The Art of Monetizing Your Personality: Insights from Kym Jenkins

Kym Jenkins: 00:00:00

Foreign.

Shy Speaks: 00:00:06

What'S up? And welcome to the Mind and my creative business Podcast. Let me get, let me go back and say it right. Minding My Creative business podcast.

This is the number one podcast for creative entrepreneurs to gain strategy, structure and self development all in one place. And I am your host, Shot Speaks.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:00:24

And I am your host, Ron, ironically. And as you see, we are in here in person once again. And we have a special guest for you all.

Shy Speaks: 00:00:33

Super special.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:00:34

We have the marketing maven, the visual virtuoso, and she creates these phenomenal experiences. Yes, we have the one and only, the one and only Kim Jenkins in the building. Now that's how we would introduce you.

How would Kim Jenkins introduce Kim Jenkins?

Kym Jenkins: 00:01:01

I would probably simply say, hi, my name is Kim Jenkins. I'm a creative director, marketer and experienced curator.

Shy Speaks: 00:01:09

Come on, curator. I love it.

Okay, so for all of you creative entrepreneurs who want to create experiences, who say, I think I have a marketing eye or who want to level up their marketing, you want to lean in on this one because we about to walk. Because Ms. Kim has been able to monetize. I was talking to Ron about it. I was like, man, he said she's been able to monetize her personality.

And I said, she's also been able to monetize her outlook. Some of y'all's creativity is about how you see things and how you can bring what you see into reality. Listen.

Okay, Kim, so let's, before we talk about the outlook and these experiences you curate. Okay, let's talk about this personality. Let's talk about how, because let me just say this.

Have you always, you just been this, you've always had this kind of like personality that you have right now or have you. Is this something that just kind of gradually came into be?

Kym Jenkins: 00:02:05

So I was, I don't want to say I've always had it, but it also has gradually came up because I've always been a plus sized girl from kindergarten to today. So so my parents, my aunties will always be like, it's just because they already seen you show up and show out. So I've always been a show up person.

So a lot of times when people see me, I done showed up.

So you know, it's a part of me loves that and that has cultivated my confidence and cultivated how I see people and cultivate how I even see experiences and perspectives. So I kind of just show up. My personality being here now people experiencing it is a whole nother level. But my personality, oh, it been here.

Shy Speaks: 00:02:47

Okay, so tell them about how it showed up when most people kind of came on the bandwagon. You want to talk about that?

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:02:55

Yeah. No, I mean, so go ahead, Ron. You all.

Though you may not know who Kim Jenkins is right now watching this episode, you gonna know, but you've probably heard her voice, right? You've probably. If you. If you've been on social media, when did it take place? What was it?

Kym Jenkins: 00:03:12

It happened in: 2021

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:03:13

So in: 2021

Kym Jenkins: 00:03:20

Yeah. You don't heard it, right?

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:03:21

So where did they hear that voice at?

Kym Jenkins: 00:03:23

They heard the voice on. It's like a viral audio, and it says, prepare to be sick of me.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:03:28

Yeah, prepare.

Shy Speaks: 00:03:30

Right.

Kym Jenkins: 00:03:30

Prepare right now to be sick of me. Prepare to be sick of me.

Shy Speaks: 00:03:35

Yes. And people took that thing.

Kym Jenkins: 00:03:37

They took it and ran with it.

Shy Speaks: 00:03:38

Wow.

Kym Jenkins: 00:03:39

And I didn't think anything of it. And then it started getting bigger. And then it got bigger, like twice. It hit like two, three times. So I was like, oh, okay.

posted in like, late November: 2021

Shy Speaks: 00:04:02

Everybody.

Kym Jenkins: 00:04:02

Everybody named. And when I say everybody named Mama said it, it's like. It's weird because when people hear me talking, they be like, ooh, her voice sound familiar.

Her voice sounds familiar. And they'd be like, who are you? I said, oh, my name is Kim. Da da da. Act like, I ain't nothing going on. And they was like, I love your voice.

You sound just like this girl that say, like, papetta be sick of me. Da da. You talk just like her. And I be like, that's me.

Shy Speaks: 00:04:24

Oh, my goodness.

Kym Jenkins: 00:04:26

People.

Shy Speaks: 00:04:26

When we say people took it and ran with it, not only were they just saying it in real life, they were taking on social media. They would take the audio and put it on themselves, doing whatever I done had showing up. Like him.

Kym Jenkins: 00:04:37

I had a point. Plant life people, people that love they plants. I thought that was really cool. The Asian people, I thought that was really cool.

The football games and the basketball games. I was like, okay. You know what really surprised me the most is a European airline called Ryanair picked it up flying in the air.

It was a part of their commercial. I was like, wow. Oh, you done said something.

Shy Speaks: 00:04:59

You done shifting these air in the airwaves. It's in the airwaves y'all. Okay, so you just said. Cause one of our questions was, gonn. Did you do that on purpose?

Because there are people who know how to go viral. They know exactly what to do and what to say. But you say. You kind of posted, not really thinking much about it. You were just being yourself.

Kym Jenkins: 00:05:19

When people tell you that they know how to go viral, they're lying. I just want you to always know that. I want you to always know that they align because it really. It has so many different factors that come into play.

Relatability, how good it is, how bad it is, how relatable it is, how unrelatable it is. If it's satire, is it crazy? A lot of things go viral, not necessarily for good reason, but. Or a bad reason.

You can do something crazy like standing on top of a tree and jump down and break your leg. It's gonna go viral just because you're being stupid.

Shy Speaks: 00:05:50

Yeah.

Kym Jenkins: 00:05:50

So it's almost now positive. Virality is a whole nother story. Okay, but let's see.

I was literally sitting outside my job preparing to get my hair done, and that's literally what happened. My girlfriend Cece. And when I say girlfriend, she's like, my girlfriend.

Cause, you know, a lot of people, every time you say your girlfriend, that you. My girlfriend Cece, she does my hair when I'm in Florida. So she was getting ready to do some edge designs, because.

Some edge designs, you know, the little baby hair.

Shy Speaks: 00:06:26

You was gonna be cute.

Kym Jenkins: 00:06:27

I was about to be cute. And then they had, like, the. And because I have natural hair, my hair always frizzes up. My hair never does. The baby hair swoops.

So they came out with tattooed baby hairs. So I was gonna try them out, and I said, oh, y'all got these tattoo baby hairs, baby.

Shy Speaks: 00:06:42

Look at me, sister, me.

Kym Jenkins: 00:06:44

I'm like, prepare right now.

Shy Speaks: 00:06:46

See, if I put these little.

Kym Jenkins: 00:06:48

These baby hairs in, she better tattoo them on. Don't talk to me.

Shy Speaks: 00:06:52

My hair done.

Kym Jenkins: 00:06:53

Don't talk to me.

Shy Speaks: 00:06:54

Showing up, showing up.

Kym Jenkins: 00:06:56

And that's literally six seconds, y'all. That was a whole story. Like, back then, I was posting a lot in my stories because I wasn't really a huge poster on my feed.

So I got popular off of, like, watching my stor. I have more people watching my stories than actually watching my feed.

So, like, probably the same amount of people you see that I'm following is the same amount of people that watches my stories, because I'm, like, talking and I'm laughing and I'm playing and.

Yeah, I was working out really, really hard and I was exhausted and I was going here, giving them my review of today of my trainer because they like to do certain things that I'm paying for. Right. So, you know, there's no need for us to do ab workouts. I'm paying for that. You know, stop working on abs.

So, you know, I had to literally say, listen here, I'm paying for. Do something else. Do another exercise. Do another exercise.

So, you know, I was on my story just kind of just explaining my day and my life and that's kind of how a lot of my following on my community has been based. And since I just started my YouTube channel, Kim Folks has started popping off cuz it went from People of God to Kim folks.

But people on Instagram is still people of God. And I'm probably still going to keep people of God because I say that a lot.

And I even came out with a theme song called People of God based off of the intros to my stories on Instagram. And it literally has just transpired to now we just. Kim folks. We.

Shy Speaks: 00:08:16

Kim folks. Okay, so I knew, I didn't. I know you.

I don't know if people ask you that question all the time, but I knew that if I ask you, more of that personality was gonna pop out anyway. So they can understand. When we talk about being able to monetize the personality, the personality has to be there.

