In May of 2021, we interviewed Candice Elliott to learn what it’s like to be an HR Consultant. At the time, she was pregnant with her first son and shared with us all of the plans she’d made to prepare for maternity leave.

More than two years later, we catch up with Candice to hear how those plans actually panned out (hint: it didn't quite go as expected...), what it’s like transitioning into motherhood as a business owner, and what she’s doing differently the second time around. Candice’s candor and words of wisdom will be helpful for anyone navigating maternity or paternity leave as solopreneurs.

But wait, there’s more!

Candice has been in business for more than 5 years, so I couldn’t let her go without hearing more about that journey. We dive into her personal and professional growth, the various mentors and training programs that have helped her evolution, how she's incorporating AI into her biz, and invaluable advice on keeping clients satisfied.

Tune in for a deep dive into Candice's journey and gain invaluable insights that are sure to inspire and educate you!

You can check out her first interview right here (episode 41). All of the other resources we mention are linked below. Enjoy!


Connect with Candice:
Website
The My First Hire course
The Hearth Podcast
Instagram

Other:

All So ya wanna be a… Episodes
Resources on Kenza site
Nadine Zumot: Money Coach
Kat Lee - Business Alchemist Mentorship
Mama Collaborative: Maternity leave planning and coaching
Join the Kenza Slack
At Scale Newsletter by Ylva Predan

In this episode, Tiffany sits down with Kenza community member, mama of 3, and freelance Digital Business Manager, Ylva Predan, to talk all things new-tech.

For the first 20 minutes of the conversation, you’ll learn why Ylva decided to quit her career in the nonprofit sector to pursue freelance copywriting. We talk about how she found her first few clients and how she transitioned into being a Digital Business Manager.

We then dive into her new side hustle—At Scale, which is a newsletter about tech - in simple terms. The newsletter focuses less on “how it works”, and more on “what it means” – for entrepreneurs, businesses, and entire industries.

In this episode, you’ll learn simple, digestible definitions for Web3, NFTs, Blockchain technology, Smart Contracts, AI, and ChatGPT.

We discuss why it’s critical to stay up to date on new tech, not only for our businesses and our clients, but also for us to understand the world in which our kids are growing up in.

You’ll discover how she uses ChatGPT to stay in her zone of genius, why Ylva says “Web3 and AI will definitely impact anyone who is making a living online; it’s only a matter of when…”, and much more.

Be sure to follow Ylva on LinkedIn and Twitter, subscribe to her newsletter At Scale, and chat her up in the Kenza Collective Slack channel! Links below.

Enjoy!

✌🏼Tiff

Links from the episode:

• Sign up for Ylva’s newsletter right here.
• Read past articles from At Scale right here.
• Follow At Scale on LinkedIn.
• Follow Ylva on LinkedIn and Twitter
• Check out Ylva's website for her services as a Digital Business Manager.
• Connect with Ylva and other freelancing parents in the Kenza Slack
• Check out our Digital Business Manager episode
• Enjoy what you heard? Consider supporting Kenza each month :)

Additional Resources to Dive Deeper into New Tech:

Web3

• Podcast episode - Bankless -The Ownership Economy - with Li Jin
• Podcast episode - Women in Influencer Marketing - NFTs and the creator economy

AI

• Elements of AI, a free online course created by MinnaLearn and the University of Helsinki This is a great place to start if you are a complete beginner and want to learn more about the basic concepts in AI.
• Podcast episode - Marketing Against the Grain - “6 marketing opportunities that AI unlocks for businesses”

I had a stark realization the other day.

I’ve been stuck in a hypervigilant, fear-based way of living, thinking, and acting ever since March of 2020.

I also recognized that I never used to be like this, and I don’t like it.

Sure, there are other reasons why I’m in this place: the transformation of becoming a parent for the first time, starting and running a business, getting older, etc.

But regardless of how I got here, I don’t like it.

I feel like I've gone from being a pretty easygoing, laid back, and excited-for-the-future type of person, to a hypervigilant and always-on-guard individual, mother, wife, and business owner.

I've been constantly looking ahead to what bad things might happen and trying to plan and strategize my way out of it. It's not a fun way to live!

So, I invited Kat Lee for her third appearance on The Kenza Pod to share her wisdom around fear. I wanted her to not only help us understand how we got here, but also offer practical tools and strategies to get ourselves out.

Originally, Kat and I had a private 1:1 coaching session scheduled where I had planned to talk through all of this with her. But we decided to hit record so that you can get an inside look at how we worked through this, and how I walked away feeling empowered with wisdom and tools to help me move through (and out of) this way of thinking.

If you're feeling anything like what I've described, then this episode is a must-listen.

• We will challenge you to look at who you are on the other side of the global pandemic and make sure you recognize and like that person.
• We share practical strategies to help you get through moments of panic and overwhelm, and help you loosen the grip that fear can hold us back.
• We’ll help you to recognize when you’re being hypervigiliant, and then understand not only why that’s happening but how to alleviate that stressful and all-consuming feeling.

