move through them. It's when you start to be able to do that and not allow that to stop you from living, is when you reach the other side. And you know, you were saying all the things when you're healing from chronic pain, when you have mental illness, when you have all of these things, and all of those things, as you were saying them, I was like, What about the woman that wants to make some money? What about the woman that wants to find her joy? What about the woman that wants to have a beautiful relationship? Not because it's messed up, because it can always get better. You know what I mean? And so that's where I got was like, wow, yes, all of these things can lead to beautiful outcomes, but it doesn't have to start ugly all the time, yeah. Yes, and start and what you focus on, you get more of what you focus on expands, and if you're constantly focusing on what you need to fix, then you will always find somewhere you're broken, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:02

Yes, yeah, that now I was just thinking as you were speaking, I was thinking, um, we used to say um a body in motion stays in motion. So when you when you yeah, it is life. But when you when you slow down and you get bogged down, um, it's easy to to start thinking, well, now I can't do this, I can't do that. It just really piles on each other. But when you begin to move and to do different things, you get more of that, right? It's the energy that you put out that comes back to you. So I love that. I love that.

SPEAKER_04 12:35

Yeah, and I'm this is not like I think one of the things that I wanna that comes to mind for me is I've seen the person who makes their trauma their identity, right? I've seen that person and how much of a loop trap it can be because once that path is, you know, now we're about to get a little neuroscience-y, but I love it.

SPEAKER_06 12:59

Hello, it's a real thing.

SPEAKER_04 13:01

Once you tread that path in your um pathology over and over again and you're thinking, it's almost like you can't, you have to do so much work to overcome and shift the way that you think. If you allow yourself to get stuck in uh victimhood, trauma, leading with the trauma, um, and constantly, you know, staying in that I'm healing, I'm healing, I'm healing mode. Um, so to both of your points, um I've seen I've I've seen that, I know what that looks like, and I don't I don't want that for any of us.

SPEAKER_03 13:38

Uh uh I was reminding me of um the power of what we speak and how we get what we ask for. And so if you're constantly asking for um uh and I this is something that I used to do, like be moving through a situation and then be praying for patience, right? Like, oh, I need more patience. And the more I pray for patience, the more patience I got, and all things that came that make you make me want to want more patience, right? And and um it what I learned, it was a friend of mine who said, uh uh, you need to be praying for deliverance. You get when you stay, I want to be delivered from that, right? How quickly that situation ties itself up and goes away. The speed of it wow was amazing to me. Amazing. So it's it is the power of what you speak and put into your life, is you know, it's a real thing. We don't we don't grow up learning that, which is a shame, right? We we typically for us, we have to go through something to sort of, oh you know, um, this is different. This is I can do this differently. But anyway, I'm not digressing, I'm just I'm just uh getting full. We flowing, yes, we flowing, we flowing.

SPEAKER_04 15:13

Yeah, so I don't know if we've covered this, but I just want to quickly chat about what prompted the change for you, Kim? Shifting from the healing mode to living mode um and in with yourself and in the way that you work with clients, what facilitated that shift in you to move in a different direction or like to like transcend that former version?

SPEAKER_06 15:49

Uh burnout and empty bank account, okay.

SPEAKER_03 15:55

That'll do it.

SPEAKER_06 15:57

That'll do it every time. You know what I mean? Um burnout is a real thing, and when you are giving the healing work is such soul work, it's such spirit-led work that when you are giving, not you, I'm talking about me. When I was giving and giving and giving, I lost sight of the deeper meaning behind it because of the need for stability. It's hard to operate uh on a spirit level when a part of you is in scarcity, right? That's a challenge, and so I was kind of in this space where I'm giving all of this, and it's not giving me back what I need. Maybe it's giving me back something, but not what I need, and what I need is some money. No, for real.

SPEAKER_04 16:56

What'd you say? That's stressful, like you can't come, you can't operate from a anyway. Keep going.

