Risk-Averse to Revenue Diverse: Kate Kompelien's Escapee Journey in Customer Experience Consulting

Brett Trainor (: 00:01

Hi Kate, welcome to the Corporate Escapee Podcast.

Kate Kompelien (: 00:04

Thank you, Brett. I'm glad to be here.

Brett Trainor (: 00:06

Now, absolutely my pleasure. I'm excited about this because we share a passion for kind of customer, customer success experience. You do some stuff that not many companies take advantage of. we're going to dig into that. But before we get into kind of the day to day of what you're doing, why don't you share with the audience a little bit of what you're working on today as an escapee, who you work with. And then I'm going to take you back in time a little bit to how you got to this point.

So how's that sound?

Kate Kompelien (: 00:38

Sounds good. Yeah, so I have a company called the Insight Shop and I do customer experience, qualitative research, process mapping. At the crux of everything, I'm really trying to help companies understand those key moments that matter to their customers and what are those pain points that are getting in the way that they need to solve to provide a better experience, higher customer retention.

Right now I'm doing a lot of work in the supply house, insurance, kind of the food space, consumer electronics, and a variety of work, everything from focus groups to journey mapping, process mapping, et cetera. So just have started my business at the end of January from corporate and things are going strong running my own company so far.

Brett Trainor (: 01:33

Awesome. Awesome. And you're still a solo business? Okay. And I know we'll get back into your journey, but I'm always curious to see, is your goal, do you want to build a full on company? Are you happy with kind of the one person? Again, you don't have to. I'm just kind of curious what your thought process is right now.

Kate Kompelien (: 01:38

I do have one employee.

Kate Kompelien (: 01:52

Yeah. Yeah. When I first started my business, I thought just one employee and I still sort of feel that way, but I'm also a big believer into just letting things right out and see what happens and being open to different possibilities.

Brett Trainor (: 02:11

Exactly. It's the beauty of what we're doing now, right? We're not under the corporate constraints, so you can kind of see what doors are starting to open or what's available for that. So, all right. So we're to come back into that. But like I said, I'm a huge believer in customer experience, small, large companies. Nobody's really good at it. So we'll get into why here in a second. So let's go back to maybe your last corporate role. What were you doing? And when you left...

Kate Kompelien (: 02:20

Yeah, absolutely.

Brett Trainor (: 02:40

Did you have a plan? So I'll leave you with those two questions.

Kate Kompelien (: 02:41

Okay. Okay. Sure. So I was working for T -TEC and I was running the customer experience design practice. I did that for six years. And then last fall I started thinking about, what would I, what do I really want to be doing? Who do I want to work for? And as I was thinking more and more about it, do I stay in my field? Do I go a different direction?

I really wanted to do what I was doing is running a consulting practice, but I really wanted to make sure I was taking care of my customers. didn't want all of these expectations for financial goals to get in the way because I was finding more and more that I was not really supposed to be doing smaller work. I was supposed to be getting these really big projects to hit a certain number.

And I really didn't like that. didn't feel good about that. And so at the end of the day, I decided I wanted to go out on my own. And so this was around October and I did quit my corporate job in mid January. And so sort of on the nights and weekends, I spent a few months just getting things ready, getting my business email and my domain and thinking about like, you know, how I was going to build my business. And then I quit two weeks later, I was running my own company.

Brett Trainor (: 04:09

That's awesome. Any thinking back, right? I tell the story all the time that I didn't have a plan in hindsight, I probably would have done or I would have done more. I encourage people if you have a little bit of time to do what you're doing, talk about build what that plan. Is there anything you would have done even differently before you left corporate based on what you now know or are you pretty comfortable with the way it unfolded?

Kate Kompelien (: 04:15

Yeah.

Kate Kompelien (: 04:33

Yeah, no, I'm good with the way it unfolded. I think for me, running a consulting practice for six years gave me the skills and the tools that I needed to feel comfortable just jumping into things. Outside of the accounting part, I pretty much knew what I was doing. And not to say that it's easy finding customers and building your customer base, but I at least had six years of practice doing that.

Brett Trainor (: 04:56

Yeah, that's good. And that's a good segue to me right into how did you find your first customer? Did you have somebody lined up before you gave notice or did you have a pretty good idea of where you could think you could find them or just say, you know what, I'm going to be I'm going to go get them once I'm out.

Kate Kompelien (: 05:13

Yeah, so I did. It's interesting. I did reach out to a couple people that I really trusted to just say, hey, I'm thinking about doing this. This is my timing. know, would you hire me to do some project work if I did go down this path? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I did not have a first customer lined up. Personally, I just didn't feel right getting customers before I quit. And so.

