E115: Step Into Your Power as a Creative Entrepreneur

You don’t need another blog post telling you to “just believe in yourself.”
You need a match. A mirror. A wake-up call.

So let me ask you something:

What if the very thing you’re afraid to say yes to… is the very thing that sets you free?

If you’ve been sitting on an idea, a shift, or a season you know is calling you—this is your sign.

If you're a dreamer with a business on your heart and a calling that won’t let you go, this conversation is for you.

🔗 Ready to plan your next move? Apply to work with Kimberly here: https://kimberlyihouston.com

🎧 Listen, share, and subscribe for weekly alignment, strategy, and belief-building content.

Chapters

• 3:23 The Power of Belief in Coaching
• 6:05 Enhancing Customer Experience
• 8:34 Planning for Q4 and Beyond
• 11:28 The Importance of Community in Entrepreneurship
• 14:29 Investing in Yourself for Long-Term Success
• 16:47 Dreaming Bigger and Overcoming Doubts
• 19:27 The Role of Creatives in Society

Transcript

Kimberly Houston (00:00.898)
Hey, hey, and welcome back to the kitchen table. I am Coach Chef Kimberly Houston. And for those of you who've been listening to the podcast for a while, thank you so much for rocking with me this summer and participating in the recipe series. But I'm here to tell you that we are moving on from our recipes for success series. And I want to have a conversation with you all that I realized was coming up in coaching quite a bit this summer. So as many of you all know, I just completed the Hello7

business coach certification. It was indeed a time. It was just like getting an MBA. I tell people that all the time. It was definitely one of the more educational, challenging, inspiring things that I've done in the last five years of reclamation of my life. And one of the things that was a reoccurring thing was that

Whenever I listen to people and then I give them strategy on what their next step is, the clarity that comes from it is mind blowing. It is earth shaking. It is life changing. And within, I'm going to say three to seven days, a lot of them less than that, people were having life altering experiences, life altering encounters. They were meeting people.

who just completely changed things for them. And when they would tell me what happened, they'd be like, can you believe it? My immediate answer was like, of course I can. Absolutely, I believe that. And I was talking to a friend of mine and the thing that stuck out to me was that she was telling me that my belief in other people seems to be a common denominator when people are having these encounters.

And that made me think about a couple of years ago when I decided I wanted to move into coaching. And that was a decision that happened while I was taking a 12 hour road trip back from Miami to Atlanta. And I was like, yeah, this phase of my life, it feels different. It feels like it's time to pour into others. And so I moved into coaching and I have not regretted.

Kimberly Houston (02:24.554)
anything about that whatsoever. And I can now feel that we are moving into yet another season of elevated coaching. I don't even know if that's gonna be the right word for it, but just a new season of elevation. And as we move into that, I wanted to do a conversation for entrepreneurs that will allow them to move through this political climate

through this economic climate, through the times that we are currently living in. I want you to be able to move through that with ease. I want you to be able to move through that with clarity. I want you to be able to move through that with steadfastness, groundedness, with just an opportunity to fully step into the fullness of who you are, okay? So,

This is just roll with me on this, right? As we currently sit in real season and we prepare for Virgo season. This is not an astrology podcast, but there is something I want you to understand that for the next two months, this energy is big. This energy is step into your power, right? And I don't know if you can feel the energetic exchange that's happening currently, but I most absolutely do.

I most certainly can feel the energetic exchange that is happening in the world, right? And so one of the things that I find interesting, I find as a point of, I wonder how I can use that in my life, is watching the Cowboy Carter tour, right? Watching how...

Every show Beyonce continued to do something different. She continued to elevate the experience every single time. And I think about that from the lens of a Virgo, right? We don't do many things that are not strategic. But as an entrepreneur, are you always seeking out ways to improve the customer experience?

Kimberly Houston (04:43.328)
Are you always seeking ways to improve the customer journey? If the answer to that is no, then I want to give you a couple of tips to help you do that. Number one, I want you to think about how do people encounter you? How do people encounter you online? What is your digital footprint? What does your digital presence look like? What is your house look like? When people find you online, what do they see? Do they see a well-put-together machine or do they see all your mess? What do people see?

If I land on your social media platforms, whether you're on them or not, do I know what you do? That's the first question. Do I know what you do? Can I easily figure it out? And is it easy for me to give you money? When people land on your website, can I easily figure out what it is that you do? Can I easily find your offer? And can I easily give you money? If the answer to those questions are no, then you have not thought about your customer journey or the customer experience. And I want you to start looking at the things that you're doing

the ways in which you are showing up. want you to forget about the algorithm for a second. I want you to forget about the vanity metrics and the numbers and the likes and the shares. And I want you to think about the customer experience when they meet you. What is happening? What are they seeing?

