Episode #87:
Revenue Strategy for Female Entrepreneurs with Kadena Tate

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In this info-packed episode, Caterina is joined by author, speaker, and revenue strategist, Kadena Tate. The two discuss how women with an entrepreneurial spirit can get started on, or upgrade, their business endeavors. Caterina and Kadena also share the importance of giving back to the community, believing in yourself, and review Kadena’s nine pillars in a business model. Full of guiding principles for female entrepreneurs, this is an episode you won’t want to miss!

Kadena Tate is the author of “Cultivating Courage: The Path to Reclaiming Your Power” and contributing author of the NY Times Bestseller “Business Model You”, published by Wiley Press. In addition to writing books, Kadena also works as a revenue strategist and business model designer for authors, coaches and speakers who want to create movements, masterminds, and membership programs.

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Expand Your Fempire Podcast #87 Transcript

 

Revenue Strategy for Female Entrepreneurs with Kadena Tate

 

Welcome to Expand your Fempire with Caterina Rando, the podcast for women in business on a mission. Sharing ideas to support you to grow and thrive. Now here’s your host, Caterina Rando.

[00:00:00] Caterina Rando: This is Caterina Rando, and I am blissing to have today as my guest on the Expand Your Fempire Podcast, the amazing, talented, super smart Kadena Tate. Kadena is a business strategist. She is an uplifting woman. She helps coaches, speakers, and authors design their business models. Kadena I am so happy to have you here.

[00:00:57] Kadena Tate: I’m happy too, thank you.

[00:00:59] Caterina Rando: Kadena, I always like to start, find out a little bit about your background, find out a little bit about where you started on your entrepreneurial journey, and how you ended up where you are today. Take a moment and give us the report.

[00:01:14] Kadena Tate: So here’s what I would say to you, for I’ve known that I should be an entrepreneur since I was seven years old, but I took the traditional route, I took a job. And I worked in a job that I hated until I got to the point where I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. And I took the entrepreneurial leap. And then I had two failed businesses.

[00:01:34] And I realized that the reason that I had those failed businesses is because I wasn’t doing the thing that I really wanted to do. And I wasn’t doing the thing that I really wanted to do because I didn’t know how to make money doing it. So to make a long story, very short, I started writing around speaking. I was stepping over dollars to pick up dimes. I hired a coach and I realized that I love having conversations about business model design. And so what got me here, what I will say to you, is a lot of belief in self and hard work. And just coming into the realization that we all have a message to bring, it’s just a matter of how aligned are we with our own truth. So that’s where I am.

[00:02:16] Caterina Rando: I love it, Kadena. And your book is called Cultivating Courage. Now let’s talk about this because I’ve been doing my thing, like you my friend, a long time. And many women, they want to create what they want to create. Super talented, massive value to bring, good at so many things. They don’t have the courage to get their party started. How do we support our listeners to get their party started?

[00:02:47] Kadena Tate: This is what I realized. Roger Hamilton, he has this thing called the wealth profile. I took the wealth profile and I found out that I was a creator, star, mechanic. And then I started having all my clients take his wealth profile. Now I had done the Colby and you know all these other personality tests, right? But that particular wealth profile and what it does is it helps you to determine, there’s a million ways to make a million dollars, but what’s your way. Most people don’t have the courage because they’re trying to do what somebody else is doing. And then they start thinking “ehh, I don’t know how to do that”. And so they don’t honor their own integrity. And there’s all of this stuff also about being rejected. You know, a lot of people don’t know how to embrace criticism. And my thing is if you want to embrace the fame so to speak, and all of the accolades, you also have to be willing to embrace the negative part too. So my thing is don’t be attached to either of it and just do the thing that you’re called to do.

[00:03:47] But I know for me, when I stopped looking at what other people thought and what other people had to say, it just changed the trajectory of my business. And also women need to hire coaches. Stop trying to be Jill of all trades and every box of your organizational chart. That’s why they can’t get started because they’re trying to do all the things and then they get overwhelmed. So I would say knowing what your wealth profile is, knowing how that wealth profile is in alignment with your natural way of being in the world. Right? And then finding that community, finding a really good coach. And when I say a coach, I’m not talking about somebody who’s like rah, rah, pump you up. But somebody who has systems that you can plug into so that you have a shortcut to learning.

