Building an Authentic Brand with Kelly Sinclair

Rita Suzanne  00:01
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. This is Rita Suzanne. And today I have my guest, Kelly Sinclair with me. Thank you so much for joining us, Kelly. I’m so excited to chat with you and learn more about you, your business and your just you in general, you know, life, your family, tell us all about all the things.

Kelly Sinclair  00:44
I’ll lift it out. So that’s the opening question. Hi.

Rita Suzanne  00:49
Yes, go, ready, set go.

Kelly Sinclair  00:54

I’m so excited to be here. Rita. This is great. So my name is Kelly Sinclair. I live in Alberta, Canada, near Calgary, and I run a company, which is now called ks and CO, and we do marketing and brand strategy, coaching and graphic design, web design, all of the things related to marketing to help specifically small businesses really elevate and get visibility online offline, because both are important. And really, the heart of it all comes down to wanting to support entrepreneurs, because I truly believe and my business was born out of this. Understanding that when somebody really cares about what they do, and when they have passion for it, if they can make that thing be successful and fulfilling for themselves, they will be happier. And in turn, the world gets to be a happier place. So that’s what we’re all about.

Rita Suzanne  01:54

And your mom, so How old are your littles?

Kelly Sinclair  01:58

We littles are getting not too little, I have a almost nine and almost seven year old girls right now. So it’s wonderful, they’re at school, and I get to walk them to school every day, it was one of the main reasons why I chose to start my own business. That was actually when they were three and one years old, my mom passed away and I took some time off to kind of regroup my life. As you know, when there’s a big tragedy, you kind of need some space to think and I thought, What am I doing? Like, I am commuting to my office spending almost three hours a day on the road. Not getting any quality time with my kids, which was not why I had kids.

Rita Suzanne  02:47

Oh, yeah, cuz they’re so little that that point 

Kelly Sinclair  02:49

So little, like they’re they’re at the point at that age where it was like you had you came home, you had to feed them before they like got so hangry. And then they were basically immediately in bed.

Rita Suzanne  02:59

Right? Especially was such a long commute that had to be hard. What were you doing? Like, what kind of work were you doing back then

Kelly Sinclair  03:06

I worked for a PR agency. And I liked the work generally. So it was kind of it was a really big conflict for me cuz I was like, Well, I like this job. But I don’t like the schedule. I don’t like the fact that, you know, if I got a sick kid, I have to ask someone if I can leave, and then I feel guilty. And then I feel like, you know, you’re always pulled, you can’t just like, take off at four o’clock and take your kids to gymnastics, which I do now.

Rita Suzanne  03:37

Right? Yeah. And I think I agree with you. I think that that’s the trouble with that I also had when I was after I have my sons because I had, you know, the infertility. And then I was I wanted to be home with them so bad. I didn’t want to be a stay at home mom, mom, I wanted to, but I wanted to have something where I had the flexibility. And once I had my second son, I was just trying to figure out what am I going to do what you know, what can I do? What are my skill sets in order to like, what kind of business can I start? You know, and sometimes it just takes so long to figure it out, which is what you do with your branding, right? Like, you’re helping people to figure out like, kind of how they can create this business that has more on authenticity within it. Like that’s such a buzzword though. So please tell us like can you? You know, define for us what that means to you.

Kelly Sinclair  04:34

Oh, yeah, you’re right. It is a buzzword and yet I still hold on to it as a core value because I think it’s so important to be yourself and pour that into what you do like the actual work the way you talk about it the way you show up so that you can really feel in alignment. That’s what’s missing sometimes when when you don’t love what’s going on when you feel feel like there’s a lack of clarity and you’re not in the right place it is this, it’s a misalignment feeling. And to get more in alignment, it creates confidence. It creates decisiveness. It creates momentum. And that allows you to go forward and to be successful. So I would say I define authenticity as just a true knowing of who you are, and being able to sort of unapologetically show up in that.

