S6E8: Find Your Way with Dr. K

Episode 100!!!  Part of my can't believe we have been on this incredible journey together!  Join me as I share about the new adventure in my life - inspired by all of you!!!

Things mentioned in the podcast:  Ep 56: Approaching Sponsors

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Transcript

Hello, hello everyone, my wonderful podcast listeners. This is episode 100. That is insane. I'm literally almost… I've been preparing for this podcast and I'm literally almost crying. I cannot believe that we're at 100 episodes. 100 episodes altogether. I just can't even… can't even describe it. The fact that we're in over 49 countries, 1000s and 1000s of downloads in hundreds and hundreds of cities. I just, I can't believe that I'm here and that you're here and that we're on this journey together. I'm so excited. I'm interrupting our regularly scheduled programming. I have some really cool podcasts that are recorded about risk management, dealing with obnoxious and annoying vendors, some things with events and weather, I have some really cool things coming up that I really wanted….. If you've been listening to the podcast then you know that I've been wanting to talk about some life changes that are pretty awesome. And that it all started with you. This podcast and you all.

I have been advocating for change in the event industry for quite some time. And the podcast I started with doing lessons like intro to the industry type of lessons, and then it shifted into more storytelling, which is awesome. You always want to do storytelling on podcasts always. But it was maybe a little less of a formalized path for the podcast. Instead of saying point a, point b, point c, it was definitely lessons through stories of things that were happening in my life. Then we got back to some competencies. Then we got back to lessons learned through current trends and things in the industry. And there were some pretty impactful episodes on the podcast relevant to my life. There was one where I was talking about an entirely new sponsorship structure for events and I can re-link that in the podcast below, but I really kind of came out for this agency of choice for letting sponsors choose their benefits within levels and how to set those up and allocate those. And that particular episode kind of snowballed into some different cool opportunities and some different companies reaching out asking if I would help them do things. 

And then by way of my extension programming here at the university, I started doing this really cool webinar series, and we… it was geared towards students’ professionals at universities. Those advisors or student life professionals or anybody at a university that plans events for students, and it was how to connect with students throughout COVID, how to create engaging events, how to create engaging sessions, and some of those small clips are up on my YouTube page, which also led to my YouTube. 

And that kind of kind of snowballed into some really cool opportunities to speak and lead workshops and those opportunities to lead workshops actually led into kind of facilitation, where I was getting solicited to do strategic planning workshops, just facilitating the workshops having engaging icebreakers and introduction exercises that would get people excited and opened up for deep learning and engagement and relationships with others that were at the same session. And so I did a couple of those and then that kind of snowballed into doing more of those. You see a pattern here right? Just one thing, and then it continues to snowball. And I've had a lot of people reach out from the podcast, and from YouTube and from some of these different trainings that I've done and workshops that I've done that have just been asking for more detailed trainings, more customized trainings, more personalized trainings, then maybe the university would offer or that I would offer. So at first I was turning people away, almost saying, oh, it's not necessarily something that we do. It doesn't build capacity. That's more of a company consulting project, or it’s not really a train the trainer at the university, we have very specific things that we're doing. We're not an individual business consultant. And I kept hearing over and over and over again, that people wanted to pay me for the services which was really flattering and very humbling. And after turning away enough of them someone just kind of pulled me to the side, a close friend and mentor, and said, What are you doing? The university supports you in starting your own business on the side. Not a conflict of interest, using your skill sets staying relevant. You're not stealing people, the universities not doing, you’re not overlapping in your job at all. These are very specific things that people are willing to pay for, and why aren't you doing it? So I really kind of sat back and thought about that. I said Why am I not doing it? Is it time? Is it priorities, what does that look like? And I'm so thankful to have such a wonderful supportive employer here at the University of Nebraska, that it really supports you in doing the things you want to do and following in your dreams. 

So with that being said, in Las Vegas, I had my own business, and I was very thankful to have had that and to have grown that and to have done some really wonderful things with that. And now, a couple years later, five years six years, however long it's been, oh my goodness. Where has life gone. We'll talk about that in another episode. I am now officially official again. I have an LLC, I suppose. And within a week of even getting the official paperwork and getting all my tax stuff, I've already had people reaching out and saying that they heard I was doing this and wanted to support me and hire me and it's just really awesome. And I want to thank all of you so so much for following me on the journey and supporting me in the journey and finding the things that I had to say valuable and useful and sharing it with others because that's really what this is all about. 