[00:04:29] Caterina Rando: You know Kadena I 100% agree on hiring coaches and also hiring a team.

[00:04:35] Kadena Tate: Girl, preach, yes.

[00:04:37] Caterina Rando: Because I like to tell my clients: speaking, selling, serving, strategy, self-care, those are your five jobs. That’s enough jobs already. Let’s get support with everything else that is not your job. And if somebody is wondering, is this my job? Well, do you want to be a master at it? Do you want to be a master web designer or graphic designer or podcast editor? If the answer is no, get some support around this and I’m going to say even more, and I know you’re going to agree with me, run your business like a business.

[00:05:11] Kadena Tate: Oh you know, yes. That’s my mantra.

[00:05:16] Caterina Rando: Right. Business is not a non-profit okay? The goal is to generate some profit so that you can use that to uplift your life, uplift your community.

[00:05:26] Kadena Tate: Yes. Yes. Don’t you think, though, that a lot of women don’t have a healthy relationship with money, and that’s also where the fear comes in, right? So I know for myself when people come to me, and normally what I’m thinking in the beginning, they come to me because they want to earn more money. So the first question out of my mouth is “how much money would you like your business to generate this year?” And then they freeze.

[00:05:48] And I’m like, “well, I’m a revenue strategist and a business model designer”. There’s a plan and a strategy and action steps are going to take you to a seven-figure business. And what gets you to a seven-figure business are not the things that got you to a five or six-figure business. Right? So I think another thing is just a dysfunctional relationship with money, a dysfunctional relationship with asking for support. And that’s why they can’t hire the team.

[00:06:12] Caterina Rando: Right. And the other thing that gets in the way with hiring the team, Kadena tell me if you concur, is this perfection gene.

[00:06:20] Kadena Tate: Oh my gosh. Yeah.

[00:06:22] Caterina Rando: This pursuit of perfection, it looks like getting ready to get ready forever.

[00:06:28] Kadena Tate: Yes.

[00:06:28] Caterina Rando: Because rather than risk imperfection, they spend so much time trying to get everything right. Which means they’re pushing off their revenue, they’re pushing off their mastery. And what we want is for them to get in action so that they can get some clients and be of service.

[00:06:47] Kadena Tate: I agree wholeheartedly. And also I know for myself, many years ago I started my podcast journey for example, and I had the wrong guest and I got really discouraged and I stopped. And it has taken me years to realize you might have some bad guests in the beginning because your message is not clear. So you attract the wrong people because of your own lack of clarity. Now, you know, here I am, what eight years later? I have a totally different outlook, totally different perspective. So I also believe that as you grow, your business grows. I tried to start a podcast after my father died when I was in grief. So that wasn’t the right time. So I think also sometimes we just don’t… you don’t know what you don’t know, you know what I’m saying? And you nailed it. There’s a lack of belief in self, but there’s also not asking the right questions of yourself to propel yourself forward. Because I like to ask the question, “what is it going to cost me if I don’t do it, if I don’t take action now”. Right? And I’m a powerful activator. Girl, I’m a workaholic, but I love it so I don’t look at it as a negative thing. But I think that a lot of people, they don’t have the passion and that’s why they can’t cultivate the mastery.

[00:08:05] Caterina Rando: Right, I would imagine Kadena, I don’t know what the definition is of workaholic, I would imagine a lot of entrepreneurs don’t self-identify. I mean, I don’t self-identify. I work a lot. I don’t self-identify as workaholic because I’m blissing in my business.

[00:08:21] Kadena Tate: Well I have other people who tell me I am and I just laugh. They’re like “but you’re always happy and glowing though”.

[00:08:27] Caterina Rando: Right, because you’re being yourself, you’re doing your thing, you’re serving your people, and you’re massively monetizing your mastery. And the other thing is a lot. Cause people say that to me, Kadena, all the time, “Caterina, you do so much”. I don’t feel like I’m doing so much. Why? Because a lot of what happens is my team is doing it. So it looks like I’m doing it, but I’m not doing all that myself. I’m doing the speaking, the selling, the serving, the strategy. And I got time for some self-care. Saturday, I went and had a foot bath. I had lunch with my girlfriend. We had a lovely afternoon. And I am a no complain-o person. And what I mean by that is that a lot of times I listen to ladies, they’re talking about traffic, they’re talking about their email problems, they’re talking about their Facebook problems, they’re talking about all these problems, and that is really not the place we want to have our attention. One of the things I know about you, which I feel is the same with me, I’m very solution-focused. And I would say that you are too, would you agree?