Rita Suzanne  05:29

And what do you think is the reason that people feel like they can’t show up as who they are? You know, especially online, because I have my thoughts. But I’d love to hear like what you think is the number one thing that holds people back from really showing up online?

Kelly Sinclair  05:49

Oh, that’s, that’s such a good question. Truly. And I think a lot of it is that we are, like, it’s ingrained in us, we, if we’ve had any sort of job or corporate experience, you get told, like, leave your personal stuff at the door. And I’m like, you don’t have two parts of your self, you are one person, you have to bring this up with you, you need to figure out a way to infuse it sort of appropriately to create some boundaries as as far as like, what you’ll share and what you won’t share and when and all those kinds of things. But still, it’s part of who you are. And truly, like, I think that people are worried about being judged,

Rita Suzanne  06:30

right? That’s what I was thinking and fear of judgment, I think is the biggest thing. But like you said, in corporate, where we’re just automatically conditioned to behave a certain way to follow these rules. But then as entrepreneurs, we have the freedom to do whatever we want. And I think though, you have to get past that fear, which sometimes can take some time and order to jump past it. Do you have any tips on how to help people like actually move past the fear? Like what do you think?

Kelly Sinclair  07:06

Huh? That’s a great question as well, I think it comes down to believing that the more true you can be, and the more authentic you can be to yourself, and sharing your story, the more you are going to make deeper connections with the right people who you’re trying to reach. So if the whole purpose of you showing up online, and like sharing your stuff to build your business out to grow, is to find the right clients who you actually want to work with, then know that you need to build the know, like and trust factor, right? We’ve heard this a million times. But do you know, like, and trust somebody that you don’t know anything about now, right? You have to actually share some of these things so that people can develop those relationships with you. And it truly is about building relationships. It’s not, it’s not just about transactions,

Rita Suzanne  08:05

right? Right. Or just throwing stuff online that’s very random, and doesn’t really, you know, convey the message that you’re trying to connect with that person. I think a lot of times people are afraid, especially for video or to do something alive or to do things like that. And so I always just tell the story of like, the first time I ever got on Periscope. And you know, so this was a long, long time ago. But I was so terrified. I was like, my heart was racing, I think I got my topic was like branding basics, like I’m going to give you my three branding basics. And I just had a little bullet, you know, list of my tips for branding. And I think I sped through them so quickly that nobody probably even heard or recognize anything I said, so but then every time that I would do it, another one I got better, you know, and the fear and the anxiety kind of dissipated. And even still, sometimes when I’m doing a live thing, I have anxiety, but you know, it goes away.

Kelly Sinclair  09:19

It’s a muscle you have to train it. I did over 100 Live videos to practice teaching into practice sharing to practice. extemporaneous speaking to practice being able to have conversations like this without having to do a whole lot of prep I used to two days in advance, write out a whole outline. And then it got down to the point where I would make a bullet point sticky now like 15 minutes beforehand and be able to riff for like 15 minutes. I was gonna say a story as well, because I actually wrote a chapter in a book about this. A couple of years ago, the whole idea of sharing Your story and how that really creates connection. And the challenge I personally had to because I was like, Okay, well, my business is based on a career that I’ve had for over 10 years. So I’ve got the resume, basically. So why do you need my personal story to really like, believe who I am and to buy into this, like, you should just, you know, be impressed by

Rita Suzanne  10:25

my resume. Right? No, right. I

Kelly Sinclair  10:28

have experience and, and I almost am jealous now of people who are like, my story is, I have this problem, I figured out how to solve it. And now I’m going to tell you had to do it. Instead of mine was like, I went to school, then I worked for a long time. And now I have a business doing that. That’s, that’s boring, right? Like, I actually, as I mentioned, I lost my mom. And that was really the start of the path down to figuring out that I did actually want to start my own business. I never had thought that I wanted to before. And the first time I remember the first time that I shared that story online. And I was like, I need to actually do this. And I got on Facebook Live or something like that. And I cry. And yeah, and that was a that was yeah, it’s today is actually like the five year anniversary of when she went to the hospital. And then

Rita Suzanne  11:22

I’m so sorry. Oh, goodness, yeah, it’s

Kelly Sinclair  11:25

it’s been five years. So it’s it takes you know, as you know, time goes on, things hit a little bit differently. But it’s still always a day where you think about it, right? And you figure out how to share it. And and so the idea of like, crying online, and I’m an Enneagram, eight, I don’t know, if you do Enneagram vulnerability is not not what I like, yeah, no, that was really, really tough. But it really formed some, we created a lot of good relationships with people and, you know, connection points.