SPEAKER_06 17:03

That part, and so then I started to really just be quiet because I don't want to be driven by money, right? There are still there is still purpose in this work. This purpose is just rooted in the joy side of things, right? Because I know I don't know about you, but the most regulated I've ever been is when my bank account is full. Okay. And a lot of people don't like you may not resonate with that, you know. The women, there's a big argument about women going to work and raising the kids and doing all this thing online. I've never been more regulated than when I had money in the bank. And I think that women need to make more money. And if women made more money, they would have more space to engage in the things that they can do to heal their being. If we had more money, we have more autonomy. And that autonomy gives us the space to heal. It's hard to heal when you are constantly when you're still in the midst of the things that you're healing from.

SPEAKER_03 18:09

Right, right. And so, and and so money is not the thing, but money helps you get to the thing. Money is the tool to help you get to the thing.

SPEAKER_06 18:18

And another thing is I read this book, uh The Big Leap. And it talked about your upper limit and operating from your zone of competence, your zone of excellence, your zone of genius. And the whole time that I was doing the healing work, in the background, I was doing the optimization, the business, helping women build businesses and not build the business, but build products and and streamline their services in a way that made sense for them. I was helping women do ebooks to promote their services. I was helping women build coaching courses behind the scenes. That is my actual zone of genius. I've had to sit with that and realize that this is something that I do to numb my brain. This comes so easily to me. It's so simple. It doesn't feel like work, it doesn't take anything from me. This is where I should probably and I and anytime I've ever quoted anybody a price, I've never gotten a pushback.

SPEAKER_02 19:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 19:26

There's something to that.

SPEAKER_02 19:27

Right, right.

SPEAKER_06 19:29

I like this. And if I continue to do what I thought the world thinks I should be doing, because I've been put putting this energy out of you're this healing spiritual woo-woo woo, because I'm not doing that, maybe I'm letting the world down, but the world is not gonna pay my bills. The world is not gonna sit with me in the darkness when I'm by myself and figuring things out. And so I decided to make a move that yes, it's contradictory to what the world thinks I should do, but is very, very, very sovereign in my spirit. That this is this is the direction, and I can incorporate the healing in that when I work with founders like you, Jasmine, and other high-power women, we still can take a retreat. And we can still uh pour into ourselves. It's just that we're gonna have some workshops where we also are pouring into our business.

SPEAKER_02 20:30

Yeah, we can do both.

SPEAKER_06 20:33

Yeah, we can do both, and that's where I am. I love that for you, Kim.

SPEAKER_04 20:38

Um I do, I do. I think when I first started out with coaching, and it hasn't been that long, and I'm I'm just being very responsive to how I'm feeling as I'm trying different things on. And one of the things that I really enjoy doing above anything else that's coaching related is podcasting. I love the creativity behind it. I love the marketing, I love um the cold calling and reaching out to women. I love the conversation that I'm having with people and working with my mother. And it it feeds me, even if it's not, you know, something that is um paying me. It it feeds me. It's something that's occurring very naturally. Um and I I enjoy that. I enjoy this, yeah. And I ain't gonna say, you know, more than, but I definitely am finding a new lane. And I love the idea of being responsive to what is presented to you, you know, and and and what feels very natural and you're good at, and like you said, you can kind of do this in your sleep. So it's like, yeah, yeah. So kind of the approach.

SPEAKER_06 21:57

But it gets to be easy, and if it's

SPEAKER_03 22:00

not easy it gets to be easeful and very easy I like that term easeful yeah so um so congratulations to you jasmine because what a what a testament most women don't know what they like most women don't know what lights them up most women don't know how to follow their joy I agree that's true so keep going I agree lean in even more yeah yeah I think most women can um they might be able to get to what they don't like right because that's the stuff that they do they do and they keep on doing right oh I I don't like this I don't like this but you're right it takes some time to first you got to know yourself right so you got to know what it is you're feeling when you're feeling it um and to then to be able to say well wait a minute this I could I like doing this I could do this without being paid right that's the thing that you want to say okay and I'm gonna turn this into paying me that part that's that part that's the purpose alignment things that I do that I'm doing something right now and I'm not getting paid right but it's easy why not it's peaceful it's easy and it's easyful easy easeful all the things right yes love it okay I I I I um wanted to move into um uh pleasure as a pathway to purpose but um what does pleasure actually mean to you ooh pleasure to me is being satisfied in the presence right because when things are bringing you pleasure you're not worried about the past you're not forecasting the future right right the most pleasure I've had and that and and that speaks back to the point of doing it whether you're getting paid or not the pleasure I get in just maybe building a website that pleasure is in the present in that moment I am lost in now I'm not working on the what's coming and I'm not focused on what's already gone.