Now one thing you also talk about when we talk about virality, you were saying that people, it's. It's so many things that go into making something viral. And one of the things that you were, I think you were getting to was it's timing.

Kym Jenkins: 00:08:44

Yes.

Shy Speaks: 00:08:44

You say you put that out like November, December, that means it has time to catch a wave. So by the New Year. You reposted around New Year now people. So it's timing. Would that have happened if it was just like May, you know what I'm saying?

Yeah, but because it's New Year and people are like, you know what? This is gonna be my new year too. They're gonna be prepared to be sick of me this year, you know, so it became a mantra. So it's.

Timing matters as well. So it's a whole bunch of sweet spots that you have to hit.

Kym Jenkins: 00:09:12

Yes.

Shy Speaks: 00:09:13

Okay, now we have to go in because we want to give people take them behind the branch.

Kym Jenkins: 00:09:17

Okay.

Shy Speaks: 00:09:18

They want to, they want to go viral. If they go viral. When you went viral, were you able to monetize off that virality? Yes or no?

And if you and if you are trying to tell somebody else how do they need to be prepared for, you know, when they go viral to be able to monetize.

Kym Jenkins: 00:09:38

So I'm this type of person, you're never really ready until it happens and you're never really ready until it happens and it keeps happening. So you're going to be getting ready the entire time.

And there is like when I, When Prepare to be Sick of Me went viral, how I monetize off of that is I kept on posting and because I kept on posting I kept getting like people calling from the north, south, east and west about that audio. And I had to get all my legal affairs together and then I also had to trademark and copyright prepared to be sick me the audio and the sound.

That's when, when, when you were able to. It's like a new law that came out where you can now secure your creative intelligence.

And that's how I was able to kind of monetize prepared to be sick of me because everybody named Mama was saying it. And then it started getting really sticky and weird because big brands had started saying it.

So now when big brands are starting to say hello, you either going to give me creator tag or you going to pay me what you want to do. Which one? Which one you want to do? Cuz because it hits the Internet, once it hit Internet everything is free game.

They can recreate it, they can repurpose it, they can add audio to it. Must have hit the Internet, it's free game.

So you really have to be working with these brands and these different little people that work for them to make sure that you're taken care of and you're protected and then also that you get what you deserve. As far as if you want to get any type of monetary value because social media is like a two way game.

You can either get the exposure and make the money on the back end or you can make the money on the front end and they will pay you to use your stuff. I kind of chose both only because when I first hit it, when I first did Prepare to be sick of me, I posted it on Instagram.

I wasn't even on Tik Tok yet.

A girl had made a video in response to it on Instagram and she posted it to her TikTok and when she posted on the TikTok it, it blew up on her page on TikTok nobody knew who I was. That same day I had to literally.

Shy Speaks: 00:11:46

TikTok, get yourself together.

Kym Jenkins: 00:11:48

So I'm like oh my God, now I gotta get a TikTok. Cause she done hit a million on TikTok. And. Cause she was already a famous influencer, so she hit it. So everybody's like, that's not your time.

It was a huge beef. We had to talk, be email, all that type of good stuff. And she was like, I'm not trying to steal your stuff. And I'm like, honey, right?

Shy Speaks: 00:12:08

Just look.

Kym Jenkins: 00:12:09

I'm just trying to get my hair done again.

Shy Speaks: 00:12:11

Go ahead and tag me on the side.

Kym Jenkins: 00:12:12

And I was like, just go ahead and tag me. So it was a lot of different things. Like, you know, the TikTok Hustlers was literally like, we need to know who actually did the sound.

You're being fake. Da, da, da, da. They was attacking her. I was like, my. Okay, y'all keyboard champions, right?

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:12:29

So you mentioned, you know, you had to get some legal affairs in order, right?

So you had to protect your ip, your intellectual property with what were some of the things that you did to protect that moving forward for that particular sound, but then also moving forward for other things that you may do going forward.

Kym Jenkins: 00:12:50

I didn't have no legal affairs with social media in general at all. So getting them and legal affairs together, just getting my legal affairs together, helped with everything that has transpired afterwards.

So now, since that sound, people know the right channels to go through, so I don't really have as many legal troubles or legal battles because now it's, like, official. I'm an influencer. So it's almost like it's when you.

When you click the link in the bio, you know, you have to go through the things to have to do all this stuff or you want to be hit with a lawsuit afterwards. So a lot of these brands are smart, and they ask first. So when you ask first, you don't really have to do all the crazy, different little things.

So once you get ready, you already ready.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:13:36

Now, what. What does that, I guess, practically intangible look like? Like. Like, did you. Okay, I had. You had to do a trademark. Like. Like, what.

Kym Jenkins: 00:13:44

What was the actual.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:13:45

Yeah. What were the actual things that you did?

Kym Jenkins: 00:13:47

So the trademark and the copyright is something that you can Google and you can get a trademark lawyer. And once you get the trademark lawyer, they will do all the work for you and submit it on these different little platforms.

And when I say platforms mean, like, y'all. It's, like, legal stuff. I don't know.

Shy Speaks: 00:14:04

Right?

Kym Jenkins: 00:14:04

I pay somebody, right?

Shy Speaks: 00:14:06

This is not legal advice.

Kym Jenkins: 00:14:07

This is not legal advice. I pay somebody, okay? To figure all of that out. So for me to regurgitate it, I may sound a little stupid.

Shy Speaks: 00:14:16

Right. So for it to be in the right place, is that for it to.

Kym Jenkins: 00:14:18

Be in the right places? Yeah.

Shy Speaks: 00:14:19

Okay. And then did you get some contracts made or did you.

Kym Jenkins: 00:14:22

I do have contracts made, and my contracts that are made are specifically for brands and or events that want to use that sound in a certain way. So even when you get a trademark, some people can still use it if you don't trademark it in those certain ways.

So say that I trademarked it for clothing, but I didn't trademark it for food. Somebody can come and trademark it for food, and that's theirs. So it's almost like, oh, you. You the one that said ped sick to me.

But if somebody came out with pepper be sick of me chips, I can't say nothing to it.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:14:53

You didn't trademark it for.

Kym Jenkins: 00:14:55

I didn't trademark it for prepared to be sickens.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:14:57

It's different things.

Kym Jenkins: 00:14:59

It's the same thing. The same thing with LLCs. You can have Ken Jenkins, LLC, Florida. If I don't have Kim Jenkins, LLC, Texas. Somebody can have Kim Jenkins, LLC, Texas.

Shy Speaks: 00:15:11

Yeah.

Kym Jenkins: 00:15:12

So just like you can have your domain name or your LLC name is only protected in the state that you live in, so is like trademarked if you don't do it for those specific items.

So if you don't do it for apparel, if you don't do it for Internet, if you don't do it for chips, if you don't do it for education, if you don't do it for law practices, people can take it because.

Shy Speaks: 00:15:35

And it's not because the law wants to allow you to be taken advantage of, but they're only going to protect your intellectual property. And your intellectual property has to do with what was your intent exactly. I intended for it to be this. This that.

I intended for it to be applied in these ways.

Kym Jenkins: 00:15:51

Absolutely.

Shy Speaks: 00:15:51

If that wasn't your intent, you can't just take the intent for somebody else who has something else and may mean something else by it. And so I love what you're talking about. I love the fact that you're saying, dana, you got yourself ready.

But it sounds like if somebody already know I got something, I'm going to come out with this, I'm going to blow this up. You might want to be getting your legal affairs and you also want to.

Kym Jenkins: 00:16:11

Keep you some legal affairs, because you never know what people can do and will do. Because the thing is, intent is the intent of it is protected.

But how else how it works for Somebody else is totally different and if you get jealous of that person because they don't pop dog. So if a pedal be sick of me, chips come out and they popping off with the chips. I legally cannot say anything about it or try to attack them.

Now I can pay them out and take it, but that's a whole lot of money that I don't really care about.

Shy Speaks: 00:16:38

Right.

Kym Jenkins: 00:16:38

I don't care to partner or something. Yeah. Or some. We can partner. We can do a whole lot of different things.

And that's if they want to, that's up to their discretion because mind you, I did not trade my signal chips. So a lot of times people get upset when people steal their stuff, but it's not necessarily stolen.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:16:54

Yeah.

Kym Jenkins: 00:16:55

When you go about it the right way. And that's why it costs so much money to trademark and or copyright because you have to do all the avenues if you want to be fully protected.

Shy Speaks: 00:17:06

Wow.

