"In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity."

– Albert Einstein

Is your business working for you? What happens to your business when you have to course correct or change direction?

In this episode, we're talking with one of my favorite guests and humans, Kim Weldin. If you haven't met Kim Weldin yet, she’s a certified integrator and virtual assistant coach on a mission to help women—especially moms—build thriving businesses while maintaining a life full of passion, self-care, and FUN!

After spending 10 years as a special education teacher, Kim made the leap into entrepreneurship to create more flexibility for her family, particularly for her daughter, who requires multiple therapies due to Fragile X Syndrome and Autism.

Starting out as a virtual assistant, Kim’s entrepreneurial journey has been anything but ordinary. She’s refreshingly candid about the highs and lows of business ownership and isn’t afraid to get real about hitting rock bottom. Instead of following the typical industry advice, she forged her own path, embracing authenticity and resilience to build the thriving business she has today.

Now, four years later, Kim is a certified integrator, helping female visionaries turn their big ideas into organized, actionable plans. From streamlining workflows to managing complex projects, Kim transforms chaos into clarity—always with a generous serving of fun, sass, and positivity.

Beyond her integrator services, Kim is passionate about empowering women to step into the virtual assistant world. She’s preparing to launch her first product, 7 Days to Launch: Your VA Business Action Plan, with a mission to help moms start their VA businesses for $47 or less. On top of that, she’s also pouring her heart into The Soulful Balanced Journal, a side passion project that came to her serendipitously, designed to help women cultivate balance and well-being in their lives.

As a neurodivergent mom, business owner, Jesus-loving, and a little woo woo, Kim embraces a holistic approach to life and work. This unique balance inspired her to create The Soulful Balanced Journal, a tool she developed to track her own sleep, mood, and spiritual practices, such as daily affirmations and intentions. The journal also features a space for reframing the mind and choosing daily micro-actions, leading to progress on an action board—her twist on a vision board.

Today we talk about:

• What to consider when you come to a crossroads in your business
• How to navigate tough times and what to consider as you're deciding on your path forward
• How to detach your self-worth from your 'success' in business
• The importance of surrounding yourself with the right people (in life and business)
• What are Kim's favorite books so far in 2024

I know whether you are experiencing the highs or lows of building your business you're going to find something helpful in today's episode!

You can find Kim on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/kimberlyweldin/

Other Links You'll Love:

My website: www.juliecalcote.com

Instagram: juliecalcoteobm

OBM Starter Kit from OBM School

It's that time of year again in Alaska when you wake up and feel the bite in the air. I don't know if everyone feels like this but for me there's this primal feeling to get things wrapped up because winter is coming and it's time to hibernate.

Now, with the school and client schedule, there's definitely no hibernating but it got me thinking about today's episode.

There's still time in the year to hit your goals!

There's still time to make your goals!

But if you have goals and don't make a plan of action it will be next to impossible to actually achieve them.

Today we talk about:

• Doing an alignment check on any current goals that you have
• The practical things I do to actually achieve the goals I set
• What do to when there is a season of taking a break from your goals

Links You'll Love:

My website: www.juliecalcote.com

Instagram: juliecalcoteobm

OBM Starter Kit from OBM School

"It is far more lucrative and fun to leverage your strengths instead of attempting to fix all the chinks in your armor.

The choice is between multiplication of results using strengths or incremental improvement fixing weaknesses that will, at best, become mediocre"

Tim Ferriss

Do you focus on building up your strengths or shoring up your weaknesses?

If we over-focus on what we're not great at we're neglecting spending time practicing and excelling in that thing we're really good at.

Today on the podcast I'm giving examples of re-framing common weaknesses and how they might actually be serving you in your life and in your business.

We also talk about how focusing on what your great at and making it better could be a much easier (and more enjoyable) path to success for you.

Links You'll Love:

My website: www.juliecalcote.com

Instagram: juliecalcoteobm

OBM Starter Kit from OBM School

"If I had a word of the year it would be unhinged." Richelle

Have you ever felt stuck in your business?

Do you doubt yourself? Make investments without knowing if they will increase your bottom line or drain your time and profit?

Introducing my friend and copywriter extraordinaire Richelle Villalta, your tough-love biz bestie who cares enough to tell you the truth other people skate around.