SPEAKER_06 24:40

In that moment I am lost in the now and I think pleasure is when you can truly exist in the now because in that moment really nothing is wrong. Right really nothing is wrong unless it is something health related and the only time something is wrong is when it's your health and when you don't have to worry about your health ain't nothing else really that wrong.

SPEAKER_04 25:05

Listen I wouldn't give okay what I would not give to not have this health stuff.

SPEAKER_03 25:12

Yeah no more because I anyway go ahead I so that's that's what I would say eldress is for me pleasure looks like pure presence I love that now I'm gonna think about that in different ways yeah because sometimes you're in the moment um it's so hard especially as women um to when you're in a moment and you're doing something like all of a sudden there's all these other things that um oh now I gotta think about this. It's not part of what I'm doing but it's intrusive in a way that it takes me away from what I'm doing and what is giving me pleasure right so it but to the ability we were having this conversation my other daughter and I about you know focusing on the past um brings depression right or moves you into a depressed mode and focusing too much on the future builds anxiety so being able to be present is a wonderful thing to to be in the moment is a wonderful thing but we tend to we're pulled either in either direction so it's the ability to stay present yeah that's really important and that's why most people aren't I'm gonna say most people maybe most people don't a lot of the country is not very like pleasurable and not very pleasant unless we are substance infused yeah because everybody is worried about tomorrow beating themselves up about yesterday it makes me think of this principle that is taught in Buddhism and it is a mind of equanimity and it's basically not having desirous attachment to any one person place or thing or circumstance.

SPEAKER_04 27:13

So you don't have an attachment necessarily to what's in the future or what's behind you your present. Now it's very it's very much so easier said than done. Very much better very much so easier said than done but it gives you like a when they say equanimity it puts to me balance in my mind it puts me in a head state of of balance and that's where I want to be that's what I want to strive for. So as much as I can possibly like the the easier part for me is like breaking away from especially with work if I'm frustrated with something at at the office I am very clear on what is in my scope of control and what is not within my scope of control. When I've handled everything that's in my scope I'm I'm good come what may like it's okay like I'm just not gonna stress about it.

SPEAKER_06 28:08

I refuse so might I offer you one different perspective a little bit that may serve you in the future even more than balance look for harmony because balance implies equality harmony is equity okay harmony says this maybe deserves a little bit more of me right now but I'm gonna give this enough to be satisfied until I can come back yeah yeah I love that harmony balance will have you could potentially have you feeling like you're failing okay you're not as good at this as you are at this that's not realistic.

SPEAKER_04 28:57

I love the word harmony I'm gonna write that down on one of my post-it notes and just kind of ponder that as one of the principles of my it hello is harmony and balance right so it's it's all of understanding all the all of those principles and how they they work and for me one of my highest principles is order right so you have harmony you have balance but there's an order to things yes man and so listen let me tell you something when I was growing up one of the things that my parents used to say all the time especially when I was being chastised is you you too out of order I ain't know what that meant but now that I'm older I know what it means and I can feel when my body is out of order right it's uh we have to pay attention to those cues your body is telling you all the time hey you out of order get you some balance get you some harmony all of it okay all of it some truth some divine wisdom get it all hey yeah yeah I love it so um Kim I want to talk about Ascend optimization a bit so I'm really excited about the work that you are doing I see you moving and shaking and all of the things you recently um presented at a uh business meetup I think you have been working with a um some some founders and sharing that on social so I'm very excited to learn more um you help founders get everything that's living inside their heads into systems their teams can actually use and basically um removing the bottleneck so how often do you see women trying to carry entire businesses on their backs all the time but they pose the question to you do you have any of your processes documented so if someone came in and they could pick up right where you left off no I'm trying to document this is not like to like dig at you this is just a point I mean I'm doing it now but before I didn't have that either no I just honestly I'm like I in a lot of ways I'm flying by the seat of my coattails we know what we know yeah and who else knows what they know other than women specifically women that look like us we know what we know the problem is only we know it puts that takes away from what is the ultimate why behind everything I do pick a business pick a pick a venture the why is always autonomy always and to see women launching these offers and giving out these services and doing so in a way that puts more pressure on them disturbs me especially because I've been exposed to the other side where the women that don't look like us operate in a totally different way.

