Building a Business on the Move with Cammie Lumpkin

About the episode

In this episode of the Mom Owned and Operated podcast, Rita Suzanne talks to Cammie Lumpkin about how she runs a business, raises a family and remembers herself.

Cammie is a military mom of three wild boys and the founder of Cal5 Digital Marketing. She helps mom owned and operated businesses grow through Facebook and Instagram advertising.

As a mom with years of experience running her own businesses she understands the needs of busy moms. Cammie is dedicated to giving women time back to focus on the parts of their business they love while increasing sales and crushing goals.

Get in touch with Cammie on Facebook or Instagram – mention this podcast for a free Facebook ads audit.

Apply to work with Rita at ritasuzanne.com/apply/

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Show Notes
SPEAKERS
Rita Suzanne, Cammie Lumpkin

Rita Suzanne
Welcome to the mom owned and operated podcast, the podcast about moms and for moms, where we have candid conversations about running a business, raising a family, and remembering ourselves. I’m your host, Rita Suzanne, a single mom of four, digital strategist and provider of no nonsense business strategies and tactics. Hi, this is Mom Owned and Operated and I am Rita Suzanne and today I am talking to Cammie Lumpkin. from Cal five digital. I am so excited to talk to you, Kimmy, and please tell us a little bit more about you and your business. Thanks,

Cammie Lumpkin
Rita. I’m so thrilled to be on today. My name is Kimmy Lumpkin. I am a mom of three, I have three boys, 810 and 12. I’m also a military spouse. So we’ve spent many years moving around the country. And we now live in safety Harbor, Florida, which is right outside of Tampa. And my business is a digital marketing business. I run Facebook and Instagram ads for mom owned businesses.

Rita Suzanne
Oh, I love it. I have just decided that I need to get into doing like just a own awareness and awareness campaign. Right. So it’s, it’s a lot. It’s a lot to take in. So you know, there’s so many different things to take into consideration. So how long have you been in business?

Cammie Lumpkin
About 18 months with this particular business? Okay,

Rita Suzanne
so I know that we talked before, and we talked a little bit about how you’ve had all these different iterations of your business. And I’d love to know a little bit more about that. And like how, what were the reasons why you had to kind of change and things had to evolve.

Cammie Lumpkin
So I started pre kids, I started out in corporate nonprofit, which I loved. And I took some time off realizing that having three kids in less than four years, didn’t really match up with the pay scale of the nonprofit. So I needed to take some time off for that. And then I soon realized when I thought about going back, that it really didn’t jive with moving as much as at the time. So I ended up randomly starting a jewelry business. I taught myself to metals to do metal smithing. We had moved to Kodiak, Alaska. And on the way I decided, in that month of travel, I wanted to buy a nice piece of jewelry that would signify that huge trip for us. And I couldn’t find anything. I couldn’t find anything that I liked. I could everything felt very rustic. And it just wasn’t me. And this island had sea glass right the beach right behind our house fancy glass. And so that’s how I got into doing that and being there for four years. That became a really successful business. And so then, it worked for me. I had a studio in our house and things were going well, but then it didn’t translate very well when we moved again. Yeah. So I tried that for a couple years now.

Rita Suzanne
Are you selling Sorry. Were you selling local? Or is is that why it didn’t translate? or?

Cammie Lumpkin
Yeah, I was it was, it was sterling silver seaglass jewelry, I was selling wholesale to galleries and gift shops. And so a big part of that business was it was something relationships, and the relationships, my kids and I would each call them on a regular basis. And so they found the sea glass and they felt invested. Right? They were just really proud of that business that we had built and right. So once the sea glass element was gone, that family element went away, too, right. And so then it was just the hustle of going to art shows. You know, three day long art shows up and my kids were getting older. They had sports all weekend. And as a military pilot, so at times he was gone. And I was trying to juggle that and have three kids with me and get them to their sports and set up for these shows. And so with the family piece and getting that together. It just didn’t really fit anymore. Right? So it needed to be a hobby, really, but I wasn’t I mean, I stuck with it for a few more years after we left Alaska and I was trying to figure out how to market my business. So I learned Facebook and Instagram ads. I invested a lot of money in Figuring out how to do ads for myself. And just quickly realized that it was I’ve bitten off more than I could chew as far as creating a product going. And, and running the ads. And really, I felt like running my ads was becoming a full time. And it was just a lot more complicated than I thought. So then I had several people say, Well, you can run ads for me, you know, I need that. So I realized that that was a pivot I needed to make because I could move with my laptop. I can have those relationships that I love so much that I was really missing. making my own jewelry, when you’re making art like that it’s can be really solitary. Right? And so I didn’t want to be locked up in my studio by myself for hours at a time working with people.