Do you have a fan base is my second question. Now, most people want lots and lots of followers, but I want fans. I want people who are going to sell my product for me. Beyonce did not have to sell us tickets to her concert. There were thousands of people selling the experience for her after they paid for it. The think pieces, the videos, the lives on TikTok.

That was all the marketing she needed. She didn't really have to market it, right? Other people were doing it for her. Do you have fans who are marketing your business for you? Do you have people who invest in your brand and your business and also tell other people about it? Not, are you paying an influencer to talk about you? Do you have fans? Beyonce has fans. People are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Kimberly Houston (06:57.282)
to go see this lady and then they go tell everybody they know. People are paying her and then still going and doing the marketing job for her. Do you have fans? If the answer to that question is no and you are wondering how do you get to that place, you are the brand, love. You are a part of it. People will buy from you. People buy from people.

And so then I ask, are you putting yourself out there? You don't have to tell us all your business, but do you, as the business owner, have a presence online? Do you, as the executive in charge, have a presence online? Do you, as the manager, have a personal brand? Do you have a personal brand that if I go Google your name, I'm going to find some things about you, right? I am the founder of Teach Me How to Bake. I own a baking education company. That is the company that I owned.

Right? I have books that I have published. But if you Google Coach Chef Kimberly Houston or you Google Chef Kimberly Houston or you Google Kimberly Houston, well, I have a website for that. There is a personal brand. You can learn about the woman behind the businesses. Right? Have you stepped into your power as an entrepreneur? That is my question for you. Now, as we are thinking about

using the energy of these next couple of weeks to really shape how we end this year, right? Like, how are we finishing Q3? And as we move into Q4, here's what I want you to think about. Do you know what you're going to be promoting? Do you know what you're going to be promoting? I need y'all to understand something.

Kimberly Houston (08:45.93)
If you haven't thought about what your offer is for Q4 for the holidays, you need to do that immediately. You're behind Mark. You want to prove it? Pumpkin Spice is already in stores and it's July. Pumpkin Spice is already in stores. Hallmark has been showing Christmas movies all month long because it's Christmas in July, but they've also been promoting their live Christmas

Activations, right? Like they're actual places you can go to meet the Hallmark stars during Christmas. They're already running those. Hotels are already like, are you planning your holiday travel? Last November, we went on a trip. stayed at a resort and I've already received an email about being welcomed back this year and that the resort has a different attraction this year, right? Like those things are already out. People are already planning.

I'm actively planning our winter trip right now. If you as a business owner have not taken the time to decide what it is you are offering people and start talking about it, it's going to be too late for you to do that. It's going to be too late for you to do that. I need you to think about it now. All right.

When we move into the quarter that you are selling your product, you can't start talking about it in that time. You need to already have been talking about it to the point that other people are talking about it and they're selling their products for you. When we move into Q4, you need to be focused on what you're offering at the top of the year. Right? Like when we get to October, that's not the time that you're talking about what your holiday menu is going to be, what your holiday offerings are going to be.

Those things should already be up, running, all the campaigns are rolling, all your emails are already completed, and we're moving on to January. That those last 12 weeks are already scheduled, they're already planned, they're already going out, and we are focusing on January, right? And if you're an entrepreneur who is like, CCK, that's too much. How am I going to do that? I'm just one person. Here's what I want to tell you.

Kimberly Houston (10:57.582)
Being an entrepreneur does not mean you need to work in a silo. It doesn't mean you need to work by yourself. One of the things that has gotten me to the point that I'm at is community.

I value and cherish community in ways I can't even explain, right? There is a value, there is a goodness in being in community. And I have had an opportunity for people to join me in community for the last five years. It's just a thing that's been happening. And this year it looks a little different.

This year, I made the decision to instead of offering a new service offering in Q3, I'm not. There is no service offering with me right now, not for Q3. You can work with me in Q4 though. And working with me in Q4 is going to put you in community with like-minded, culinary, and creative entrepreneurs who want to get systems in their business for 2025.

who understand that there's no way we can budget our way to success in this economy. We must simply make more money. And the only way we're gonna make more money is by showing up as business owners and not hobbyists. The only way we are going to be able to take back control of our lives and be able to dream freely again.

to dream about not just being able to pay our bills, but to be able to live our lives in abundance. The only way we're going to be able to do that is through planning. It is through strategy. It is through, yes, raising your prices, but also understanding the customer experience, also taking into account the customer journey, also understanding your KPIs, digging into data, making data-informed decisions, not...

Kimberly Houston (12:50.498)
just emotion-based decisions, understanding when you can and cannot trust yourself, knowing when intuition versus ego is showing up in the decision-making process. Those are things that entrepreneurs learn and develop over time. Those are things that I have studied in school. I studied emotional intelligence.

