Entrepreneurship is about having the right people in your team and making the right connections. Today, Juliet Clark chats with Kimberly Hobscheid, an award-winning international inspirational public speaker, best-selling author, audiobook producer, and six-time entrepreneur. Kimberly is also the Founder of Entrepreneurs Rocket Fuel, an active community of entrepreneurs looking to contribute, connect, and grow with other entrepreneurs. Today, she talks about how she and her team take creating connections into a different level. She also talks about the importance of attending events, be they on-site or online. Learn more about how you can make your business and career take off with Kimberly!

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Creating The Right Connections With Kimberly Hobscheid

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Our guest is Kimberly Hobscheid. She is a joint venture super-connector. She gets entrepreneurs to the stages and the connections they need to stop being overlooked and grow explosively with their revenue and reach. Kimberly is an award-winning international inspirational public speaker, a best-selling author and audiobook producer, and a six-time entrepreneur. Kimberly’s the Creator of Entrepreneurs Rocket Fuel, and we’re going to talk a lot about that. It’s an active community of entrepreneurs looking to contribute, connect, and grow with other entrepreneurs. Kimberly, welcome.

Juliet, I’m excited to be here. What a fun group you lead.

Thank you. They are a fun group. Tell us about Entrepreneur Rocket Fuel. It sounds like a take-off group.

It started some years ago and we have been growing. It’s a community by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs to help entrepreneurs get to the next level. Before I was a full-time entrepreneur, I was in corporate for seventeen years, but fifteen of them were good and two of them sucked. I had grown into golden handcuffs if you will. I had climbed the corporate ladder. I was making good money. I hated to go to work every day. It was a tough time. That’s when I decided to become a full-time entrepreneur. The weird thing about being an entrepreneur is after you leave corporate, you have that entire microcosm around you of all the people on your team. You have legal, HR, employees, bosses, and everything. You have people that are on your same team. When you go solopreneur, you don’t have any of that. You don’t have people you can bounce ideas off of. What I wanted to do is create a community for entrepreneurs because we can’t do it all alone, even though we try. We only have one brain amongst ourselves. We’ve got to be able to bounce ideas off of other people. That’s what this community is all about.

I always joke about when people quit their job, day one, they’re showered, dressed, and excited to be an entrepreneur. By month four, they’re unshowered and unshaved. The dog is in the corner going, “Shower,” or something. They don’t realize how incredibly hard it is when you have to do everything. You’re a master connector, which that’s one of the things I love about you. Conversation one and you were already connecting me with people. I’m a master connector as well. Tell people how do you feel about that connector? When you connect, do you do it to be of service? What is it for you?

I am fortunate that I am an extrovert by nature. I have no problem introducing myself to people and getting aware of who they are and what they do. I know when I go to a networking event, I will come away with many people that I know. Where an introvert might go with 1 or 2 deep relationships and be able to follow up with those, I get quite a few. Not only surface level, but we connect on a deeper level. I find out who they are and how they show up in the world, what they have to offer, what they’re creating, and what their motivations are.

Over time, I’ve created a large network of people that are entrepreneurs and/or infopreneurs. We also call them, or people that help those people. When I meet somebody and they’ll say, “I’m looking to figure out how to do this Facebook thing.” I know somebody that can help them with Facebook ads, and I’ll do an introduction, “You got to meet so and so.” Somebody else will say, “I’m an entrepreneur, but I’m looking for somebody that serves real estate people.” I’ll say, “You have to meet so and so,” and then connect to them because oftentimes, I am that bridge.

When I was in corporate, I worked a lot with introverts. Having somebody be able to connect you with somebody else or for pretty much everybody, but especially for introverts, it’s helpful to have that warm introduction. “Juliet, you’ve got to meet Kimberly, she’s awesome. This is the way she shows up in the world.” “Kimberly, you got to meet Juliet. She’s awesome. This is the way she shows up in the world,” and I’ll let you two take it from here. Off they go creating magic in the world. That inspires me. That’s what it’s all about for me.

