E92: Are You Building Your Business Alone? Here are actionable steps to build community

Entrepreneurship can feel isolating, but it doesn’t have to be. In this episode of The Positive Voice podcast, I’m diving deep into why community will make or break you as a business owner. If you think you can do it all alone, I promise—it’s going to take you much longer to reach your goals.

I share my personal experiences spending time with two incredible groups of women this past weekend and how those interactions reminded me of the power of having the right people in your corner. Whether you’re struggling to find your tribe, hesitant to trust others, or stuck in a silo, this episode will help you understand why community is your secret weapon for success.

SHOW NOTES: https://coachchefkim.com/power-of-community/

🔗 Join Kitchen Table Dreams Community now: https://teachmehowtobake.com/kitchen-table

📢 NEW FREE COURSE ALERT!
🚀 Introduction to Creative Entrepreneurship for Culinary Professionals 🚀
This 10-part video series is designed to help food entrepreneurs build sustainable businesses with ease and intention.

👉 Watch the full series on YouTube OR get the deeper work with exclusive worksheets & community support inside the course!

💬 Let’s talk! Drop a comment below—what’s been your biggest struggle in finding a supportive entrepreneurial community? 👇

#BusinessSuccess #KitchenTableDreams #CulinaryEntrepreneur #CommunityMatters #BeyondTheHustle #CoachChefKim Keywords

#entrepreneurship #community #support #culinaryindustry #trust #vulnerability  #creativeentrepreneurship #womeninbusiness #networking

Chapters

• 0:00 The Importance of Community in Entrepreneurship
• 5:00 Building Trust and Vulnerability in Relationships
• 6:53 Creating a Supportive Culinary Community
• 9:14 Introduction to Creative Entrepreneurship

Transcript

Kimberly Houston (00:01.154)
Have you ever felt like you're doing this entrepreneurship thing alone? If the answer to that question is yes, this is going to be the episode for you. I am Coach Chef Kim and you are listening to the Positive Voice podcast. I wanted to dig into this today because I had the opportunity to spend some time with a community, two different communities of women over the past couple of days. And as I was

having time with these ladies, it just kind of hit me how as entrepreneurs, a lot of times we are stuck in our silo. We are stuck being by ourselves and we're running these businesses and we are lacking in community. And one of the things I want you to know is that your community will make a break you.

Right. If you think you can be bad all by yourself and do it all by yourself, I can 100 % assure you that it's going to take you a lot longer to reach your intended destination than if you were in a community of like minded individuals who support all the things that you are doing and want to be there for you and want to cheer you on along the way. Right. So if we just think about motivation and we think about how the kid who

who has family and friends cheering for them on the sideline, ultimately is going to do better. They're going to feel like they have more support than the kid whose family never shows up for them right. And I was that parent. I was a parent who was at everything, everything my kids wanted to do. I was there. And I was the stand-in parent for many children whose parents could not be there due to whatever reason. And those kids have thanked me.

They thanked me as children. And then they came back around and thanked me as adults for being there and for being the light in what were some dark times for a lot of these young people. And that doesn't change because we grow up, right? Like that doesn't change because we became adults. As a matter of fact, we probably need that community more as adults than we did as children. And one of the things I want us to realize is that

Kimberly Houston (02:23.476)
If you struggle with the idea of community, you struggle with the idea of having a tribe of people you can call on, I would ask you to evaluate where that comes from. My guess is that you've been hurt. My guess is that you don't trust people. My guess is that not only do you not trust others, you don't trust yourself. When we cannot trust our own discernment,

when it comes to relationships, friendships, community, we can't trust ourselves to make good decisions about the people that we have around us. Then we just default into this, I can do it by myself type of situation. And that's not how we're built. That's just not how we're built. And I know that that might be difficult for some people to understand. I promise you that me a couple of years ago would turn this podcast off.

and would not be listening to this. And what I don't want is for it to take you the ways in which I had to go through in order to learn the differences in what community could look like for me when I was able to trust the weight of what I was carrying with other people.

in addition to being able to just trust myself and trust my intuition and trust that I was going to surround myself with the people I needed to surround myself, right? And so this conversation is going to help you with community, it's gonna help you with your tribe, it's gonna help you understand that, you know, success isn't just about what you know, it's also about who is in your corner when you're doing certain things.

