#001: How To Turn Your Personal Struggle Into a Successful Business With Kyndra Holley
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Welcome to episode 001 of the Blogger Genius Podcast. My guest is Kyndra Holley from the blog, Peace, Love, and Low Carb.
Kyndra has struggled with her weight her whole life, and by documenting her journey into low carb eating, she has created both a successful food blog and business.
In this episode we discuss the steps she took to do it, how her path wasn’t always straight, but that it lead her to where she is today.
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Transcript – How To Turn Your Personal Struggle Into a Successful Business:
Jillian: [00:00:11] Hey! Today my guest is Kyndra Holley from Peace, Love and Low Carb. As a low carb eater myself, I have to say I was immediately drawn to her content, and I’m so happy she’s here today to be on the show. So welcome.
Kyndra: [00:00:32] Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.
Jillian: [00:00:35] I want to start by asking you how you started, and really what inspired you. What’s the story? Because I know there is a story behind Peace, Love, and Low Carb?
How a personal struggle became a business
Kyndra: [00:00:49] I usually start by saying it kind of happened by accident, which sounds strange but I didn’t say I’m going to build a business, a brand, and start a blog, and write books.
Kyndra: [00:00:58] I just was a girl who really struggled with her weight her whole life. And I stumbled upon low-carb through a friend that I worked with. She was like, “Hey I heard about Atkins. Let’s do it.” And so I was like, “OK, I’m in.
She started her blog by photographing what she was eating
Kyndra: [00:01:13] And from there I just kind of started photographing everything that I was eating and I made it my mission to recreate all of my favorite comfort foods as low carb versions instead of giving them up.
Kyndra: [00:01:25] And I just started taking pictures of them with my phone. Facebook was getting really huge and I started a Facebook page. And meanwhile, I was blogging but I had it set to private setting like a diary, so I hadn’t even unlocked that people. I was kind of documenting my weight loss journey on my blog.
Jillian: [00:01:46] What year was this?
Kyndra: [00:01:48] I started my blog in 2011, but my first go around with low carb was much earlier than.
Jillian: [00:02:06] So then you made your blog public?
Kyndra: [00:02:08] I just kind of started sharing what I was eating and what I was cooking for John and me. And then from there it just took on a life of its own.
Jillian: [00:02:15] That’s so impressive. And one thing that I love about your site, is how you have a very strong point of view. And you’ve been able to really build a business around that point of view. And can you share how you… you’re not just a blogger, you’re also an entrepreneur and you sell cookbooks and meal plans and how did you start to think about that and build out those other lines of business?
Kyndra: [00:02:44] You know I’m a chronic researcher, and I’m just an entrepreneur by nature. You know, I joke and I say that I came out of the womb ready to build a business. And for me, it’s all research and passion based.
Kyndra: [00:02:58] So once I decided to make a go of this and this is going to be my career, I just completely jumped in and I started researching everything. Snd then I thought, hey, I can compile these ideas into a meal plan. People need that. You know trying to provide solutions for the questions that I get every single day.
Jillian: [00:03:15] I love that you are solving people’s real problems. And where would people be reaching out to you? Was it on social media? Were they e-mailing you? Where were they connecting with you?
Kyndra: [00:03:26] Oh geez. Everywhere. Comments directly on my blog. Even e-mail. Social media. Any spot that has an inbox. Mine was getting blown up.
Jillian: [00:03:36] Interesting. So what was the first product you built to support your blog?
Her first self-published recipe book
Kyndra: [00:03:44] The first time I self-published a book. I didn’t even try to get on with the publisher. I just said I’m going to do this. I have a really great friend who is a graphic designer, and I said, “Would you be willing to do this with me?”
Kyndra: [00:03:57] And he said yes, and I just self-publish a full length recipe cookbook.
Jillian: [00:04:02] Were these recipes that were living on your blog, or did you develop the recipes for the book?
Kyndra: [00:04:07] Some were on the site, some of the ones that were popular and were starting to get traction. I put them in the book and then I made a lot that were exclusive just to the book, as well.
Jillian: [00:04:16] And then where did you start selling it?
Kyndra: [00:04:19] I signed up through Lulu. It’s a place where you can self-publish. And then I added it to Amazon. I’m just kind of used those channels and it’s kind of harder to open up for wider distribution. And I just really was winging it all. And in hindsight I could have done it better. I mean that’s kind of how it always goes right.
