Welcome to Overcoming Anything the podcast where we dive deep into stories of resilience, transformation, and growth. I am your host, Anne ve, and today we have an incredible guest who has overcome the business that was running her. So joining me today is Kimberly Smith. She is a fractional COOA systems advisor, creator of systematized. For success and the Phoenix Blueprint. So she helps founders heal, align, and build the systems they need to scale their business with purpose. So welcome to the show, Kimberly. Thank you for having me in. Absolutely. So before we dive in, I always love to ask, what's one quote or mantra that keeps you going during tough times? There's so many good ones, but I think for me is my personal one is I've already done it. I can do it again. Ooh, I like that. and you keep evolving. I'm so impressed with your background because you're a speaker, an author, consulting. You're a coach, you are spiritual, you have spiritual programs. You just do it all. So how do you get it all done in a systematic way, in a timely manner? I'm a project manager, so it comes really natural to me to just block out times to work on the things that I need to work on, and that includes any of my off business things like my rescue or working on my earth mama side, which is all chemical, free living, homesteading, things like that. So there is, there are so many sides and you really just have to get that balance of times to work on it. If it takes two weeks to get it done, that's okay. My clients come first. My personal things, my writing come next. And then my off time is for my children and my family and my animals and my partner. So the best way to do that is to really block out your time, regardless of how long it takes. Because if you throw yourself in and it takes eight hours, what are you doing in the other part of it? You're feeling overwhelmed. You're feeling like you're not getting everything done. So little steps on each thing. Each day goes a long way. tell us more. Mornings for business and then early afternoon for writing and then for the rescue late afternoon or how do you organize yourself? Most of my meetings with my clients are in the morning. So I'm able to take an hour afterwards and work on the things for the week that we need to get done. If there is somebody later in the afternoon, then the hour before the meeting, I'll finish up anything that I didn't get done the week before. So then working on my websites, working on my writing, working on my programs, things that are outside of client work and outside of my business that pays the bills. Mm-hmm. Is where I schedule those in. In between. Okay. So how does the business owner know when they're running their business versus when their business is running them? Businesses running them really clear signs and they don't even think that it's outta the ordinary, working till 11 o'clock at night, getting up at five in the morning, having their entire time worked on, working on the business, working in the business instead of on the business. They don't take true vacations. They might have a team, but they're still holding onto so much because they don't think anybody can do it as good as they can. They're. Overwhelmed, but, and not in a way that they would think is burnout, but really is. And there those little signs with burnout, irritability, feeling like you can't get it all done. They're really small signs that really don't always add up to something big where somebody goes, oh, I need to change something right now. But if you wanna scale, if you wanna grow, if you want to have the freedom for, the reason we started our businesses is to have more freedom. Right? Then you need to make those changes of working on it instead of in it. So did you ever get to the point of burnout and then you're like, whoa, I need to take a step back, or have you always just been organized with your time that you never got there? No, I wasn't. And funny enough, you think that it would've been of the opposite of being somebody who has to be very detail oriented and very project managed and, but it's not because I didn't have boundaries. And so for me it was more my clients running me. Than me running the clients and the, their businesses and their projects because it, it wasn't uncommon for somebody to not get something to me. So at Friday night, oh, I just got everything done. Can you make sure that this email goes out tomorrow morning and I'm in the middle of dinner? And the first time I said no, caused about a two week conversation with a client and a two week conversation with myself that I can't keep doing this. I'm not on call. When they're working. And even though I try to guide my clients and they know that I have this coaching transformational side where they can come to me if they're feeling any kind of blocks or need that breakthrough moment, it was really just saying, if this is how you choose to work, we can work on that. But if this is your choice, then that is your choice, but this is not how I work, and my contract is actually very clear and I would constantly. Go over it. And that led to anxiety, burnout, exhaustion. in my human design. I'm a generator, so I have unlimited energy. But if I don't take those breaks and listen to my body, I can very easily go into burnout. And I have autoimmune diseases, I have health