But I had been talking to a couple people while at T -TEC, hadn't done any work with them in the past, just had a couple initial conversations. And I did have another second conversation when I was on my own and they just happened to be ready to start some work. And it started off as a small project. And after that, I just started reaching out to people I worked with in the past that had their own research companies.

And so then they started using me to fill in the gaps. And then my one customer just kept adding on more projects. So I'm on my fifth project now with that first customer, which is fantastic. And then since then have found a couple other companies that didn't have customer experience expertise, but really wanted to get in the space. And so I've been doing some work with what I would call more partners that has been really nice. So it's been a combination of

getting customers on my own, working with some research companies for fill -in work, and then having some partners where I can be their customer experience resource on projects.

Brett Trainor (: 06:53

Yeah, interesting. And another perfect lead in because, and I think you and I may have talked about this offline before, is the biggest delta for folks in corporate thinking going solo is networking, right? Because maybe when we were in corporate, our networking consisted of looking for that next job or maybe looking into a company or if we were buying software, something but very different than, you know, running your own company and having to connect with people. So.

Can you kind of share some of your best practices or recommendations, right? Cause you said you reached out to some folks. Was it folks in your current company or was it folks that you worked with before? Or just, I don't want to put a box around you, just share your kind of wisdom with folks that are looking to make that transition.

Kate Kompelien (: 07:28

Mm -hmm.

Kate Kompelien (: 07:35

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, so I use HubSpot as a spot. keep all of my prospecting and my deals and such as a part of, and that's been really nice to help me organize everything. As far as reaching out, I mean, it's a lot of pounding the pavement and it doesn't matter how busy you are. You need a big pipeline. So because a lot of times things don't come to fruition, even if you have statements of work out there. And so I started doing something

kind of funny. I went into my LinkedIn, I looked at all my connections, and I just started going through them in alphabetical order.

Brett Trainor (: 08:19

Yeah, that's all right.

Kate Kompelien (: 08:21

And really, mean, you just have to be persistent and keep on reaching out and be okay if people don't respond. Even if you had a really good relationship with them, people are busy. lot of people also I find in corporate, they don't use LinkedIn as much as consultants do or sell people. And so that's not always their place for conversations, but sometimes that's the first place you have to start.

Brett Trainor (: 08:42

Peace.

Kate Kompelien (: 08:51

And so I've had a lot of examples where I reached out to someone nine times or more because I really want to just even catch up with them. I have a lot of people that I've known from Pillsbury, General Mills, Best Buy that I just like when I run across them, I'm excited, right? I want to see what they're up to. It's been a long time. And for me, it's more about getting saying hello.

Brett Trainor (: 09:12

Yeah.

Kate Kompelien (: 09:21

redeveloping that relationship, just really, you know, having conversations with people, helping people understand, you know, what I do and where I'm looking to help in certain areas. But to me, the relationship is more important and the sale will come later if, if there is a need and the leads come from unexpected places. I can't tell you the amount of times I thought for sure I was going to be doing work for someone and I'm not.

And the amount of times that I was like, well, nothing likely will come from this conversation. And it does. So I think also it's a numbers game. It's all about volume, right? The more you reach out to, the more you tell your story, the more you listen to other people's stories and understand their needs, you know, the more the opportunities will come, but you have to be patient and you have to keep trying.

Brett Trainor (: 10:17

Yeah, no, and I really loved what you said about the, it's the relationship piece, right? Because if it's all just churn and burn and, don't have anything for me now. Thanks, but no thanks. I think, you know, taking that longer game approach of, Hey, just reconnect with your network. Most people are excited to hear what you're up to, right? And whether it's a potential customer, I've actually found it more. The network is better with people than hear or know somebody else that's looking for help.

Kate Kompelien (: 10:27

Yeah.

Kate Kompelien (: 10:32

Yeah.

Brett Trainor (: 10:45

versus somebody that may actually, to your point, that you thought would buy from you, but didn't, but all of a sudden a connection you had that you weren't quite sure where, could you mutually help each other or make introductions, turns into a new business. So maybe just share a little bit, I know being human, you're in customer experience, so it makes sense.

Kate Kompelien (: 10:50

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Kate Kompelien (: 10:58

Hmm.

Kate Kompelien (: 11:03

Right.

Brett Trainor (: 11:11

But kind of what was your approach when you just started with, hey, I just love to connect with you, see what you're up to. I'm starting a new company or maybe just walk, I don't want your template for it, but just kind of what was your approach when you were reconnecting with folks in your network?

Kate Kompelien (: 11:16

Mm

Kate Kompelien (: 11:21

Yeah.