SPEAKER_06 32:00

Talk to us about that talk to us about that like what are the images you're seeing I know some of that girl it's a real thing uh just outside of even the processes and the systems and the the funnels and the everything is sharp everything is sharp okay okay delivery is sharp the materials are sharp you're always getting more value for your money okay and unfortunately and I'm a person who has invested in quite a bit of business coaching personal growth and development and I've done it from both sides of the table and there is a stark difference that is disturbing even down to the being right and the the need for us to show up perfectly with this mask on that is not really presenting the truth and the essence of who we are that doesn't happen on the other side of the table. Right they don't have to do that they don't have to do that the thing is we don't either but we have put ourselves in these boxes we have hold ourselves into this way of showing up and excellence needs to be restored.

SPEAKER_04 33:18

And I just it it's a very um necessary thing to uh put yourself in a position to build a business that could be sold one day from the beginning from the beginning right you're making me think honestly because it's it's something that when I'm doing the moving through editing or whatever I'm doing for either coaching or podcasting um every time I get to like sit down in front of my computer I think to myself in the back of my mind I need to like have a workflow for this or I need to have some sort of um funnel because I find myself even with cold calling people for the podcast it's like we're manually going and doing each aspect of it you know so and I'm like between myself and Eldris were like did you respond to such and such or did you set up the dah dah dah da and it is it can be labor intensive and those are the things that like the meat of it the enjoyable part of the business is what ideally women like like us want to be focused on and what you're talking about with ascent optimization is making it so that we have the tools to be able to do that and focus the bulk of our energy yeah yeah yeah and that's the thing and that's where I come in right because most people most CEOs are meant to be in their genius.

SPEAKER_06 34:43

Yes not your job to operate the business it's your job to bring in business to cast the vision of the business to bring in revenue it's not your job to be operating the back ends of things and pushing buttons and making this work and that work most things can be automated most things can be seamlessly integrated and most things can be delegated to somebody else so that you can stay in your genius. That is what the deal is right though. Stay in your episode in your genius honey so for you jasmine what I would say is okay you should probably start documenting your editing process if that is the most labor intensive process start documenting that process so that you can hire a VA to do all your editing and now all you have to do is give them this give them the answer they don't have to ask you any questions but if they do have to ask you any questions they're not texting you you have a project management or some sort of communication system set up so that they can reach you without bothering you.

SPEAKER_04 35:58

Yeah those things matter come on Kim I this is music to my ears this is music to my ears the more that I'm like reaching out to folks and we're Eldris and I are talking with folks um about coming on the podcast the more we realize that there are so many women starting their own ventures whether it's coaching whether it's community building whether you know it's like uh I don't know estheticians everyone is starting their own stuff and I imagine that a lot of us are feeling this this being outside the zone of genius being outside the zone of purpose in this season and feeling like the button pressing is a lot like I think I was telling um elders the other day like I after about four or five hours on a computer my body is like after about four or five hours on a computer my body begins to reject that I can't do it. I don't want to necessarily be because it's like a lot of tedious like it's a lot of button pressing it's a lot of like cut drag this what's the hex code for this you know is this it has to meet the measurements of this what's the resolution of this and typing up the script and you know it's the part that I like doing is the part you just want to do the podcast man I just want to talk to women like it's too much I mean I don't know I do a lot of button pressing at work as well so like outside of like podcasting so it can just a real thing and but see that's the way my brain works being an engineer and having an engineering degree engineers are weird first of all let's be clear we're a weird bunch of people and our brains think differently because we have to start with the end in mind we have to take into consideration factors of safety we have to know this variable even though there is no numerical value assigned to it yet we have to know these things right and so it makes the way you think I'm a systematic thinker.