I want your opinion on this. A lot of times, I will connect with people and I’ll send people to them, or they’ll send people to me. They come back and they say, “You didn’t send somebody back.” I always think when I connect people, I don’t have a reason behind it other than I want to connect good people. Not that tit for tat. I always believe karma is going to bring me somebody good. How do you feel about that? Do you ever run into that?

I agree that it’s karma. It does come back, but not always from those people. Sometimes, it’s in a different way. I’m the Law of Attraction. I’m open to receive and allow. There have been times where I’ve connected to people and they’re like, “That was an amazing connection, thanks.” They’re beginning entrepreneurs. It’s not like they’re going to introduce me to somebody that’s exactly my niche or whatever. Days later, I get a call from somebody and they’re like, “I heard from somebody that somebody said you were amazing and you have this. I have something for you. Can you help me with this?”

What goes around, comes around. If you can go out into the world with the idea that, “I’m here to serve, to create and it’s fun for me.” I know that something else will come back and that’s okay with me. The one thing that I want to caution people against is, if it’s not fun, it’s not worth doing. If you’re connecting people and it’s fun for you to do, that’s awesome. Do that. That’s great. If it’s like pulling teeth to get you to send an email and connect two people, show up in a different way. Do something else. If your thing is like, “I’d rather send them strawberries and chocolate from Amazon,” by all means, go ahead and do that instead.

I love that because that is something I run into a lot. Like you, I love connecting people, but I would caution everybody out there. If you’re a good connector, do it without expectations because you’ll be amazed at what comes in another door that blows you away with it. Tell us more about Entrepreneurs Rocket Fuel. What are the things you do? How do you connect?

Since I’m an extrovert, I believe in getting people seen and heard. Oftentimes, when I walk into a room, people will be like, “Kimberly’s here,” because I’m a big personality. I get seen and heard a lot. Other entrepreneurs don’t and they have something valuable. They could be the best relationship coach, life coach, and financial coach in the world, but they’re quiet. When I see somebody in there, the best-kept secret, I want to get the word out about who they are and what they do. I want to give them an opportunity to share that, not just me.

I could help them get the word out, but more importantly, I want them to be seen and heard. Frankly, if you’re not being seen, you’re being overlooked. If you’re not being heard, your message is not getting out there. If you’re not clear on your message, it is not going to have the resonant impact that you want to make in this world. You are here for a reason. We’re all here for a reason. Maybe mine is to connect people. I like the idea of giving people the spotlight, the stage, and the opportunity to be seen and heard. That’s what Rocket Fuel is all about, getting you seen and heard, connected with the right people and the right opportunities. If you’re stuck, we want to get you unstuck and make it so that you have the impact that you’re supposed to make while you’re here on this earth.

That is a great message. You work with getting people on stage. We have an event but can you tell us about the stages, the events you have, and things like that?

Creating Connections: If you have a real question that adds value to the group in some way, people will remember you and you will make the first ripple of impact.

A lot of times, I will say stages and for me, it probably means something different than other people. Most people, when they think of stages, it’s getting on live stages, or maybe behind a podium at an event or something like that. For me, stages can be anywhere where you can address two or more people. That could be a live event where you’re in-person with other human beings. It can also be a webcast, a podcast, a webinar, a radio show, or a virtual stage of sorts. There are a lot of different ways to get you seen and heard out there in the world.

A stage can be in a variety of formats. I have tons of podcasters who are looking for gas. I have tons of people who are putting on web summits, which is a new sort of show where there will be a multitude of speakers. It’s like if you went to a conference and you saw a series of speakers. That happens, but it’s happening virtually. That is a great way to make an impact on a larger scale. There are people, who would attend an event that couldn’t attend the event because they had another event, maybe they can’t move anywhere because of COVID, or maybe they just weren’t able to show up because they had a conflict.