Kate Kompelien (: 11:26

Yeah, so at first was just, you know, saying hello, would love to reconnect, see what you've been up to, you know, spend 10 years, 15 years, whatever it's been since, you know, we last worked together. I wanted to let you know that I left corporate, I'm starting my own business. Here's where I'm focused, you know, would love to have a conversation. So at first, it was more that and then

So that's like was usually my first message. Then a follow -up message would be if they didn't respond would be more around, know, you're in this space, you're in this role. Here's some things that I do can do to help support you and your team. So and then a lot of times too people would say, yeah, I'd love to meet and then they go dark. Right? So that's when follow -up, follow -up, follow -up. And I believe like it's

Brett Trainor (: 12:16

Yeah.

Kate Kompelien (: 12:20

our responsibility to follow up. It's not somebody else's. And when people tell me they'll refer me to someone else or they want to introduce me to someone else, I don't just sit back and wait for months and months and months for that to happen. I'll send a reminder. Hey, what's great catching up. You know, thank you for thinking of introducing me to XYZ. If it's still appropriate, can you still make those connections? I understand you're busy.

But it is our job as salespeople because when you're running your own business, right, you do the sales and the accounting and delivery, you do everything. And so I don't believe you're going to get far if you're not constantly following up and not in a harassing way, but just, you know, remembering that they have a day job, they're doing you a favor and that, you know, we have to in a month, three weeks, whatever to say, Hey, thank you.

you know, but can you do that?

Brett Trainor (: 13:21

Yeah, I'm 100 % with you because even I tell people now, right, with the community, the escapee community, if I hear something from somebody, especially a new member, like, man, I got to connect you with somebody. you know, 800 people, don't.

Kate Kompelien (: 13:32

Mm -hmm.

Brett Trainor (: 13:37

When the early days I can remember what everybody did now, I'm like, I know somebody does this, so let me figure out who it is. But I tell them, like, make sure you follow up with me. I mean, I will try to remember and make sure I make the connection, but you're not going to hurt my feelings. I'm not going to get mad if you follow up and ask me, you know, who that was. And so, yeah, I think sometimes there's an apprehension to follow up because they were being nice. And it's just, most of the time we just needed a reminder. We got busy or sidetracked and I didn't make the right note. Like I said, I try to do all that, but.

Kate Kompelien (: 13:42

Mm

Kate Kompelien (: 14:04

Thank you.

Brett Trainor (: 14:07

And to your point, most people are happy to have conversations and hear what you're up to. And I love to hear what people or other people, because you kind of shared some space. Maybe they're doing something you can help with.

Kate Kompelien (: 14:12

Yeah.

Kate Kompelien (: 14:19

Right. Yeah. And I would say too, another thing is that people want to help people in general and being part of the corporate escapee. I have been able to refer quite a few people either to somebody else if they need help or to give them an opportunity where I don't work in that space, but I know somebody from corporate escapee that does. And so my clients.

are very grateful because they didn't have to like go and spend months and months trying to figure out like who they can use. I can just quickly say, hey Gregory, here's a positioning study for you. Right. I don't do that. And then my client saves. They get like literally the next day a proposal and can move forward with their work. So that's just another nice part.

Brett Trainor (: 15:00

Yeah.

Kate Kompelien (: 15:12

of being part of this group and how we can help each other out from a networking perspective.

Brett Trainor (: 15:17

Yeah, it's definitely coming more from an abundance versus scarcity because there is so much opportunity out there that even if you're, tell people if your chief marketing officer just head of marketing or do social and there's six of you kind of doing the same things, there's enough for connect with each other because there is going to be opportunities for either to work on something together or something you're not quite the right fit for. No, a hundred percent. And

Kate Kompelien (: 15:22

and

Kate Kompelien (: 15:30

Yeah. Yeah.

Kate Kompelien (: 15:41

Right.

Brett Trainor (: 15:44

Just one last question on the network. We'll move on to another topic. But do you find yourself connecting with Doing any outreach to folks that don't know you are you still mostly leveraging? some variation of connections that you have because again I think that's another black hole for people is like, my gosh What happens do I have to do outreach to people that don't know me? I'm like, there's ways around it, but I'm curious You know to hear from you because you do do a lot of you know networking and outreach is it all

Kate Kompelien (: 15:46

Yeah. Yeah.

Kate Kompelien (: 16:02

Yeah.

Brett Trainor (: 16:14

connected or not.

Kate Kompelien (: 16:18

So I would say yes on both fronts, but where I'm getting a lot of connections with people that I don't know is from people that I do know. And then people that I don't know connecting to other people that I don't know. So that's how my don't know connection starts to grow. I was also doing a couple networking for people I don't know, for example, based in South Carolina. When I'm there half the year, I looked into what are all the companies in South Carolina?