I've studied positive intelligence. I've studied the psychology of selling. I've studied the psychology of entrepreneurship. I understand childhood trauma. I know how that shows up in your day-to-day operations as an entrepreneur. You don't want to put systems in your business, but you want to make money. You don't want to make money if you don't want to put systems in your business, right? And so it's the contradiction of how we feel versus...

the idea and settling on the reality that there are so many things we must do as the CEO, as the person who has the vision. There are things that you must do in order for the universe to be able to bring you the people you need to help execute. I'm not going to give you, there's no way I would make a recommendation for someone. And I know that your house is not in order. I may love you, I may like you, but I'm never going to make a recommendation.

not a personal recommendation when I know your house is not in order.

And I don't think we think about that as entrepreneurs. And so I decided, you know what, all of Q4, I'm going to spend my time pouring into entrepreneurs who are sick of their own shit and really, really want to take control of their personal, their professional and their purpose-filled lives in 2025. And that's what we'll be doing the last 12 weeks of this year.

Kimberly Houston (14:44.974)
So much so to the point that there are multiple ways for you to be able to afford the payment, right? Something that I went through in 2025 was the understanding that there is a difference between affordability and accessibility. Everything doesn't have to be affordable, but things can be accessible.

right? There are high ticket offers that may or may not give you the result that you want. There are low ticket offers that may or may not give you the result that you want. The thing that I know and understand is that it's not really about the cost. It's about the return on the investment.

after coaching.

20 to 25 entrepreneurs in the span of eight weeks this summer.

They were not charged to work with me. And every 100 % of the people that I had a conversation with this summer.

Kimberly Houston (16:03.566)
have had a return on a one hour conversation that will carry them through the rest of the year. And I'm not saying that to brag, I'm saying that to help you understand that when you think about investing in yourself, you have to weigh momentary discomfort.

with a lifelong game. The discomfort for me was knowing that I needed to get 20 hours in of coaching. I'm not uncomfortable coaching people, but the discomfort came because I wasn't charging for it, right? That was discomfort. That was not a comfortable moment for me. But the return on that was over 20 people.

have messaged me, emailed me, texted me, called me to let me know how drastically things changed after our conversation. When you cannot stand in the gap for yourself, you must align yourself with someone who can. And I have the belief that my belief in you and your business will outweigh your disbelief in yourself.

I have a very unique ability to help people see themselves differently, to see life differently. And it's always been this way. When I was a child, the teacher said I was imaginative, that I was a dreamer. As an adult, I've learned that those things that people did not like about me are the same things

that are setting multiple people free. It is releasing the shackles of what the patriarchy told us we could and could not have because my question is always going to be, what if it works? When you tell me that whatever your heart's desire is might not work, the question I raise is, what happens when it does?

Kimberly Houston (18:25.218)
Have you given yourself the time, the space, or the permission to think about what if it does work out?

I am not a person who is going to sit and think about the worst case scenario. Not anymore. I'm reformed. I no longer think about the worst case scenario in order to be prepared. Now I think about the best case scenario. My mantra for this season is show me how good it can get. And I have been surprised time after time after time again.

in learning and understanding that even though I'm very imaginative and even though I have big dreams and even though I can put a spark in somebody else and I'm a fire starter, I know that I can light that spark and start that fire in other people, I'm always surprised at how good it gets. There has yet to be a time where I am not surprised. I'm always looking for the good. I'm always chasing joy. I'm intentionally

living my life in a way that allows me to see the good, that allows me to see the joy, that allows me to be like, oh my God, it's raining outside. But if I walk outside, it's beautiful. There's a rainbow that's coming. Even if I'm caught in the rain, I don't have to run and try and shield myself. can stand in the literal miracle that there is a water falling out of the sky and that that is refreshing, right? Like I'm that person.

I'm not a tree hugger, but I'm a girl that fully understands the beauty, the joy, the fullness thereof in life, right? Like I get it, but I'm still surprised pleasantly so often by how the universe continues to reward me in ways that I didn't even know.

Kimberly Houston (20:38.028)
my closest friends and I keep saying it over and over again, is that I've got a dream bigger. The dreams that I have for myself are not big enough, right? And particularly when I'm holding space for all these other entrepreneurs. And I'm like, y'all got a dream bigger. If you can tell me your issue and I can literally turn around and give you a 10 step program to make it happen.