Rita Suzanne  11:58

But also, I think it’s healing, to talk about these things. And even though they’re uncomfortable, the healing part is what helps us to, you know, move forward and get through the tough times, you know, um, you know, as you know, my sister has been just like, barely over two years, and, you know, so it’s still tough, it’s still hard. And, you know, as you say, you know, just gotta keep moving and keep pushing through, and I too, had to, you know, take time off and get some clarity and, and all of that stuff. And that’s, that’s hard. It’s hard to, you know, raise kids and try to run a business and then have such a devastating event happen, you know, it’s really hard to stay on task and move forward. Yeah. 

Rita Suzanne  12:52

How do you feel when you hear someone say brand vision, if you feel overwhelmed and unsure, Kelly has an upcoming workshop that will help you get organized and excited about your brand, Kelly is giving away so much value for free because her purpose is to support you in building a business that you are passionate about. The first step in doing that is getting clarity about your bigger vision for your brand. Take advantage of this free workshop by signing up at Rita Suzanne comm slash brand vision. Or you can just grab the link in the description. Now let’s get back to the episode. 

Rita Suzanne  13:34

What is your magic brand formula?

Kelly Sinclair  13:37

Hmm. So the magic brand formula, yeah, this is the foundation of everything that I teach in work, how I work with my clients to help them really create a brand that they feel authentic about that feels true to them. And the formula is, who you are, plus, who you’re for Plus, why it matters. And it’s important that it rolls out in that order. Because we need to have that self discovery, have that awareness of you as a person as a business, to bring that first and foremost, because you’re not creating your business around who you think you want to serve and who you want to help. And for other people that comes next. Once you understand your values, and are really clear about what like how you want to show up and your boundaries and your skills and your superpowers and all of that. Then you can go Who is the right fit for this? Because there’s every type of person in the world and there’s there’s a market for everything. So you don’t have to start there. I feel like that’s a misconception and I like to flip that on its head. Yeah. Is if you start with looking for the market and trying to find the people then are you really going to build something that actually is the right thing for you.

Rita Suzanne  14:55

So do you when you’re doing your your product your process Are you finding like one like one person? Or are you finding like a group of people in your like brand discovery process? You know what I mean?

Kelly Sinclair  15:10

Yeah, so I believe for sure in the power of niching down, and I don’t necessarily subscribe to the amount of demographic information that some ideal client exercises might want you to create. I think some of it’s relevant. And some of it isn’t like in your case, you’re specifically talking to moms, you have to say that, right? But you don’t necessarily need to say that they have kids at a certain age. They’re at a certain stage in their business. Like maybe it that part doesn’t matter as much. It doesn’t matter whether they like the color pink Oh, like that.

Rita Suzanne  15:51

So yeah, I like for this, it definitely is very much like, if you’re a mom, and you’re a business owner, then you know, this is this is for you, right. But when you’re selling a service, or something like the way that I would do branding would be, typically people come to me, they already have their product or service in place, right? And now they’re trying to figure out, well, how do I sell this thing? Right? So like you, I’m having them think about this thing that they already have. And then we’re, we’re niching down and figuring out who that one person is. Because as entrepreneurs, I think the hardest thing for a lot of people to do is actually write the content that they need in order to appeal to their target audience. And if they don’t niche down to that one person and really have that, you know, specific thing, my product, my branding is like four questions. That’s how long my questionnaire is the four questions, but they’re really in depth, and then I’m pushing them on, well, what about this? And what about that with this person, so that we are really defining them really deeply, so that they can then think about this? And I’m explaining to them why this is important during the whole process? Which sounds like similar to what you how you do it as well,