Brett Trainor (: 16:26

Yeah.

Brett Trainor (: 16:32

Yeah.

Kate Kompelien (: 16:47

And then I would look on LinkedIn to say who is the head of customer experience at these companies. And then I would reach out and sit to say, Hey, I live in the area. I see you're in Charleston. You know, would you like to meet for coffee? Would you like to meet for lunch? Would you like to hop on a call? I love to hear about some of the things that you're working on. You know, I just have started my own business in the space, you know, things like that. And I would say people that are

in your network are not as quick to respond, but it's important to me to develop relationships also in South Carolina and Minnesota. And so I'm going to go back in the fall and I'm going to continue to reach back out to those people.

Brett Trainor (: 17:33

Yeah, I love the geo based. just, even though everything, lot of things are virtual, you've got that connection, right? Or at a common touch point that you're in the same community. And when I was more focused on the fractional work or even some of the services work, I would reach out to, business owners.

Kate Kompelien (: 17:40

Yeah.

Brett Trainor (: 17:54

Ideally that had, I had somebody in common with, but not always and did what you did. took the approach. Hey, I'm starting my own thing. I'm focused on this. I just want to connect with business owners and you know, get your advice or hear from you, right? If this, you know, makes sense. It's, it's a balance, right? Cause if they, you just, they just want to just want to help you learn, learn, learn. But there, if you can find that, that give and take that, Hey, I'm just looking to learn from folks connecting. found.

Kate Kompelien (: 17:58

Yeah.

Kate Kompelien (: 18:05

Mm

Kate Kompelien (: 18:21

Mm -hmm.

Brett Trainor (: 18:23

I don't know what the connection rate is. It was a lot higher than I thought it would be via LinkedIn with direct messages, right? To folks, as long as you're customized, it's personal. You find something that works. It starts the conversation. You may find it's not the right business, but yeah, you don't have to be afraid of it. Or if somebody turns you down, it's okay. Right?

Kate Kompelien (: 18:29

Yeah.

Mm -hmm.

Yeah.

Kate Kompelien (: 18:38

right.

Kate Kompelien (: 18:43

It's OK. Yeah, that's no big deal. You're not any worse off than you already are, right? And I shouldn't say then you yeah.

Brett Trainor (: 18:48

Exactly. that's just another, as you can say, it's just another filter to keep the negativity out of your business, your life, those types of things.

Kate Kompelien (: 18:57

Exactly. And I would say too, face to face is like extremely important. So I do try as often as I can to have in -person interviews. And then I try to find local networking opportunities. And you know, some are better than others. But again, you never know who you're going to run into that might lead to that next project for you.

Brett Trainor (: 19:21

Yeah. You take an hour of your time. And again, as long as you go and open -minded and you're curious, you got to be genuinely curious and not just one -sided on, you know, just take, take, take, right? You got to go in with the give and it does pay off. It's, it's surprising. Cause at some point where I'm meeting with folks and I'm really not asking for anything. I don't have an ask. They're like, no, really? What can I do for him? Like honestly, right now, if you come across anybody that's stalled in corporate, looking to get out, just send them my

Kate Kompelien (: 19:24

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Kate Kompelien (: 19:33

Mm -hmm.

Kate Kompelien (: 19:40

Mm hmm.

Brett Trainor (: 19:50

Now at some point in the future I may have a follow -up say, do you know any businesses in this area? But for now it's just no I'm happy to you know share especially with what you do and I think what anybody incorporates you've got skills and knowledge that you can share with these connections that may help them right? So as long as you go in with that approach and if somebody turns you down again it's okay.

Kate Kompelien (: 19:50

Yeah.

Kate Kompelien (: 19:54

Right.

Kate Kompelien (: 20:04

Right. Yep.

Kate Kompelien (: 20:11

It's okay. Yeah. And I probably spend 75 % of the conversation just on them, right? If I know them, you know, how are your kids doing? Or if I don't know them, how is there some event going? What types of trips have you taken? Are you planning? What books are you reading? It's much more fun to start and understand and learn about people.

Brett Trainor (: 20:23

Yes.

Kate Kompelien (: 20:37

And then you can get to the business at the end because the business stuff really doesn't take a whole lot of time. Yeah. Yeah.

Brett Trainor (: 20:44

that law 100 % agreed. I like, and you thought about that when you saying, I do like the networking meetings, like the one -on -ones where I learn about the other person first versus me having to go first. And I just never thought about that until you were talking about the, you like to ask and I'm like, yes, because if I go first, it makes me uncomfortable. So if I can get them to talk about their business, what they're doing, those types of things.