[00:09:34] Kadena Tate: Absolutely. Well, you have to be, because first of all, if you’re running around whining and complaining, first of all the energy is toxic and negative, right? So I think that one of the things, a lot of people don’t realize is if you are standing as a lighthouse, the energy that you radiate out affects all of these people that are within your range. I’ve always been solution-oriented, and I gotta tell you, I just feel like my life is richer. Because do I see the same challenges that other people see? I see them, but I don’t see them in the same way. And I think that’s the difference. Because you know how people are looking at what they can’t do, I’m looking at how can it be done? You know? And sometimes how it can be done is simply through relationship. Cause I don’t have to have all the skills that’s where your community comes in.

[00:10:22] Caterina Rando: And that is what a lot of women, I want them to recognize. That is what community is for. Pool your resources, people you trust that you can call on for different projects. One of the things, Kadena, that I know you do, which you know we talk about a lot around here, which I am a big advocate for, is you embrace philanthropy through your business and you’re involved in your community. And I’d like to hear a little bit about the project that is near and dear to your heart.

[00:10:54] Kadena Tate: So for the last 37 years, I’ve been working with battered and abused children. And I was not a battered and abused child, but my husband was, and it was one of those things where I didn’t realize how pervasive the problem was. So I’ve always been a volunteer, but I specifically am volunteering with Dallas Children’s Advocacy Center, because that’s their mission to help those children. And so I just feel like as an entrepreneur, our responsibility is to give back to the community in which we live, work, and serve. And I also believe in leadership. And I think as a leader, you can’t take from your community right? I mean, I can’t pay my mortgage without the people in my community supporting my business. So the smallest thing that I can do is give back my time, my money, and my resources. Now I used to spread myself thin with entrepreneurial ventures. And then maybe about 12 years ago, I saw Laura Bush have a conversation about the power of the purse. And that’s when I refocused all of my energy on one single nonprofit and one single cause. And it has, I can’t even tell you, it makes me feel like I’m actually leaving a positive legacy by my daily work. So yeah, I’m a strong advocate of philanthropy. I think that every entrepreneur should partner with a nonprofit so that the mission can be fulfilled because we can eradicate all of these problems, we really can.

[00:12:19] Caterina Rando: Absolutely we can. With some focus attention and some focused dollars, and we can definitely have major impact. In our Thriving Women in Business Community, we have four charities that we support and they’re all around education and entrepreneurship training for women and girls around the world. And you know I love, Kadena, that you’re active in your local community. We focus more on global community. And the reason for that is because with entrepreneurship and education, your hundred dollars can change somebody’s life forever, which is why we do that. And there is need everywhere. Let’s be very clear. There is need everywhere. One of the things that I want to mention here is that when you educate women, you uplift families, you uplift communities. When you teach women some entrepreneurialism, you teach them how to even make a hundred dollars a month, you uplift those families and those communities. The infant mortality rate improves. Domestic violence goes down. Girls stay in school longer. Now, my friend, I know you are so super smart. You walk into a room and you could bring massive value for years. Here’s my question. I know you’ve had some challenges along the way as we all have. And sometimes people look at successful entrepreneurs and they say “oh yeah, that’s fine for you. You got it easy”. I want you to let everybody know when it hasn’t been so easy.