Jillian: [00:04:42] And then how did you promote your first book, like how did you get sales?
Kyndra: [00:04:48] Well, I got really lucky timing-wise because I like to call it the glory days of Facebook.
Kyndra: [00:04:52] Before Facebook started adding all of these algorithms, I literally just posted and then within an hour, hundreds would sell because at the time, Facebook showed your post to all of your followers. And so I really didn’t need to do much beyond that. It was kind of like just this really sweet spot in Facebook history.
Jillian: [00:05:14] Yes. And then that inspired you to go on to write other books to build other products? What was that evolution like?
Kyndra: [00:05:23] So from there, after that, that was kind of the only product that had for a while. I did some other smaller kind of niche books, like one just for side dishes. Again kind of solving problems, you would say.
Kyndra: [00:05:36] Yeah, I can cook a steak, but what I serve with it that’s low carb, you know? But then I went into a period where I really focused on the business of blogging.
Treating her blog like a business
Kyndra: [00:05:47] If you treat something like a hobby it’s a hobby forever. So I believe that if you want to do something as a business, you treat it like it’s a business while it’s still just a hobby.
Jillian: [00:05:57] Absolutely. Again it’s all about mindset. Absolutely. So what did that shift look like for you, or how did you take what was a what somebody might say is like a small side hustle, and actually say, no, I’m going to pull this front and center.
Kyndra: [00:06:12] You know I was still working full time in restaurants.
Kyndra: [00:06:16] I have almost a 20-year background in the restaurant business, which I do think really helps me be successful in my own business, but I just again, I just started researching everything. If I didn’t know it. I looked it up. I’m a person who if you ask me something and I don’t know the answer, you can rest assured the next time somebody asks that question, I’m going to give them a whole dissertation about it so that you know.
Kyndra: [00:06:41] So I just really kind of started looking into how to monetize and just totally fine tuning my craft, learning, growing, and in the beginning, I was even doing all the HTML coding for my site and I had no background in it.
Jillian: [00:06:57] I love that. Now let’s talk about what your revenue streams look like currently. Where do you make money?
Kyndra: [00:07:08] They’re all over the place. I am a firm believer that you don’t put all your eggs in one basket, so I make a lot of money from the digital products that I sell through my site, and that just goes straight to me, affiliate programs with brands and companies that are aligned with my mission and vision and use their products.
Jillian: [00:07:30] So what’s an example then of an affiliate product that is on your site that you support?
Monetizing through affiliate marketing
Kyndra: [00:07:37] It can go a couple of different ways. So Amazon is a big affiliate program. So in my recipes, like take for example, I have a flourless chewy chocolate cookie recipe that has just gone crazy on my site. I like the products that I use, for example, the exact chocolate chips that I use, the only flour that I use, and then that brings in a small portion of revenue. People buy through those links.
Jillian: [00:08:01] And with Amazon. It’s really just they need to click over to Amazon and then if they buy a TV that day, so you make an affiliate fee.
Kyndra: [00:08:12] Yes absolutely. And that’s really great around the holidays, as well as people Christmas shopping.
Jillian: [00:08:17] That’s a good tip! Ok ok so you’re also making money through affiliate sales.
Kyndra: [00:08:26] And then a lot of times I’ll do brand partnerships. They have their own affiliate programs built in. So if I have a, you know, a brand that I really like, I work a lot with a company called Low Carb Foods. And again they’re just a small family-based business that they’re really providing solutions, so they’re putting out low carb products with clean ingredients that are diabetic friendly and I like them as people, I like their products.
Monetizing through brand partnerships
Kyndra: [00:08:52] So you’ll see links to those I’ll do it on my Instagram Stories or on my blog. But then another avenue with those brand partnerships is sponsored posts. So I’ll say here is a package that you will get. I will do a review of your product on my site. Ill feature it in a recipe and it will go out in my newsletter. Do social media blasts. And then there’s a package ready for that. So it’s another revenue stream outside of their affiliate program.
Jillian: [00:09:22] Now are you reaching out to these brands or are these brands reaching out to you?