Baby, you not dreaming big enough, right? Like if it doesn't give me pause where we're talking and we're having a conversation. I know when I'm talking to one of my good friends, Raelyn. Raelyn, she can see it when it happens, when we're having a conversation. There's this moment when you're talking to me and if I stop talking, if I start looking off, if I look like up towards the sky,

while you're talking, she immediately grabs a pen and a paper. And I think it is the funniest thing now that I've caught on to this is that she's like, uh-uh, what is it? And there's just word vomit. And I'm just like, well, what if it's this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, breath, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, whatever it is that you say to me, there's nothing I think is crazy. There's nothing that I think won't happen because the reality is that

everything that I've done in my life up to this point, being the founder of Teach Me How to Bake, creating curriculum for children, speaking on stages, my name being in rooms I would have never, first of all, I didn't even know existed, becoming a member of an incredibly elite society of women chefs who are informing and influencing the next generation of culinary chefs that are coming up behind us, culinary entrepreneurs coming up behind us.

Being in these rooms and in these spaces, there is no way I could have ever imagined that this is what this time in my life would look like, right? And I have a very incredible opportunity to lend my belief, my love, my passion, my joy to other entrepreneurs and then I get to watch them blown.

Kimberly Houston (23:00.396)
And then I get to watch him go tell somebody else, right? Like I've literally, there's not one person that can tell you that I've said something to them and it didn't work. That's just not how this works for me. And once I accepted that that was my place in life, that that was my calling, then I knew that the disservice wasn't me keeping my mouth shut. I knew that the disservice would be me not showing up continuously.

All of that to say this very simply.

As a creative, as an entrepreneur, as a dreamer, as someone who knows that there's something you're supposed to be doing that is going to change the lives of a couple of people, hundreds of people, thousands of people, generations of people.

Kimberly Houston (24:05.708)
The disservice.

Is you not doing it?

The disservice is your disobedience. There is someone attached to your yes.

I show up and do this podcast week after week after week and I watch the numbers. I can see it. I know that the numbers have gone down, but even if the numbers have gone down, there are still people who are listening. There are still new people who are just learning that I exist. There are hundreds of people that are learning that I exist over a 90 day period this summer. And if I don't continue to show up, like there are

thousands of people listening to me all the time, then the one who needs to hear me today won't.

Kimberly Houston (24:58.594)
Being disobedient to the call that the universe has placed on my life means that the person attached to my yes stays in bondage until I show up in the way that I need to. If there is an idea, a product, a system that is sitting on your heart that you're trying to figure out, how am I going to get this to the people? I don't know how I'm going to work through my own ish to get it to the people who need it.

I want to invite you to come hang out with me in Q4. I want to invite, not even hang out, I want you to invest in yourself to know and understand that you are going to get out of coaching what you put in it. That if you show up in the fullness of who you are, not putting on airs, not trying to be who you think I want you to be, I want you to show up.

If you show up broken, that's okay. I got glue. That's okay. I got friends. We can mend you back together, right? I want you to be able to show up in the fullness of who you are. If the idea is in your head, if you can see it, if you can feel it, if you can smell it, if all the things about this thing, like if it won't let you go, can I tell you a secret or future version that you already has it and they're waiting on you to figure out how to get there?

There's a future version of you that's already made it over, under, and through to get to that place you're trying to get to. And if you're listening to this podcast and you know someone who needs to hear this, and I'm going to implore you to hit pause right now and send this to that person that needs to hear it because I have a belief deep down in my soul.

that there are people who are attached to the yes that I have given my life to that will help creative and culinary entrepreneurs change what this world looks like through the gifts, the talents, and the services that we provide.

Kimberly Houston (27:09.942)
Whenever there is a tragedy, people turn to the arts. You read, you watch TV, you watch movies, you binge watch Netflix. Whenever we try to escape, we turn to the artists, we turn to the creatives. I need you to understand it's our job to show up. It's our job to build thriving, beautiful businesses as creatives because we are the ones who save the world.

We are the ones who fill the gaps. We are the ones who meet the needs of the people. It's not by happenstance. That idea, that thought, that vision that you have that won't let you go, that you wake up in the middle of the night writing down new ideas about, it's not by happenstance that that's happening to you. It is indeed a blessing that's happening for you.

And if you're not quite at the point where you fully understand how to make this thing come to pass, then I want to invite you to visit kimberlyihuston.com. Click that work with me button. And let's see if we're a good fit. Let's see if my strategy and your creativity can change generational outcomes because that thing that won't let you go is fighting for its way to get out.

The magic that's inside of you shall not die with you. There's absolutely no reason that you're holding on to the genius that is you, the genius that is inside of you, the genius that everybody else that meets you can see, but you continue to deny its presence and its existence. There's no reason that we're going to continue to do that right now. Not in this timeline. We won't do that. It's time for you to step into your power.

It's time for you to become emboldened. It's time for you to say, I'm here. It's time. It doesn't matter if your family of origin supports it or not. It doesn't matter if the people in your life support it or not. If you think you can't do it by yourself, then come join a community of other people with the same amount of passion, with the same amount of fire. Come.

Kimberly Houston (29:32.68)
Join us and let's create beautiful things together. Until next time, stay sweet.