What does it take to build a personal brand that is also aligned with your business? Kimberly Gayle shares her journey from leaving Corporate America behind, moving across the country, starting a blog, and discovering the joy and community of adventure, craft beer, and living life on her own terms.

Bio

Kimberly Gayle is on a mission to help 10,000 women ‘bust through the boring’ and ‘unleash their REAL, BOLD selves’ so they can build their brands, get highly sought after, and create long-lasting impact in their lives and in this world!

Known for her honest, real, and encouraging coaching style, Kimberly Gayle helps her people see that anything is possible, that they are truly capable of bringing their whole, real selves to life, and that now is the time to step into the spotlight and differentiate themselves by WHO they ARE! She believes in the power of visibility and encourages and equips her people to “WRITE their lives OUT LOUD” so they too can show their people what is possible!

Kimberly Gayle is a Personal Brand Strategist, Business Consultant/Coach, Podcast Host and forever Entrepreneur. She teaches and guides entrepreneurs on how to build their personal brands. She helps them discover their core identity, their personal brand story, and their signature message, so that they can develop their original content and community-building strategies that attract their ideal people!

Over 10 years ago, after leaving her Corporate Career, Kimberly built her personal brand around her love of adventure, craft beer, and living life on her own terms. Her own personal branding journey led her to full-time entrepreneurialism and to discovering how personal branding has the power to transform a person’s life and business! She now owns a craft-beer taphouse with her husband and a consulting practice where she uses her life lessons and her professional experience to help others transform their lives and businesses with personal branding strategy!

Kimberly’s podcast, Brave & Bold The Personal Branding Podcast focuses on harnessing the power of branding to become known for your brave and bold self and encourages listeners to step into their REAL leadership and differentiate themselves by WHO they are, not by what they do!

Kimberly Gayle brings her 20+ years of experience in PR and Branding combined with her 15 plus years of business experience to her client relationships. With intention, strategy, serving others, and love as the foundation for her consulting practice, Kimberly’s vision for this world is for every woman to be seen, heard, valued, and be supported in her purest goodness. She is working to help accomplish that vision through her mission to help 10,000 women ‘unleash their REAL, BOLD selves,’ build their personal brands so they can achieve their life and business goals/dreams!

When not working, you will find Kimberly hanging at Lake Merwin soaking in the vibes from the trees and water, hiking in the Pacific Northwest somewhere, reading her latest favorite book, exploring craft beer, making cold-process soap, and planning her next adventure. She lives with her husband and business partner Mike and their two doggies and two kitties in Vancouver, Washington.

“The majority of us build businesses because we’ve solved it for ourselves first. I found community and craft beer first. And then I created a business because I want everyone to experience what I experienced in craft beer.”

– Kimberly Gayle, Founder, Business Consultant

Transcript

Hey there, and welcome back to another episode of Unbreakable Brands, the podcast where we dive into the resilient strategies and mindsets behind successful women led businesses. Today, I have Kimberly Gayle, pronouns she/her, who is a personal branding expert, business consultant, and coach and podcast host, AKA a forever entrepreneur.

Known for her real, honest, brave, and bold approach to life and her enthusiastic energy, she sees life as an adventure, believes that anything is possible, and wants everyone to experience the power of living aligned. Kimberly’s podcast, Brave and Bold, the personal branding podcast, focuses on harnessing the power of branding to become known for your brave and bold self and encourages listeners to step into their real leadership and differentiate themselves by who they are, not by what they do. Which is incredible work.

She is well known, highly sought after, and I’m so excited to have her on my podcast today because we are going to talk about her journey of becoming a personal branding expert, which starts specifically with her own story. So that said, welcome to the show, Kimberly.

Kimberly: Oh, thank you so much for having me. I’m really excited to be here.

You and I connected—Kimberly’s actually local to me, so she’s one of the entrepreneurs I know IRL for real, which is so cool—and we got together for the first time at a coffee shop and Kimberly told me her whole story and like the second I heard it I was like I need you on my podcast because people need to hear this and it’s so important. So let’s hear it, your journey to building a personal brand that then catapulted your business. You can rewind as far back as you want to go, but I’d love for you to start there.