Kelly Sinclair  17:11

yeah. Because ultimately, you need to be able to get inside of their heads. And that’s one of the hardest things that for people to do in general is to wear somebody else’s perspective. Like, as humans, we have our own opinions, and we can be closed minded on things right? And especially when you’re the person who’s in the problem solver seat, like how do you get into really understanding the person with the problem, and what they would think and what they would feel and what they care about, and how they would explain it, because that’s the biggest thing, because that’s where the messaging comes in. That’s the why it matters piece, being able to create the messaging that actually fits with the person that you’re talking to. Because you understand the way that they express what their challenges are the things they’re really struggling with. Because that’s not the same things that you’re struggling with. You may have previously, especially if you have that journey of my problem, I fixed it, and I’m showing you, but understanding your clients is especially difficult when you don’t have your own experience to pull back on. Or you haven’t maybe yet worked with enough people to have them in front of you telling you what they need telling you what, you know, they’re where they’re getting stuck, so that you can focus on that.

Rita Suzanne  18:24

Yeah, I think and I think that that’s the hardest part, too, is really, you know, because a lot of times people will come and I’m sure they do is to you, too. They’ll come to me and say, Okay, well, my client is between the ages of 35 and 55. And I’m like, no, no, they’re not. Oh, no, we’re not doing that. We’re gonna do one person. Now we’re gonna name her this. And we’re How old is she? Like, you know, specifically, I need to know, because he, you know, the differences between someone who’s 35 and 55 are astronomical, right? And so even though someone who’s 55 might hire you, and you still might get people who are 35, who is your ideal person, you’re one person that you want to target in, because that’s going to make it all work so much easier for you. And I think that that’s like you said, it’s hard for people to to get that because they’re so close to their business, that it’s hard for them to see someone else.

Kelly Sinclair  19:22

Yeah. And when it comes to messaging, one of the things I like to talk about is the like, like, You’re the doctor and they’re the patient. So they’re coming to you with symptoms, and how are they explaining those symptoms? Yeah, versus what you know, their actual problem is because that’s a whole other layer, right? You know, what they really are, what they’re really challenged with, but they don’t know that. And I saw the best thing online the other day, it said like, stop solving problems your clients don’t know they have.

Rita Suzanne  19:52

Have you heard the thing that said, Sell them what they want and give them what they need. Exactly. I mean, that couldn’t be it. Any more true, you know, because they think that they want, you know, a website, but what you’re giving them is the actual marketing strategy, you know, for them long term, you know, so yeah, I love I love, love, love that. So one of the things that I’m always saying, and I think that you you’re we share this as well is I’m always telling people that they need to stay on brand. And people are like, I don’t understand what that means. So what are your tips to help someone stay on brand? And in maintaining that authenticity? Like, how do you help your clients do that?

Kelly Sinclair  20:41

I have to say, the first step is to do the work, right? Do the work to actually get the clarity about what your brand really is, like, take the time and sit down and answer those hard questions, I find that my clients are like, whoa, this should have come with a warning like this is personal development work, because I’m asking them questions like, Who are you? Like? What do you care about? What do you value? How does that then, because then you can thread that through into messages, video content, figuring out like, what you’re saying how you’re saying it, the way that you work with people, all of it comes from there. But that work is people resist it. And I can expand and say, I just rewrote my whole website and created a whole new brand for my business. So I’m very fresh in having done this. And I was like, I don’t want to do this work. I don’t want to sit here and answer these questions like, like, what are your core brand messages? Oh, my goodness, like, I feel fairly connected to that. But you still have to articulate it, you got to put it down somewhere, you have to give yourself that kind of sheet. Let’s call it that you can reference back to and check in with and it becomes your litmus test so that you really know if is this on brand? Like what am I holding that up to? What is that question up against? So I can answer that.