issues. I can't go into burnout otherwise I'm flat out and who can take care of my family myself if I'm burnt out? So putting those boundaries into place and really. Sticking to them, and that's even more important is sticking to them and I put everything in my contract, this is how we work. And I set expectations before we start working. And that's something that I teach them with their clients too. It's like you set expectations upfront so that boundaries not aren't really always necessary. I love that. So with that particular client, when you told him no at like five 30 during dinner, seven o'clock at night actually, or seven o'clock at night, so how did that client respond? did he end up, leaving you or did you fire him as a client or you just worked through it? Not at that time. We worked through it. Although the first thing that was said to me is, I'm the business owner. I decide what goes out because I said, well, maybe it doesn't go out tomorrow then because it's the weekend and I don't work on weekends. Mm-hmm. And so Monday during our meeting, we actually scheduled an extra hour and talked through it. However, it kept coming up over and over and over again, and I finally decided to step away. I was with him for three years, but I finally decided to step away. What happens is you just recognize that when you meet somebody and you work together, maybe all it is getting them to that next step and then that your part is done. Other times I've worked with people for most of my career online. Mm-hmm. It depends on how you can work together, how much of a fit you are, and if it's a reason, a season or a lifetime, and a lot of the times it's just a reason you get them up and going. You get things put into place that they need, they hire somebody else that can take them to the next step, and I'm fine with that. Yeah, I love that awareness. Amazing. So a lot of entrepreneurs, they leave corporate America because they want freedom only to build a business that becomes like a ball and chain, and then they're working longer hours and they have less freedom. So where did they go wrong along the way? Oh, there could be so many, but I think the biggest one is not starting right up front, hiring a team, and I tell most of my clients even, it says five hours a month. Start small, five hours a month. You would be amazed what somebody can take off your plate for five hours a month and look for the things that drain you, things that you really don't love, things that you're not necessarily good at. I have a lot of gifts and I can do just about anything. That doesn't mean I like doing just about anything. It just means that I'm a learner and I like to teach and I like to learn new things, and I like to expand my knowledge base I've come to recognize as I teach my clients, there are things that I may be good at, but it really drains me. I don't like it. Mm-hmm. So look for those things too, and start small. But eventually If you want to get to your freedom and you want a business that grows, you have to hire the right team. You have to start trusting in them and their skills and their expertise so that you can actually get things off your plate and have that freedom that you started your business for. However freedom looks for you. Excellent. So how would a new business owner find someone for just five hours a week? Do you suggest like a VA or, The doer that they advertise online? Yeah. And it pretty much is 'cause a VA that I started as a va. Not recognizing that my skills in corporate and small business and the outside, the, offline world that I was really more operations and operation director and things like that. But they really are task orientated. They like to get their tasks, they like to just go through them. They like to get paid and then they like to go live their life. They love that. And I'm very much task orientated. So starting out that way was pretty easy. It got pretty rote for me after a while. I do like the challenge of new things. So finding a VA for five hours, easy. Many VAs have multiple clients for small amounts of time because it they have very specific things that they handle. Social media, email clients doing your calendar. Some have personal so that they can help take care of their own personal appointments. Yeah, it's really a variety, but they're pretty easy to find. Okay. All right. So why is this so hard for entrepreneurs to let go? So is the real problem a lack of systems, or is an identity issue, or do you think it's a control issue? I think it's a variety of all those things. Plus control, definitely. And I deal with that on myself, with my team. It's like sometimes it's really hard. To take something that you've done for so long and hand it to somebody else and hope that they're gonna do it well, and that is where your systems comes into place. I'm a huge SOP person. I love my systems and procedures. I think they are the foundation and the backbone of a business. Mm-hmm. So that you can hand things off in the way that you want it done and everybody's SOP will be slightly different. Some things are gonna be pretty matter of fact, and everybody does it pretty much the same way. Other things are gonna be customized to you. Mm-hmm. Second, the third thing is trust. I know a lot of business owners have been burned. They've been burned by coaches. They've been