AP 1167: Where Are They Now? Kara Gott Warner from Kara Gott Warner Coaching

AP 1167: Where Are They Now: Kara Gott Warner from Kara Gott Warner Coaching

Pat Flynn:
What's up everybody? Pat Flynn here, and welcome to episode 1167 of AskPat 2.0. And like we do once a month here, we have a Where Are They Now? episode coming your way today. That is where we bring somebody back who's been on the show once before. And today we're bringing back Kara from episode 1087. That's actually 80 episodes ago, so well over a year ago. And Kara has been taking some action. She's been getting some results, even a brand change of sorts, and we're going to discuss everything that's happened since she's been on the show back in episode 1087. So yeah, again a while back. And this will be a lot of fun because I love hearing the progress people make. I love hearing about the action that they've taken and hopefully this inspires you to take action as well.

And it's funny because things don't always go according to plan. And that could work out to be so incredible sometimes as you'll hear today. So Kara, welcome back. Thank you so much. You can find her and her website at KaraGottWarner.com and her podcast, which is now called the Craft Your Confidence Podcast. She helps people with coaching. It's awesome. Here we go.

Kara, welcome back to AskPat 2.0. Thanks so much for coming back and seeing us again.

Kara Gott Warner:
Thanks for having me back, Pat.

Pat:
So you were back in episode 1087, which was like eons ago. So I'm sure stuff has happened since then. For those who didn't remember that episode or don't remember it, we talked about your podcast and your following at KaraGottWarner.com and your Power Pearls podcast. And we talked about that and how to get more engagement with the audience and whatnot. And those were some of the notes of what we were talking about. So I'd just love to ask you really quick to start this conversation, what has been happening since? Give us all the juicy details.

Kara:
Oh my gosh. So much has happened since we last spoke. I don't know where to start, but I'll just kind of dive right in. So the first-

Pat:
Yeah, please.

Kara:
So what is still the same is that I'm a knitting rebel, that hasn't changed, and creativity is still one of my super powers. So the biggest thing that we talked about was my podcast and this concern that I had about getting engagement. And I was on a hiatus when we last spoke. So you really helped me to kind of get over some of the podcast drama that I was having. So basically I just, I really spent some time thinking about whether I should start a new show with a new feed, all that kind of stuff.

So really what happened over the last year, my gosh, it's been like a year and a half, I should say. I decided to rebrand my podcast. I also went back to... I got some training, so now I have life coach certification as well. And I have just been really working on some different programs for my coaching. My coaching program has shifted a little bit. And some of the people that I serve in my audience have shifted as well. So I guess I could just, I don't know, just dive into some of the things that have happened since we last spoke. So I went from Power Pearls podcast to calling my podcast, I call it now the Craft Your Confidence Podcast. Anyway, you know what, Pat, I just feel a little bit nervous right now. I feel like I'm all over the place right now.

Pat:
No, this is the beauty of this, because so many things have happened. How about we just start with the podcast brand name and let's just start there. What gave you the inspiration to change the name of it and what has that done for you personally?

Kara:
Okay. Yeah, I'm sorry. So it's funny because just this morning, Jess reached out to me and she's like, "Let's do it." And I'm like, "Okay."

Pat:
We had a hole open up in our schedule and we were like, "Let's get Kara back." And so thank you for coming on by the way. Sorry if it's a little sort of like ad-hoc.

Kara:
No, it's totally fine. This is really good for me to have this moment of pure coaching to be like, okay, let's reel it in. Okay. So I spent a lot of time really stressing out about... should I rebrand? Should I start a new podcast? And I just decided, you know what, I'm still in this same journey. It's just another chapter. So I decided that I would call the podcast, the Craft Your Confidence podcast because I thought, well, I'm still talking to creatives, but now my audience, it's a little more expanded than just knitters. And I just decided that I think this is the right way to go because it covers all the bases as far as like, the confidence piece because I still coach on confidence and craft...

Craft is a big word, right? So it covers lots of different things. But I just thought that rebranding it to Craft Your Confidence would make sense because it's also, that's the name of my coaching program as well. So I really had this desire to connect all those dots. So not just the creativity piece, the knitting piece, who I am as a coach and what I embody. Right? And I just felt like, you know what, I'm not coaching so much on the knitting piece and the technique piece, but it's become more of a metaphor for how I coach.

Pat:
I love the name by the way. It's just, you hear the name of it, Craft Your Confidence, go check it out anywhere you're listening to podcasts by the way. You kind of get a sense of what you're going to get. And it's more than just about the art, it's about the mind and all those things kind of put together and the fact that it connects to your coaching program too. I think that was a really smart move. Did it really feel like just kind of ripping that bandaid off and then kind of things were set in motion after that?