Rita Suzanne  22:06

I love that. I think that that’s so true. And maybe we need to go back a little bit and define like, what do you what do you define as a brand? Like, what is someone’s brand?

Kelly Sinclair  22:20

Hmm, well, I’m gonna steal Jeff Bezos, his quote, because it’s my favourite is your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room. So all of the things that you say and do and are your actions and your messages combined. Create an impression on somebody. And that becomes the way that they talk about you. It’s not just about what you do, but it’s about who you are. Right? So what’s important, what is the mission? What is the bigger thing that you’re trying to strive towards, that people can connect to that they’re actually interested in, sort of being a part of?

Rita Suzanne  23:00

What I find is, a lot of people think that their logo, and their colors are their brand. And so I think the most important, and so that’s what they want to focus on. They were like, Oh, just, I need this most extravagant logo I can create, and also like the most excessive color palette, like what are your thoughts on that? I feel

Kelly Sinclair  23:25

like the visual piece is an expression of your brand. And it helps to underscore especially considering using all of the senses, right? Because some of sometimes people are engaging with you, they’re listening to a podcast, or they’re reading something, or they’re seeing you train or they’re in person with you, or they just see the visuals, and the visual just reinforces all of that message. But all of the work that you do to figure out what your brand is, includes things like what’s your personality? And so and what are like the, the core personality markers that you want to capture that come across then in colors, and fonts, right? Because you can look at a brand and you can easily say that that’s bold, or that soothing? Or that’s fun, right? Or it’s a combination of those and is that representing then what you really want versus so to to even get get to the stage where you work with a designer, you need to be able to articulate what you care about. Not just say I want to logo that must be the most frustrating client, right? I need a logo.

Rita Suzanne  24:34

Okay. Right. Right. And that but they don’t want to do the actual discovery process or like any of the strategy that goes behind it. And so, yeah, sometimes that can be a struggle. And I think that a lot of times those probably are the clients who are still in their own phase of discovery, right because I always say when people first start out usually within the first two years, they’re going to pivot there things are going to change, everything is going to be looked different in two years. So you really shouldn’t spend too much money in that. And that time, when you’re ready to uplevel, that’s when you want to really invest.

Kelly Sinclair  25:16

I think that is solid advice, because you will your brand is an evolution. And I think that people get a little bit afraid of making a decision because they think that it’s permanent. But like, it’s not a tattoo. It’s just, it’s something that will grow with you. And for me in five years that I’m into my third logo, for example, right? Because it’s it’s shift, things have changed, my services have changed my like, yeah,

Rita Suzanne  25:44

your target has changed, right?

Kelly Sinclair  25:47

grown on my team has grown. So all of those things contribute to whether you need to, like make an adjustment in what how that visually comes across. But I would agree with you too. Like, if you’re just starting a business, like, Sure, go ahead and make it depends on what your bigger vision is, too. Because a lot of times people starting a business aren’t necessarily thinking like, I’m going to conquer the world. Some of you are, and I love you for that. But usually, it’s like, here’s my little piece of this, and I want to you know, put a little stamp on it. And here’s my logo, and let’s go. So I think for

Rita Suzanne  26:21

a lot of people like like us, you know, it’s really just about wanting to create that freedom in order to be home with our kids and to, you know, have the life that we always wanted to create it. But we didn’t really know how and so we start out with something. And then as you mentioned it, it develops and it changes and in all these iterations come from there. And then after a couple years, that’s when we’re really clear, because we’ve worked with clients that have helped us to realize that we don’t want to work with that type of client anymore, you know, or we found a couple of ideal, perfect clients that we loved working with. And we want more of that. Exactly. So speaking of when new people or when someone wants to start their new business, what do you have? Like what type of advice do you have for a mom who wants to start her own business? Like, what are some good tips that you can give?

Kelly Sinclair  27:21

So just starting brand new?

Rita Suzanne  27:24

Either let’s let’s start with brand new, and then we can work up?