burned by VAs. They've been burned by people that they've learned to trust that they found weren't doing what they were supposed to do. And again, systems, procedures, that goes into a lot of that. their identity wrapped up as the founder and the owner and front facing. You know, I have to be the one that everybody always sees. I don't think that necessarily correlates into a strong. Team because sometimes your areas of expertise are the, the pieces that you start with, and then you can hand things off to your team. And it just reminds me of a client that owned a marketing firm it was really hard for her to hand those things off and getting burned, but she liked being the person that the clients could come to. She feels that her clients are family. And that made it really difficult to hand it to somebody who could really be the client care person, really be the person that can take them after their initial onboarding. And so you have all of those things wrapped up and I'm sure there's plenty more reasons because it really does take a lot to hand things over to people and everybody has a different reason. if I'm a business owner and I've overwhelmed, and everything in my business seems to depend on me, where do I start and how do I systematize first? Yeah, it's really putting those SOPs and processes into place. So if you can take something that is on an SOP and you have the system written down where somebody can either watch the video or read it and do it a way you want it done. That takes a lot of things off your plate by being able to hand and say, Hey, I need this done. Let's say, social media is a big one. You know, here's the content. I need it put into a calendar. This is how we do it, this is how we post. This is how we go back and comment. If there's any questions, we can go over it on a weekly meeting. That's another important piece. And. They're organic, they're meant to change and grow. So as you actually start to do something, you might notice cracks or you might notice the way that somebody works that you've hired is different from the way that you described it. And so you have to shift it a little bit and work with it. And I've always said, there's no failures. It's just a bad system. Sometimes your process just needs those tweaks to make it work for everybody. Okay. That makes sense. So how do you decide what you should be doing versus what should be automated, delegated, or eliminated? Hmm. That's a really good question. I think almost everything can be, so from the time that usually when I work with people, I start an audit on the business and I look through what they have, what they don't have, ask a lot of questions, go through everything with a fine tooth comb, and then. Ask them. So what are you doing? What are the things that are on your plate, and what does your team do? Most of the time when I come in a lot's on their plate and not so much on the team. So the best way to do that is to be like, you know, these are the things that you don't have to do. You do not have to be in charge of your calendar. Somebody else can handle that with getting everything scheduled on there. They can go through your emails and make sure that the junk is taken out and the important things are in there. We. Get into A CRM, which is customer relations management, where your emails are automated, your onboarding is automated. You know, there's so much, I guess that's a really long answer to a question that, I think there's many things that people don't realize can be automated, put into a processor, put with the team that they don't have to do. Okay. You know, your vision, you run the company, your vision is what keeps it going. Your new ideas, the way that you. Present yourself out there that's a founder and a business owner's biggest piece so that you can grow everything else you can hand off just about everything. So at what point does someone who's just starting out say, I'm gonna hire someone for five hours a month. but they're not really making money so they feel they don't have the money to invest in someone else. And so how do you expand enough to really grow your business, if that makes sense? It does make sense, and it's actually something that when I work with clients just starting out, is customizing something for them or finding a VA that can work for them because. They don't realize that the time that it takes to give things to somebody for five hours actually will start making them money. because now they can focus more on the business of bringing in. It depends on what your business is, some of it, and much of it with people who work client to client. It relies on bringing in more clients. But if you're so busy doing everything in the back end and doing all the things yourself, what time do you have to actually find new clients, bring new clients in, and work with clients? Right. so someone started a business, they're starting to grow a little bit. What systems would need to be in place before they could even think about scaling their business? Yeah, they would have to have their website, their calendar, their, I have a whole tech essentials, PDF for people, and I'm trying to think what it is. Website, email, domain calendar, payment gateway, and CRM. Th those things that you have are the backbone of the business to have the foundation for your tech systems so that