Rita Suzanne
So yeah, so it was it ended up being like a natural transition for you.

Cammie Lumpkin
Yeah, not the one I ever would have expected, but it fits our family a lot better.

Rita Suzanne
Yeah. Cuz you can work from anywhere. And it’s not really dependent on you sourcing, I mean, products and services are so different, right? It’s it’s just especially a physical products, you know, like versus a digital product. So I can see why. Especially with younger kids, because how old were your kids when you started and stopped?

Cammie Lumpkin
Oh, my gosh, when I started, I had a newborn, two year old and a three year old. Oh, my gosh, when I transition to running ads, they were in? Second, fourth and fifth grade.

Rita Suzanne
Okay. Yeah, I mean, I think that it’s a lot, it’s a lot harder, you know, when you have such a little kids, and, you know, I think that, you know, I started my business, my sons were, I want to say three and five, and they would be sitting beside me, you know, I’d be on the couch, I’d have my laptop, and they would both just be sitting beside me. So it’s, you know, they didn’t care what I was doing. But it became to the point where they would make drawings of me on my laptop all the time. Like, that’s all. Like, that’s all they think that I do. That’s, that’s really the extent of what mommy does with her life. So, um, so tell us like, now that you’ve transitioned into more of a service, what does your average day look like?

Cammie Lumpkin
Oh, my gosh, as a mom, my average day is never the same. I mean, aside from the fact that I get up at 6am, every day, I have a solid hour of work before they get up. Right? It really, I had to learn it’s not quite batching work, because that’s not really my style. But tarde batching is hard, it’s hard for me. So I wouldn’t say I batch my work. But it’s really a matter of when I have an hour or two, I’m turning my phone off, I’m making the most of it. And then two to three hours to four hours are at different times. You know, changing

Rita Suzanne
the because the kids are in school and then you have like a like you said your kids are in sports, are they in sports now this year, because of all the changes,

Cammie Lumpkin
they are where we live, they’ve been able to do sports, thankfully. So we have more sports between the three of them.

Rita Suzanne
That’s I mean, that’s good, though, because it gets them out of the house and off of the electronics how we were talking earlier how it just become, you know, that’s all they do.

Cammie Lumpkin
So much screentime so I were really fortunate that they get to play sports and that keeps my kids same, keeps our house a little bit. less chaotic

Rita Suzanne
except for you taking them and you know, and all of that stuff too. But that’s helping you build relationships with other moms, right?

Cammie Lumpkin
Yeah, there was one day in this last spring that my husband was out of town. And I I watched I was in the car for three hours. Oh my gosh. I took one here Dr. Mark picked him up. He I just was back and forth in their sports at that time or across town. They weren’t anywhere near as I dropped them off. They were in different towns. So that after after that season I said okay, you know, maybe we’re not going to do competitive soccer so far away. We’re going to soccer that’s in our town and right. So that was I think that was the worst that it got that I was in the park for three hours. But I really have learned how to get my work done during the day so that when I pick them up from the bus, I’m not you know, I’m not on my phone. I’m not working sports with them and and I’ve gotten to where I really am able to get it done so that I I can have that evening with them. And honestly, by the time they go to bed, I’m exhausted, right. Unless I have a deadline, I’m not working at night anymore, right.

Rita Suzanne
But I think the most important thing that you said was how because now your kids are doing sports local to you that you can actually get help. And I think that that’s a struggle that a lot of us moms, like, we don’t even really want to ask for help. You know, and so I think that it’s really important to get help in as many ways that we can, and I mean, I’m, I do this myself. So, you know, asking for help sometimes is the hardest thing that we can do in anything.

Cammie Lumpkin
I think that that is a lesson that the military has taught me that being a military spouse, we’ve never, we never lived by family. There are times where you have to ask for help your self and your husband’s gone for a long time. And it’s just you with three guys. Right? You have to. And that’s part of that military community that we’re always willing to help other people in the same way. Because you just you have to ask you, right?

Rita Suzanne
I mean, otherwise, you’re just going to be stuck, right? It’s, it’s just too much. So speaking of, you know, that type of stuff. I don’t want to say balance, but let’s say how do you make time for yourself on top of your family and your business?