Kyndra: [00:09:26] You know, this is that’s kind of funny because that was a real learning curve as well, as I grew this and it kind of goes with the lesson of never to sell yourself short. So in the beginning, I was reaching out to companies and was saying, here is the traffic on my site. Here is what I can give you in terms of exposure.
Kyndra: [00:09:42] Please just send me your free product. So I valued myself by just letting them send me a free product and then promoting it all over the place.
Kyndra: [00:09:52] And so these days it’s more of filtering opportunities that are coming through me. And then there’s a series of questions that I go through like, a mental checklist when I get these e-mails of brands and companies that would want to work with me and partner with Peace, Love, and Low Carb.
Jillian: [00:10:08] Got it. So in the beginning we were reaching out to them and you were selling yourself short by just accepting product. And then over time, as you became more established, brands started reaching out to you. And you would then say great I’d like to work with you. Here is my package.
Kyndra: [00:10:25] I have a media kit on my site, and it has several different options for ways to work together, as well as an option to set up a custom package.
Jillian: [00:10:33] And do you have the pricing on your website?
Kyndra: [00:10:36] You know I didn’t used to. But then I thought it’s not something to be ashamed of, my social clout and all my stats are there across all social channels. Why not go ahead and put the pricing on there. Then it kind of cuts down on the e-mails to take a look at the pricing, and they say hey I would never pay that. Or I only send free product. They don’t e-mail and so it’s less to filter through.
Jillian: [00:10:56] I like that. I like that. OK. I just want to say a couple things that I notice that I think are really special about what you’re doing. One, you are a food blogger but you’re a niche food blogger. And I think that that has probably worked to your advantage because I know exactly what I’m going to get. If I’m a brand and I work with you,and I make low-carb foods, you’re my person. I want that. So I think that again I always say this, the internet’s a really big place, and if you can find your niche and go deep into it, and be authentic, I feel like you have a leg up. Like you have a leg up over your general food blogger. Now your cakes might not perform as well as those gooey delicious fondant cakes, but you’ve been able to really carve out a place for yourself on the Internet. So I just have to call that out. And that everything you’ve been able to build off of it, all comes from people who are really looking for low carb solutions.
Kyndra: [00:12:12] It’s a blessing and a curse. So for a while as you know, my own lifestyle changed and I tried different things. I really felt locked in because I actually had low carb in the title, and that kind of dietary climate wasn’t always what it is.
Kyndra: [00:12:27] Now there’s a very big uptake in low carb in Paleo and it’s great to see someone who is kind of at the forefront of that movement because my blog is heading into its seventh year. But in the beginning people poo-pooed low carb so much. Yes. And then when Paleo got really huge, you know a lot of the Paleo influencers were kind of bashing low carb as well. And so I kind of went through this period where, gosh, why you get so specific.
Kyndra: [00:12:53] Now that people have caught on and we’re kind of moving away from the fat phobic society that we’ve been in, now I’m able to say I stuck true to my mission for all of these years and it paid off.
Jillian: [00:13:06] Yes. And again who knows. Like there is tremendous uncertainty in picking a name. and it might go your way. Like you were saying you were on Facebook at the exact time where you could sell books. So again sometimes you get lucky, like you with Facebook, it was the perfect time to be selling cookbooks on Facebook, but a lot of times also you make these opportunities for yourself by making a decision, seeing if it works, and if it’s not working pull up and try something else.
Jillian: [00:13:36] So let’s go through the other income streams that you have that we haven’t touched on.
Monetizing through ads
Kyndra: [00:13:43] OK. So obviously there is ad revenue from this site. That’s a big one.
Jillian: [00:13:48] And who and what ad network do you use?
Kyndra: [00:13:51] I use AdThrive. And they they’ve been amazing for years.
Jillian: [00:14:09] And we are big fans of Ad Thrive as well.
Kyndra: [00:14:11] And some of the other ones is partnering with other bloggers to help promote their products through their affiliate programs. So it’s still a form of affiliate marketing but it’s kind of like a rising tide lifts all boats.
Jillian: [00:14:23] I love that. I love that. So somebody will come to you who you probably know through social media and being in your niche and says, I have this new cookbook. Will you promote it and you get a cut of the sales. Is that how it works?