you can start handing things off. Because if you are always getting ahold of somebody, email the email and scheduling them, or people are just finding you where they find you, or you're just word of mouth and you don't have a website. You don't have a payment gateway to take payments, so you're always figuring out the best way for one person or another to get the information. You're taking the credit cards down and running it. I'm already exhausted. so those are just the, the five basics. And then there, there are a few more. You know, having a video conferencing like Zoom, which is so easy these days, or even using Google Meet, which is free for most people. But your email, your website, your payment gateway, your calendar, your CRM, those are the most important pieces to have in place. Okay, excellent. So how do you build systems without making your business feel robotic or losing that personal touch when you start offloading some of these tasks to a VA or to other employees? it's definitely keeping that personal touch. I'm a concierge and operations director for a couples community. And that's one of our biggest things is how do we keep it personal while still keeping it automated so that it doesn't take up too much of our time, you know, personal reach out. That doesn't take long and I don't care if there's a hundred people coming on. If you have, and I know this sounds unpersonalized, but it's not, bear with me. You have a little bit of a script that you can then add in a few personal touches to it, copy and paste, add a few personal touches. It still keeps it personal. You're still talking to people, you're still reaching out to people, but most people expect, an intake form or a weekly check-in or some other emails, they expect it to be automated no matter what business that you're in. So you find the places that can be, and you find the places that still keep a personal touch because I think that's important. We still want that human connection. So there's plenty that can be automated and systematized, but you don't need everything to be. Gotcha. And I know that like it's a longer answer to figure out what those pieces are. Right. Okay. so what's the difference between growing a business and actually building a business that can operate without you? Because Tim Ferris. He always talks about the four hour work week. So do you start a business with the end result of scaling and selling it, or do you just start your business and then just kind of grow from there? Or should you always have the end result in mind? You always have to end the result in mind because. When we grow as people, our businesses grow as well and they change and it shifts. And sometimes your vision of what you wanted it to be five years ago are gonna be different. What it is, today. And I think that not everybody wants to build a business that can sell. Some do some just want that freedom and flexibility of working from home and being with their family, being able to travel whatever freedom means to them. So sometimes it's just growing enough to do what you want it to do. And I think it's a really personal question for each business owner and entrepreneur, Do you wanna leave a legacy? Are you just living your purpose? Are you just building something so you don't have to have a nine to five and have more flexibility? I think it changes for everybody. So I think the answer is to find out what it is for you. Then the rest of the answers come much quicker When you know, and it's okay if it changes, it kind of grows and sometimes you love your business and sometimes you're like, it's time to exit and start a new one. Right? Yeah. Sometimes, and sometimes we all have those days. Gosh, I love what I do, and there's still some days it's like, why am I doing what I do? This isn't freedom, it's handcuffs right? Sometimes, that's the growth, that's your personal growth and business growth too. It's like, okay, what it is, what is it that's making me miserable? and what can I do to fix it? Yeah. Or who can I delegate this to? Right. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So what is one thing you see successful entrepreneurs doing that themselves that they should have stopped doing a long time ago delegating? it really does come down to having a team, whatever size you want it to be with you, because the second that you're handing things off is the second that you are actually working on your business instead of in it. So what would you say are the top mistakes that you currently see business owners making right now? Oh, that's a really good question. I think taking too much on not having a true action plan in place. I work with a lot of creatives. And so when they have a lot of ideas and they just wanna run with it. I've made the mistake in the past, just running with it with them. And if you don't have a clear action plan in place of like what your phases are and how to do it, sometimes it fails. So regardless of what you wanna launch and what you wanna do, having a true action plan in place and taking the time to do it right instead of rushing. So delegating, not rushing things, it's okay to have tons of projects. You just wanna have a plan for them and. Think not setting boundaries for themselves. I think that's a, a big one with work life balance. It's like truly learn how to put it down at a certain