Kara:
Yes, yes, absolutely. Because I really thought, I just stressed too much about something that really wasn't necessary, to rebrand it. It was just like, you know what, just keep going, just start the next chapter, whatever that means for you, because it's my podcast and I get to do whatever I want to do. And when I started to step into that truth and to be more authentic and to also just really talk about the things that were really meaningful to me and also a little bit risky, a little bit scary, that's when I felt like things really started to shift in my business and also in my brain.

It was like, I wasn't holding back. Because I think there was that little bit of like, if I don't do it a certain way, then it's wrong. I'm not doing it the right way. I'm doing it the wrong way, whatever that means. Right? So it's like, that's the game I was kind of playing with myself.

Pat:
Yeah. This isn't just you, Kara, it's all of us. We overthink everything. We overanalyze small things, big things, even small things like when I go to an event, if I see somebody that I want to meet, if I wait too long, I know I'm not going to do it anymore. I've already psyched myself out of it. Right? Versus what I like to call the three second rule, you just go. As long as it's respectful, just go up and say hi. What's the worst that can happen? And of course you can always rechange things back and you're pivoting, right? You're pivoting so that you can get better and have things more connected.

And you've obviously demonstrated that, which is really cool. And more than that, you've also gotten this certification. I want to know what inspired that and what has happened as a result of getting certified.

Kara:
Yeah. So basically the last time we spoke, I think I was talking more about what I was doing as a business coach and working with creatives and having stepped out of the space that I was in for, my gosh, like almost 20 years when I think about it. And so I was working with creatives, helping them on their design businesses. And I realized, and you know this for sure, it's like, everything comes back to mindset. And so I started, I really dove into life coaching. And so I decided to just add to that toolbox of coaching, I decided to get my life coach certification. And so I did that through The Life Coach School.

I don't know if you're familiar with The Life Coach School and Brooke Castillo. So that's where I decided to just put all my chips on black and get the certification and add that to what I do now as a mindset coach, as a confidence coach. And so that really shifted a lot in my brain, also just about the limiting thoughts that I was even putting on the podcast. Because like I said earlier, I was on a hiatus when we last spoke and I realized that I had these limiting beliefs that I wasn't getting engagement through the podcast. Right? So I just thought, wait a minute, that's just this thought in my head that I have. I had no real-

Pat:
That there was no proof, right?

Kara:
There was no proof. I had no real evidence that I wasn't getting engagement. So I examined the thought and I realized that all I had to do was change my thought about it. And so that's exactly what I did. And it really came down to trusting that I'm on the right path and that the women who needed to hear my message, the women that I need to help are listening and that just by them listening to the podcast and listening to my episodes, that they were getting many transformations from me every single day.

Pat:
Love it. Absolutely love it. So certified, awesome. And then you also mentioned that your program shifted a little bit, your coaching program. What does shifted mean exactly? And you're talking about your students, is it your niche or who are you reaching out to? What shifted exactly?

Kara:
That's the thing, that's where some of the growing pains have come in. Okay. So the niche is the same, mostly. So it's still the creative woman, the maker, that's the woman that I speak to. And so I have a program, confidence coaching program that I help guide them through that transformation for six months. But then I also - and this kind of happened recently. So I've had coaches, other life coaches come to me and say, "Hey, I know you've been podcasting for a long time, and could you help me learn how to podcast?" And so this is going back to 2014, I've been behind the mic. Right? And I was like, huh, okay. And so it's become this thing where I call myself the Craft Your Confidence coach and the podcast coach for coaches.

Pat:
So good.

Kara:
Yeah. But I feel... Here's where you might be like, okay, drama, stop the drama. I feel like, okay, I can't have my feet in two different camps. Right? So it's like, I'm over here with the creative woman, the maker woman, she's doing my six month program. I'm helping her with the transformation. And then I have this new ICA emerging, which is the life coach who I'm coaching on their podcast. So that's what I mean by the shift.

Pat:
Right.

Kara:
So I think it's great, but it's two different people, right? It's two different audiences. And that's where I'm learning, how do I talk to both? Right? So that's my growing pain right now.

Pat:
What's allowing you to delineate? How are you currently managing the two audiences today?