Kate Kompelien (: 20:57

Yeah. Right.

Kate Kompelien (: 21:03

Hmm.

Kate Kompelien (: 21:07

Right.

Brett Trainor (: 21:13

It makes it a little bit easier. interesting. All right. So I think we covered network and that was going to be super helpful. I even got some notes from you on that one. So I know you came from the business. So when you left, you had some ideas on the type of work you wanted to do and pricing. Because that's the other thing. Like, well, am I charging enough? How do I charge for it? What was your approach when you kicked off? Were you just trying to get your first customer and business?

Kate Kompelien (: 21:15

Yeah.

Kate Kompelien (: 21:23

haha

Kate Kompelien (: 21:31

Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Right.

Brett Trainor (: 21:42

Walk me through kind of what your mindset was when you were getting kicked off.

Kate Kompelien (: 21:46

Yeah. So I wanted to really make sure I was focusing on my sweet spots versus everything. And so I had created a customer experience transformation process back at Best Buy added to that at App Tech, T -Tech. And so I knew from a customer experience strategy perspective, like what I wanted to do, what I was really good at. And then I also had a lot of passion and experience in qualitative research.

And so I really wanted to focus in on those two spaces as like my core and looking for work around the core. But then I also knew, I knew how to and have spent time in process mapping, voice, a customer program design and change management. So those were like periphery offerings that I could kind of round out my total offering. So that's sort of how I thought about it.

I also started thinking about what industries am I most interested in. Now that's less important because with my customer experience and qualitative research, it doesn't really matter what the industry is. And I've even found out that the industry that I was like thinking I might work in, I'm working in very different industries. I like to call them the manly industries of the trades.

Brett Trainor (: 23:06

interesting.

Kate Kompelien (: 23:12

And so that was a bit of a surprise.

Brett Trainor (: 23:15

What are the manly industries? I'm curious.

Kate Kompelien (: 23:17

like HVAC, thermal coolants, plumbing, home builders, know, things like that.

Brett Trainor (: 23:20

okay.

Brett Trainor (: 23:28

Yeah, I got it. It's interesting. So size of company, again, do you have a, cause you said the sweet spot, which we got your services, which I highly encourage people to find their sweet spot, be opportunistic as other things come up a hundred percent industry. I agree with you. It's less important, but what about size? Do you have, I'm guessing certain size companies are more open to this type of work or not.

Kate Kompelien (: 23:32

Mm -hmm.

Kate Kompelien (: 23:41

Yeah.

Kate Kompelien (: 23:51

Yeah.

Yeah, no, it's a good question. So my focus is a billion dollars or less, because generally those industries and those companies don't have like a full customer experience team, but they need to do customer experience work, they need to do market research work. And again, they might not have a full team. I also find though that in general, customer experience teams are small, even if they're massive corporate companies. And I do have the majority of my customers are a billion or less, but I do have a $30 billion company.

that I'm working with. And in that instance, you know, the reason I originally stayed away from those companies was because oftentimes they require you to get professional liability insurance, which is super expensive, general liability, and they don't really want to have those costs. But now that I do have those costs, then now, you know, it's opening up some other doors for other large companies, because now I know that I can now talk to them because I have these insurances.

Brett Trainor (: 24:53

the tools, right, the minimum required. And you mentioned something earlier I was interested in, because you kind of take a three -pronged approach to your new business, which was, if I got it right, correct me if I'm wrong, was the direct, direct, then as a subcontractor, and then referral partners. Is that right?

Kate Kompelien (: 25:13

Yeah. Yeah. And actually there's sort of a nuance to one is I do some fill in work for research companies and then it's like partnerships where they bring me in generally under their brand where I'm client facing. The research partner one is a mix of client facing and non and then referrals and then getting customers of my own. So it's really

Brett Trainor (: 25:24

Okay.

Kate Kompelien (: 25:42

Trying to fill a gap. So customer experience, like you said, is important for everyone, every business. Not a lot of businesses are focusing there as much as they should. And a lot of companies, because of that, don't necessarily have any customer experience support or from people that I'm partnering with. They don't want to invest in having a customer experience person full -time because they may not have full -time work. But they're certainly getting requests and it's nice that they don't have to turn them down.

Brett Trainor (: 26:10

Yeah, no, I love that. Because again, the whole point of it is the path of least resistance, right, to business. And if it hits your sweet spot and you're ideal, then, you know, it makes sense. And I think, again, we're sometimes some folks who go straight to the freelance or the subcontract where it's basically it's a transaction. I know your work isn't that way. So, but again, I think having diversity of

Kate Kompelien (: 26:15

Yes, exactly.