time and it's okay if my five is your seven. Like we're all different. I know plenty of people that don't have children, they don't have a family. They love their work. They can put into it, but they also can take off a little bit more in the morning and start a little later. So have your calendar in place and block out that personal time and block out vacation. True vacations, which is why you need a team so that you can truly go on vacation and take a break from the business. Okay. what would you suggest as like a daily mindset preparation that you recommend to your clients? So when they wake up in the morning, they get focused and they're ready to go. I would say don't try to focus when you first wake up. It's like really learn how to take your time in the morning and set your own routine because your routine and the things that you add to it during the day keep you successful all day long. So for me, I'm pretty busy with everything in the house and with the kids, like most working parents are. So having my alarm set a little bit early and being able to take the time to wake up and not just jump out of bed, to be able to have my breakfast time and my outside time before I sit down at the desk. I mentioned before I have health issues, so sitting at a desk all day long doesn't work for me and I can't do that all day long. So I have my breaks in between. So it really is make sure your routines and the things that keep you happy and keep you healthy and keep you loving life are incorporated into your day. Makes sense. That's great advice. So what life lessons did systematizing your business teach you? Yeah, it really did teach me. Boundaries. It taught me how to make my business purposeful and not just work. I'm, the biggest thing with that is your system is different from somebody else's system. So customize it for you so that it fits your work, it fits your life, it fits where you wanna go in the future and check back on that. Have your plan and don't just set it and forget it. Come back to it. Is it still working? What's not working? What's working well? What's something that I don't need anymore? Constantly coming back and looking at things is truly important. And how do you suggest business owners keep themselves accountable if they don't have a coach? And not all of us have coaches all the time. I definitely recommend over the period of years that you should have a couple. but holding yourself accountable, I use my calendar and my journaling a lot. So it really is making that promise to yourself that if this is what we're gonna do and this is how we wanna get there, then you have to become a master accountability partner for yourself. And sometimes it's just even asking another business owner or a friend or a family member, find somebody to have an accountability partner., It's huge when you can do that. Right. Okay. So how are you incorporating AI into your business processes? Do you feel like some business owners are letting AI drive their business, or are they finding that balance between using it and still maintaining their authentic voice? I think you have the, three different types of people, the ones that use it too much. Because they've decided that, oh, great, now I can do something I haven't done before because AI can tell me how to do it. And it's just flooding the market right now with people who wanna write or they wanna start a business or they wanna be a content creator and you just have all these like fake things going on and you know what good for them. Live your own life. You do you then you have the ones that use it where they need to use it so that they still have a handle on what they're doing. Like I can definitely say it takes me two to three hours to write an SOP sometimes longer I have SOPs that have multiple SOPs that go along with it. Sometimes I could spend an entire day on one. It's so awesome now to be able to do my video, pop it in with my template and say, fill it in for me, and then go through and edit it. it's a life changer and a time saver that I can focus on other things with my clients than just the, the initial SOPs that they need to get started. In a way it's, working smarter, not harder. And then you have the ones that won't use it at all because they're like, absolutely not, but they don't realize that there really are good places for it. And it can be a true thinking partner for you and your business and your clients, where it would take you much longer to get a lot of things done. So using it as a tool, I think is super important. Okay, for the business owner who is listening, who's exhausted, overwhelmed, and wondering, why did I ever start this business? What would you tell them to do first, to begin to take their life back, other than hiring a VA for five hours a month? Take stock, make a, and I think this is the simplest exercise. Make a list of what you're doing. Check what you don't like and what you like, and then really sit with yourself on it. if this is what you started, because this is how you wanted to build your life of freedom, there's a reason all of us started a business. Sometimes it's necessity, sometimes it's purpose. Sometimes it's just to do something different. I don't care what the reason is. If you still want to do it and you're exhausting yourself, sit down and take stock. Sit down and do a really hard