I can’t wait to hear how this episode impacts you!

Hit me up on instagram @kenzacollective, or join our free Slack community to talk even more: kenzacollective.com/slack.

Links from the episode

• Learn more about Kat Lee and her podcast, Empowered Curiosity
• Other episodes with Kat: How to Harness the Power of Our Emotions to Make Smarter Business Decisions and How to Create an Abundant Business & Life by Listening to Your Body
• The Mel Robbins podcast episode mentioned “You’ll never be truly happy until you start doing this”

Human Design is an incredibly specific way to help you:

• learn more about and appreciate your unique personality
• understand how you take in and process energy from the world
• help you understand your unique way of decision-making (some should wait up to a month before making a big decision, while others are meant to make decisions in the moment!)
• work more effectively with clients and teams
• become a better parent & partner

Human Design is a system based on your exact time, date, and place of birth. It’s a mix of Kabbalah, I'Ching, Myers-Briggs, astrology, biochemistry, genetics, and the chakra system all in one.

I know, I know…. It all sounds a bit out there, right?

But if you think about it, don’t all systems, religions, beliefs, etc sound a bit out there?

I am forever curious about all types of wisdom and ways of understanding myself and the world. And for some reason, Human Design just really resonates with me in a way that no other teaching ever has before.

To be clear, Human Design is not a religion. It doesn’t predict your future or your health. It is simply a system that helps you understand who you are at a deeper level.

For me, understanding who I am through the lens of Human Design has helped me to accept myself and my quirks, get better at my decision-making process, improve my relationships, lower my stress and anxiety levels, and so much more. Crazy, right?!

Before you dive in to this episode, I would highly encourage you to get your chart. It’s free and easy—all you need is your birthday, location, and time to get started. If you don’t know the time you were born, we cover what to do in the episode. For now, just put a guess in and you’ll learn what to do if you’re unsure.

Get your chart at MyHumanDesign.com or Mybodygraph.com.

I invited Human Design expert, Nadia Last, to the pod to talk us through the origins of Human Design, the 5 energy types, our Authority, and our Strategy. We weave in and out of practical applications of this system, and I even share a bit of my labor and delivery story on the pod for the first time ever.

Buckle up for a a deep, intuitive, and insightful conversation that will surely have an impact on your business, your relationships, your decision-making, and so much more.

Enjoy!

Links from the episode:

• Nadia’s podcast, The Current
• Nadia’s Website
• Follow Nadia on Instagram
• Get your chart at MyHumanDesign.com or Mybodygraph.com
• Watch this episode on YouTube

Connect with The Kenza Collective:

• Explore mentoring with Tiff or Beth
• Join our Slack community
• Follow us on Instagram
• Sign up for our Newsletter
• Check out our website

In this deep dive episode about the Operations of your business, Tiffany walks you through the four phases of a project and helps you understand how to set up a solid operational framework that will help you:

• keep projects on time and on budget
• create healthy communication boundaries with your client
• establish yourself as an expert and a leader
• ensure that your clients have an incredible experience with you, leading to longer term relationships and more referrals
• make more money through higher-ticket offers and the ability to take on more clients and projects
  
  

If you're experiencing any of the following symptoms, it's time for you to take a look at your operational framework and make some changes ASAP:

• Your projects keep going over the projected timeline and you don't know how to prevent it.
• You are waaaay too integrated into a client’s communication channels—you have their email address, you're in their chat and PM apps, etc—and you don’t like it but you don’t know how to get out of it or how to prevent it.
• You keep losing control of projects—your clients question your decisions or suggestions, they don't get back to you when you ask them to, they continually ask for things that are out of scope, they push project timelines and deadlines, etc.
• You are just feeling a general sense of disorderliness, overwhelm, and like you're constantly treading water trying to manage your clients and projects.

It's easy to think that maybe you need to create a new framework for the services you offer, or that you need to re-brand or do something else drastic to fix these symptoms. When in reality, it's quite likely that the real issue is a lack of leadership on your end and an operational framework that's repeatable and reasonable for both you and the client.

Operations are the heartbeat of a company. They are the foundation of everything: your client's experience, how much you can grow your company, and ultimately how much money you can make and how stressful (or not) it'll be to accomplish your goals.

In this episode, you'll get to take advantage of Tiffany's 15+ years of operations in TV production, creative agencies, and coworking spaces, and learn what it takes to create a stellar experience for both you and your clients so that you can make more and work less! :)

Links

• Watch this on YouTube
• Explore mentoring with Tiff or Beth
• Free class: Using Sprints to Manage Fixed Timeline Projects
• Podcast episode: The Magic of the Discovery Phase
• Join our Slack community
• Follow us on Instagram
• Sign up for our Newsletter

Learn How Kenza Can Help You Grow Your Biz and Network + 2 Important Lessons that Tiffany Learned this Summer

Kenza Pod Season 5 Launch!