Kimberly: Well, I thought a lot about this and I do share parts of my story all the time. There’s a long version and there’s a short version, but really it all started about 13 years ago. I was in corporate America. I did corporate communications, PR branding, marketing, and was into that career about 12 years. And the short of it was I love the work that I did, but I was completely burnt out. And what I realized I was actually living very misaligned, and I always had entrepreneurial dreams. So I’ll just say that, but I needed a massive change in my life.

I was living in the Midwest where I grew up. I was in Minneapolis at the time and worked at fortune 500s for a lot of years. And I realized that I was living a life that really wasn’t my life. I was living the life that I think I was told to do by society, right? Or the one that I thought that I had to do in order to bring myself out of the societal cultural family norms of where I grew up in a small town in northern Wisconsin.

So while I love the work, I needed a big change. And so I decided to make this massive, basically like a 180 degree change in my life. So I was living in the Midwest. I decided to move to the Pacific Northwest because I knew one person, right? I was like, where can I go that at least I know one person?

And mind you, I’m 35 at this point. And my entire identity is wrapped up in this career that I built for myself. And from the outside looking in, I had it all. I made really good money. I was single, climbing the ladder, doing all the things, had a really successful career. But the inside story was that I was really miserable and I was really misaligned.

And the really hard thing to reflect upon and to really think about was like, lots of things were breaking down. My body was breaking down. My mental health was breaking down and I was making really bad choices and coping with lots of things that are really, really not healthy. And so I made this decision to change my life and move away from my corporate career and to pursue my entrepreneurial dreams.

Now, during all this time, I had started a part-time photography business. And so I was doing that on the side. But while I was climbing the ladder, more and more responsibility, I had less energy for that. But it was the catalyst to help me move to the Pacific Northwest. So the whole plan was to come out to the Portland, Oregon area and build my photography business. And I actually started to do that. But the problem was I wasn’t excited about it anymore. I wasn’t feeling it. I was kind of at this crossroads like, Oh my gosh, I just changed my entire life and quit my six figure corporate career to do this, to do this thing.

And, and y’all. Okay. This is how serious I was. I got a tattoo of a camera on my arm.

I love it.

Kimberly: I mean, I was dead set on this plan.

Did you like quit your job? Like, was it a quick decision? I mean, obviously it took a little while to get to the point where you’re miserable, but did you just decide in one day or you were like, I’m getting this tattoo. I’m going there in 24 hours. Like what time period was that?

Kimberly: Okay, that is a great question. So I was 33 years old and in this state that I had talked about, and I said, by the time I’m 35, I’m going to give myself a birthday gift of a changed life. So it took me two years to find the courage to figure out the plan and to actually make the move.

I do find in life, it does take a few years sometimes for major things to come to fruition. But yeah, it’s just so important. Yes, it took me two years to get the courage. And to figure out what I was going to do. So yes, that’s a great question. It took me a long time.

Well, that’s a good, it’s a good thing too, because I think a lot of people are like, you just decided and then you did it. And like for a lot of folks, that’s really not the case. Like you could decide, but then it takes a little bit to get there. Even like, no matter what you’re looking for them, the savings, the courage, whatever it is.

Kimberly: Yeah, it really did take a long time, but the the key thing was making that decision. Yeah. And once you make the decision and you have that desire. That was it. Like there was no going back for me. I was going to do it. And I actually didn’t even know what I was going to do. I just knew that I had to change my life. So that was really the decision. It wasn’t, Oh, I was going to do this and I was going to go there. I explored all different plans actually.

I love that. Okay. And then you packed up your stuff, took your camera and headed to the Pacific Northwest knowing one person.