Kate Kompelien (: 26:19

Thank

Kate Kompelien (: 26:31

Yeah.

Brett Trainor (: 26:34

diversifying your revenue streams. I mean, there's probably some opportunities for you not too far down the road where you could be, you know, strategy consultant as, or not even consultant, doing that now. I meant more like teacher coach that people want to get into customer experience. You could offer, you know, services. So I think that the beauty of that is you can kind of grow with where you want to take it. Even in the short time, have you seen, I don't want say you pivot, but have you starting to see,

Kate Kompelien (: 26:36

It's a word.

Kate Kompelien (: 26:42

Yeah.

Yeah.

Kate Kompelien (: 26:49

Thank you.

Kate Kompelien (: 26:56

Thank you.

Kate Kompelien (: 27:00

Yeah.

Brett Trainor (: 27:03

little bit differently than before you started where the business is going.

Kate Kompelien (: 27:08

Yeah, I think for me, the variety has been surprisingly large in terms of like the different type of work I get exposed to. And so it's less pigeonholed and it's been more just a wide variety, which keeps things interesting. And that's also why I like, you know, leaving corporate and being on my own is because I get to choose.

who I want to have that business relationship with, both from a corporate side, right, where I have corporate clients, but also from the partner side. Like who shares the same values? know, who works in a similar way? And, you know, we didn't get to the rate part yet, but that's something you have to play around with. And I really encourage people based on years of experience to think of it that way. Also, if somebody is bringing you in,

to realize your rates might not be the same rate as being on your own and getting someone. Sometimes you have to give people referral dollars for giving you work. And so to kind of think about all of that and think about what do you need, how many hours a week do you need to work? Do you need to bill, I should say, to make the salary you wanna make? And so that's definitely something people should think about.

before they come in and then how many projects and how many project hours do you need throughout the year? And to be willing to, when you first start out, just take opportunities and don't worry so much initially like how much am I getting paid, right? It's more about meeting people, getting in the door. And then if you have a lot of work,

How do you figure out how to bring in another consultant with you or another partner so that you don't have to say no to those clients? Because if you say no, they'll choose someone else and that someone else, if they do a good job, it's so much easier to keep using them than to bring somebody else in.

Brett Trainor (: 29:21

Yeah, so much good stuff there because I do think it is the shared values is important with potential partners and that is an opportunity that we need to take it and again even as you're from your networking perspective, right? Just connect with other folks that may or may not be somebody that you guys can work with in the future but know that you've got that that Rolodex of relationships that that can plug in and yeah, I would almost again I don't know the number but I'd say 95 % of people when they first go solo under charge

Kate Kompelien (: 29:26

Thank you.

Kate Kompelien (: 29:37

Right?

Brett Trainor (: 29:51

right, what their rate was. Now you and I may have had a slightly different advantage because I came from management consulting and I knew what they were charging me out at. So when I went solo, I had a pretty good idea what my market rate was. Still hard for me to charge that just because it made it lot easier knowing that it was done that way. yeah, it's such a good device. Just take it. And again, this customer doesn't, hopefully it's a customer for life, but because you charge one customer this.

Kate Kompelien (: 29:57

Yeah. Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. Yes.

Kate Kompelien (: 30:13

Thank

Right.

Brett Trainor (: 30:19

The next one you can charge more and keep figuring out how high you can go until it fits the work that you do for it.

Kate Kompelien (: 30:24

Right.

Right, and I would say, yeah, I have said no to a partnership. So it was a hard yes, and then they didn't understand the value of customer experience. They didn't know how to talk about it to their customers. They didn't want to bring me in. They wanted to get it and then bring me in. And they kept asking me, can you do it for less and less and less and less? And I just finally said no. You know, this isn't right. And you know, I only want to work with companies that value customer experience.

and understand the value they're going to get out of having a strategic plan and really understanding what the problems are and they want to invest in it. And so also know kind of your guardrails if you would just to make sure that you're not going against your values and that you're saying true to how you want to serve customers.

Brett Trainor (: 31:15

Yeah.

Brett Trainor (: 31:19

think that's a good point because I have seen where they ask you to discount so much you're offering. my general rule is, you know, I'll pay 20 % for the referral fee in, right? So if you bring me into a client, whether I'm subcontracting under it, or if you just introduced me to a new client, I'm happy. 20 % is a good rate. And I think it's fair, right, for new business. Because if you were doing it yourself, it's probably going to cost you more than 20 % to...

Kate Kompelien (: 31:36

Mm -hmm.

Kate Kompelien (: 31:42

Yes, it's fair.

Kate Kompelien (: 31:48

Probably.