SPEAKER_06 38:21

Okay it's not just about oh I know how to do this I am a systematic thinker. So another thing that women come from to me for is clarity because they have a lot of things in their mind but they're not quite sure how to bring it to fruition in a way that makes sense for them and their customer in a way that makes sense for them are so important.

SPEAKER_03 38:47

Yeah and the customer so that the customer journey is the same every time you want to be able to duplicate yourself you want to be significant to the operational side of your business for the most part yeah I love that you're making me think elders I don't know if you are thinking but I'm I'm I'm thinking it's um because one of the things that as I'm thinking about um we have a book and we're gonna do a podcast on that um my husband and I uh my partner um we have a book called Strengths of the Black Family and we've been thinking about how it's a workbook actually and our goal is to actually to promote um black families using it so I'm just been thinking about hmm how do we optimize right um is because well I will say that we used to do training and we we our thing is we don't want to train anymore because you can only train a few we want to get the tool in the hands and have people do the do their own work.

SPEAKER_06 39:57

And so I'm thinking as you were um uh sharing hmm what might that look like for our business right well that's why I said I wanted to talk to you afterwards Jasmine but we can also talk and we can do this together and I can tell you what I'm working on because I had to sit back with the feedback that I got from uh presenting my business. So it wasn't about presenting to get clients it was literally presenting for other entrepreneurs to give you feedback. Yes and ask you clarifying questions and say things that maybe you haven't thought about yet and offer you resources to help you move your business along the most valuable feedback I got was as I'm working to figure out my ideal client one lady in the audience was like I would buy this right now but you told me I'm not your client because of the way that I worded who I was wanting to work with she didn't fit in that category. And the woman who I my my main longest consistent client um when we first started working together she had just transitioned into full-time entrepreneurship. Now she's doing 15 17 2000 a month okay so but so I'm saying that to say the the feedback that she gave me is like yes I would love to work with multiple six figure business owner women but maybe my my ministry is to help women get to that okay okay to help the women who are zero 10 2000 3000 put foundational things in place now so that when they get to six figures it's not gonna break the same way somebody who just raced to six figures did.

SPEAKER_04 41:48

You know that's contrary to what people say I I know you've probably heard this before is like you need to have a niche you need the niche down like I I and I don't know um Elders I'm not sure if you know what I mean by that but like they they always say like when you're starting your at least when you're starting your business like be as specific as possible like know your audience and also even when you're talking on like social media and marketing it like be specific about your audience. So it's it's nice to hear you say that there are consumers people who would be potential customers that are actually like no like I'm still interested you know what I mean and so I actually asked about that.

SPEAKER_06 42:30

That was my question do I niche down right and one of the mentors uh said niching down doesn't necessarily have to be by industry it could also be niching down to just offering one thing.

SPEAKER_02 42:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 42:43

That's really the thing that gets entrepreneurs to six figures is finding the one offer that you do exceptionally well. Yeah yeah so the one offer like yes I'm doing independent projects one off projects here like I have a project working um with uh black owned Pilates studio owner in Landover in in uh Lanham amazing and y'all in Maryland right yes yes so it's in Atlanta Maryland so we're doing some SOPs and like uh streamlining her training program for her instructors so what I'm that's like a one-off project but the one thing that I want to niche down with is a six week implementation program for entrepreneurs like you guys right who have these buttons in the back I don't know how to set these buttons up I don't know what to do how do I make this talk I want to acquire people for my podcast I need them to do this then I need them to take a form then I need them to schedule a call like we are gonna be doing the thing in those six weeks it's yes there will be info informative videos to show you how to do the thing but We're gonna be doing the thing.

SPEAKER_03 44:02

So the work gets done.