If it’s virtual, they can show up for some of the days. They can see some of the speakers. It can be recorded and they can watch it later. You’ll be able to get in front of tons more people if you get on to virtual events. That can be one advantage. If you go to live events, that can be a different advantage because you can give them a hug in the real world. You can shake their hand. You can meet them in person. They can be like, “I love your outfit,” or whatever. Meeting in person can be phenomenal as well. Wherever you can get your message out, be seen and heard, and connect with other human beings, that’s where you want to be. That, for me, is a variety of stages.

We’ve seen such a shift in the last couple of months back to webinars and those web summits. Things that went away for a while that people got a little bit exhausted by. It’s exciting that they’re back. I miss the live. Do you miss the live?

I do because, as an extrovert, I like connecting with people. I’ll tell you one thing. I’m putting on web summits and connecting with people. My calendar had seventeen 30 minutes phone calls on it where it was a Zoom call. I could see people. I’m like, “I need to see people.” For me, that’s a good secondary way to do it.

That is funny. I’m a little bit of an introvert. I have a class, a coaching program that I’m a part of on Wednesday nights. I haven’t shown up in about a month because I’m on Zoom all day and by then, I’m Zoom exhausted. Good for you that you want to see people. I want to get away from people.

You brought up a good point. You talked about a group Zoom call. I am a huge fan of group activities whenever you can get on them, whether they’re virtually or not, even if you’re not hosting or you haven’t been invited as a speaker. If you go to a virtual networking event or a live networking event, being able to get there and make an impact on other people, that’s the same thing. Public speaking is when you’re interacting with two or more people. If you are able to get in front of a group and be a part of that group, I strongly encourage it.

Here’s a pro tip, if you want it. A pro tip is to go to somebody else’s event and absorb value. Let’s say somebody’s putting on a three-day event, you’re going and you’re getting real value out of it. Maybe they’re teaching about sales or social media. You go. You’re getting value and then they say, “Does anybody have any questions, come up to the mic?” Every single time, you need to go to the mic at least once on those events. If they say, “Does anybody have questions?” You don’t want to get on the mic and start selling, pitching, or anything like that, but get on the mic and ask a legitimate question.

When you introduce yourself, you can say, “I’m Kimberly, I’m with Entrepreneurs Rocket Fuel, which is a community of entrepreneurs online. I have a question.” Once you do that and if you have a real question that adds value to the group in some way, people will remember you. You will make the impact, or at least the first ripple of impact. When you’re connecting with people at the lunch, the break, or at other times, they’ll be like, “You were that girl on the microphone.” All I’m saying is get out there. If somebody offers you a mic, take them up on it. Don’t be a mic hog, then you get irritating and people are like, “She’s that girl.” Make sure that you don’t do that but make sure that you get seen and heard at every event you go to.

That’s great advice, a great pro tip. We had the Peace and Pivot Summit. You can get many ideas at the Pivot Summit. We had a virtual wine tasting and a magician. There’s another aspect of it, if you’re bored with your calls, have some entertainment on it. I know I have several friends who are out of work comedians who are all of a sudden virtual comedians for different things. Get creative as well as speak because you’re going to get a lot of great ideas on how to spice these things up.

You hit on an interesting point. I have a friend, she and I put together a quarantine cocktail hour which is fun. We bring in an actual bartender who’s furloughed and out of work. We bring him in and he teaches us how to make a drink, a new mixed drink. He does two things. He does a cocktail and a mocktail. If you don’t drink alcohol, he’ll teach you how to make a fun drink. We did Shirley Temples and COVID Sunrise, which had no alcohol in it, and a couple of different ones. It’s super fun. We put out a virtual tip jar for him so he could get some money coming in during this time where he’s furloughed. The same thing with magicians, musicians, and anybody who does in-person activities that can’t do it. It’s a great opportunity to get them on stage.

The virtual wine tasting we had, that’s what the vineyard does in this furlough. They can’t have people in so they’re booking, like you and your friends, and they send out the wine. It’s great, but it was funny to watch him teach us about wine-tasting because I can’t be a wine snob. Tell us what else you have going on. You also own an audiobook company with your son. That was something that he wanted to be an entrepreneur and this was his pick. He’s grown bored and it’s yours, sort of.