So, in true fashion. I have let my students be involved in this whole process. Five of my students this semester decided that they wanted to start their own business. I helped a student two years ago, maybe, a student came to me and said, Dr. K, I really want to start a business, can you help me with this? And I said, sure we can do an independent study, I can keep you accountable, we can lay out a plan, we'll do all the things… we'll do our pricing analysis or cost analysis and marketing, whatever. And within a semester she started her own business. By the end of the semester, she was making hundreds of dollars in sales a week. She was doing a baked goods business. 

So I had a student come to me and say I heard you did this for this other student. I'm really interested in starting a business, will you help me? I said sure, absolutely. Well, then a friend told a friend who told a friend who told a friend and now I have five students who are starting completely different businesses. I have one that's doing restaurants. One that's doing a home flipping business, one that's doing event rentals, one that wants to do event design and planning and innovation on a third party, contract basis, and then I have one student who wants to do content creation, marketing and creative things. And it's just so fascinating. So I've been using them also to hold me accountable to doing my own business. They were my group think and my hive mind, and all of the wonderful things. So they helped me come up with my name. They helped me come up with my logo, and we've all been in this journey together, and I am so proud to say that officially as of this semester, all five of those incredible students…..We've been helping each other out along the way. I've been holding everyone accountable, including myself, and we now have five newly registered well six, including mine, newly registered businesses at the Nebraska Secretary of State. So, so wonderful. 

So my name of my new business is Find Your Way. I'm laughing because I know what comes next but you all don't so you're like why are you laughing? So my students came up with this tagline, which is also what led to my business name. It's so cute and I keep laughing. I need to calm down. So my students came up with this tagline of Find Your Way with Dr. K. Can we just take a second to think about how great that is? Find Your Way with Dr. K. And I'm currently in the process of a website and all of the incredible things. I have a business card that I need to order and it's just really cool. I hope that you can hear… you're like wow, she sounds so happy or giddy, or her eyes are sparkling. However I come across, but I gotta tell you I've not stopped smiling since the start of this episode, partially because it's true to everything that I live and breathe with students and student involvement. It's also helping them succeed, also showing them that we're in it together, that we're all on this crazy journey, and we're all figuring it out. 

The cool thing is that I had already done all of the foundational work for the Extraordinary Events Initiative. I had already sat down and spent hours and hours doing my vision, my mission, my values, writing my own purpose statement, my personal mission statement. I already have all these things. And the really, really cool thing, I was talking with the students about this, and the really, really cool thing is that outside of one word, my personal business doesn't actually change in terms of the mission. My personal mission bleeds through every single thing that I do, whether it's my job as a teacher, my job in extension or now these opportunities to be able to work more closely and more in depth with individuals and businesses and organizations. 

So my mission still remains that it's to educate, inspire and empower individuals who wish to design experiences that positively impact and transform each other and the world. And my vision for our industry and for the world is that every designed experience will lead to an internal transformation within each attendee. When I had done my personal purpose statement, personal purpose statement, a couple years ago it was actually to create, energize, inspire, and nurture an environment of growth; to challenge and unleash the unlimited potential for those around me while serving as a catalyst for positive change. If that doesn't lead itself to some… to some event coaching, business coaching, coach for coaches coaching, I don't know what does. I'm so excited to officially say that if you've wanted to work with me on a more individual basis on a more customizable basis,if you've been sending me messages or emails looking for more in depth advice, I am here. I am for it. I am owning it. I'm so so excited for all the opportunities that this will lead to. It's just think about the perfect trifecta. I have teaching where we can impact students - our next generation of leaders in the event industry. I have my extension work which is train the trainer's. I'm helping disseminate on a large scale there of foundational truth tips, tricks, all of those things that can be integrated. And then now I'll have the capability and ability to do one on one more customized personalized coaching specific to your area, your life, your business, your organization, and to tackle those problems that I wasn't able to do in my more extension train the trainer format. 

I'm so excited. And I hope that you all will follow me and support me on this journey as we're going forward. I'm still going to do the Extraordinary Events Podcast. Absolutely, definitely. You will see a lot more content and things coming from me in the very near future. Thank you all so much for helping me along this journey and for helping to shape my own life path. I hope that that has also been beneficial to you and yours. I always value your time so much. Thank you all so much for taking the time to make the time to share in my journey with me during this episode. Happy 100! Blow out a candle. Make A Wish. We're so excited to continue on this journey. Until then, I'll talk with you soon.