SPEAKER_06 44:04

The work is done at the end. So I did a four-week boot camp, not too maybe at the end of last year. No, yeah, maybe like the end of last year. No, early this year, four weeks. One woman had nothing but an idea. By the end of that, she had hosted her first sound healing event and it was sold out. And they paid for it. She had a calendar. They did intake forms, all of that in four weeks. And she did it herself with the guidance of me beside her, right? And so this is what I want to hone in on. This is where I'm niching down, Jasmine. Is this the one offer that I want to take to six?

SPEAKER_04 44:47

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 44:50

If you want to, I've created books. I'm creating a book right now. I've created my own coloring book. Uh, I know how to get it on the website, it's marketing, it's all things in there. If the book is not created, I can show you how to make the book. If you and your husband wanted to partner, wanted to be in the in the implementation, I would do half all for one of you. Like we will make it work. You know what I mean? Uh, I'm I'm locked in. I I this is important to me because I believe that this is the thing that lets you heal is you make some money. So you can tell people to piss off, or you can tell anybody to piss off because you have the freedom to do what you need to do to take care of yourself. That's it.

SPEAKER_03 45:44

Wow, now that's something.

SPEAKER_04 45:46

Yeah, well, Kim, I definitely I definitely want to learn more. Um, I definitely want to, yeah. I want, I definitely want to learn more. And Eldris, yeah, because that book I've been telling them, not for nothing, but Juneteenth came and went. I was like, why don't y'all reach out to some of the news stations and um pitch the book to the news stations while they're doing these features during Juneteenth? Emancipation Month, you know, strength of the Black Family, why don't you pitch that? Even us, we were saying, like, why don't we pitch for Mother's Day to one of these news stations to get, you know, so just like we just it's just there's so many things that we want to do.

SPEAKER_06 46:23

So I have a connection that I don't know her prices, but if you can want to get on the news, I can put you in touch with somebody that can get you on the news.

SPEAKER_04 46:31

Yes, we could get that's I'm saying, mommy. Like, I'm seeing all these people on the news, like, why not us?

SPEAKER_06 46:37

I randomly ended up on the news. I just randomly asked my boyfriend. Told me to ask, and it happened, and I ended up on the news. I saw the news. You can get on the news, guys. We're gonna do it all, okay? We're gonna do it all, and I want to start July the 14th, somewhere in that time frame. So but yes, talk after this and I will give you all the information. All right, because we need to we need to be free, and we need to we need to use our genius, right? Because that is healing too. Yeah, a lot of women don't get to live in their genius, they live in their uh servitude, right?

SPEAKER_03 47:17

And I think that there's a lot of um there's uh a mindset that is um that our genius is not uh workable or profitable, right? Nobody wants it, right? Yeah, they say, oh, you know, you might be good at this, but don't nobody want that, right? And sometimes it's that our you know what we tell ourselves, and sometimes it's what other people are telling us that we need to get rid of them, people who are telling us that, right? But it if when it's when it's the thing, you feel it, it's a whole different energy that you get from being in that particular moment when you're present in that moment in that thing that gives you pleasure. There's nothing like it, nothing like that part, yeah. That part.

SPEAKER_06 48:06

You see how I'm lit up talking about this right now? Like, let's go into it. Tell me what your client journey is. I need to know now. Like all of us, all of us, honestly.

SPEAKER_04 48:19

So we are going to wrap up with a what we like to call a lightning round. So we do this, we're working this in as a segment of the podcast. So um, and you gave me some very great um material to do our lightning round with. Um, I've just been watching and observing. You have several guiding principles that are shaping this season for you. We'll say the principle and you'll tell us what it means. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 48:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 48:47

If it's not a hell yes, it's a hell no.

SPEAKER_06 48:50

Ooh, that means that if any part of my body, right? Because in this season, embodiment is important. And embodiment does not mean I am showing up some type of way. Embodiment means I am literally able to be in my body and recognize the responses that are coming as a result of stimuli that are happening around me.

SPEAKER_03 49:16

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 49:17

If my body is not a full-bodied yes, chances are I should probably say no.