look in the mirror. if you wanna keep doing this, then you can't keep doing it the way you're doing it and find out how much you're doing so you can figure out your next step. and it could be hiring somebody, it could just be something even simpler there. There's so many ways that people can take things off their plate besides hiring somebody. I still think it's the easiest way. Take a good hour, sit down and really take stock of that and see, do I still wanna do this? Is it still something that lights me up? and why am I feeling not so lit up right now? So how does someone fall in love with their business again so they're passionate about their business if they lost it. Yeah, that's where I just keep coming back to a team because when you finally can take things off your plate that drain you, you learn to do the things you're loving about your business again, which is actually running your business and growing your business and doing what you were meant to do. And for a lot of us, there is purpose behind our work. So we were meant to be doing this. So if you're not loving it anymore, again, take stock of what you could change to do it. And a lot of time it's bringing in people that can support that. Keep holding it with you because there is nothing better than sitting there and getting a smile on the face of somebody who didn't know how to take the next step or keep doing what they were doing because you do get a plateau of what you know how to do. I love that. That's great advice. Is there a book that you would recommend to our listeners who might need some guidance as to how to set up a system or that helped you on your journey to get to where you're at right now? You know what a lot of people ask that, and I don't read a lot of nonfiction. Most of mine that I do read is more personal development. what is the one that I just did with my boyfriend? We really liked it. Stop letting everything affect you. How to break free from overthinking, emotional chaos,. The first, few chapters was work I've been doing for the past 15 years, but it was nice to reintegrate it. But the last couple chapter I'm like, oh, I'm still doing this is a good one. So it's easy read. Really easy read, and it's really helpful. So I would recommend that one. I read some business books, but I find that things change so much. Right in the business world, and I'm not saying that they're still not applicable, but I think it's pick and choose what works for you and let the rest go. because everybody's got advice. Absolutely. But find what really works for you and what really resonates with you. Some entrepreneurs have built a prison for themselves and they call it freedom. So how would you suggest they escape? I think the first question is how did it become a prison in the first place? to me that's a really introspective question. I don't think someone outside of your business can answer right away, but if you can figure out the reason it became a prison and the steps you can take to backtrack or fix moving forward. I don't think it's a one size fits all kind of answer. Okay. All right. I know that, I know it's not necessarily what you wanna hear, but that's just one of those questions that I really think is really personal. It's like if it became a prison, what happened? happened? what about it is, that's more my coaching side there. I'd be asking a lot of questions on that one to break it down and get down to the nitty gritty on that one. No, that's good because I think you're bringing up, an underlying point of you have to reflect of like, why did you start the business? Are you happy? What's working? What's not working? What can you hand off and what's the purpose of your business? Is really personal and while many entrepreneurs could hear some things that work for each of them and they, oh yeah, I do that too. Your purpose and your reason, that's all your own, yeah. It all comes down to that. So any parting advice for any entrepreneurs or small business owners listening on how to become more successful in 2026? I think the biggest thing is that you can do this. there is nothing that can stop you from achieving what you want but yourself. Yes. I love it. Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Amazing. Kimberly, this has been such an eye-opening and empowering conversation. I think so many business owners are gonna walk away realizing that a successful business shouldn't mean sacrificing themselves in the process. So thank you for sharing your wisdom with us. where can people connect with you, follow you, learn more about what you do? If you go to my website, it's got all my social media handles and all the other things that I do. So virtual life alchemist.com. I am working, I just bought Kimberly Smith, thank goodness. So I'll be working on redirecting that to Virtual Life Alchemist, but 'cause it's a little easier to spell. but Virtual Life Alchemist is where they can find me and follow me on social media and find everything else about me. Excellent, and we'll put that down in show notes. So thank you so much again, and listeners, if you found this episode helpful, please share it with someone who might be facing a similar challenge and needs to hear this message of hope, advice, and knowingness that they too can become successful in their business. I'll see you next time on overcoming Anything.