The story on that is lovely. He saved me in entrepreneurship. I was in corporate for seventeen years, fifteen of them were good and two of them were miserable. When I left, I had some businesses on the side previously. I’ve grown them to the point where I’d sold them, but they were small businesses. When you sell a business, that gives you a lot of oomph. It’s exciting to be able to sell a business. When I went entrepreneurship full time, I went to my friends and family and said, “I have these little things, but I am looking for something that can sustain me as a full-time seven-figure earner.” That’s what I’m looking for.

They said, “You were so good when you were doing your thing at corporate, why don’t you do that?” I had grown a large organization with 30 offices, employees, and everything. I thought, “What a great idea. I’ll do that,” and so I did. One year later, I had a seven-figure business. I looked back and thought, “I created my own jail cell. It’s doing exactly the same thing that I had tried a year ago to escape from,” and I was stuck. It was horrible. I positioned it for sale because I knew it was a big mistake. I could not get the price I was looking for, not even close to the price I was looking for. I thought, “This is not good. I need to put it on the shelf. I’ll put an employee in charge of it. I’ll let it gradually atrophy.” Meanwhile, I’ll have it pour the money it would have poured into somebody else’s account into my account. I ended up making a lot more money that way.

While it was on the shelf, I was trying to think of something else to do. My son came to me, and he’s like, “I’m 15.5, I can’t get a summer job. I don’t want to go back to summer camp because that’s lame. That’s for kids. What do I do?” I said, “You’re never too young or too old to be an entrepreneur. Let’s create a business around what you love doing, something that you love, it could be anything.” He’s in improv. He loved children. He would read books to them in groups at the library. These were all kinds of different aspects. We did what any good millennial parent would do. I put them all into Google, and up came, “Why don’t you be an audiobook narrator?” He did. We bought him a microphone and stuff.

I taught him everything about the business. How to attract new clients, how to manage order flow, how to advertise, how to bring in new business. Suddenly, we had more business than he could handle. We had to hire narrators to be able to finish the books. It grew and grew. We loved it. I thought, “This is the magic formula. You have to do something you love, not necessarily something you’re good at.” That was the big life lesson for me. That is what spurred on Entrepreneurs Rocket Fuel because I love helping entrepreneurs. It’s a joy for me. That’s what I love, whether I’m great at it or not, that’s what I need to be doing. That’s how Entrepreneurs Rocket Fuel came to be.

Creating Connections: Going to somebody else’s event allows you to absorb more value.

That is a cool story. Where can we find you if we want to find out more about the audiobooks and Entrepreneur Rocket Fuel, which I know is your main business, where do we go?

For the audiobooks, the website is ImHearingStories.com, which is a crappy name. If you’re ever naming a business, don’t ever put an apostrophe in it. We thought it was funny when we created it. People are like, “Is it I’m Hearing Voices?” “No, it’s I’m Hearing Stories.” That’s that one. Please join the community if you’re an entrepreneur. You can find it at EntrepreneursRocketFuel.com/Facebook and join the community. It’s free to join and there’s a lot of people helping other people in there. You can advertise your business. You can get the word out about who you are and what you do. There are tons of information on there about how to run a business, but also how to find the stages and get the word out about who you are and what you do. How you show up in the world.

Thank you so much for sharing that and for all you do. We’ve enjoyed having you.

It’s been a total pleasure, Julia. You’re amazing.

Thank you.

Important Links

• Superbrand Publishing
• PromoteProfitPublishQuiz.com
• Entrepreneurs Rocket Fuel
• ImHearingStories.com
• EntrepreneursRocketFuel.com/Facebook

About Kimberly Hobscheid

As a joint venture super-connector, Kimberly Hobscheid gets entrepreneurs the stages and connections they need to stop being overlooked, and explosively grow their revenue and reach.

Kimberly is an award-winning international inspirational public speaker, best-selling author, audiobook producer, six-time entrepreneur.

Kimberly is the creator of Entrepreneurs Rocket Fuel, an active community of Entrepreneurs, looking to contribute, connect, and grow with other entrepreneurs.

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