Cammie Lumpkin
I, I will say, I’m really lucky because I have a super supportive husband. So when he’s here, he champions time. But when he’s not, I really think it comes down to the basics that I’ve realized I have to work out that has to be a priority. And I, I really have figured out a system where I have my preferred, you know, our local boot camp exercise, but then I have backup so that if I can’t get there for that hour, you know, by the time you get there and back and you shower, that’s a lot of your day, well, I can’t always do that. So I have, you know, 25 minute workout video back. You know, I made that, that a priority that if I can’t get to the one I really want to do I still do this, or I could still go for a walk or run. And I still have to make sure I shower and I look nice and nice. I’ve gone through iterations of that, where I’m like, Oh, forget it, I’m fine. You know, but for me, just personally, when I look at I feel good. And I know that. I think that’s, that’s self care for me. And that’s different for everybody. But putting the effort in just makes me a better business woman a better mom. And it’s simple stuff. But yeah,

Rita Suzanne
well, I think that that’s good making your workout a non negotiable, right? It’s like, either way, I have all of these things, and then the showering and they getting dressed. Like for me, I’m the same thing. Like I have to get myself looking decent, you know, most of the day, because what if I have to go to the store? What if I have to jump on a quick zoom? What if I have to, you know, talk to one of my kids, you know, friends moms or something, you know, I want to at least present myself like I have my you know, like, I feel better. I don’t want to walk past the mirror and be like, Oh shit, you know, like, you know, I want to actually look decent. Now, that doesn’t mean I’m not wearing joggers. And, you know, and, and have my hair in a bun mostly, you know, sometimes, but at least I feel better and I smell good. You know?

Cammie Lumpkin
You know, it’s a must and and it’s really To me, it’s not even it’s not for anybody else that I’m gonna see if I agree. Right? Right, myself, or I feel like just I’m just gonna slide into, I don’t know. mediocracy Wow,

Rita Suzanne
I used to I remember when I first started my business, I was so obsessed with the 16 making my business successful, right, because I had to prove to everyone I had quit my job where I was making really good money and moved from California to Ohio. And so I was I felt like I needed to prove myself to everybody else. Because everybody thought I was crazy. Like why are you quitting your job? You don’t have you don’t know how to do this. You don’t know how to run your own business. So why are you doing this and I was at a point where I was just ready and I thought it was gonna be easier. It was not easy. And so I would roll out of bed literally look a hot mess. And you know, just I was just so obsessed. I was staying up too late getting up too early. And like I said, My kids were young at the time. And so I remember one of my friends she was a coach and she said to me like you need to project you know yourself. The way that you want to be seen and you look like there’s a lot going on and you need to get yourself a little bit you know, do these things, you know, journal workout, you need to like, prove, you know, you don’t have to get glammed up every day but at least look presentable so that you feel comfortable and confident, because that’s what you’re projecting to the world. And that has stuck with me over the seven years that I’ve been doing this, because it’s about mindset.

Cammie Lumpkin
And I didn’t realize that when I started my I just didn’t realize how much mindset would play a part because I was very like, Okay, I’m going to do this, this and this. And I just didn’t think of them. But she cuz she stuff. journaling and the you know, I just didn’t want to do that. I just wanted to make money. I wanted to do my and make money. Like I did not want to do I didn’t want to read any of the books. I just did. I didn’t want to do any of that stuff. I just thought of the on paper things. Yeah. Then there’s so much going on in your head as a business owner and as a mom, and you have all these, the mom guilt and the wonderful thing to think when I’m changing my business again, you know,

Rita Suzanne
right? The fear of judgment, right?

Cammie Lumpkin
Yes. And so you’re constantly you have to figure out a way to get over it. And yeah, he I, if I’m moving my body, and I’m, you know, taking a shower that I had helps my mindset to stop thinking about that and stop thinking about what other people are going to think about it and get to work

Rita Suzanne
because you feel comfortable, you feel confident now and you’ve by exercising, you’ve released a lot of the stress, right? Like, I feel like you know, if you have any issues, right? We all have issues, you want to deal with them head on, start a business, that’s all you have to do. To deal with them. Right, exactly that that is what’s going to happen every single time. And you know, speaking of starting a mom starting a business if and if a mom came to you and she said that she wanted to start a business, what would be your advice to her? Like if you had to give her a couple of tips, what would they be?

Cammie Lumpkin
It would be the advice that I got that has always stuck with me. That was start before you’re ready. I if if I hadn’t used God with that mantra and listen to that advice, I wouldn’t be in business now. Because I just eat constantly I analyzing study and study and study, I love to learn and study and I still doing that thing that I needed to know more than anybody else. And so be

Rita Suzanne
prepared you like you need to be the expert even they haven’t done it.