Kara:
Yeah, that's a really good question. So the way that I'm managing the two audiences today is - so the creative woman, the maker woman, let's call her that, I talk to her through the podcast. So it's like, we're talking about the coaching concepts, the tools that I help bring to her, the mindset, the confidence. And then the call to action there is, hey, you know what, I have a few spots open, come on over to... Let's have a conversation. Because that's kind of where I take that particular part of my audience is through the podcast. And then the coaching client, I'm actually talking to them mostly on Clubhouse right now. Clubhouse is a new place. Right?

Pat:
That's so cool.

Kara:
So Clubhouse and also Facebook groups, coaching Facebook groups, and Slack, some of the Slack channels that we're in, like the private kind of coachy-coachy kind of Slack chats. And that's how it's going. And so I know enough about digital marketing to say, okay, I have these two audiences, I'm going to talk to this person over here, and then this other part of my audience over here like this. But it's still hard sometimes to shift in my brain. You know what I mean?

Pat:
Yeah.

Kara:
Because when I'm talking to two different people... So I think maybe it's just, okay, maybe I just have to learn that. Or maybe I sometimes have this black and white thinking like, well, if I'm talking to two different people, that I can't be a success as much in, let's say if I was just focusing on the one.

Pat:
Sure. And do you believe that to be true though?

Kara:
Yeah. My own self coaching says, "No, that's not true. That's just a thought."

Pat:
That's a story you're telling yourself. Right. Exactly.

Kara:
It's a story. It's a story. And this thing, like I said, I call it the unexpected shift, I feel like it's just this nod from the universe, right? To work with coaches. Because they want it. It's almost like this effortless thing that I get to teach them from all this experience that I have from podcasting for the last seven plus years. So it's like, well, why wouldn't I? Right? But I have this tendency to just really hold myself back.

Pat:
Let's see, how might we reframe the story? We could potentially say, you could probably help all kinds of people in all different kinds of ways. You could probably coach people across 10 or 20 different niches if you needed to. However, you've chosen to hone in on these two. And the commonality between these two is you are knowledgeable and you're passionate about each of these things. And therefore it is actually honing and it is niching down. And what this allows you to do is it allows you to have both learn from each other in terms of how you help one group may also help serve how you help the other, so there's benefit there. It would be less beneficial if you were just pigeonholed into that one spot, because then you're not exploring other avenues to hopefully help, for example, the craft woman from the world of coaches.

And you might even get some advice that can help cross-pollinate with the other. And then additionally, you get to have the ability to also feel like you get to experiment in two different areas. And I know that for example, we always hear the one thing, right? You should just have your one thing and that's it. But I struggle with that. And I struggle with that because I am an entrepreneur who has a lot of things I want to scratch. I itch everywhere and I want to scratch all of them, but I'm containing it to just two things at a time. And that gives me the grace to experiment in some other place beyond my primary sort of initial businesses. And that's really great because then I have that agency to go and do that and do it well, versus just, oh, I don't know if I should do this.

No, no. This is my second space that I get to play. And I don't know if you've heard me talk about this before, but I call it the innovator's itch or the 20 percent itch rule where you actually let yourself and allow yourself to have this second thing so long as the other thing is definitely taken care of. And you can also utilize your knowledge base to systematize, to become more efficient with the first thing so that you even have more room to play in the second thing. And by actually seeing this as an advantage versus a disadvantage could help you with that story that you're telling yourself. I don't know. What are your feelings about that?

Kara:
I love it. Again, this is another one of those things. I think I said it last time, it's like, this should be called "Ask Pat for Permission."

Pat:
You are so right. Every episode is just like, I knew that's what I should have done, I just needed to hear it from somebody else.

Kara:
I think it's just, you're being the mirror right now. It's like, I know my own wisdom is telling me what I need for myself. We can only learn from our own wisdom. Right? But sometimes we just need to hear it. We need to bounce it off someone. And I really appreciate that you just said that you actually struggled with the one thing. When I read that book, it became like a Bible, but then it also worked against me. I let it-

Pat:
Right. Same.

Kara:
... work despite... Yeah. It was like one of those things that really, I became the log jam.

Pat:
Did you feel guilty?

Kara:
Oh, I felt so guilty, Pat.

Pat:
So did I. So did I.

Kara:
Oh my gosh. I'm so glad that you're saying this. Yeah, because right now it feels like the flood gates are open for me, because I just felt like I was... I felt guilty. I felt like I'm holding myself back from real success in like, if I just could just do one thing. And I had a friend, a coach friend say to me once, she said, "Kara, how could you deny a peacock its feathers? Because you're a peacock." Isn't that beautiful? And I was - mind blown right there. And I love that you said to give yourself the grace to experiment, because that's something that I really don't allow. And it's like, compassion, like what you just said.