SPEAKER_02 49:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 49:27

Because I do not want to give any take from me to give to anybody. At this season, it's got to come from my overflow, or you can't have it.

SPEAKER_03 49:36

Yes. I know that's right. Yeah, I got real excited about that. I love that word overflow. Because I need I need all of this for me. Come on, I can give you that. All of this right here, I need for me. I need it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 49:50

Yes. Next one, Kim. Build your business around your life, not the other way around.

SPEAKER_06 49:56

Autonomy. That's what that means. That means freedom. That means we're not doing anything to put ourselves in a cage, we're building things to give ourselves more freedom. Anything else is unacceptable. Anything else is uh perpetuating the patriarchy.

SPEAKER_03 50:14

We're not doing that, not anymore.

SPEAKER_04 50:17

No, no more pandering or kissing ASS.

SPEAKER_06 50:22

Hey, listen, I ain't never did that. And if anybody's doing it, I encourage you to not. Um, because the minute that you're kissing their ass to please yourself, the moment they take that ass away, you have no more pleasure left. I cannot live off of your applause because your booze are going to kill me. No, I don't know. Validation or your permission. I am the validation, I am the permission flip.

SPEAKER_04 50:56

Um, this is my season of audacity.

SPEAKER_06 51:00

The audacity specifically of an underqualified, overconfident, white man. That is the season I'm in.

SPEAKER_02 51:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 51:10

You're gonna have to tell me no. And if you tell me no, that just means right now there are so many underqualified, overconfident people out here doing things because they have the audacity to do it, not because they have the the skill, the talent, the wherewithal, any of that. They just have audacity, and I need more of that. We all need a little bit more of that, especially us, because they don't want to do nothing but tear us down. Hello, we are going to do nothing but rise.

SPEAKER_02 51:45

That's right.

SPEAKER_06 51:46

Audacity, underqualified, overconfident white man. I'm walking in every room just like that.

SPEAKER_04 51:53

I love it. Yes, and much success, much success. And we like to end by asking our guests. Um, first of all, our motto is life comes at you fast. And to that, we say, bloom anyway. So, Kimberly, what does bloom any anyway mean to you today?

SPEAKER_06 52:14

I would take that all the way back around to the very beginning of this episode. Is that keep healing, but keep living anyway. Heal and live anyway. Things are gonna come, live anyway. Stuff is gonna hurt, live anyway.

SPEAKER_03 52:35

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 52:37

Bloom anyway, live anyway, keep healing, live anyway.

SPEAKER_03 52:43

I see, I'll say.

SPEAKER_04 52:45

Kim, where can people connect with you? Is there anything that's coming up on the horizon for you? Where can people learn more about the work that you do?

SPEAKER_06 52:53

So you can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube. It's all at Kimberly Whitman, W-H-I-T-M-O-N, like the candy, but with a O. And you can go to www.ascendoptimization.com and check out my website. And we're moving into a new way of operating, right? We're no longer, we're not pushing buttons for the hell of it. We are moving into a new operating system, and that is called the Ascend Operating System, which is the six-week uh implementation build-out guided uh help for me one-on-one. If you want to upgrade, there's an option for that. Uh it's a six-week intensive container for implementation and execution, starting in July, and we're going on from there.

SPEAKER_03 53:47

All right. Implementation and execution. I love it.

SPEAKER_06 53:50

I love it. Me too, me too. Does something to my loins executing?

SPEAKER_03 53:57

I'll say that again because she got up and walked away when I said that. So I said implementation and execution. I love it.

SPEAKER_04 54:04

Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 54:05

So when you're putting stuff.

SPEAKER_04 54:07

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so so much for being receptive and open to joining us and for just being a light. You shed such light on things that we've been thinking about and not necessarily thinking about directly. So you kind of like kind of at least for me, I can say that helped me kind of really look at um begin to look at the way that we are doing things and being more systematic and more strategic. So, and I'm sure that that is what our listeners will take from this episode. And with that, thank you and see y'all next week. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_03 54:53

Thank you so much, Kim. Wonderful to have met you, and I'm sure we will be talking soon. Perfect, thank you.