We all fail sometimes. Most of us don’t fail enough. We don’t take enough risk and let life pass us by. Not
!! She is successful because she has failed.Kendra is CEO of KR Digital Agency, Co-Founder of Cincy AI for Humans, and writer of
, an Artificial Intelligence focused publication that helps people navigate our new digital age.Kendra shared her journey on the Career Adventurer Podcast. She talks about starting her career in corporate sales before launching her own digital business. She shares the story of closing her digital agency during the Great Recession and relaunching it a few years later new and improved. She discusses how she has learned to be an amazing public speaker by managing fear and trying to improve repeatedly.
Kendra likes to try new things early in their life cycle. She got into digital marketing before many even new the term. Now, she is leading the marketing with AI conversation in Cincinnati, OH.
Listen to the full episode. You’re sure to pick up a nugget or three.
Don’t have time on your commute to work? Skim the top five themes below. Then listen to the full episode on your commute home.
5 Core Themes
Kendra highlighted a few major themes. Here are five you should take note of in your own career adventures.
Embrace The New
Don’t be late to the party. You’ll miss the best canapés. There’s no need to go all-in. Just dabble. Kendra is an early mover. She dove head first into digital in the early 2000’s. Today, she is leading the AI charge in Cincinnati with Co-Founder of Cincy AI for Humans Helen Todd. You obviously don’t have to be the earliest adopter. But, you don’t want to be so late to the party that all the good appetizers are gone and you’re left eating cold cauliflower without any ranch.
“Every day there's a new technology coming out or a new way of getting things done, and so that's what keeps me hooked. I know I'm weird. I thrive in change environments, I'm the one that used to always, when I was in corporate America, would drive leadership crazy, because I was always pushing us…”
Listen Carefully
Be careful limiting yourself based on what others tell you. You’ll collect a group of experts and mentors to help. They have great experience, but it needs to be channeled correctly. They will not always know best, thus you’ll need to identify the parts of what they say as most and least applicable for your career move. Why? You know yourself and your ideas best. Many entrepreneurial support organizations counsel members to share experience, not advice. So, listen carefully.
“Three business coaches that said, don't! A business in digital was really their own lack of understanding. They themselves didn't really embrace technology. Understanding when you're hearing no from someone, sometimes it's just their own perception, right? It doesn't mean it's wrong. It's just, that's all their knowledge. You know your capability.”
Painful Adversity
As you know, we grow with adversity. Is it fun? HELL NO!!! It can be downright awful. But, when we’re stuck in the muck we must take account of how we’re growing. Kendra has faced her fair share of adversity. She launched a digital marketing company that failed during the Great Recession. She didn’t let that stop her. She did it again. But, she relaunched the company with a different business model.
“I felt like such a failure. I was just like, who am I to start a business? Cause clearly I didn't know what I was doing. 2008 / 2009 pulled the rug out from underneath me. I'm thankful it happened because I completely restructured my business. It was a painful, expensive lesson, but it was a good one.”
Fear Doesn’t Fade
We’ve all heard people say, “Conquer your fears.” I don’t love that quote. A better one is from Nelson Mandela.
"The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear."
--Nelson Mandela
I question how possible conquering your fears is. We all feel fear. Fear doesn’t go away. Rather, we recognize the fear and manage it. That is conquering fear.
“It's practice and repetition. I've been presenting for over 20 years now. You start small. Practice and evolve and get feedback. Still today on every single session, I'm always asking anyone that brings me in, what can I do better? I'm always asking and learning and growing and having people, provide that feedback and people that are safe for me.”
Follow the Joy
I’ve been told to do something that is useful. I’ve also been told to follow my passion. The answer is likely in the middle. They key is to recognize what you like or want to do and then be very useful doing it. It’s easy to default to money. But, if you identify what makes you joyful and then throw yourself in and work hard it will lead you in the “right” direction. (Check out my last newsletter that discussed money!)
“If you follow the thing that you love doing, the money follows. Finding your purpose and finding, your career adventure, like, I love that you're doing this and sharing. There's so many ways to get there, right? It's okay to change industries. It's okay to change jobs. It's okay to start a business and close it and restart it. It's okay to, you know, to decide that entrepreneurship is not for you.”
Listen to the full story
Kendra’s an amazing leader. She takes joy in the new and helping others discover. She’s helping clients, companies, and people explore AI responsibly and passionately. She runs a successful company, but it took testing, failing, learning, and retrying to find her way.
Enjoy the episode! Thanks for you support!
Paul G. Fisher
I’d love to hear from you. Have any guest recommendations listeners should learn from? Shoot me a note!
Kendra Ramirez: Digital Tech Pioneer