One of the relationships, well, one of the circumstances I found myself in over the weekend was I went and spent some time with one of my very best friends, a big sister to me in many ways. She was the maid of honor in my wedding. I went and spent some time with her and it was so good to be able to speak freely.

Kimberly Houston (04:41.324)
To be able to have conversation with someone and not feel like I needed to hide any pieces of myself is so freeing. It's such a freeing thing to do, right? Like, yeah, we have, you know, siblings and friends and parents and spouses, but there is something about having someone in your corner that will allow you to be very vulnerable, very open. They don't think you're weird.

They don't think that the things that are coming out of your mouth are strange. It was incredible to be in community with someone who gets where I am in life and in business. And then the next day, I want to spend some time with like-minded, high-achieving entrepreneurial women within the culinary industry here in the Atlanta area and once again reinforces the power of community, right? People were able to bring their

problems, issues to the table and leave with some solid results, leave with some next steps. And without community, you will sit in your silo when you will suffer. And so what I want is for there to be more community. My heart, my background, my passion is in entrepreneurs within the culinary industry. Many of you guys know that. That's the name coach Chef Kim.

I am a chef, right? And so I understand that that is a community that is fast paced, it is high energy and a lot of competition. I don't know that there's a whole lot of community that happens. And so I've been working on what do we do with that, right? Like, how do we settle that in our spirit? And so I've created an online community.

If you've listened to this podcast before, you know that at one point I was promoting the shift. Well, the shift has shifted into Kitchen Table Dreams community. I will be really honest with you. It felt like I was just screaming to the wind, right? Like, this is available to you. Come join us. And it just felt like I was trying to gather everybody instead of trying to gather my people. And so

Kimberly Houston (07:05.87)
after spending time physically in community with people who get me, with people who are walking this walk with me, I was like, well, that's what I need to be doing online as well. And so the shift has shifted and it has now become kitchen table dreams. It is a space for culinary entrepreneurs. It is a space for sweet, savory treat makers.

chefs, pastry chefs, culinary chefs, the whole nine. you work within food influencers, if you work within food, this is a space for you. It's a space for us to gather. It's a space for us to have conversation about the things we need to have conversation about. It is a space for you to come and get ideas, to get support, help.

to find people who live near you if you want to have some meetups and do some in-person things, right? I have the infrastructure built to support that. And so that is in the show notes. And so the invitation is there. The invitation is there for those who would like to come and join us over in kitchen table dreams. The other thing that I wanted to announce before we really dig into my three points on this video,

is that I have launched a new course. It is a 10-part video series. You can see this in two different places. One, you can just go to my YouTube channel. You can go to Coach Chef Kim on YouTube and you will see the 10-part series there. If you want deeper work and you want to be a part of community and you want the worksheets and things that I am suggesting throughout the course, then you can come and join us.

inside of the course where I took those 10 videos and put them inside of a course on my platform. And that course is called Introduction to Creative Entrepreneurship for Culinary Professionals. That sounds like a whole lot, but at base level, it is simply, I want to take your kitchen table dreams beyond the hustle.

Kimberly Houston (09:21.122)
So whatever your dreams were, whatever you used to think about when you sat at the kitchen table at grandma's house or at your mama's house, whatever those dreams were, I want you to be able to have those dreams but without the hustle. And so that is what that 10 part series is all about. I will also link that down in the show notes. So please make sure you come check it out. The course is free. And for those of you who want to work with me on a deeper level, those opportunities are also available. So let us move into this conversation.