Kym Jenkins: 00:17:07

Just like Cardi B did Okurk, she had to trade that. It was extremely expensive because she trademarked it every area.

So when I say expensive, if one area costs a thousand, another one costs 300, another one costs 500, another one costs a thousand. All these different articles, they add up.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:17:28

Yeah.

Kym Jenkins: 00:17:29

So if article costs a thousand dollars a piece and you do five, that's $5,000. Plus the legal fees. And for me, waking up in the morning and posting a six minute clip, it wouldn't. I don't have that six second clip.

I don't have that. Not immediately. Right. So even furthering that monetization, I've been on so many different platforms. Yes.

I have been booked to host and moderate all these different places. So it has really expanded my creativity as far as what to create, how to create the breakdown of it.

Because people ask you a thousand and one questions about how he went viral with that audio. And honestly, because I'm a marketer, I do know the back end of it, but I didn't necessarily do it on purpose.

Shy Speaks: 00:18:14

It just naturally.

Kym Jenkins: 00:18:15

It just naturally just came out.

Shy Speaks: 00:18:17

I like what you were saying about monetizing virality because people thinking I'm gonna just legalify everything, but that may not even be where the money at. The money is like you said, that's on the, that's on the back end and the front end. So the other end is like being able to.

Because people seen the infectious personality, because people seen the tenacity, they know there's a confidence behind somebody who's saying that. Now you're getting all these bookings. And so when they do the bookings now. They're flying you to come there, plus paying you a rate to be there.

Right. How many bookings would you say that you got off of just hosting and stuff like that from then to now? Just.

Kym Jenkins: 00:18:56

I have no clue. Not a clue.

Shy Speaks: 00:18:59

Yeah, it's just not a clue.

Kym Jenkins: 00:19:02

I don't have. I can't tell y'all how many I've had. I can't really tell y'all or count how many I've done because I'm still getting booked off of that.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:19:10

Wow.

Shy Speaks: 00:19:10

Wow. So just a lot.

Kym Jenkins: 00:19:12

Just a lot. I would say a lot. And a lot to me is because I also work full time as an entrepreneur. A lot of times you don't know why you're being booked.

You can be booked for your expertise in the area. And because of that, you could be booked because today is Monday. You could be booked because they needed a fill in.

You could be booked because of a thousand different reasons. So you just becoming a commodity yourself or you, the brand is hot. You can be booked for a thousand different reasons.

Shy Speaks: 00:19:41

Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about. Yeah, I know what you're saying. Especially for people who are multifaceted. It's like dip. If I'm Tabitha Brown, for example, Right?

Or you like Tabitha because Donna the hair. Do you like Tabitha because of the seasoning? Do you like Tabitha because of the personality? Do you like Tabitha because of the clothes?

Like, because I have so many. There's some couple different aspects of me I can't associate everything to.

Just that there are some other things that I'm doing, marketing, promoting myself in different ways and some other skill sets that I have that's causing me to come full come up. So all you just know is she just said it's just up and it's stuck. That's all she's between.

Kym Jenkins: 00:20:18

Honestly, y'all, it's really you up and you stuck. And then because I am a multi hyphenated creative, I can get booked for anything and I can show up as anything.

And then people be like, well, who are you? And I'd be like, I'm a multi hyphenated creative. My name is Kim. And then it's almost like, I need you to.

I'm gonna send you my page so you can go down the rabbit hole. So a lot of people kind of feel like I'm a comedian. And I promise y'all, I don't have no jokes to tell. It's really the personality.

And it's also how I think about things, how I express things. I'm a, I'm churchy by nature. So, you know, I say go forth in your praise, like naturally.

So instead of saying, yes, I'll be like, oh, go forth within your praise because I'm churchy by nature. So people think I'm like a Christian comedian. I'm not necessarily a Christian comedian because I have not one joke written down.

And I meet a lot of different Christian comedians. They're like my brothers and sisters and I love them dearly. And they'd be like, kim, you really could be a comedian if you wanted to.

And I'd be like, yeah, but that ain't necessarily me.

Shy Speaks: 00:21:21

Yeah, no, but it's like you just be serious. They be playing the whole time. They just playing. I'll just be serious.

Kym Jenkins: 00:21:28

They just, they playing or they, they want to make you laugh or they're just talking about the story and it's going to be funny. And I am dead serious. This is how I really feel. This is what's really going on. And this is my natural reaction.

Shy Speaks: 00:21:41

Okay, so let's. Okay, so we talked about the media piece. I want to talk about like your outlook.

And because you have a marketing company, you said, you were saying I also am full time entrepreneur out here. So you have the marketing piece as well. And of course they can. You're an influencer. Brands may want to partner with you on that.

Hey, can you promote this product for us? Because technically it's marketing. But that's what. Right, that's what you're doing. People won't say, they say I'm influencer.

You just glorify your marketing. Okay, yeah, but you're just using your personality or your content creation.

Kym Jenkins: 00:22:16

Marketing.

Shy Speaks: 00:22:16

Marketing.

Kym Jenkins: 00:22:17

Content marketing is content creation.

Shy Speaks: 00:22:19

That's what it is. Right? And so I want to ask you about that. I want to ask you about the market.

So tell us a little bit more about when you say, this is not just me, someone tapping into my personality. They're seeking for my marketing company to help them. What does your marketing company do?

Kym Jenkins: 00:22:36

So my marketing company specializes in everything that is authentic. So your brand is an authentic brand. How you look, how you feel, the emotions you express, the reputation, how you feel when somebody leaves you.

That's what my marketing firm specializes in. How people remember you. How do you make people feel the authenticity of it all?

I kind of make things real and make things touchable or make things down to earth, as people would say. But I specialize in that mainly because in this day and age, people want what's real and what's authentic.

So it's kind of popping to be real and truthful. It's popping. Whereas gimmicks and schemes. You can make a quick buck, but it won't last. So I'm really big on.

I specialize in retention, I specialize in longevity, I specialize in increase, I specialize in authenticity. So when people hire me as like their marketer or their creative director, this is what they're asking for.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:23:36

Right, Right. So, yeah, I, I like that he's like, you know, following gimmicks or trends.

Kym Jenkins: 00:23:42

Yeah.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:23:42

It's like it can get you that quick thing right now.

Kym Jenkins: 00:23:45

I can absolutely manipulate you. I can manipulate you and make a quick buck or I can make you family and you be giving me your money for the rest of your life.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:23:53

Exactly.

Kym Jenkins: 00:23:53

So I choose to market people in a way. I want you to give me your money for the rest of your life versus just trying to get $1,000 out you.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:24:01

Yeah.

Kym Jenkins: 00:24:02

I always tell people you can always. You can become a six figure earner if you can get one person to give you $1,000.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:24:09

Right.

Kym Jenkins: 00:24:09

If you get one person to keep. Always give you $1,000 if you can multiply that by 12. Gonna hit it.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:24:14

Yeah. Yeah, no, that's, that's good.

Kym Jenkins: 00:24:16

You gonna hit it. You just find one person to give you a thousand dollars every month. You're good.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:24:21

Yeah, no, that's big. That's big. Cause I believe in that. Right. It's like, okay.

And we see this all the time in this, in this industry where it's like, it's just a one time thing. Right. But then either they didn't deliver or it wasn't the quality that they expected it to be. So it's like I'm not returning.

And not only am I not returning, but I'm gonna let somebody else know you don't want to do business with them because they didn't do whatever. But you're saying, nope, I'm going to focus on the long game.

Kym Jenkins: 00:24:49

Right.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:24:50

It's like, so, yeah, so I may not get a thousand dollars from you right now. Right.

I may be able to get 500, but at the end of the day, that value is going to be more because when it's all said and done, I probably got $20,000 exactly. You know what I'm saying? And it's not because I'm trying to get $20,000. It's because I want, I'm showing up authentically me.

I'm being genuine in everything that I'm doing. I want to add value to what it is that you're doing and that's what you're coming to me for. And yeah, that just, that's. No, that's.

Shy Speaks: 00:25:19

And people think it's like getting it out of them. And that's why when we talk about these creative, on these conversations, we begin to talk about money. It's like, well, how to get the money out of.

No, I'm talking about adding value to you over the long run as opposed to gimmicky. And that's a strategy. But when authenticity is the strategy.

Kym Jenkins: 00:25:38

Yeah.