[00:14:02] Kadena Tate: I would say to you that the biggest struggle was the period that you were talking about before I really got focused and hired a team. So I was spinning in burnout. So it was easy. So this is just my personal opinion. Some people may disagree. It’s easy to get to a hundred thousand. That’s like easy. What was difficult for me was to double it, triple it, and quadruple it, because I was trying to do it all myself with one virtual assistant. So it was myself and a virtual assistant. And because I can get a lot of stuff done in a small amount of time, I was driving my virtual assistant crazy. And so I needed more than one virtual assistant. I can create massive amounts of content. I literally am one of those people who can block off a Saturday and record 40 videos, but I can’t edit them. So it was like, I needed to really get clarity around who do I need to hire. Because I was spinning into burnout trying to do all the things. So I would say for me, my exhaustion, my depletion, my overwhelm is anytime in my business where I was outside of my zone of genius. I would say those are like the worst times that I’ve experienced. Also, I had to have tough coaches. I had to have coaches who would literally, for lack of a better way of communicating this, get right in my face and say “stop it, this is the way, not this thing that you’re doing over here.” So I didn’t need someone to say “well, how does that make you feel, not having the support?” I needed someone to say “so what do you need and who are you going to hire? And by what date are you going to hire them?” Does that make sense? So those were my like rough moments, and I mean rough. Because it made my income spiral down. Once I hired the people I needed to hire, then it became easier, so I can focus on what I need to focus on. Which, by the way, is sales and cultivating relationships. Because that’s what grows your business.

[00:15:58] Caterina Rando: Exactly.

[00:15:59] Kadena Tate: Keep the main thing, the main thing.

[00:16:01] Caterina Rando: Now Kadena, because you’re a revenue strategist and I like to talk about making money, believe me, because I know all these women, they got massive value to bring, they just don’t necessarily know how to bring it. And we’ve already said, get a great coach. I’m going to say something here too: I often talk to people that they are starting their business, and they go to every seminar, and every expert is telling them something different, and they often latch on to things that are valid, but they’re not valid for the new business owner. I remember I had this image consultant who wanted to do corporate work, but she had hired a graphic designer that put beautiful peacock feather on her business card. And I said “Hey, this is great. It’s not going to sell to corporate”. And then she also told me that she hired a publicity expert. Well, she hadn’t been in business five minutes, but she’s trying to get some publicity. And they’re going to look at your track record, which she had none. And again, not a bad idea to invest in a graphic designer, to invest in a publicist, but not when you’re in business five minutes. And this is why having a coach that is going to look at your personal situation is going to be so important. Give me one more thing that you have learned, Kadena, from working with a coach that you wouldn’t have learned on your own.

[00:17:33] Kadena Tate: That I needed to look at my business model, not the strategy and the plan, but the overall business model and how what I was doing fit into it. So for example, every single product and service that you offer doesn’t necessarily serve the same audience for the same purpose. I’m a speaker, so my audience of people who are speaking needs something from me. Yes. I may have a back-of-the-room product or service to sell, but the conversation is different than what I would say when I’m standing on stage. So I didn’t realize that in many cases, my business model was disjointed. The message that I was communicating, I was communicating it to the wrong audience and I couldn’t see it because it wasn’t all on one single sheet of paper where I could look at my business as a landscape. That’s why I became a business model designer. I had a coach who talked about the blue ocean strategy and I was like “how do you do that?” and I happened to read that book, business model generation, joined that community and then participated in this big collaboration. That’s why I was in the book Business Model You, because I was so immersed in that conversation of understanding you know, just the meat and the bones of what actually builds us and what is a successful business. What does that mean? So I needed to understand the nine building blocks and how it all came together. Once I got the big picture, it just, it changed everything in my business. So that was the thing for me. The business model canvas, the value proposition canvas, and using design thinking as it specifically related to the entrepreneurial journey, just having a better understanding of that.

[00:19:12] Caterina Rando: Now you mentioned the nine pillars. Do you want to share those for our listeners?

[00:19:15] Kadena Tate: Absolutely. So you’re looking at who is your ideal client? So that’s your customer segment, right? Then the value proposition. Why should somebody hire you versus someone with a similar service set? Those two have to click together for a product market fit. Without that, nothing else matters. So those are the first two boxes you look at. Then you look at what type of relationship do you want to have with this ideal client? Do you want something that’s like a do-it-yourself, a done with you, a done for you? Do you want concierge type of thing? What do you want? And then look at where are these people? A lot of people are marketing to people, for example online, when it would be far more profitable and sustainable if they were –like, I work with a lot of small businesses locally. They’re not online. But they respond when you have a breakfast meeting at a coffee shop and they all come. Does that make sense? So where are these people online and offline? So then now you jump over to the other side, what are the key activities that you need to do every single day so that you can fulfill on the value proposition? Because you’re making a brand promise to people. And then what are the assets that you need in order to make it all work, whether those assets are human, whether those assets are physical, technological, what’s needed to run your business like a business? And then over to the far left, you’re looking at your key partners. You need a community of people to help you to support you. Whether it’s JV partners, affiliates, you need an inner team and an outer team. And what I mean by that is who are the people that are helping you step into self-care, self-love, self-acceptance, and then who are the people like the graphic designer, the web designer, all the outward people, right? Your coach, consultant, just like all of the people that help make your business run in a very functional way, but from outside of your company.