Cammie Lumpkin
You can’t you just you’ve got to at some point, you’ve got to just dive in and realize that that person before you had kids, that educated, resourceful woman is still there. And you know, even though you’re reading Goodnight Moon every night, instead of news, like you’re still that you’re still Yeah, you still have it was a woman that you were when you had your corporate job or whatever. And whatever you need to figure out, you’ll figure out as you go and you add, you know, I realized with my like Facebook ads business before I even ran any ads, I knew more than 99% of people knew about ads, I had Brian tested and learning I had taken course after course and I knew it. And I but I just had to just do it

Rita Suzanne
right? Because you’re you’re questioning yourself the whole time thinking you don’t know enough. And I need to know more. And I need to do this. And you know, one thing that we mentioned earlier was how a lot of people think that, you know, maybe they all they have to do is the service that they’re offering or create the product. But there’s so much more that goes into creating your business. Right? So

Cammie Lumpkin
yeah, and I I could just, I think that you can get paralyzed with all the things that you have to do really easy to say, Well, I can’t start it yet. Because I’ve got to set up this system, I got it. And you know what, like, most of us under pressure, we will make it happen. We will say, you know what, as we go, and it’s not going to be this linear path that we thought it was going to be or that people around us thought I think it should be. It’s not as a mom like our path to career success. And to finding our calling. I just think it’s not linear for many of us, right?

Rita Suzanne
So do you think then, because I have a lot of friends who don’t have kids and you know, sometimes I get envious because I feel like they can work all the time. They can do like put so much effort into having their business but there’s also the side of Do you think that being a mom is actually helped you in your business, as well?

Cammie Lumpkin
I absolutely do. I think back to before I had kids and I don’t think that I maximize my time because I mean right? You got a gay, if you needed to work on something over the weekend, you could. Now I feel like what I got done in eight hours I can get I can get it done in four. Right, right. You know, just motherhood changes you in that way, you’ve spent years of sleepless nights that you’re still making it happen and you’re still doing things you’re still getting worked on with a child on your lap. And it’s you, you just learn how to multitask better and how to maximize your time. Like I said, Now when I have two hours, I’m if I know that my kids are taking care of my phone is turned off. And sure that in that two hour thing, right, getting it done,

Rita Suzanne
right. It’s just like when I used to work at corporate, right, you spend eight hours doing a lot of nothing, right? Like you come in, you do a lot you do your your work, whatever it is. And then there’s the sit and wait period, right, where you’re waiting for the next project that you have to do, which is a lot of sitting and waiting. That’s why you’re over there talking, you’re not doing anything. And so I feel like what you’re saying is almost the same thing, right? Like we as moms, like we know, our time is limited. Like at three o’clock, I got to be done. And that’s it. There’s no procrastinating if I need to get this done. I need to get it done. You know, today, and I think that that’s a better, you know, that is better for us, right? Because we can do all of the things right, man, at least try to as much as possible. So if someone wants to connect with you online, where would they find you?

Cammie Lumpkin
I am at Cal5 Digital on Instagram. Same thing on Facebook, Cal5 digital, my entire family, my husband, and my three kids and I all have the same initial cal. So that’s where Cal5 comes from cueing me of my why. And that it takes all five of us to run my business because it certainly does. So. Either one I’m on Facebook and Instagram.

Rita Suzanne
And then your website is Cal5Digital.com. Yes, if someone wants to hire you for Facebook ads because, or Instagram ads right more time. And you need you need marketing, right you need you need that can you know consistent marketing, because I think that’s the biggest thing is like, little spurts of marketing. But now to actually get the best effect. You need the consistency.

Cammie Lumpkin
Yeah, I love taking that piece off of mom’s plates. And that’s just so important to me. Because I’ve been there I’ve had my business and it was hard it was for my business and do what I loved and do the marketing to it. Just I didn’t have enough time in the day for that. I don’t think most moms do

Rita Suzanne
know we can’t do all of the things. But thank you so much, Cammie for sitting and talking with us today. I appreciate it. It was so nice to chat with you.

Cammie Lumpkin
You too. Thank you so much for having me. This is fun.

Rita Suzanne
And there you have it. I want to encourage you to remember that being a mom who runs her own business is not easy. we all struggle but just keep moving forward and don’t forget to make time for yourself. As moms we are usually the first thing to go to the bottom of the list. If your business is overwhelming you and you need real solutions, not just some sugar coated suggestions apply to work with me at ritasuzanne.com/apply/

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