Kimberly: I did. And I landed in Vancouver, Washington area, Portland, Oregon area. And I started to network. I started to go to all the different things, all the different photography connection groups. I was starting to do all the things and I was loving it. And I was loving connecting with people and all that. I started to meet people and I was telling people my story and I started to shoot weddings and I started to do some photo shoots and all of this, but like I said, I just, I just wasn’t feeling it because I just needed some space for myself. I needed some quiet time. I needed reflection time. I needed to let go of the past. I needed to sit in the moment and I needed to do things for myself for one time in my life at that point.

Yeah, I’ve seen that pattern before with a lot of entrepreneurs of like coming from corporate or industry jumping straight into entrepreneurship giving it their all and then quickly realizing like maybe this isn’t exactly what I wanted to do. I just happen to be good at this thing, maybe it’s not exactly like the filling and then time to step back time to take a second and connect with people first.

Kimberly: And I think like a lot of things in life up until that point for me, I was just like forcing it. I was forcing it instead of actually listening. But the thing was in the last two years leading up to that, I was making that decision that I needed to actually listen, live aligned to myself. To listen to myself, listen to my body, listen to my heart, and all of those things. So what I did instead is I actually gave myself space and quiet time and I started to explore this beautiful part of the world and I started to hike in the Columbia River Gorge. I started to adventure. I started to basically do things that brought me joy. And as I look back on it now, I was truly healing.

During that time, I was coming back home to myself. I was finding myself and I was for the first time I think as an adult I was really listening to myself and what my needs were and so instead of building a photography business I thought you know what? I’m gonna do things that interest me that light me up that I find joy in and guess what?

I’m gonna tell people about it. I’m going to tell people about this journey I’m on because I have this goal of being a full time entrepreneur. And here I just kibosh that with the photography, you know, I was just like, and done. And that felt really wonky to me, but I was like, if I’m going to be an entrepreneur and if I’m going to create this life, that’s worth living versus what I was experiencing before. I needed to create it in a different way, and I needed to be true to myself, even though I was really scared. I was reeling in self doubt. I didn’t really know anybody. I was very lonely. And oh, by the way, I had this thing inside of my head, which actually I heard from other people in the journey of changing my life, but I also heard it with, I internalized it, which was like, you’re crazy.

You gave up all that money. What are you doing? Like, you’re being so irresponsible and you thought you were going to do this and now you’re just you’re being frivolous, right? You’re just you’re just going and hiking and doing whatever you want. And it’s like I had that all inside of me while I was doing it. But I thought, you know, what I find joy in and what I find fulfillment in and what I actually need is what this world needs. I needed to show people with my big leap and my move that we have to take care of ourselves and we have to do what is right for ourselves. And you get to change your mind.

Absolutely. I think that those phrases of like, you’re crazy. What are you doing? Or you said you were going to do this and now you’re doing this come from this expectation of like, no, you made your decision. How, how dare you change your mind or go in a different direction. But you get to do that as many times as you want to do it.

Kimberly: And of course, you know, we know this now, right? Because how many years we’ve been making changes. But back then, and where I came from, and also just living in that world of corporate America, if people haven’t experienced that, it’s very rigid in a lot of ways. And you just, you just keep going and the money keeps coming and all of these things keep happening if you’re good and, you know, growing and all of that.

And you just get into that like golden handcuff sort of situation. And unless you actually ask yourself, what do I really want? How do I want to feel on the daily? What impact do I want to make in this world? And how do I want to live my life? And what message does my life have? Yeah. Which is what I think about a lot. And that’s of course all part of personal branding if you really get into the strategy of it. But, you know, if we are to create a life well lived and also to inspire other people to do the same, I mean, all of our lives have a message.

Okay, so you’re hiking, you’re adventuring, you’re sharing on where, like, where are you sharing?

Kimberly: So this is where the intention of building my personal brand came in and the strategy around it. And when I say strategy, at the time it wasn’t terribly strategic. As I look back and now what I help people with is the actual process of being strategic around it. But at the time I started a blog, I always had this desire to start a travel blog when I was sitting in the corporate cube wishing I was somewhere else.