Shy Speaks: 00:25:38

I'm talking about building a long term relationship with you, which is like we become partners.

Kym Jenkins: 00:25:43

Yes.

Shy Speaks: 00:25:43

Right. I'm doing this, you're doing that.

Of course there's a paid transaction that I'm getting out of it, but you're getting value over the long run as opposed to me just here, just trying to. I didn't do it. Now that may not be. Yeah.

Kym Jenkins: 00:25:54

And that, that mindset and strategy alone literally is what made me hit six figures. Because people, there's a, a lot of people be upset because there's so many people in the same market as them.

So they'd be like, how do I stick out of the market? How do I stick out of the market? Because everybody does the same thing that I do.

It's the boils all the way down to if they like you, it's not even if you are less expensive or you're the most expensive, it's do I like you?

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:26:23

Yeah.

Kym Jenkins: 00:26:24

And I have probably excelled the most because they like me.

And because I can tell you, I can refer you to a thousand one people that does the exact same thing that I do that can give you the exact same results that I do. But you don't like them.

Shy Speaks: 00:26:39

Something about it feel.

Kym Jenkins: 00:26:40

Something about them feels weird, something about it feels fishy. It's either a rush, is it? But that's a personality trait.

So going back to how do you monetize your personality when you are monetizing your business, can people trust you? Because they can always go find somebody else for the business.

Shy Speaks: 00:26:54

Right.

Kym Jenkins: 00:26:55

And I think that alone is what kind of helps you matriculate up in your finances. Is becoming a good person and having a great character. That's what really kind of solidifies your business.

If I can believe you, if I can trust you, if somebody has an operating budget of a million dollars, are you going to spend it on yourself or are you going to make me money? And I'm really big on. If you give him A million dollars, baby. You're going to have 5 million. Because I'm about to flip that money.

Shy Speaks: 00:27:24

Right. And I love what you said.

I was telling somebody earlier, people always say in the entrepreneur world, we started this podcast because there's a lot of entrepreneur podcasts, but not creative entrepreneur podcasts. And the conversation is a little bit different. We're talking about monetizing your personality, we're talking about monetizing your outlook.

We're talking about marketing, creative and creating experiences, events. That's different than like, I have a car sales company and I sell this many cars. This is different.

Yeah, but in that world, they talk a lot about make sure that people know, like, and trust you. And that's what you just said. They like me, first of all. And then you talked about they trust me.

So I'm like, she has the same, it's the same principle. But how do we apply that over here? And what you're saying is when you, when people come to you as your client, you're.

You're making sure that they're creating something that people can really like them for what they really doing. People can really trust what they're really doing and that will help them see results on the back end.

Kym Jenkins: 00:28:20

Absolutely. I always tell people this.

You can tell me, you can tell me what event that you're getting ready to have, and I can tell you if you want to sell out or not. Only because how relatable is it to people and how much of a asset it is to people.

Thing is, when you create liabilities, nobody's not going to pick that up. But if you create assets, everybody eat. So the thing is, when you are trying to figure out what your. What is your business lacking?

Are you answering a question? Are you setting yourself to be an answer? Are you setting yourself up to fill a need? Are you setting yourself up to fill in the blank?

Because a lot of times you won't get chosen just because it ain't nothing to you. It ain't nothing to it. I can go hire some. If I wanted a regular cleaning company, I can just go hire Sallie Mae to come and clean my house.

But I like Louisa because Louisa is going to be on her hands and knees scrubbing baseboards.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:29:12

Right.

Kym Jenkins: 00:29:12

Louisa is a baseball is scrubs baseboards. They just clean a house. So it depends on what you want. Convenience, level of intentionality. Because Louisa costs more money.

But I know she actually cares about cleaning my house versus a regular company. They're just going to clean for $19.

Shy Speaks: 00:29:29

And then that's it, that's it.

Kym Jenkins: 00:29:31

And that it ain't even clean this kind of one. Let's just put stuff up. So it's a difference and there's level to this.

And I want to really express like with creators, your character matters the most. That's important because mind you, we're all creative like the same thing.

If I pick up a camera and somebody else pick up a camera, we have full opportunity to both know how to use that camera. But what makes us different is your character and what makes you different is your outlook.

So whereas you think a static shot is amazing and I think action driven shots are amazing, people that like static shots are going to you. People that like action shots are coming to me. I'm not going to make a static shot person like action shots.

Shy Speaks: 00:30:12

Okay, so you talked about your clients, right? Or what you help them do and embrace this authenticity as their strategy and that works for them. Who would you say your clients are and how?

Like how do you get more clients?

Kym Jenkins: 00:30:28

So my clients are entrepreneurs, faith based organizations, entertainment record zecs, music execs, all those different kind of people that desire to prolong or give longevity to their business or longevity to their product or longevity to whatever their proposition is. They will hire me to kind of make everything longer or sustainable or create a community around it, or make a family around it.

Because that's my niche. Like when people come to me, I low key make you feel like you can tell me everything in your life going on.

Because I'm the type person where I can get naked in front of you and I desire for you to get naked in front of me. Meaning I can tell you everything and you can tell me everything. I built that trust. So we know each other, right? We're good.

I create that not only for my client, but my clients to their clients. Right. Or they're my clients to my clients to their consumers.

Shy Speaks: 00:31:29

So yeah, yeah.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:31:33

So with that clientele base that you just mentioned, how do they find you? Or how do you find them? Like what's your process for that?

Shy Speaks: 00:31:43

You said church.

Kym Jenkins: 00:31:44

So my process for that would be most of the time I am he say, she say. Because once you get into the industry, industry people fool with industry people.

They refer and they refer you and then they refer you, then they refer you and then you also get referred by results. So if somebody sees you here, there and everywhere, they be like, well, who helped you do this? And they're going to tell you who helped you do this?

And then they like, oh, Kim Jenkins. And then you go to kimchenkins.com and then do all the things and then that's how you get a new, you get a new client.

But a lot of times when it comes to creativity or your creative entrepreneurship journey, you are probably referral based and, or you're solidified by referrals, but you are ignited by just being by your own intentionality with your work. I probably got the most, yeah, I would say I got the most clients by just actively doing what I do.

So because of how successful I am, I make people want to work with me because I actively do what I do for other people and I do it for me.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:32:45

Right? Okay.

Kym Jenkins: 00:32:46

So if I tell you to create a family, I have a family created. If I tell you that you need, you can get your highest product.

But I have a thousand dollar product and you can sell it, I'm gonna tell you how to sell it because I sell mine. So it's like a lot of people trust me because I do it for me.

And you are only as great as your quote unquote worst client or you're only as great as what you portray in your regular daily life. So because I don't subscribe to affordability, I never push. I'm affordable. I'm not pushing that I'm affordable because in reality I'm not.

I'm result driven.

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Shy Speaks: 00:34:26

We talked about that when we were like, man, we're getting ready to have Kim Jenkins on. And I was like, I wonder what is her pricing strategy? Because you know, we want to give people the strategies. And I said, she doesn't.

If I don't look at her stuff and say, you know, she's she low ticket or she's affordable.

It's not that you're trying to look like I'm super high, but it's just you're not trying to go out here and say I'm the cheap, I'm the lowest cost, whatever.

Kym Jenkins: 00:34:48

I'm not about a price at all.

My whole thing, I am not price based because at the end of the day I like a certain lifestyle, I have certain dollar bills and I need that to match up with my work ethic. A lot of times people like to people shoot low end because they want more clients.

me out of back end story. In: 2010

So like I would have like flyer sales all the time where they were like 75 or they were 50 or they were 25. But that only brought me low hanging fruit. And the only clientele that I had was those people that could only afford $50, 25 flyers.

And I want to charge 200 for flyers. I need to get around people that don't mind spending 200 flyers.

So what kind of changed the game for me is elevating my mindset on not only how I see myself but creating a worth ethic people can honor. Right. So if I tell you if when you working with me, you just don't get a flyer, you get a whole campaign.

When you work with me, you just don't get a campaign. You now have results of increase sold out if those are your goals. I sell goals, right?

Yeah, yeah, I sell goals, I sell outcomes, I sell like when people ask me, oh, Kim, I want you to be the market for this event. I'm gonna ask you, so what do you want to do? I want to. Do you want to have X amount of more people come? Do you want to hit a certain number?

Do you want to hit? What do you want to do? Because that's how I'm going to focus my energy as far as marketing. If you just want to be well known, we can do that all day.