On this episode, we take you behind the scenes of our (formerly) private "Hot Goss" sessions and tackle the topics of:

• Why we never want to hear the words Imposter Syndrome again
• The reasons why you should NOT invest in that next online course
• And how to infuse your life and business with more of the "IDGAF" attitude NOW

If you haven't had the pleasure to meet Richelle yet - she is a freelance copywriter and virtual assistant, based in Colorado. She was born and raised in rural Kansas. She is a Kansas State alum, where she earned a degree in Entrepreneurship with a focus in Marketing. After graduation, she made the move to Colorado.

Early in her professional life, she quickly realized that the corporate world and the role of an "employee" were not where she truly belonged. While on maternity leave with her daughter, she launched her business and became fully booked within 4 months. This allowed her to leave her corporate job and become a full time freelancer. Richelle specializes in email marketing, blog posts, social posts and VIP Day Dubsado builds. In addition to her business, she is also a blog contributor to the Colorado Springs Mom Collective.

She is a mom, with two kids under 3, a dog mom to 2 chihuahuas, and fulfilling her dream as a trophy wife. In her free time, you can find her working on a DIY home project, hiding away in the craft room or playing with her plants.

You can find Richelle at:

https://www.instagram.com/sproutandscript/

https://msha.ke/richellevillalta

Do you have joy and ease during your workday or are you putting off your happiness until you clock out?

This quick episode is for you if you want to explore bringing more happiness into your day-to-day and you have space to make small shifts in your life and environment.

We talk about:

• Why we might save up your joy for pockets of your day or life and the possibility of expanding that happiness
• Specific things I shifted that made each day better as a whole
• The benefits of increasing your happiness

Links You'll Love:

My website: www.juliecalcote.com

Instagram: juliecalcoteobm

Do you work with or do you identify as someone who is neurodivergent?

In today's episode, I'm sharing three things I do to best support clients who are neurodivergent (primarily ADD, ADHD, and Autistic). If you have some strategies and a better understanding of where your client might struggle you'll be much more effective at helping them!

Some takeaways from this episode:

• How you can leverage a digital calendar to your client's benefit
• When you're client just can't complete a task there are still ways to support them
• What strategies can you use to make it more likely that the tasks that your neurodivergent client needs to get done in the business are complete?

Book I mentioned in the episode (non-affiliate links):

• Scattered to Focused
• Autism in Heels

Disclaimer - I'm not an expert but just a boots-on-the-ground person working with and through my and my clients' time management challenges.

Links You'll Love:

Free: Dream Team Starter Kit

My website: www.juliecalcote.com

Instagram: juliecalcoteobm

As a business owner, do you dread summer vacation? Are your routines out of whack, your kids are home eating 10x as much as they normally do, and your business feels overwhelming?

That's not why we got into business!

In this episode of the podcast, I'm sharing how I adjust my summer schedule to fit around my business and my kids. After 6+ summers in business and many lessons learned, the schedule comes together like a well-oiled machine!

Some takeaways from this episode:

☀️ How to make adjustments in your work calendar and availability: when you'll work, what to cut, and alternative services you can incorporate

☀️ Using a digital calendar to create a summer schedule and flexible framework of kids' activities to beat the summer boredom

☀️ Creating your personal summer bucket list so you also feel happy and fulfilled when fall rolls around

Links You'll Love:

Free: Dream Team Starter Kit

My website: www.juliecalcote.com

Instagram: juliecalcoteobm

Have you ever been so fed up with certain parts of your business that you want to ghost them? Have you felt you needed to step back from your business to gain clarity on where you should be focusing?

In this episode, I share insights into how to make big shifts in your business without starting from scratch, how to spot burnout before it happens, and how to know if pulling back from some areas of your business might be right for you.

Here are a few of my favorite takeaways from this episode:

• How to know if you're too in the weeds of your own business
• Deciding what adjustments to make in your business when you have an upcoming busy season in your life
• How you can bring new energy into your business even if it's counter to what 'everyone else' is doing
• Lessons learned from a year of no social media marketing

Most of all, I'm so grateful to be back recording episodes with you, and thank you for listening!!

Links You'll Love:

Free: Dream Team Starter Kit

My website: www.juliecalcote.com

Instagram: juliecalcoteobm