And so I started a blog. And it was called Adventures, Brews, and Views, or ABV Girl for short. So I started Adventures, Brews, and Views, and I started telling people about my adventures, and I would pair my adventure with craft beer at the end of it. And I would tell people about how amazing it is to go and explore and live your life and do all the things, and then pair it with a beautiful craft beer and support the local scene and the local breweries.

And so that’s what I did. I started a blog and I started social media around it as well.

And there is a solid community if you’re not from the area, there’s a solid community in Portland, Oregon area and Vancouver, Washington for craft brews in general. Like it’s a culture. It is, I mean, it’s something I love and I think it’s so incredible what you’ve done with that because I mean, I’ll let you tell it, but you use that you leveraged your personal brand that you grew to do more and more in this space and to become a business owner of your own brewery. Yes, which is so incredible.

Kimberly: Yeah, so I just started telling my story about what I was doing and what I was learning and what I was experiencing. And along the way, I started to build an audience and I started to connect with other people who were A, doing what I was doing as well, or B, who were inspired by it and who wanted to also do that someday or who wanted to go and seek out the adventures I was seeking out, hiking, skydiving, kayaking, mountain climbing, all of those things. They either wanted to do that or they wanted to explore craft beer or they wanted to pair it together. So I started building this community of people that I was connecting with and we were talking about also our life change stories, how we used to do something else. And now we’re doing this. And oh, by the way, a lot of the stories of the people in craft beer who created craft breweries had very similar stories of change.

I love that. And as a woman in the space, you’re breaking a lot of barriers.

Kimberly: Yes, there are so many things I could talk about with that. I don’t know if that’s all part of it, but yes.

I think it’s part of it because, I mean, it’s, it was your next step in, I mean, doing what you do now you had owned the brewery in between, she owns a brewery here locally.

Kimberly: Tap House. I should say that. It’s a Tap House. So we don’t brew our own beer, but we feature all the local breweries, beers, and sometimes we do collaboration brews with breweries just to clarify that because it is a little bit different.

I was saying it wrong, but you’re in this space talking about craft brews in a space where women are not typically at. And I think there is so much resilience and grit that you build when you’re building any kind of brand, personal or otherwise, that you have to carry with you to be able to do that. And I’ve seen that in you and it’s so inspiring and so cool to see.

Kimberly: Yeah. I mean, maybe I can do it because I’ve always been in those situations and corporate America is very similar too, so it’s not uncommon. But you know, I think for me, you know, I grew up drinking beer. I grew up in a small town in Northern Wisconsin and so beer is like the thing. And it was one of those things where I’ve always loved it. And I always have loved the art of it and the science of it. And then when I moved to the Pacific Northwest and started going to breweries, started connecting with people, there’s this culture that is so welcoming and so inviting. And a lot of these spaces, including our space now, is this third space. It’s this space where people go to connect with other people. And I truly believe we are meant to live in community. And if you think back to my story, it’s like I moved to a whole new community and I didn’t have community and I found it in craft beer.

And there’s this really, really cool thing that happens where it’s like craft beer. The ethos of craft beer is really about sharing. You know, it’s not really about drinking like, you know, 10 beers or anything. It’s not really about that. What it’s about is coming together and sharing in something that you either are a curious about together or you love and you know the story of the brewery, you know the story of the brewers, and then the story of that beer comes to life.

And so it’s really the whole, the whole culture is about sharing and coming together. So for me, that was like absolutely, I found my home in craft beer when I moved here. And I wouldn’t say it was easy because it wasn’t easy, but it was, it felt like home and while there isn’t a lot of women, there’s more and more, which I would love to be a catalyst for that. And I am in some ways and I want to be more of another ways. There are many, many people who share the same value system, connection, community coming together, welcoming all of that. And that is what drew me in.

Let’s back up just a little bit because I jumped ahead to your tap house. But how did you leverage, you built an audience, you have a community on a personal brand, like a solid personal brand. How did you leverage that to jump into an entirely new venture of owning a tap house? Like what was that? What was the transition like? Because I know a lot of listeners either have a huge personal brand like you did, or maybe they have a business brand and they want a personal brand. And so that swing between the two. I want you to talk a little bit about that.