If you want to make a certain amount of money that comes with intentionality. So I need to price it right and then I need you to make sure that you are hitting these points to price it right.

So it's almost like I'm a graphic designer, but I also know about color.

I went to school, I know about videography, I know about the people that you are coming, I know about the target audience, I know about how colors make people feel. So when I say oh, your fries will cost $200, they don't bat an eye because everything is catered to who they are desiring to get.

Shy Speaks: 00:36:56

Right, Right.

Kym Jenkins: 00:36:56

So if I say I want something spa, I'm not gonna make the flyer look kiddish.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:37:00

Right.

Kym Jenkins: 00:37:01

You can go to any graphic designer and they can make you a spa flyer and it can look like anything.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:37:05

Yeah.

Kym Jenkins: 00:37:06

But it's not going to give you looks.

Shy Speaks: 00:37:07

Right.

Kym Jenkins: 00:37:08

You want somebody that can give you looks.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:37:10

Right.

Shy Speaks: 00:37:10

Right.

Kym Jenkins: 00:37:11

Not get somebody that can give you just. That can do the job.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:37:13

Yeah.

Kym Jenkins: 00:37:14

So you go to people that can give you what you ask for, that can meet the goals that you desire, and that comes with a price point.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:37:21

Now, okay, so even that. Right. You just mentioned how. Okay, I'm goals and objective based.

Kym Jenkins: 00:37:29

Yes.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:37:29

Right.

Because you said a lot of times people will come to you and think that I just want a flyer, I just want a website or whatever, but you have the wherewithal to be like, I know that's what you're coming to me for, and that's what you think that you want, but I know what.

Kym Jenkins: 00:37:43

You need, and I'm going to pull.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:37:45

That out of you. Right. And I'm going to present to you. This is what you need, and this is why you need it.

And I can provide that need based off of, like you say, the value and things like that. And that's just. That's a whole nother game now, you going from a $200 flyer to maybe now a $2,000 project. Because now it's more than a flyer.

Kym Jenkins: 00:38:06

Exactly.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:38:06

You said it's a campaign. So that includes the flyer. But it's not limited to.

Kym Jenkins: 00:38:10

It's not limited to, we got a website.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:38:11

Now, you may have some other lead magnets, like you have all these things, but it's still based off of garbage.

Kym Jenkins: 00:38:18

It goes into everything.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:38:19

Yeah. No, that's big.

Shy Speaks: 00:38:20

So I love it. Because the price is based on your goals.

Kym Jenkins: 00:38:24

The price is. The price is based. Honestly, if that would really get you out of the rut of one offs and that would get you out of the rut of charging item by item.

And I always tell people this too, because I have a lot of creative entrepreneurs scale up to six figures, and it's in their main concern is, Kim, how do I get clients and how do I come out of the rut of only making a thousand dollars a month? And I want to make five. I don't want to.

You need to create some type of program for yourself, like a retainer program, or you need to be able to scale everything that you do to do one thing. So, like, if I do graphics, and I do like a multiple set of graphics every One of those graphics costs money.

So I'm not just doing one square and I'm sending you one square. I'm doing one square. I'm doing a story. I'm doing a real. I'm doing a banner. I'm doing this big banner. I'm doing this poster. I'm doing this poster.

And there's: 1501

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:39:22

Right.

Kym Jenkins: 00:39:23

That's what I said though. Right?

Shy Speaks: 00:39:24

So you, you didn't, you didn't. You need marketing collateral.

Kym Jenkins: 00:39:27

You need marketing collateral.

Shy Speaks: 00:39:30

You don't want. You don't need a flyer. You want a flyer, but you need marketing collateral because I'm helping you create an experience.

Kym Jenkins: 00:39:37

Yep. You need advertisement. You need promotion.

So now you went from I need a flyer to now you are a person that creates marketing collateral or advertisement collateral or promotional collateral for an event person, place, or name.

Shy Speaks: 00:39:52

Wow.

Kym Jenkins: 00:39:53

So that's, that's how you kind of times and multiply your money and you.

Shy Speaks: 00:39:57

Want to get out and after. One by one by one. Exactly.

Kym Jenkins: 00:39:59

Even when it comes to like photographers. I have one photographer client that gets hit six.

And they literally went to creating a retainer program for those that are content creators that want to have, that are fashion and or beauty based. They take pictures a lot. So we created packages, retainer packages for them. If you pay me $1,000 a month, I would give you 15 photos a month.

15 photos a month divided by 4 weeks is 3 photos a week. So we can do a content day and shoot it in one hour. And then now you have photos for the whole month. And you just get.

Now that is one client, that's a thousand. You get another client that do that, another client to do that. Another client. And mind you, a thousand is on the lower end.

Shy Speaks: 00:40:41

First of all, she said it earlier and we let it, we let it roll live, but she said if you can get, you have something that you can offer as a thousand dollars. Yeah, she said, and they're going to be paying you that every month when you have to scale up your, your offer now you do be more valuable, right?

They're paying a thousand dollars a month. That's one beauty influencer. You need 12 of them paying you that. 12 times 12, huh?

Kym Jenkins: 00:41:01

Class. Okay, it's 144.

Shy Speaks: 00:41:02

It's 144.

Kym Jenkins: 00:41:03

And the zeros on the end is what? 144,000.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:41:07

Right?

Shy Speaks: 00:41:07

Now you.

Kym Jenkins: 00:41:07

Enough. Now you. Now you're gonna hit six figures, right? So it's almost like. And Then you can kind of depending on your workload or how you feel.

Because I'm type of person, I don't like being overwhelmed. I don't want to talk to 12 people a month.

Shy Speaks: 00:41:19

12 people is a lot. Depending on who you are.

Kym Jenkins: 00:41:22

Depending on who you are. Now if your work ethic can suit 12 people, you go for your praise. My work ethic suits about a good five to three.

So I will charge maybe about those five to three. Close to $3,000 a month. Right. Or 35 or four or eight or eight.

Shy Speaks: 00:41:40

Right.

Kym Jenkins: 00:41:40

So depending on what they need. Because I'm type person that I like to dive into projects and I am fully consumed with what you want me to do.

So versus so you have to know yourself, if you're not that fully invested, ain't no need to have all those clients because you don't really care like that.

Shy Speaks: 00:41:57

Right.

Kym Jenkins: 00:41:57

If you want to have a few clients, that means you got to be fully invested. And that's when you charge more for a few because you are fully invested.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:42:05

But that you just said something. You got to know yourself.

Kym Jenkins: 00:42:08

You got to know yourself.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:42:09

You got to be self aware, know your strengths and your weaknesses. Like you said, it's like listen, 12 people a month, that sound good? It look good on the, you know, on the bank statement, right? It look good.

But if you don't have capacity based off of your temperament, your personality, like you gonna ruin it, you'll ruin your whole business.

Kym Jenkins: 00:42:25

Just because you personally cannot handle 12 people talking to you at one time.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:42:28

Exactly.

Kym Jenkins: 00:42:29

And I know for me I would not be a six figure earner if I had 12 people talking to me. Because I won't be able to execute and I won't be able to get you the results. Because my mind is divided by 12. That's exhausting.

And I always tell people like, even if when you do one off flyers or as far as a graphic design or a website, all that stuff takes time. And you got 12,000 opinions. So every person comes with at least six people, six other people opinions. Right?

Shy Speaks: 00:42:52

And here's the thing. She, she, she really just, she's saying 12 is a lot for us depending on who you are.

But if you're doing one off flyers and one off little designs, you may have way more than 12 at a time.

Kym Jenkins: 00:43:04

Exactly.

Shy Speaks: 00:43:04

You can have 40 different people, one getting $100 fly, one getting the $25 little car, one get. So you really could have a lot of people.

So she really just scaled you from all those people down to 12 or clients that you can work with on a retaining pain base.

Kym Jenkins: 00:43:18

That would.

Shy Speaks: 00:43:18

That's just really. That was already helpful. But she's saying, now take it a step further.

If you already know you don't have the capacity for 12, how do I uplevel my game? Right? How do I up level my game so that I can have fewer clients and still meet this particular objective?

But also, I'm working with different people now because I'm working with somebody who's willing to pay $3,000 versus somebody who was paying 100. Why the person who was paying 100 was just gonna have a little. They was gonna have a little something.