Kyndra: [00:14:41] Yeah absolutely. And I always believed that there’s enough room for all of us and that if you’re coming from a place of authenticity and nature and passion that it doesn’t matter if someone’s doing something similarly to you. So for example I sell meal plans but I push other people’s meal plas as well, because mine might not be right for them.
Kyndra: [00:15:01] But this other blogger might have meal plans that worked for some of my audience so I don’t believe that in order for mine to be successful I have to not promote others.
Jillian: [00:15:11] I love that. And again this is something I work on in my own life which is mindset, and this belief that you see the world through lenses. And one of those lenses is scarcity. And one of them is abundance, and we’re constantly switching between these two. But when I notice myself seeing the world through scarcity, there’s just not enough whatever that is. I really say, whoa I’m going to try to take these glasses off and put on the abundant glasses and see what the world looks like.
Kyndra: [00:15:46] I love them so much, and I feel like you’re speaking right to my heart there because when you come from a scarcity mindset or even a poverty mindset, then it is so hard to see the other side of that and to dig yourself out of that hole, because the tendencies that come along with that run so deep. And I’m so happy to hear you say that because that is kind of something that I try to do. I think that I operate from a place of abundance or manifesting what I want in my life, by pretending I already have it, like fake it til you make it. I don’t like the words “fake it.
Jillian: [00:16:22] I have a daughter and I say that to her all the time which is “fake it til you make it.” I say to her be an actress. Pretend as if it’s already happened. My daughter’s ten and she loves being an actress. But there is something about embodying the feeling of success. So you understand how that feels.
Kyndra: [00:16:50] Yeah it’s like saying dress for the job you want or the job you have.
Jillian: [00:16:55] I love it. Yeah. Absolutely. So let’s talk about social media for you and your journey through social media. What is driving traffic to you? You have a nice social media followers. How has that worked for you?
Social media marketing strategies
Kyndra: [00:17:15] Social media is a blessing and a curse because it can be a very an evil place to be. There’s a lot of mean people hiding behind computers. However, it is the primary traffic driver to anybody who is trying to run any kind of website, blog, business, brand. Even if you’re just in the business of marketing. So my top two referrers are Pinterest and Facebook. And so I started Facebook very early on, as soon as I started my blog. So I grew very organically and pretty fast on Facebook and then Pinterest just kind of changed the landscape for referrers, like with traffic referrals for food bloggers, especially, like give you food blogging, like mommy bloggers or even crafters anything DIY at all. Even the projects that people say they’re going to do that they never do. They like to look for them. Same with recipes.
Jillian: [00:18:09] Yes definitely. And Pinterest is a huge traffic driver for us too at Catch My Party. I love Pinterest. Yeah. And so today. So how active are you on those platforms?
Kyndra: [00:18:23] I’m extremely active on those platforms, so I run the Facebook page for my blog. And then I also run a group that’s kind of a recipe sharing group but it’s more of a support group. And I just call that Peace, Love and Low-Carb Friends. It goes along with my blog. And so I’m active in there, interacting with people and they’re sharing their stories. And then I’m also on Instagram where I do a lot of Instagram Stories and sharing recipes on there. And I would say Instagram is actually probably my favorite social media platform.
Jillian: [00:18:52] Are you getting traffic from Instagram or is it really about brand building?
Kyndra: [00:18:57] I am using a site called Linkinprofile.
Jillian: [00:19:00] We use that!
Kyndra: [00:19:00] It’s a paid subscription that I was happy to pay for, to try out, because it was a small amount to pay and a low risk to see if it worked.
Kyndra: [00:19:21] So I like to post something on Instagram with the link and then go into my Google Analytics and watch the traffic flow and kind of gauge. is this successful. Is this third party that I’m using something I want to continue to use? And it’s been great.
Sending newsletters
Jillian: [00:19:38] Now do you send newsletters?
Kyndra: [00:19:42] I do send newsletter.
Jillian: [00:19:44] OK so how often and what is your newsletter about?
Kyndra: [00:19:48] You know I probably send them more than my readers would like. I just get excited so I usually send one out every time I have a new recipe on my site, or just something that I want to share, or one of my books is on sale, things like that.
Kyndra: [00:20:02] But usually it’s kind of a curated post. So it’s not just one recipe. The title might be you know, “Low Carb Lasagna,” but within it you’re going to find some other recipes that you could pair with that, or other recipes that are doing well on the site at the time.