Kimberly: So I’ll talk about my story and how I did it. I always think this is the best way you want to build the runway in advance, right? But that’s like the marketing way to say it, right? But what I did is I started this blog and I started telling my story and I started connecting with other people and building this audience, like I mentioned earlier. And what I started to see was that I started to have opportunities coming to me because I was visible and people knew what I was about. They knew I was credible. They knew I love the industry, all of that. So I actually started to work in the industry first and I had breweries come to me to work for them. So I had employment opportunities coming to me. I also had along the way, I became a media member. So this is all before my, my business started.

So I started to cover beer events. I started to get brand deals. I started to review beer. I started to do all of those things. So opportunities were coming my way. Then I started to work at a craft startup brewery in Portland, Oregon, and that’s where I really started to connect with a lot of people and have a lot of opportunities. And then more speaking opportunities came my way, more social media influencer sort of opportunities came my way. I started to cover travel destinations, so DMOs were starting to come to me to cover and review their areas, uh, that were known for craft beer. So all of that was the first. Probably it was like 2013 to about 2016.

So you were an OG craft brew influencer.

Kimberly: Yes, I know, and I never even influencer was not the intent. Like it was just, I was doing what I loved. I was connecting, I was building community and it became a thing. And so actually I was featured in Sip magazine. I can’t remember what year it was as a social media, um, social media beer influencer, which was really cool.

They came to me. I had no idea, you know, I just was doing what I loved and I was enthusiastic and I was promoting others and myself and it just all came together that way. Well, then I met my now husband who also worked in craft beer and we both worked at breweries and we both love the same thing and our stories were very similar in a lot of ways. And so that happened. So it’s one of those things where like, once you really start putting yourself out there and building your personal brand, all of the things start happening. All of the opportunities.

You can also find a husband.

Kimberly: Yes, you can also find a husband. Well, you know, I mean, here’s the thing. And I do sometimes talk about personal branding and branding in this way. So, you know when you’re doing things that are, that fill you up, that bring you joy, that you just, you enjoy living your life, I mean, what happens, right? You’re hella attractive, you’re hella attractive, you’re attracting all the things, you know?

And you’re putting yourself out there, right? And you’re, you were, you know, your spirit and your soul and you’re like lit up and so all of those things. And the other thing I think to the concept of like immersing yourself in and and being in proximity and being in community with people, it all just starts to happen when you go after the interesting beautiful things that you want in life.

And so yeah, I ended up meeting my now husband and what we did immediately is we started going to craft breweries. We started going to beer fest. We started to do all the things and he became part of my story and part of my brand. And we absolutely love craft beer. And before you know it, well I shouldn’t say before, you know, at about three months into dating, we started talking about having our own place because it was what we loved and it was our story and it was our experience in life and all of that.

And so we started talking about it, but we had never opened a brick and mortar. And there is a lot to know. And there’s a lot of things that were over my head in a lot of ways, but we started to tell our story. And we started to help people understand how enthusiastic we are and the funding opportunity came our way.

So amazing.

Kimberly: And that’s exactly what happens when you start building your personal brand. The opportunities come your way. And when you’re telling your story and you’re going after what is aligned for you. And so we were about three, four months into dating and we started building a business plan. And how we built the business plan is we would go for lunch, have craft beer, or we would go hike in the gorge, find a brewery, take our laptops, and we were writing our business plan for like four months. And then we would be doing all the other things in order to make a commercial lease happen and all of that kind of thing.

But it really just started from there.

That’s so incredible. And your tap house is very successful by the way, and made it through COVID. And I just want to mention that before I talk more about personal branding, like you kept it so successful. I think during a time when a lot of folks weren’t for many reasons, but when we had talked, you had mentioned it was about the community. It was again, like your personal brand never stopped backing up your brick and mortar business or your ventures because of that community.