Kym Jenkins: 00:43:45

Something, whatever I just thought of. Because that's the thing too. You gotta charge for the fact that you are a creator.

You're creating something every single time you work with somebody because they do not want what so and so has. So every time.

That's why you really, as a creative entrepreneur, you really have to start, stop and pace yourself and think about what you're offering and who you're working with. Because you have those clients that are absolutely exhausting because they're either indecisive.

So you're guessing, and that's exhausting to work with. But some people are indecisive. They cannot help, but they are indecisive. So you have to make a decision for them.

And then if they don't like that decision, you have to make another decision. You have to go to another decision. And mind you, Those are like 12, 3, 6, 9 designs or concepts that are all from your head, right?

So you really have to be careful about how many people you take on. And also the time that it takes for you to even do what you do. For me, I can design a flyer, probably less than an hour.

If I'm working with somebody difficult, it'll probably take me a couple days, Right? Because now I'm scrambling in my head on how I'm going to please them, how I'm going to please them.

And that's another question that I ask when I get these big projects. Who am I pleasing? Because I can design for shy six other voices. But the six other voices don't like it. Shy is not questioning her decision.

So I need to know, am I designing for Shy or am I designed for the six people that Shy talk to? Yeah, and I need to know who the six people that Shy talk to.

Because if Ron don't like minimalistic and Sean does, Rhonda's gonna say, this is not enough. This is nothing. And then Sha's like Well, I thought it was enough, but you know, maybe you can use a little bit more.

And then now she's coming back to me and I'm like, okay, yeah, right. What does Ron like? So it goes from when you working with people that are either as creative as you or as indecis, like you really have to.

It's a limbo, it's a dance.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:45:51

Yeah.

Kym Jenkins: 00:45:52

And how many people you want to dance with? Hello? How many.

Shy Speaks: 00:45:57

How many people do you want to dance with?

Kym Jenkins: 00:45:59

And it's a lot.

Shy Speaks: 00:46:00

Okay, I got a. I have a question for you. So we've been using graphics and a website for an example.

I'm sure that there are more, more things that you provide in the marketing company. Do you do email? Like what all what other services? So I'm let me from somebody who is like, okay, I have that outlook too.

I can create these experiences. I can create marketing. I don't want to just do one piece. I want to do your whole marketing collateral.

Okay, they did the collateral, but now that's not enough to take them to that next level of payment because you probably are a different price based on. You get more into it.

So when you say into it, what are some of the other services that they can add to that package to make, to level it up to three to five.

Kym Jenkins: 00:46:39

So you have the executor that does the work, you have the person that plans the work, you have the person that follow the work. You have the person that needs to work. So if I'm the graphic designer, I'm either going to one just execute and do what I'm told.

So you have the person that does what they're told, which is me, the graphic designer. And then you also have a person that plans the event that says this needs to get done. That's an organizer. That's like the project manager.

You can play project manager. I've done that.

And then you can also have a person that thought of, that's a strategist that's trying to figure out what this is going to look like to get a certain result. And then you're the person that sits at the top that needs you to execute everything for this, another client, different spots, right.

Different thought processes. So that's how you kind of level up and you charge more.

So if I'm a graphic designer, but I'm also the strategist and I'm also person that planned the event and I'm also the person that needs this. Need this collateral, I'm all those things. So now you're going to be paying me a directorial price versus a one off price.

Shy Speaks: 00:47:48

Right. Or, or now we can go here.

If, if you're the person who's the person who thought of the idea, you can now hire all those other people to work under you. So now when you go to a client, you're saying you get my team.

Kym Jenkins: 00:48:02

Exactly.

Shy Speaks: 00:48:02

And so I'm the person who's, I forgot the level above strategy because I'm not, you know, Ms. Kim, it's the.

Kym Jenkins: 00:48:08

Person, it's the person that you go to, I would say the person that either thought, that thinks about the event or thought of the event. So you have the thought person, you have the strategized person, you have the plan person, you have the do person.

Shy Speaks: 00:48:19

Right? Right. So she, she says, hey, so I'm going to a client, if this is a client I'm seeking.

And you're saying basically I thought of this event for you, this will be an amazing experience for you. Now you're the top person and I have this person here, she's a strategist.

And I'm also going to hire this person that's going to be, that's going to be the planner for you. And then we also have a team of graphic designers that does, that does the actual work for you.

And so with all of that, you get when you give me the, this person who's bringing this event to you, this is going to sell out. This is going to be the event.

Kym Jenkins: 00:48:52

And that's when I hit you with a bank statement of $25,000.

Shy Speaks: 00:48:55

Okay, there we go.

Kym Jenkins: 00:48:56

Because now I'm 25 and then I got to divide it down for all those people that's a part of my team. So I probably do have graphic Designer that costs 150 for a flyer.

She's also a part of a team, but I also need to pay the person that is going to organize her and keep her on track.

So the project manager and I also got to give the project manager something to think about or something to do or criteria to know that the people that's under her is doing it. Correct, the strategized person.

And then you also have the person that's above the strategized person that says, hey, I need this event to get done and this is the event. Make it happen. Do you have that person?

So it's like it's a lot of different people that comes into play and however you want to move up that ladder is according to how much you want to get paid. Now you can be that one person and do all of it. Like I'm that one person that does all of it.

Shy Speaks: 00:49:45

Right.

Kym Jenkins: 00:49:45

So when I hands on it depends.

Shy Speaks: 00:49:49

Sometimes. Sometimes. Okay, sometimes.

Kym Jenkins: 00:49:51

And when I say sometimes, if I'm on a retainer base, that level is a lot lower. I can probably do it for about $3,000 if I'm on a higher end. Or is it like a one off that price skyrockets because now I'm in a time bracket.

So say if you want to hire a marketing director for four months, I'm really getting ready to pull something out of the hat and make something happen. And then after four months is over, I'm going to go get in my bed.

So that price ticket is a lot larger because now you just took out a chunk of my time in my life to do something for you to make you successful or have more money or have more notoriety.

Shy Speaks: 00:50:30

Right. So. So here's the thing. And I just want to make it clear for these experienced curators. Yeah, there are.

So yes, you went from being doing the flyer to, as you see, we just charge you 25,000 because we're going to do the experience. And they don't have to do. Pretty much don't have to do anything of the event. They've outsourced that to somebody.

But these events that are of this caliber, they're going to make money off of this event. Sometimes the tickets to get into these events is 40, sometimes $100, sometimes $200. Sometimes these events cost $500 per plate. If it's a fundraiser.

Sometimes this event is from Michelle Obama and she's having this event. But you think Michelle got time to be doing all them layers of whatever?

Kym Jenkins: 00:51:08

Not at all.

Shy Speaks: 00:51:09

She's gonna go hire somebody who knows all the things that goes into an experience, and she's going to hire them and they're going to do everything. And the graphic and the marketing is the thing that's. I mean, the graphic and the website is the thing that's going to pull people in.

It's the first thing people see. It's the first thing people see. And it's important. Got to make sure this looks right.

Kym Jenkins: 00:51:25

Yep.

Shy Speaks: 00:51:26

Got to make sure this looks right.

Kym Jenkins: 00:51:27

It feels right.

Shy Speaks: 00:51:28

It feels right. Because then this is letting them know how it's going to feel when they get to event.

They don't even know how to event going to feel till they get there. So we have to do that here.

So now I'm looking from this person is one person is doing an open mic and they just need a Flyer versus this person is hosting a fundraiser and they need this. This person is hosting an annual gala. This person. So my clientele change because I'm Kim or I'm the curator. You.

You know that at this point I want to work with people who try to create experiences. Because I create experiences.

Kym Jenkins: 00:51:59

Exactly. You hit there.

Shy Speaks: 00:52:07

So you really.

Kym Jenkins: 00:52:08

Cause I'm like, that's in my head and that's literally what I do.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:52:14

Okay. Now, that being said. Okay, what are some of the tools and resources that you utilize to pull those events off, to pull those experiences off?

Especially if it's. It's one thing. If it's just you, I want to know what tools you use. Right, okay. Because there's some tools I'm sure that you use on a solo.

But then if you're using contractors and bringing other people in, what are some other tools that you use when it comes to like maybe communication, invoicing, whatever. Whatever your process are, what are some of those things?

Shy Speaks: 00:52:40

Give us the back end.

Kym Jenkins: 00:52:41

So back in Kim would be I am, I'm community based and I. When I say community based, I know a lot of people that know how to do a lot of different things.