Jillian: [00:20:16] Got it. And are you reaching out to your subscribers once a week twice a week? Is it on a Monday or is it whenever you feel like it?
Kyndra: [00:20:27] Like every two to three days and sometimes less, sometimes more.
Kyndra: [00:20:33] I try t go with just what’s going on. What do I want them to know, what do they need to know.
Jillian: [00:20:45] Got it. Now as a food blogger, does video fit in? And if so, how does that work for you?
Creating video and live video
Kyndra: [00:20:54] Video is huge right now across all social media and all of the new algorithms are really giving video preference. And I’m in the process of wrapping up another full length professionally published cookbook, and working on the manuscript for a second one that is also coming out very soon, and I haven’t had the time to dedicate to video. I actually just recently hired it out to do some of those kind of Tasty-style overhead shot videos.
Jillian: [00:21:22] Then are you posting those? Are they like 30-second videos? Or one minute videos or are these longer videos that you can also use on YouTube?
Kyndra: [00:21:40] They are the shorter one minute or less video so that I can post them on Instagram, because on Instagram it has to be less than one minute.And then having a square format and then a full frame format, that I can post it on YouTube because I’m also trying to work on building YouTube now.
Jillian: [00:21:57] Great. I love that. And also did you say or am I making this up, that you do live video. You do. You do Instagram Stories.
Kyndra: [00:22:06] I do. I do Instagram Stories, and from time to time I do Instagram Live, but I want to start doing more cooking demos. So a lot of times I’ll just set my phone up in my kitchen and I’ll show the step by step but on Instagram stories you have 20 seconds. And then on Instagram live you have 30 minutes.
Kyndra: [00:22:23] I had an idea to do a Friday cocktails with Kyndra. Since I’m writing a drink book and just fun things like that where it’s another way to connect with my audience. And in more of a full format then here’s 50 seconds of a set up video.
Jillian: [00:22:41] And how do you prioritize, because you have your fingers in a lot of different pots.
Kyndra: [00:22:48] You know, people ask me all the time if I have a secret clone. If I have a twin and I don’t talk about it. It’s my own fault sometimes. I don’t really have an off button, but I love what I do. So I’ve had friends that have said almost in a negative way, I would never want to do it because I didn’t want to work that much.
Kyndra: [00:23:06] And I can’t really take it personally because I think, I love my job. If I have too much time off, I start just seem to get back to it prior to running my own business. I was a clock puncher. I want to go to work for someone else and so from them I said I can see why they think all you do is work. But for me I think I get to do this like I wake up every morning and I don’t ever say, oh, I have to do this. I get up and I say, I get to do this!
Jillian: [00:23:33] Don’t you love when you’re waking up in the morning, or right before I go to bed. And I have an idea that I become really excited about and then I start… sometimes it’s hard to go to sleep because I’m like OK if I do this, and this, like here’s what I need to do. I can make that happen.
Kyndra: [00:23:53] Yes I’m very much the same way. I want to capture the ideas that I have. If you were to look inside my Evernote, I have it across so many devices. It’s like a digital scratch pad that I would probably look like a lunatic.
Life as an entrepreneur
Jillian: [00:24:07] How many hours a week do you work on your business.
Kyndra: [00:24:11] Honestly gosh a lot.
Kyndra: [00:24:16] Well over a 40 hour work week. Especially right now because I’m working on these books. But the other side of that is that I have so much time freedom when I want to. So if I want to say, I’m here, I’m going to work tonight, I’m going to work till 2 in the morning and I’m not going to work tomorrow to make up for it, I can. Or, we just got back from a two week vacation in Hawaii, and then we’re leaving again in two and a half weeks, and so there’s a lot of freedom with it. But it is a lot of hours and I feel like probably the amount of hours as a surgeon right now.
Jillian: [00:24:45] For us, I work with my husband. It is a lot of hours. But again, having that freedom to be with my daughter if she’s sick, I can take care of her and when she’s watching a video, I can go do a couple of emails. And then when she’s better, I can refocus and dig in.
Kyndra: [00:25:11] Exactly. And so for me, and I’m sure you can relate to this too.