Brett Trainor (: 31:49

to generate these new customers. So just think of it that way. And I think people are more willing to help you. Again, I think people are happy to make introductions for free, but you say, hey, I've also got a referral program. If you introduce me into somebody, there's charge whatever you want, 10, 15, 20%. 20 % usually gets people's attention and be happy to, especially if they like you and know you, they're more willing to even spend a little extra effort to help pre -sell you as you go into those.

Kate Kompelien (: 31:51

Yeah. Yes.

Yep.

Kate Kompelien (: 32:07

Bye.

Yes. Right.

Kate Kompelien (: 32:19

Yeah. That's right.

Brett Trainor (: 32:19

opportunities. So awesome. Alright, so I know I can't believe time's flying by. what are, again, if you're relatively new in this journey, had success, which I love, and I love showcasing people that this doesn't have to take three years to get traction, right? What are some things that you would recommend to folks that are listening to this, frustrated that they're still in corporate, don't see a path forward? What are some of your recommendations? Just how to get started.

Kate Kompelien (: 32:26

Thank you.

Kate Kompelien (: 32:35

Right. Yeah.

Kate Kompelien (: 32:49

Yeah, I mean one is believe in yourself. Kind of chill out. I tell myself that all the time. I have to have to chill. I just be chill and that you can't control things and you can only do the best that you can do and just life is about taking risks. We're never going to believe be able to live the life we want to live if we're under a big corporation.

because corporations don't care about their employees. And I'm not saying that to be mean, they just don't. And so you give so much heart and soul into your job and most people care about their job and they want to do well. And they could just be let go the next day. So why not try working really hard for yourself? I would say, talk to your financial advisor, see how long you can go before you have to start significantly affecting

ually did start my company in: 2017

Brett Trainor (: 34:15

same.

Kate Kompelien (: 34:18

But then I was pulled away to do to build a customer experience practice for aptX and my kids were still in school. So I thought well may as well. I'm super thankful that I had you know that time learning to be a consultant, but I didn't really need to stay in it for six years. Yeah, but I would say just believe in yourself chill out have fun right if you can't have fun if all you're doing is being stressed out and nervous. You know don't do it.

Brett Trainor (: 34:35

that long, yeah.

Brett Trainor (: 34:47

Yeah, it's getting hard. Yeah, it's so funny. love because I love connecting the dots between different topics and I've been listening to this is more kind of sports performance related but there was I'm gonna have to find the book but they were talking about the joy. People that play with joy or work with joy or just

Kate Kompelien (: 34:49

Yeah.

Kate Kompelien (: 35:02

Okay.

Brett Trainor (: 35:05

I don't remember what the percentage 10 times more successful just because in life if you're not joyful with it and I can't remember the last time in corporate I was actually joyful right but it's so and the other thing that you said that is so important that I underappreciated forever is the belief yeah I mean people do have the skill sets it's not that big of a mountain people do want to hear your point of view I mean we just get

Kate Kompelien (: 35:08

Yeah.

Kate Kompelien (: 35:16

Right, bye.

Kate Kompelien (: 35:24

Mm -hmm.

Kate Kompelien (: 35:28

No.

Kate Kompelien (: 35:32

Yeah.

Brett Trainor (: 35:33

beat down in corporate that, stay in your box, stay in your lane. You can't do that. You leave corporate, man. You're crazy. And the fact is you can always go back to corporate if you can find a job. You and I both haven't been looking for a job, but it's... And there's people that want it. Yeah. So the little framework I've been playing with, I just tested was, bam, belief, take action because so many people just over complicate it or just...

Kate Kompelien (: 35:37

Yep.

Kate Kompelien (: 35:41

and

Kate Kompelien (: 35:46

If. Yeah.

Brett Trainor (: 36:02

overanalyze, just take the first step, have the first conversation and then is momentum to your point pick up a few jobs even if you don't charge what you think you're fully worth to get the momentum going because it starts to build up and all of a sudden you've got a nice little I don't want to call it a machine but it just gets that whole process going so I don't know how we bottle the belief aspect of it because I think that is one of the biggest blockers of getting people out of it.

Kate Kompelien (: 36:22

Yeah.

Kate Kompelien (: 36:28

Yeah.

And I would say if you think that you have to have clients before you're willing to leave corporate, you're not doing yourself a favor and you're not doing the clients you're doing work with those first clients a favor because you're going to be distracted back in corporate, right? You're going to be distracted. You don't need to have a client base before you leave. And is it really that hard to send 50 LinkedIn messages one day to a bunch of people?

No, anyone can do that. Is it hard to email? Is it hard to kind of think about what you can offer? No, you know what you're good at, right? Like, it's not hard. And so it's not any harder than working in corporate. And if you believe in yourself, and yes, you might not get you will not get a consent paycheck. That is for sure. And you have to be okay with

Brett Trainor (: 37:10

Exactly.