Kimberly: Absolutely. And I will say, I’m really proud of this because the pandemic was a really hard thing for our business, but many brick and mortar businesses in our industry and others, we just celebrated seven years on July 3rd. So it’s really exciting, but you know, connection and community is a personal value of mine. It also is of my husband’s. It doesn’t matter what business we create that will always be at the cornerstone of our value system. And so it’s not a coincidence that we have a business that fosters connection and community because whatever business we have anytime, we’ll do that. But community and building a loyal follower —followers, maybe not the right word—but follower client base is so critical when you’re building a business and a business brand.

Yes, yes. And, and I’d say a personal brand too. I mean, a critical and in leveraging that in any kind of way. Absolutely. I want to dive a little more into the personal brand and pivot into you speaking to folks who are at that precipice, either business owner, should I start a personal brand in addition to, or how do I incorporate personal branding?

Or maybe they’re in the corporate world like you were and are interested in something very similar. I think there are so many mindsets barriers, blockers, things we tell ourselves in that moment. And your story is so incredible, but you also have worked with so many people to build a personal brand. So from your perspective, what would you say to someone who is at that precipice of making the leap?

Kimberly: Yeah. well, it is a journey and it is a lot about really discovering who you are and really getting clear about what you want in life and what you need in life and developing and creating your personal brand is all about discovery or uncovery. I say uncovery because oftentimes, you know, we are who we are, and it’s in there somewhere, but we’ve forgotten it. And so we have to peel back the layers of all the other things, all the shoulds, all the years of doing something we maybe, you know, shouldn’t have been doing in a career, or maybe just not really being aware of who we really are and what we really want. So the process of personal branding is really getting clear on your core.

And I call, you know, your core is really your heart. Like what is your heart and soul saying, right? And, and really tuning into that. So that’s really where things start. So most of the time, people will come to me and say, well, I, you know, I need to get visible and I want to sell my thing and all that sort of stuff, which is great. But that’s at the very end of the process. The very beginning of the process is going deep and is going inside, and really, truly understanding who you are. What world do you want to create? What is your vision for this world that doesn’t exist? And then really developing what your mission is and what your message is.

And so when I was building my personal brand, I realized I had made this huge leap. I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I wanted to basically say to the world, you don’t have to do this corporate thing. If you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to stay stuck. Now, if people want to do the corporate career and do corporate America, it works for them. That’s absolutely wonderful. And they should, but it wasn’t for me. And it’s not for a lot of people. And so basically I was thinking to myself back then, it’s like, well, if I’m like this. there has to be other people who are like this as well. So I’m going to show them this journey that it is possible. And my mission became helping people understand that there is a different way to do this life.

And you have to trust yourself. Well, first of all, you have to find yourself, get very clear on your core and you have to go after it and trust the process and go on this journey, right? Cause we get one chance. This sucker ain’t a rehearsal, not a rehearsal. You know, and we have one chance to go after it. And so it’s really starting with who you are and then really making that decision to go after it. Because once you make the decision, everything else starts to fall in place. And once you make the decision, you have to figure out a plan, like what are you going to do? And when you’re building your personal brand, you are essentially curating what you’re putting out there in order to position yourself for opportunities.

You’re creating opportunities for yourself. You’re not saying, Oh, somebody’s, you know, somebody’s going to come and offer me my next thing or someone’s going to come and, you know, come and buy my thing that I think is so great or buy, you know, whatever service or whatever it is. No, it’s putting ourself out there, positioning ourselves. And if you are making a leap from corporate to entrepreneurialism and or whatever, even if you’re in a different situation, building, starting way before you’re ready, and starting to put yourself out there and building your personal brand way before you’re ready. You don’t even need your message when you first start. You just need to go for it and start putting yourself out there. You find those things along the way.