Kyndra: [00:25:17] Everything that I do now, every minute that I put in, every idea that I have, the output is a direct correlation to what I put in. Whereas if I’m working for someone else, why would I to work harder than I have to? I mean I get paid the same. And so now it’s the harder I work, the more I follow through with my ideas, the more money I make and the better lifestyle my family has.
Jillian: [00:25:40] I couldn’t agree with you more. Again the hard part is in being an entrepreneur is that there’s a certain personality that can really thrive, and you have to be a self-starter. You have to be willing to try stuff, you have to be willing to trust yourself. You have to work with yourself more than against yourself.
Jillian: [00:26:01] But if you have that personality, I think there is nothing better.
Kyndra: [00:26:06] Yeah, I definitely am a Type A personality and it has suited me well. I’m a person who’s I’m just not afraid to take risks. And I think part of that was all the years that I spent in the restaurant industry, because I could literally go do it anywhere in the world and I could pick it up at any time. So a little bit I have a safety net, but I’ve just been a person who has been sure enough in my resolve to see things through. I’ve never been afraid to take a leap of faith because what’s the worst thing that happens.
Kyndra: [00:26:35] It doesn’t work out. Big deal, you do something else.
Jillian: [00:26:38] I love that. I love it. Now what one tool do you use in your business that you couldn’t live without?
Kyndra: [00:26:50] I’m just a list maker and I kind of use redundancy, and I use Evernote. I use it to write everything down. But organizationally I think that Evernote is probably my favorite thing I use right now.
New cookbooks books on the horizon
Jillian: [00:27:05] And what about your business. What are you most excited about at this moment?
Kyndra: [00:27:12] I’m really really excited about the new books that I have coming out because I feel like I poured myself into these. The books that I have coming out, it kind of reads like a personal journal with 150 recipes in it. I’m very connected with my readers right now. They know that I’m not just a robot behind the screen. They feel like they know me.
Kyndra: [00:27:38] They can tell me all the names of all of my dogs and I’ve just really opened up and I’m just very very excited to put this product out into the world because I feel like every single page is just oozing with me, like the essence of me.
Jillian: [00:27:54] So you’re putting some vulnerability in this one.
Kyndra: [00:27:57] Oh so much. Yes so much.
Jillian: [00:28:00] Is that scary?
Kyndra: [00:28:03] It is. But I think that if even one person read my story and felt less alone in this world then I’ve accomplished what I set out to do. Even if it was only one person. I’m very big on human connection and making people realize that they can do things and that they are enough. And so being vulnerable and sharing my story helps even one person say, you know what? I’m not alone and I am worthy. Then mission accomplished.
Jillian: [00:28:31] Oh I love that. What one piece of advice do you wish you had before you started all of this?
The importance of SEO
Kyndra: [00:28:41] I wish I knew more about SEO in the beginning. So part of blogging and running a successful blog, and writing it as a business is staying ahead of curves and trends, and constantly researching and being constantly on your game.
Kyndra: [00:29:01] It’s not a profession where you can rest on your laurels. But it’s also like constantly chasing a moving target. Algorithms change. Pleasing the Google gods… It can make or break you. And they constantly change the game and you have to stay ahead of it. And so in the beginning, I was just trying to lose weight in writing recipes. I wasn’t focusing on keywords or making sure that I was doing all the right things to get traffic there.
Kyndra: [00:29:32] So here I am, almost seven years later, and I’m going back and redoing a lot of those earlier posts. Some of them didn’t even have lead ins written to it, where there would be keywords to get people to come through.
Jillian: [00:29:42] Interesting. And also going back and redoing those posts, I’m sure just gives you even more SEO bump. There’s some mixed reviews about whether you should leave posts alone or whether you should revive them.
Kyndra: [00:29:56] And I think reviving some with… I’m constantly working on my photography Also I’m self-taught in every area of this whole blogging and business. So I am really going back and redoing the photos, making them SEO friendly and it’s a lot of fun but it’s also really rewarding to see people visiting posts they may never have visited.
Jillian: [00:30:18] I’m of the school going back and adding new photos and freshening up those posts does help with SEO.
Kyndra: [00:30:26] Yeah I am inclined to agree as well.
Jillian: [00:30:29] So given that you’re very active on social media. Do you have any advice for people trying to grow their social followers or how to think about social media.