Kate Kompelien (: 37:28

getting a lot of money and getting a little money and being okay that it's going to spread out over time. But I say, know, just, it's like diving off that high dive in a pool. It's always so scary and you just look down and you're like, I can't, I can't. And then you do it you're like, okay, that wasn't so bad. I'm still alive. It was kind of fun. You know, just take the risk, go for it.

Brett Trainor (: 37:43

Yeah.

Brett Trainor (: 37:47

Can't, can't.

Brett Trainor (: 37:51

Yeah. Let's do it again. Yeah, once it's so true. And I do think right having that what you did with the networking ahead of time to say, hey, I'm thinking about going on my own, just planting some seeds. That's what you need and get some validation from folks that say, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, there's because you know where the gaps are. You know, if there's gaps in corporate, there's

Kate Kompelien (: 38:11

Yeah.

Yep.

Brett Trainor (: 38:15

bigger gaps in small businesses and you know the smaller the company go to the more fundamental the solution you need to provide all stuff that you can do in your sleep and you know kind of last thing I'll piggyback up of what you said with you know sending out 50 was the last time you applied for it or was looking for a new job how many linked jobs did you apply for how many you know I'm saying so if you put half the effort we did in looking for a job you would have yourself covered with with customers so

Kate Kompelien (: 38:18

Right.

Kate Kompelien (: 38:25

Right.

Kate Kompelien (: 38:38

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Kate Kompelien (: 38:44

Absolutely.

Brett Trainor (: 38:46

yeah, it's interesting because, it's almost to a person. probably had close to 400 conversations between the podcast, just people networking, thinking about escaping. And I don't think there's one that said, yes, I want to go back to corporate, right? Even if things are slow or they're not making the money they thought they were going to make out of the box. Not one person has yet gone and said, you know what? This isn't for me. I'm going back. So I'm sure they're out there and I maybe didn't hear from them, but.

Kate Kompelien (: 39:00

Right.

Mm -hmm.

Brett Trainor (: 39:14

I still tell everybody they can do it. Maybe it's not for everyone, but I also say, what is your alternative, right? When corporate stops hiring you, they will stop hiring you. What are you going to do if you can retire? Then, you know, God bless you. You've you're going to do it, you know, longer lifespans. I want to be super active. So I know I wasn't going to be able to, you know, draw off of, you know, 401k and be comfortable. so anyway, so we all have choices, right? It's the belief.

Kate Kompelien (: 39:16

Yeah. Right.

Kate Kompelien (: 39:42

Yeah. Well, and I'm super risk adverse. So I just want people to know listening to this podcast, I do not take risks. And so if I can start a company and like figure it out, anyone can, because I do not feel comfortable with risk. And here I am happy as you know, happy that I made that decision.

Brett Trainor (: 40:09

Yeah, that's awesome. You're making tons of good points, so thanks, Kate. But again, think too, sometimes people think, he or she escaped corporate. They must be like the next Steve Jobs. I'm like, no, we're not. I mean, I'm not speaking for everybody, but for the most part, no, you know, we're your coworkers from before, but you know what? The difference is we took an action and it's paying off. We saw what life on the other side looks like and like, know what?

Kate Kompelien (: 40:12

Thanks.

Kate Kompelien (: 40:21

Mm -hmm! Nope! No!

Kate Kompelien (: 40:31

Yep.

Kate Kompelien (: 40:35

Mm -hmm. Yep.

Brett Trainor (: 40:36

This is doable. The market's set up for it right now. anyway, well, Kate, I've taken a ton of your time. appreciate you sharing your story. Yeah, so I'm sure there's gonna be some folks that do want to connect with you. What's the best place for them to do that?

Kate Kompelien (: 40:39

Yeah.

Kate Kompelien (: 40:54

Yeah, well LinkedIn is a great place. That's probably easiest or else they can go to send me an email at Kate at the insight shop LLC calm or I also have a website. That's the insight shop LLC calm and there is a contact me area on that as well.

Brett Trainor (: 41:15

Awesome, we'll make sure that's in the show notes. awesome, well, I appreciate your time, Kate. And I know you're still just getting started on this journey. So maybe what I need to do is do a kind of where are they now follow up to some of these interviews here in six months, just to make sure everybody's still on track. So appreciate it. All right, thanks, Kate. Thanks, have a good rest of your day.

Kate Kompelien (: 41:27

Yeah.

Kate Kompelien (: 41:33

Yeah, that'd be fun. Thanks for having me, Brett. You're doing a great thing. Okay. You too.