Kelly Sinclair  27:29

I mean, yeah, when you first start, I think it the the main thing is to do something that is fulfilling, because you’re constantly and I think this is what where my journey kind of came to. When you work when you know that you need that part of your brain. First of all, like in your like, I don’t want to just stayed home with my kids and just raise my kids, I need something else. That’s for me that feels like impact. Know that it’s going to always pull on your time. Right? So I found even going back to my job after maternity leave, it was like, well, this job better impressed me more now. It’s not like I’m I shifted from like, oh, yeah, I have a job. And that’s exciting, too. I’m spending, you know, 11 and a half hours a day away from my kids. So I better be really enjoying what I do. Yeah, anytime that you’re going to spend that is for your business, make sure it’s something that you really care about, that you really love, because that’s gonna make you want to do it, as well.

Rita Suzanne  28:35

Yeah, for me, when I first started, my goal was really just to it wasn’t that I loved designing websites, it was that I had something to prove to everyone else who said that I couldn’t do it. And it was really about that more than anything else. And, you know, I just kept on trying and trying and trying and trying. And I would say that that. At that point, I probably shouldn’t have left my job, you know, because it wasn’t the thing that I ultimately wanted to do. But it was something that I needed to do. And because it wasn’t the thing that I loved I always love teaching I when I was in corporate, I was always teaching that was the thing that I but I had thought that web design was the thing for me, because every blog post that I’m reading every podcast that I was listening to everyone was talking about their website, and I was like, hey, I can be a designer. So I taught myself how to design because I thought this is where you know I’m going to be going to be able to be financially secure, but little did I know or understand the feast and famine, the business burnout, the you know, how to manage all the things that happened when you are a service provider. So yeah, that’s tough. I love your advice, though, because, you know, in hindsight, I think that it would have probably been better for me to kind of stick it out and work in corporate while I was doing it. But, hey, it worked out, it worked out. 

Kelly Sinclair  30:19

And we all get to where we’re supposed to go eventually, right? Yeah. And I think that there’s something kind of energetic there too, right? Like, when you can step into like a positive energy of like, this is the thing that I really am excited about. My kind of general philosophy in business is like three parts feel connected to what you’re doing, like get excited, then then you’ll do the thing. Because we all know that nothing happens if no action is taken. So really, the key to success is action. And then there’s the results. So feel connected, do the thing, get results, what are the results? Maybe it’s financial freedom, maybe it’s learning that that was the wrong thing to do. Right? There’s all of the All right, all important, you have to go through it all.

Rita Suzanne  31:07

Yeah. And then you repeat if necessary. So for someone who’s in later stages of their business, what is your advice to them?

Kelly Sinclair  31:19

I think it’s about reconnecting, right. And I’ll come keeps coming back to that. So if you’re feeling like stuck, if you’re feeling like, you don’t really know what to do next, you’re not quite sure if this is the right fit, like, come back into yourself and do some of that discovery, to reconnect with the purpose behind what you’re doing. And the purpose is, of course, there’s a purpose in that I want to create a particular kind of life for my family, I want to create this sort of flexible schedule, I want that all of those things, but the actual outcome of the work that you do is important as well. So that you can reconnect to just why and who you’re helping. And and when you can flip kind of into that. I think that that becomes more appealing to people as well. Right? You know, there’s

Rita Suzanne  32:10

just there’s more, the more authenticity. So yeah, I’m gonna say for

Kelly Sinclair  32:15

sure, there’s business owners out there. And I know some of them who are like, No, the first thing is, I have to make money. Well, nobody’s gonna buy into that, like, I’m not gonna just go give you money, because you have to make money. Right? I want to work with you because of a different reason.

Rita Suzanne  32:32

Right, exactly. And I think that’s hard for people to understand, like, yes, your goals can be this thing. But if you’re, if there’s a disconnect in your marketing, or even in your business as a whole, then it’s going to be really hard for you to get people to sign up for that. So one thing that I love talking about is, you know, I love talking about business, I love talking about our families, but the most important thing to me is, how are you remembering yourself? Like, what are you doing, just for Kelly?