It's like having compassion for myself to be like, you know what, you can do this. Why do you deny who you are? And I also came to this conclusion that I am on this path that's me. Right? So it's like, I think of these two rivers right now, this helps me so much, Pat. These two rivers that meet at the ocean and the ocean is me helping women.

Pat:
Exactly.

Kara:
Whether it's one-on-one six months confidence coaching, or one-on-one six weeks podcasting program.

Pat:
And sometimes that one river might just be a little stream, but you're still helping while the other one is just like gushing force of water because there's different seasons that maybe... We could keep going with the analogy, but I think we get the idea. I'm just super grateful that what I'm hearing from you is bouncing back and coming back to you and you're sort of realizing this now. And this, it's so funny because sometimes the most - I don't want to say difficult. It's not difficult, but those who need this kind of help are the ones who actually give this help to others. It's almost like coaches don't always take their own advice. Do you find that to be true?

Kara:
Oh my gosh. It's like the cobbler's shoes. Yeah, totally. Because like just when we started out, I was like, I was a squirrel. I was a total squirrel and my thinking was, I hope he edits this out, but maybe you shouldn't because I was just like-

Pat:
I'm not gonna edit it out, just so you know.

Kara:
- oh my gosh. Little panic attack. But yes, it's really true. It really is true that I don't always take my own advice. But the thing that you need, like you said, the thing that you need the most coaching on is the advice you give, it's what you give others. And it's funny about that panic attack thing. I actually got that from another coach who was like a master coach who was going to coach me on something completely different, but I had a panic attack and she's like, "No, this is what we're coaching you on." And I was like, "Okay, let's do it."

Pat:
Well, Kara, I just feel the transformation. I could sense it. I think the audience can as well. To finish up here, Kara, and again, thank you for joining us and giving us an update. This is huge. It's not just an update obviously, we kind of did what we did in the first episode, but on a whole new level here today. And so we'll have to bring you back again to see what next plateau we could get you off of, for example. But I would love to hear sort of what are your plans now? So we know what you're up to now. What does next year look like for you?

Kara:
All right, well, this year, the next year going forward really, is just me doubling down and like I said before, putting all my chips on black, focusing on these two pieces of my business. It's really like honing in on the woman who is for the confidence coaching piece, the creative woman, and really working with coaches who really need help to really just roll up their sleeves and dive in with both arms and work on their podcasts. So I'm super excited about that.

Pat:
Yeah. I'm excited too. A lot of people may hear this - and I'm just kind of exploring based on how I know people might react. People might be going, "Pat, aren't you scared or upset that Kara has a podcasting program and so do you?" And for me, I'm like, no, this is great because we're all helping the people who want the help from us. There are people who only want help from Kara, who Kara has been building a relationship with. To me, it's not competition. To me, we're all in this together. I come from a place of abundance and I just wanted to share that really quick. And I'm just, I'm not at all upset. So keep going. I hope yours becomes even more successful than mine.

Kara:
Well, thank you. I appreciate that because my philosophy is a rising tide lifts all boats.

Pat:
Absolutely.

Kara:
There's enough for all of us to go around if we have that mind of abundance. And I know that that's how you feel.

Pat:
Cool. Well, thank you so much, Kara, I appreciate you. Where can people go to find you, to listen to you, to come check out what you have going on?

Kara:
Yeah. So I try to make it super easy. So if they go to KaraGottWarner.com, they can find out about my podcast, my programs, and then I am @KaraGottWarner on Clubhouse. That's it.

Pat:
Awesome. You're amazing. Keep up the good work, Kara. Thank you so much.

Kara:
Thanks Pat.

Pat:
All right. I hope you enjoyed that episode and the Where Are They Now? update with Kara. Again, you can find her at KaraGottWarner.com, and her podcast, it's Craft Your Confidence. And she's helping a load of people right now. Definitely some major changes made since the last time she spent on the show. So well done Kara. I appreciate you.

And hey, if you'd like to get coached here on AskPat and would love to chat with me, I'd love to chat with you. If you go over to AskPat.com, you can apply there to potentially get on the show and get coached for free. And in exchange, I just ask that you allow us to share this so we can help inspire others too.

So hopefully you're inspired today. Thank you Kara. I appreciate you. And thank you for listening in. I look forward to serving you in the next episode. Make sure you hit that subscribe button wherever you're listening right now if you haven't already. And I appreciate all the reviews that have been coming in this year. They've been on fire. Thank you so much for that. Take care and I'll see you next week. Cheers. As always, Team Flynn for the win. Peace.