Yes, you absolutely do, especially for a personal brand. Okay. Amazing. And then the other thing I wanted to be sure that you touched on because I think your perspective here is so helpful. So there’s the decision making the precipice. And then there’s the point where you have to be willing to put yourself out there over and over again, and you have to be willing to put yourself out there. And by that, I mean, you have to show up on video or show up on camera, or, you know, share your life over and over again. And I see a barrier for this for people, even people in my space who are, you know, business owners first, maybe they thought about building their brand second, which is a path many folks take, but there is like a big block to that because it’s scary because of all the things. So I’d love for you to speak on that.

Kimberly: Well, first of all, I will say it’s super normal. Even after 11 years of having my personal brand and years of being in business, I still have that problem. So first knowing that it’s okay, we’re all in that same boat. And maybe that doesn’t make you feel better, right?

If you’re hearing this, but the thing is, is it’s very normal because I think in society we’re told, and I’m just going to say, especially women, we’re told when we’re putting ourselves out there that it could be perceived as being boastful or full of ourselves or whatever it is, right? And nowadays, we have so many people online that are commenting and saying things that we get really scared because we don’t want to put ourselves out there and have some of that come to us.

Especially in the beginning, especially if you’re really scared to put yourself out there because the reality is it actually does happen and it will happen. It doesn’t happen right away. It happens when you start to share more and get more visible and have more points of view. on various things, right? But in the very beginning, it’s actually a little bit easier to put yourself out there because you don’t have a lot of people watching you, right? You don’t have a lot of people watching you on your blog. Maybe no one goes, maybe it’s just your friend, you know, who are like, can you please read my writing or go look at my video on YouTube or whatever it is, right?

And so, one of the things is really just starting to practice and to start putting yourself out there. But even before that, I think one of the things is, if you are seeking things that are interesting to you, if you are finding the things that you find joy in and are exploring, it’s much easier to put yourself out there that way. And also, I think one of the other things is, and this is what I do a lot, I take the focus off of myself. When I’m on social media, when I’m writing, when I’m going on video, whatever it may be, my focus isn’t on me. It’s on the one person I can help out there. The one person I can inspire. The one person who needs to hear what I have to say in order for them to have a better day or to see what’s possible or to just know that they’re not alone in this life in whatever experiences you’re having.

And everyone has their own threshold on what they want to share about their lives. But really, you have to start with what the goal is in mind and, you know, what your message is and what you’re trying to accomplish. But ultimately, sharing of oneself, it’s a very vulnerable thing. But the more personal it is, the more relatable it is. Which is also very hard, but you don’t want to start there. Don’t think about that at the very beginning. But it’s like, I think we all have a message to share and we all have a story to share and I think about if my words or my energy or my heart can help one other person, and I don’t know why I get emotional about this, but this is actually how I think about it. If it can help one person live better, I’ll have done what’s right in the world.

You know, yes, yes, exactly. And I love that shift that you just shared. I mean, that immediate shift of just like, think about that one person and then it’s not about you anymore. And it kind of relieves that pressure of, you know, all the thoughts that swirl about ourselves because we’re all our worst critics.

Kimberly: Right. Oh, that’s such a good piece to pull away. And sometimes I think people have a hard time doing it because they don’t know who their audience is. If they’re new or if they don’t think in branding and marketing terms all the time, like those of us, you know, we do, it’s, it’s one of those things where it’s like, you know, we just think about, and this is what I still do to this day when I’m creating content around personal branding.

I think about the person I was in that time when I landed early on in the Pacific Northwest and I put myself in the emotional state I was in and I remember how how I felt at times when when things were really rough when I was like, what am I doing? I’m not making any money. I’m sitting here at this age, just whatever it is. And I was feeling so scared, that dreadful feeling of like, Oh my gosh, am I going to have to go back to my corporate career? I don’t want to do that, but I don’t know how to do this. And, and I’m putting myself out there and who am I to be talking about these things? I don’t even know about all these and who, who even cares, right?

It was like, so I put myself in that situation I was in back then when I didn’t have anybody to help me and guide me and be there for me. And now I talk to that person. When we create businesses or when we’re creating our personal brands, we’re solving stuff for ourselves first. Most people don’t build businesses that they have no sort of connection with that they didn’t solve it for themselves. Like the majority of us build businesses because we’ve solved it for ourselves first. I found community and craft beer first. And then I created a business because I want everyone to experience what I experienced in craft beer.