So back in Kim, I use my weaknesses, and when I say I use my weakness, I hire my weakness. I'm not really a great organizer and, or a planner unless I am solely doing that. Therefore, I have to hire that I'm not really in front of.

I don't necessarily shoot pictures anymore, but I know amazing photographers that shoot the way I like to shoot and I hire them. So that's kind of how you would build your team to kind of stay in that same vein as you.

You have to know your likes, dislikes, and your style because that's what somebody is hiring. So even though you can hire a thousand different people to kind of do up, you need to hire them specifically for who you are or how you execute.

Shy Speaks: 00:53:38

So that's that.

Kym Jenkins: 00:53:40

Hiring people I also use AI. ChatGPT is my friend.

So when I'm writing proposals or if I'm writing how to say something politically correct, I am going to chatgpt it to this and I'm going to change the tones of voice and I'm going to change the audiences. I'm going to change how they say this, or it needs to be professional or if it needs to be relatable, if it needs to be this.

Because naturally, how I speak, I'm from a small city in Florida and I'm a little country and I talk fast and I speak fluent Ebonics.

Shy Speaks: 00:54:12

That may not be the style of.

Kym Jenkins: 00:54:13

The event, that may not be the style of the event, that may not be the style of the person, but that ain't none of my business. I'm hired to do X, Y and Z. Use your resources. So I'm going to ChatGPT.

I also, for organizational purpose, use Monday.com so that allows my clients that are on retainers to always be able to request and organize their thoughts and their needs. And also it helps me to see what they visually need in a process or in a project management flow.

So that's what I use for like project management for strategy. I say I don't really use a specific device. I kind of just think outside of the box.

And when I say think outside of the box, meaning do what other people are not doing.

So I am very fluent in social media, and when I say fluent in social media, I can tell you everything that is going on as far as trends, what's getting ready to come up, what's getting ready to go down, this, that, and the third based off of relatability. What is the climate of the world?

So right now, if you came out with a project that helped people to walk better, if you came up with a new shoe that corrected people's posture, I knew it would sell. Because how many people have horrible posture because of the shoes that they wear? It's a problem.

So if you think problem, solution, problem solution, that'll kind of help you with strategy. And if you get you a great project manager, it kind of organizes everything. You can kind of just do it.

A lot of the stuff I kind of, just because I know how to do it, I get to go ahead and do it or find people that can do it like me.

Shy Speaks: 00:55:43

So that was something that was good too. People just try to go staff and hire anybody.

I know a lot of photographers you got to get, you have to pick the ones that's in the style of what that person want and you. Because they wanted you. And then they have to.

Kym Jenkins: 00:55:56

Exactly.

Shy Speaks: 00:55:56

I love the fact that you're talking about Monday.com or just that project management tool because people think that you can manage all these events or even like.

Kym Jenkins: 00:56:05

In an email base. That email y'all will run y'all head rants because you gotta mind you, per my email, which one?

It's the one that we got the long thread on, the one with the short thread. Which one? That email will throw your head off.

So you kind of have to translate what's in that email into a project management System so you can see it as a project and not just another email. So that can be. You can have an assistant that responds to email, but you have a project manager that manages everything in a timely fashion.

Because it ain't nothing like having five things due on one day, but they came sporadically in other days. So like you probably got booked Tuesday, another booking on Wednesday, another booking on Thursday, but they all do next week. Tuesday, everybody.

Time bracket system.

Shy Speaks: 00:56:51

That's not good.

Kym Jenkins: 00:56:52

It ain't good. You gonna be throwing your head off. So it's like you need a level of organization and if organization is not your thing, hire it.

Shy Speaks: 00:56:59

Right.

Kym Jenkins: 00:57:00

Somebody that literally loves to organize chaos.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:57:04

Yeah.

Shy Speaks: 00:57:06

How do you communicate? Is there a communication tool or, you know, not just to the client, but like even amongst the contractors and stuff that you're bringing in.

Kym Jenkins: 00:57:15

So I communicate through Monday because everybody's on the Monday system. And then I also communicate through email and then I'm also a pick up a phone and kind of talk person as well. I hate meetings.

Shy Speaks: 00:57:25

Okay.

Kym Jenkins: 00:57:27

Yeah, I hate.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:57:29

Yeah. Especially if it can be an email or.

Shy Speaks: 00:57:31

Yeah, that could have been an email.

Kym Jenkins: 00:57:32

Unless I'm doing a, like, honestly, if I just need to know if something is done, send me an email. If I'm trying to do like a, a temperature check or like, let me just edify the community. I have a meeting.

But it'll be nothing about what we're actually doing. It'll be more like, how you doing? Where you at in your head? How you feeling? Let's, let's throw some stuff around. I have this idea.

Do you have another idea that combats this idea? Do you have something that go away? I can do like think tanks. I'd use meetings as think tanks.

Shy Speaks: 00:57:59

Think tanks, yes.

Kym Jenkins: 00:58:00

Not necessarily. Are we doing this? Are we doing that? Are we doing this? How's the progress? I don't care. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care.

Shy Speaks: 00:58:08

We all know what we're here to do.

Kym Jenkins: 00:58:09

We all know what we're here to do. And that's exactly why you have to hire smart. Because if you have to hire somebody that you have to hold hands with, that is going to be exhausting.

So I want everybody to understand, like that hiring process is as big as you making a decision to spend this amount of money or that amount of money because you need somebody to be self stable. Like you need somebody to be self efficient. Like they know how to do their stuff. Like, I'm not hiring somebody that want to know how to do It.

I can't pay you to do that. I only pay people that know what they're doing.

Shy Speaks: 00:58:44

Right.

Kym Jenkins: 00:58:45

So, like, if you don't know what you're doing, I can't pay you right now. You can be my intern. You can watch me, you can help me, I can mentor you, do, do, do the whole thing.

But I can't necessarily pay you to do a thing because if I'm paying you to do a thing, I don't no longer care about that thing, and I can move on to my next set of thoughts.

Shy Speaks: 00:59:01

Wow.

Kym Jenkins: 00:59:02

So it is exhausting for you to handhold, like, your assistant. If you're teaching your assistant how to assist you wasting your time. Your assistant ain't assisting you. You need a new assistant that knows you.

Like my close girlfriend Cece that does my hair.

If I had an assistant, it would be her because she knows me, she knows my weaknesses, and she knows how to pick up and do certain things even when I don't. When I decided that I want to be indecisive because sometimes I get overwhelmed and I shut down, but stuff still has to go down.

So if somebody's like, oh, I need an answer from Kim, Cece could literally answer their question, because she knows me even if I don't, if I'm not in the mood.

Shy Speaks: 00:59:40

Right. She knows what you choose.

Kym Jenkins: 00:59:42

Kim. Not in the mood, but go ahead. So you need people that's around you. So some people that's gonna be closer to you that you don't mind in your space.

And then you're gonna have some employees that's far away from you. You don't even care what they're doing. They just keep on going. So it's almost like your assistant is probably gonna be your side piece.

Shy Speaks: 01:00:00

So there's a couple of things that you talked about today, and this one right here is very important. And this is. Will help these project managers and event people, experienced curators, not be micro managers of their team.

Kym Jenkins: 01:00:13

Exactly.

Shy Speaks: 01:00:14

You won't have to be Michael, first of all, y'all not gonna deliver because you're gonna have so much contention.

Kym Jenkins: 01:00:19

Yeah.

Shy Speaks: 01:00:19

Amongst the team. Y'all haven't got on the. On the calls, had to think tanks and had the pow wows and just catch that. Which you don't have a good morale on it.

It's not going to go well. And you're going to run off the next. They're not going to hire y'all back. They're not. And they're not going to make the referral to the next Client.

They're not. So that's important is to make sure you hire the right people so that I can take it off my mind. Exactly. It shouldn't have to be on my mind.

Kym Jenkins: 01:00:40

How you doing?

Shy Speaks: 01:00:40

How you doing? How you doing? And that really will help.

And then also I've seen these experiences and it's like a whole bunch of blame pointing this person with this and this person this. And it's like, no, I know if this person right here, they have it. I don't even have to worry about it.

And if somebody coming to you saying something about it, you gonna defend that person because you already know, typically they up on it. So that was an important piece. When you're talking about managing a marketing team, if you want to have a marketing team.