Kelly Sinclair  33:07

Oh, this has been a long process to actually allow myself especially because I had so much corporate time I probably I worked in corporate for like 12 years. So anything that was not like producing something never felt like it was actually work, or, or, or needed, right. So everything else was extra was like work is this eight, nine hours a day. And then all the other things like, you know, working out and eating healthy and whatever. And I’ve finally acknowledged that something about your body is in charge of what you put out. So taking care of yourself mentally, physically, emotionally, all of those things is really truly an important part of it, it does affect your ability to do your work. So I now have very more set like, I’m going to get a massage once a month, I’m going to book that every time I go in, I book the next one. And I just carve this time out. And now eventually, after five years, I’ve been able to reduce the guilt that I have about whether I have enough time to do those things.

Rita Suzanne  34:16

Right. I love I love that. I think that a lot of times, moms, you know, obviously once we become a mom, you get you push yourself to the back. Once you start a business you push yourself even further back. And a lot of times we equate self care with actually going and doing stuff. And me personally, I don’t if you’ve ever like listened to any of my podcasts I’ll talk about how my self care sometimes can be locking myself in my room for 10 minutes. You know, or you know, my kids are older so I can stay in here for you know, longer periods of time, but sometimes just being alone You know, is self care or going for a walk or something, because, you know, our kids, they need so much from us. But sometimes it is, especially for me can be so depleting because they’re, you know, there’s four of them, and they’re just like, they’re so needy, you know, and but I need to take care of myself. And so sometimes that’s why I will just lock myself don’t get me wrong, I love massages, and all of the all of the things

Kelly Sinclair  35:28

And I agree with you, it’s self care does not just have to be those things where you’re like, I went to the spa today, but eventually you might be able to stack those on top. But to me, I actually like my alone time is my work time, the fact that I get childcare for my kids, has been a bit of a mom guilt issue. But I’m like, I just I want a clear line, so that I can be fully a mom at the time I’m being a mom, and I can be fully in my business at the time that I’m doing work. And I don’t have to blur those things, homeschooling kids during school closures and things like that has really still highlighted that I need those clear breaks, like I can’t do both, because you feel like you’re not doing a good job at either.

Rita Suzanne  36:14

No, I agree. Because I think, you know, since all of this stuff happen, you know, with my sister passing, and then the closures and the kids being home at school it was, and then I was going through a divorce and all this stuff all at the same time. You know, it was definitely very eye opening that I needed to simplify, right? Like I needed to let go of a lot of things. And it took me some time to even get to that point. And I still feel like I need help, you know, I need help with things maybe around my house, I was just saying, like, I need a babysitter, you know, like, I need someone who’s gonna come in and, you know, keep my kids if I want to go to an event or something on a Friday night, because I have very limited assistance with my kids. And so I was just thinking about last night and saying it, but I think you know it, you just have to do what works best for you. And you shouldn’t feel guilty about childcare. I mean, you are that’s a luxury that you have. And you know, it’s good for them for their socialization and all of that stuff. And then they get to see their mom working and doing you know, doing so great.

Kelly Sinclair  37:30

Yeah, I live we live on a park and there’s the kids have a lot of friends here so often be home working, still haven’t gotten to pick up the kids and like their friends are ringing the doorbell. Yeah, and always falls just a little bit. But I’m like no see. So some of my self care is actually that I’m doing that I’m carving out time to do my work. Because, according to me, right?

Rita Suzanne  37:53

Yeah, I agree. Well, tell everyone where they can find you online. If you have any free gifts, like tell us all about them. You know, let us know all the

Kelly Sinclair  38:05

new things. So my new website is ksco.ca. And I’m at ksco_kelly on Instagram. And on my website and through my Instagram link, you will find a workbook to help you start getting the clarity that you need on figuring out your brand in an authentic way. So you can go on there and download that.

Rita Suzanne  38:30

Thank you so much, Kelly. It’s always a pleasure chatting with you. I love it.

Kelly Sinclair  38:35

Thanks so much for having me, Rita.

Rita Suzanne  38:40

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