Kyndra: [00:30:42] I do for sure.
Kyndra: [00:30:43] In fact, I’m kind of a junkie and one of my favorite quotes ever is by Theodore Roosevelt. “Comparison is the thief of joy.”It is very easy to get stuck in a shame spiral where you’re scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. But the thing I think that’s important to remember is if you’re going to spend any time on social media as a business owner, as an influencer, or just someone who really likes to hang out there, is to remember that you’re seeing perfectly crafted images, videos, status updates go by and that you’re really only seeing the highlight reel of someone’s life.
Kyndra: [00:31:23] And on the other side of that I always try to show quite literally all the good, the bad, the ugly, the bad days, the good days, the fluctuations in my weight to show people… you’re not alone. That likely what you’re seeing is just perfectly crafted boosted tidbits of someone’s life that seems perfect. They could be falling apart behind the scenes, their business could be falling apart, you know, life could be falling apart, so don’t measure your worth from a business or personal standpoint. Don’t buy anything you see on social media.
Jillian: [00:31:56] Oh I love that. And in fact that’s one of the reasons why I’ve started this podcast. I notice I keep hearing this message over and over again.
Kyndra: [00:32:08] It can really tear you down. I mean we’re hard enough on ourselves on a daily basis, let alone letting the seemingly perfect life or business of others let you feel back about yourself.
Jillian: [00:32:21] OK. So for somebody just starting out today in the world the way it is today, and the landscape, what is the one thing you would say to them to get a leg up?
Kyndra: [00:32:34] I would say don’t do it for the sake of doing it.
Kyndra: [00:32:38] There has to be a real passion behind it because it will take everything you have to make it successful. I think that a lot of people misunderstood blogging and they thought oh that’s so cute.
Kyndra: [00:32:51] She sits at home and she’s like oh she’s adorable.
Kyndra: [00:32:54] Her husband must make a lot of money you know. It’s a business and I’m the breadwinner for our family, and I treat it like a business. But it started from a genuine place of passion.
Kyndra: [00:33:05] So I don’t think you can just see an opening and jump on it and say OK I’m watching all these bloggers six figures, multi six figures, I’m going to start a blog. You have to have something to say, you have to be passionate about something or it just won’t work.
Jillian: [00:33:17] I think that is absolutely true. I always say you have to know what your “why” is. “Why” are you doing this?. Because this is a long slog. It’s not lightning in a bottle. It has so many different moving parts. So if you don’t love it and if you’re not guided by your why. I think you’re in trouble. I don’t think it will work.
Kyndra: [00:33:46] And you know I think it’s important to have realistic expectations and it’s very much one of those if you build it they will come. But there’s a lot of building before they come in. I’ve cried so many times. I lost sleep in the beginning when I was just really taking a vote of confidence in myself, when I just said I can do this and I’m going to do this.
Kyndra: [00:34:06] There was a time when we were trapped in payday loan cycles and I just kept plugging away, like I just refused to stop. And then here I am now with you. We were like saying oh my gosh, how are we going to pay the rent this month. OK well they won’t shut off the electric. We can float that for 45 days. And I just can’t get it. I just know I relentlessly. I never stopped. I love that.
Jillian: [00:34:32] Tell me, Kyndra, how can people reach out? First of all tell me how can people find out more about your web site, your products, where they can find you on social media so that people can say hello and see what you’re all about.
Kyndra: [00:34:50] The simplest, easiest way is just going to be typing in Peace, Love, and Low Carb into Google, or even just my name. So I have a lot of points of contact but that first search, every result is going to be me. So will you spell your name because it’s an unusual spelling. It is. I said mom everybody’s going to spell it and pronounce it wrong my whole life. So it’s Kyndra with a y. And then my last name is different as well. And that is H O L L E Y.
Jillian: [00:35:27] Then what about your Facebook groups or if people are wanting to explore low carb, what would you say?
Kyndra:[00:35:37] I’m Peace, Love, and Low Carb across all channels. So if you type in low carb into Facebook, you’ll find me. Also on Instagram on Pinterest on Twitter and on YouTube.
Jillian: [00:35:52] Oh I have to say thank you so much. I have learned so much from you.
Kyndra: [00:35:57] Well thank you for having me.
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