The other thing I like that you talked about from the media perspective, just as a personality, on the individual level, you talked about still needing to have your legalities in order. Right. And making sure that. Because, because, because what we, what we see here, as far as it's six to seven, eight, I believe my. She gonna.

She gonna ease on up to the come. I see it, I receive it. Because I said how I got to stop right there on that. Because there are several streams of incomes that are coming here.

Not because she's trying to do all things, she's actually does a lot, but she's eliminated and narrowed it down to who she's serving to a degree. And then there's also the personality that's still there. She can't do nothing about it. She is who she is.

So if you have that kind of personality, you are that kind of influencer. You're just into whatever. Maybe you're just into mom and you're into kayaking, you're whatever. You become an influencer in that space.

There are brand deals and there are things that come and you have to do contracts and all that kind of stuff. So you have those things available and you can talk to them about those prices. That's one whole stream of income that's coming.

Could be six figure right there. Just off of entrepreneur, I mean, as being an influencer.

And now you turn around and create this other company that you have and then that company becomes. Right. Because now we're doing $25,000 events, now we're doing $10,000. Now we're doing 50,000. Now we're doing.

And then eventually as you scale up, you're going to have more tools that you're going to come out, we'll have you back and you're going to come talk to us. What's happening at the seven, almost eight figure level? What's the system? What are we using? What's the tools?

Kym Jenkins: 01:02:35

What's the background? You'll see me along with somebody else that can tell you the answers.

Shy Speaks: 01:02:40

I, you know, not gonna know.

Kym Jenkins: 01:02:41

Cause I said I was telling them this earlier. I was saying you can probably hit six figures by yourself.

You need a team to hit seven and you need a whole nother person that is like a duplicate of you to hit eight.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 01:02:52

Yeah.

Kym Jenkins: 01:02:53

So like a lot of you people that you see eight, it ain't them. Right. It's somebody else.

Shy Speaks: 01:02:58

Right.

Kym Jenkins: 01:02:59

Cause that's a lot. And the thing is when you managing like 30 and 60 and 100 people, you don't even know than people like that. They just.

That's when you have an established morale, you have established values, have established mission and everybody is committed to communicating and executing that. So it's not, it goes from this is Kim idea to this is all, this is us.

Shy Speaks: 01:03:22

This is how we do it.

Kym Jenkins: 01:03:23

This is how we do it. And that's how you need to think when it comes to, when you're trying to scale up. You have to include more people to feel a bigger whole. I would say.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 01:03:35

Yeah. So.

Shy Speaks: 01:03:36

Well, I'm actually Even if. Yeah, yeah. Because even if you are. Even if Kim can do a thing as you're scaling, she can go do and create an experience for somebody.

But what if there's two experiences that need to be created in one day?

Kym Jenkins: 01:03:47

Yeah, yeah.

Shy Speaks: 01:03:48

This is where that duplication comes into place. I always just want to make it practical for people because they're like, oh, I need to duplicate myself. Yeah.

First of all, you were created to be duplicated, but that's another topic for another time. That's a good one shot. You was created to be duplicated. We so scared of that.

Kym Jenkins: 01:04:02

But.

Shy Speaks: 01:04:02

So that's what, what she's talking about when you duplicate yourself.

Now I can actually deal two deliverables, two $10,000 events in two different cities at the same time and still have that ambiance and experience of our company. So there's just so much to it. But you have to relinquish this, this, this ability to like want to duplicate your, like, I don't want to do it.

I don't want them to know how to do what I'm doing.

This relinquishes not wanting to work with others, not have a team relinquish this idea that I'm not gonna have to get organized and all those type of things. It's just gonna be all vibes and good time.

Kym Jenkins: 01:04:31

Like, no, I want to speak today. And that's really. I don't want to speak to that. Mainly because a lot of people struggle with trying to keep secrets.

And you don't sell or make a lot of money by keeping secrets. Nothing should be a surprise to the consumer that you want to buy stuff from.

Because the thing is, especially if money is at hand, and although it takes almost two minutes to make a decision on how much money you want to spend, you don't want to surprise anybody with a certain amount of money. Like, I always tell clients this. I'm not going to charge you no more than I can make you. If I can.

If I can make you a thousand dollars, I can charge you a thousand dollars. If I can make you $5,000, I can. I'm gonna charge you $5,000 if I can make you 25. Best believe I'm gonna charge that.

Because I know whatever I charge you, you either you're gonna make more than that. So I know my bill is taken care of. So I don't even take on events that I can't necessarily fully execute. And then also speaking to that.

You cannot be afraid to be duplicated. You cannot be afraid to be copied. You can't be afraid to be a trendsetter. I started on social media. Once it hits the Internet, it is fair game.

You can't be afraid to be a trendsetter. Somebody's going to copy you. Somebody's going to like your style. Somebody's going to want to replicate you.

Take that as an honor and keep it moving and keep going in the direction that you want to be in. Because if you get caught up on every time somebody follows you or every time somebody copies you, it's pointless. You wouldn't be who.

Like, if you ain't somebody to copy, who are you?

Shy Speaks: 01:06:03

Question before we end this episode. You went viral that one time. Have you went viral again?

Kym Jenkins: 01:06:07

Yeah, I went viral, like, three, four times.

Shy Speaks: 01:06:09

You see what I'm saying? But if she was stuck focusing on that one time and trying to police the whole. Everybody on that one.

Kym Jenkins: 01:06:14

Yeah, you can't police that.

Shy Speaks: 01:06:15

I'm a creator. Something else gonna come out of me.

Kym Jenkins: 01:06:18

Yeah, say that one more time. I'm a creator.

Shy Speaks: 01:06:20

Something else is gonna come out of me. Anyway.

Kym Jenkins: 01:06:22

The movie Jingle Jangle, Y'all. That movie stirs me up, y'all. That movie Jingle Jangle Y'all. At the end, he was almost like he's an inventor. And he almost.

Somebody kept stealing his ideas. He kept stealing his ideas.

But every person that tried to steal the inventor's idea will always fail or it will always break because they're not the inventor. So a lot of times you have to be okay with being the creator. Nobody. You can't. Can't nobody copy the creator. Then you have to create again.

You can create again and again and again and again and again. You can create again. So even if somebody takes one idea and tries to copy it, it will never have the same outlook.

And the thing is, I always tell people on social media, you're either going to be better or you're going to be first. So do you want to be first or do you want to be the best? So do you create to be the best or do you decree it to be first?

And being first is a lot easier than being the best.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 01:07:19

So listen, on that note, listen. That's the mic drop right there. I normally would ask what's parting words, but I think that's it.

Kym Jenkins: 01:07:28

That's some good one.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 01:07:29

You hit them over the head. You hit them over there. So first and foremost, we want to thank you.

Thank you for spending your time with us today and dropping the gems for our audience, right? So thank you. Secondly, I want to thank the audience, thank you all for spending your time listening to or watching this podcast.

I'm hoping that you all got something from it. I know myself did. I know Shy did as well. So thank you all. We want to also encourage you to join the Creatives Corner community. Right?

So sign up for that. You get a monthly newsletter. You become a part of our Facebook community where you're surrounded by other creative entrepreneurs like yourself.

And you have to build a community, right?

So you can develop those relationships and network like we've been talking about, so that you can, you know, get to the 6, 7, 8 figures and things like that. So, yes, that's what we want to encourage you to do. And on that note, I'm gonna toss it over to Shy so we can.

Kym Jenkins: 01:08:20

Get out of here.

Shy Speaks: 01:08:21

So I always like ending the episode with a mantra because I believe that words shape worlds. And so as you say this, I want you to repeat after me. I want everybody in here to say it, right? We're gonna say, she can't wait, wait to see it.

I get to say it. I get to see. I want you to repeat this after me. All it takes. All it takes is intention.

Kym Jenkins: 01:08:40

Is intention.

Shy Speaks: 01:08:41

Consistency.

Kym Jenkins: 01:08:42

Consistency.

Shy Speaks: 01:08:43

And laser focus.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 01:08:44

And laser focus.

Shy Speaks: 01:08:45

To mind my creative business.

Kym Jenkins: 01:08:47

To mind my creative business. I love that.

Shy Speaks: 01:08:50

Sh. That's good.

Kym Jenkins: 01:08:53

Mind your creative business.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 01:08:54

Yes. So, on that note, we see y'all later.

Kym Jenkins: 01:08:57

Peace.