Get the inside scoop on:

• How The Kenza Collective can connect you to the professionals, courses, and programs you need to succeed as a parent entrepreneur
• 2 important lessons that Tiffany learned this summer and key takeaways to help you not repeat the same mistakes
• How we're expanding The Kenza Pod to bring you even more value

Enjoy!

Visit us: https://www.kenzacollective.com/
Follow us: https://instagram.com/kenzacollective
Subscribe to our email list: https://www.kenzacollective.com/newsletter-signup
Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MyyhJ5B_8s

Subscribe to The Kenza Pod wherever you listen!

In this Season 4 Finale, Beth and Tiffany are taking you behind the scenes of Kenza and their consulting businesses! We discuss….

• How their fractional CEO and CFO roles are going and why this is a really interesting consultant path to explore.
• The plans that they have this summer, including Tiffany’s month-long scouting trip to Portugal as their family contemplates the expat life.
• How to take advantage of all of Kenza’s resources for parents who are freelancing or consulting (or curious about how to make the leap).
• Ways to work together through our mentorship programs or our one-off mentoring sessions (we love providing feedback and helping you work through specific scenarios in your business!).
• An upcoming workshop in collaboration with Kat Lee of Empowered Curiosity called “The Energetics of Money” on June 25th and 26th. Our intention in this weekend intensive is to bridge the gap between spirit and logic so that you can build a secure relationship with money and feel nourished by your business. Spiritual Business Mentor Kat Lee will lead us to unravel our trauma knots around money so that we can examine the outdated beliefs and narratives that block us from receiving or managing abundance. Beth will be teaching the basics of small business accounting, empowering you to make decisions that will help you build a sustainable business. Join the revolution of spiritual entrepreneurs who are building conscious businesses that honor ethics, cyclical rhythms, and intuition! Learn more right here.

Links Mentioned + Other Helpful Resources

• Book a mentoring call with Beth or Tiffany
• Explore our library of Kenza Pod episodes
• Join our email list
• Learn more about the Mama Collaborative course
• Learn more about Lisa Cumes’s Upwork course
• Listen to the About Abroad podcast
• Check out Boundless Life

Join us on Slack

Join our free slack group if you’re ready to get support from like-minded parents who are right there with you and in the trenches of entrepreneurship and parenting. Ask questions, get feedback, share your wins, struggles, and more. Join us here or feel to DM us on Instagram with any questions.

“It is so much more effective both as parents and as coworkers to embrace people’s neurodivergence and simply let them be who they are. When you do this, you’ll get to see their true strengths come out. And even better than that—you’re going to show them that you care about them as a human."

As service providers, we work with a wide variety of people from diverse backgrounds, age groups, and locations. Our jobs are heavily reliant on cultivating relationships, which means it’s critical that we’re continually improving our EQ (emotional intelligence) and taking the time to understand how to better collaborate with those we’re serving.

When we make the effort to understand the people we work with, and have compassion and appreciation for the ways in which we’re different, it increases the enjoyment of the work we’re doing and it leads to better outcomes for long-term business and for relationships as a whole.

In this episode, we are exploring the term Neurodiversity—what it means, how it shows up in our families and workplaces, and how we can compassionately work with someone who may fall under this umbrella. We also discuss resources for those of us who may identify as neurodivergent.

Neurodiversity refers to the natural variation in the human brain regarding sociability, learning, attention, mood and other mental functions. And while neurodiversity encompasses all cognitive differences (which we all have), the term “neurodivergent” tends to be used for those with specific differences like ADHD, autism, Tourette's, dyslexia, dyspraxia, synesthesia and specific learning disorders. Others who may identify as neurodivergent are those who are gifted, and those with sensory processing disorder, bipolar disorder, or obsessive compulsive disorder.

To walk us through this complex topic, we invited Dawn Mortensen to the pod—a neurodiversity advocate, Gaming Marketing Manager at Meta, and Tiffany’s Aunt!

Across 25 years of working and parenting, Dawn has learned a lot about how to tap into the strengths of those who think and work differently. In her workplace and community, she's an advocate for those of us who are neurodivergent.

This episode is for you if:

- You want to deepen your emotional intelligence and improve your communication & collaboration skills with your clients and anyone else you work with.

- You’re curious what the term “neurodiversity” means and how workplaces are evolving to embrace people who think differently.

- You want to learn how to get the best out of the people you work with by understanding and appreciating their unique strengths and gifts.

- You have children who are neurodivergent and you want to learn how to best advocate for them and support them on their journey.

About Our Guest

Dawn Mortensen is a wife, mom of two teenage girls, a Gaming Marketing Manager at Meta, and a neurodiversity advocate. Across 25 years of working and parenting, Dawn has learned a lot about how to tap into the strengths of those who think and work differently. She’s also leading the charge at Meta to advocate for those of us who are neurodivergent.

Links Mentioned + Other Helpful Resources

Connect with Dawn on Instagram

Connect with Dawn on Twitter

Grab your copy of Differently Wired

Learn more about REEL

Check out the Stanford Neurodiversity Project

Connect with Neurodivergent Activist, NeuroCla