[00:21:08] Caterina Rando: Your key vendors?

[00:21:09] Kadena Tate: Yes. Thank you. Like your key vendors and supporters and affiliate partners and joint venture partners. And then you’re looking at the cost structure. What are the costs associated with running your business in the way that you want to run it? And then what are your streams of revenue? What I was doing, anyway, I had so many things that I was trying to offer in my value proposition box, that my message was being diluted because I was spreading myself too thin and my offer too thin. When I changed everything and really sat down and looked at it on the one sheet of paper, I realized a better fit for me would be a mastermind. So it helped me to see my business through a very different lens. I don’t think I would have seen it had I not been introduced to that by that particular coach. I’m more of a consultant than a coach. I don’t have the patience to sit with people and say, “well, how does that make you feel?” And “what happened in your childhood and why aren’t you doing this?”

[00:22:05] Caterina Rando: My friend that’s therapy!

[00:22:07] Kadena Tate: Right. I don’t have time for that.

[00:22:09] Caterina Rando: Don’t be throwing that on me! Okay. Because I’m not going to talk to people about their childhood trauma.

[00:22:15] Kadena Tate: I can’t deal with that. So for me, I’m much more of a consultant. I’m much more nuts and bolts. These are the actions that need to be taken to derive a particular outcome. So, because I’m like that, I’m always looking at what are the marketing tactics and what’s the conversation that’s going to drive sales. So yeah, I would say to you, that’s what has helped me tremendously.

[00:22:38] Caterina Rando: I love that. Kadena, I do have to say I call myself a business coach. Sometimes I call myself a business strategist. There is a lot of hats that we wear, but I want to be clear that therapist is not one of them. Although I will say that counselor, I have a master’s in counseling, counseling is definitely sometimes what’s called on. There’s a lot of consulting in being of service to clients. And I’m going to say I have, I have a whole team of people. Some people need a therapist. I’ve had a therapist several times over the years. Therapist, a counselor, chiropractor, acupuncturist. It could be for your self-care, but your mental health wellness is also very important, because there is a lot of stress that we encounter as business owners, especially when we don’t have financial surplus. And this is something that I am a big advocate for is for any entrepreneur to have a lot of financial surplus, starting with three months growing to six months so that they don’t have financial stress and they have more choice freedom in how they run their business.

[00:23:50] Kadena, my friend, you know, me and you, we have. Many conversations that have lasted many hours. Wish we could do that today, but we’re keeping it brief today. Any final thoughts for our listeners before we wrap up our time together?

[00:24:07] Kadena Tate: I would say that the number one thing that people need to really understand is that your finances will change the moment that you give yourself permission to be yourself, and to learn how to ask for what you want. Like to show up, tell the truth, do the work that’s going to lead towards mastery, and ask directly for the sale. You’ve got to learn how to sell, and you’ve got to learn how to market yourself and you can do all of that from a really joyful place. There’s nothing scary about it, except the story that you’re telling yourself.

[00:24:38] Caterina Rando: Those are beautiful and important words, Kadena.

[00:24:41] Everyone, Kadena has given you much to think about in this episode of the Expand Your Fempire Podcast. There are many ways to connect with her in the show notes, including checking out her Free Your Wings Podcast. She is someone I have been a friend of and a fan of for many years, because she has massive value to bring and a big heart.

[00:25:12] Everyone, we will talk to you next time on the Expand Your Fempire Podcast. Remember be yourself, do your thing. Serve your people and massively monetize your mastery. Love to all of you, bing bing bing, talk to you next time.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Expand Your Fempire with Caterina Rando.

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