Brian: Hi, Kimberly. Tell us a little bit about your background.
Kimberly: I had 25 years in the corporate world in the packaging and sales industry. As a regional sales director for five states, it involved a lot of traveling to speak and train people in that industry. I experienced a lot of success and earned a lot of awards, so I was very grateful for that.
While I liked being in that industry, there was always something more that I wanted to do, and I just could never quite put my finger on what exactly that looked like. All I knew was that I wanted to own a business.
No matter what I did, being number one has always been important to me. That was something that was ingrained in me from years as a professional ballet dancer.
Some of the things that I learned as a ballet dancer have translated well to business, such as learning how to be committed, competitive, and determined. All of those things have been traits that have come into play in my career.
For example, in sales the game doesn’t begin until you’re told no. I never looked as no as “no”. That just means that the sale has begun and the customer doesn’t have enough information. That’s another opportunity for me to help you know who I am, and for me to give you more information that can help you make a decision.
You have to learn to sell through relationship building, not through a product.
Brian: Fantastic. How do you recover when you perceive that failures happened in your life?
Kimberly: It’s interesting you should ask that question because my platform in speaking is being a recovering failure. You can’t have success without failure, and if you don’t understand what failure is, how do you know what success is?
You have to understand what it means to have everything taken away from you versus what it means to have everything — having the world against you, having the odds against you, having to struggle. If you don’t understand what the struggle is, then how do you understand what it means to have gained anything to have gotten to the other side?
That’s what failure means — failure teaches you the lessons that you need to learn so that you understand when you’ve actually succeeded at something.
Brian: Fantastic. What is your big reason “why” for what you do?
Kimberly: My reason why is to is to teach others that whatever goes on in your life, it doesn’t define who you are as a person.
I’ve had so much adversity in my life. I have suffered at the hands of domestic abuse. I have suffered at the hands of being a single mom. I have been in a male-dominated industry—my “why” is that I want others to know that you have to want it bad enough. Resiliency, buoyancy, and perseverance will get you anywhere you want to go.
Brian: What does optimum success look like for you?
Kimberly: That’s a good question. It’s an ever-revolving definition. I’m currently defining optimum success as bringing out the women’s summit that I’m doing, and working with other women by helping them transform and define themselves. Success is being able to help others find themselves and transform themselves.
Brian: Let’s talk about this event. It’s coming up in June. Tell us more about this.
Kimberly: It’s called Envision You: The Transformation Starts Here — this women’s summit is about finding your purpose and using your unique characteristics as a woman, meaning that what you do matters.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re in business or not, women need to step into leadership and into our power and know that we’re okay as we are. At the end of the day, we can start a transformation even with a thought. And that thought process, even if it’s just a nugget, is how it starts.
Brian: Fantastic. Do you find that women have a hard time putting themselves first?
Kimberly: They absolutely do. Women are told that they’re supposed to, by nature, take care of others first before they take care of themselves. And I think we’re at a place where it’s so important for women to realize that they need to take care of themselves first.
If you think about it, when you’re on an airplane, what is the first thing that they teach you to do before the airplane takes off? They tell you that when the oxygen mask comes down, if you’re in the state of emergency in the airplane, that you put the oxygen mask on yourself first before you can help somebody else.
I think as women, we need to start taking that action—putting the mask on ourselves first before we take care of others.
Brian: Absolutely. Tell us a little bit about your podcast.
Kimberly: The Kimberly Miner Podcast – Your Best You is my daily dream that goes on every week. It’s all about empowering others. I talk to my guests about how to empower others to transforming themselves.
I look at so many industries that are making billions of dollars telling us what we need to do for ourselves, and not thinking about how many people are wasting money, or are not having any types of success—and then they go on to the next thing.
My hope is that no matter what we’re dealing with, either in our personal life or in our careers, that through our discussion it starts that whole process of, “What do I need to do for myself?”
Brian: Fantastic. Where can we find this?
Kimberly: We can be found on Facebook, YouTube, iTunes, Spotify and Anchor.fm, we’re everywhere!
Brian: And do you have a website where we can learn more about who you are and what you’re doing?