It’s the same thing with personal branding. I literally changed my life by building my personal brand and going on this journey of writing my story out loud and making connections and building community. And I want that for other people. So now I help other people with that. So if we can just put ourselves in that previous version of ourselves or that previous state, it makes putting ourself out there and talking to that person, that version of us, makes it easier, so much easier.

Yes, I agree. I want to end our time together by closing out your story to where you are now, because we stopped chatting about that at the tap house point and you’re seven years in and you’ve celebrated that and that’s incredible. But you also are a coach and consultant within the personal branding space and have this podcast. So tell me like, when did that enter in? Like when, when did that start to happen?

Kimberly: This is a very interesting story too, because I’ve always had a passion for these things because I experienced the life changing results of doing it on my own. So we started Final Draft Taphouse in 2017. And in about two and a half years, we got profitable, which was really, really amazing. And it was, January of 2020 is when I was starting to exit the operations of that business to start a full time consulting practice to help people build their personal brands and their brands. And that was January of 2020. And then in March of 2020, everything changed, right? Um, our whole world, me, I say our, my husband and my business partner, Mike and I, our whole world changed because we had the most shutdowns in the union, I think, for businesses. And we were one of those that got shut down. And so, our life took, uh, my plan didn’t happen.

Instead what we did is I went back into the daily operations. And that’s always kind of been where I’ve been now. So I do, while I own the tap house with my husband, I still operated a lot in the last however many years. And so while I would have loved to have gone full time in 2020, that just did not pan out because of the way the, the situations happen. And so, I do it on a part time basis now, but I am actually at the point now where I am making a transition out of the operations of Final Draft Taphouse in order to go full time again. I do consulting and coaching work as much as I can on, you know, on the side, if you will, I guess. And the journey I’m on right now is evolving my personal brand to help people understand that I can help them on their personal branding journeys.

And so I started Brave and Bold, the personal branding podcast in 2021 to start building the runway for myself and this new business. And, it has made a few pivots to where it is now. And so all of that is really now starting to rev up this year and into next year.

What I so appreciate just about knowing you is that you are always someone who’s so boldly embraces the pivot, like, you know, and I mean, we all had to behind the scenes.

Kimberly: I don’t think it was very brave and bold, but that’s all part of the process.

Yeah, well, it is maybe looking back on it. And when we hear it, it’s amazing. I think it’s incredible. And I’m so glad that you’re able to share that with us today because that’s yet another pivot of like, okay, now I’m moving my personal brand into another thing.

And how do I, how do I do that? So if you do want to follow along on that, you should definitely listen to Kimberly’s podcast too, so that you can. Get the full scoop behind the scenes there, which is super important. So I want to thank you so much for sharing your story, your energy, your time. And as we close out here, could you let us know where folks can find you? Obviously, if you’re a local, you can go to Final Draft Taphouse, but where can folks find you to get into your space, your community and circle and work on their personal brands?

Kimberly: I’m on Instagram the most, I’m Kimberly Gayle Consulting and I go live every Friday. at 10 Pacific. So if you have questions about building your personal brand, your business brand, I am there to answer any questions. And I love just getting to know people there. So every Friday morning. And also Brave and Bold, the personal branding podcast, you can find it on Apple, Spotify, anywhere you find your podcasts and kimberlygayle.com is my website. One exciting thing that I will be launching soon is an assessment quiz to help people understand if their personal brands are working for them, because everyone, everyone has a personal brand.

It’s whether you’re being intentional and strategic about it is whether or not it’s going to be working for you and what you want to accomplish. So that’s going to be coming out soon. But I will make sure to share that all over too, but that’ll be on my website.

And I’ll be sure to link everything in the show notes if you’re listening as you so you can find it really easily and get connected. And again, thank you so much for being on the show and sharing.

Kimberly: Yay. Thank you for having me. I enjoyed it.