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Dec. 5, 2024

Beautiful Chaos: Katie-Beth Schultz's Approach to Holistic Business Strategy

Beautiful Chaos: Katie-Beth Schultz's Approach to Holistic Business Strategy

Creative entrepreneurs, get ready for a burst of inspiration! Today's Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur Spotlight features Katie-Beth Schultz, the vibrant force behind The Sunburst Strategies Co. From transforming her passion for writing into a thriving business, Katie-Beth has created a unique collaborative that helps small business owners unlock their superpowers. Through her approach of viewing business owners as whole people rather than compartmentalized professionals, she's revolutionizing how entrepreneurs achieve their dreams with intricate intentionality and free-spirited strategy.

Hi, Katie-Beth! Thanks for joining us today. Tell us about your business. Who do you serve, how do you serve them, and what's the impact that your business and work makes?

The Sunburst Strategies Co. is a collaborative of creative yet organized unicorns bringing an explosion of creative strategies for life and business. We help small business owners realize their superpowers so they can achieve the life and business goals of their dreams! Partnering with someone who wants to figure out their next steps in life or business, The Sunburst Strategies Co. provides customized, actionable plans to make life more efficient, streamlined and seamless. Along with paid 1:1 services, we also offer free and work-at-your-own-pace resources on our cozy corner of the internet so we can intentionally serve no matter the scope or budget. The Sunburst Strategies Co. has a style that is free-spirited, yet intricately intentional so as to meet anyone where they are in their journey to achieving their life and/or business goals. Once the people we serve experience The Sunburst Strategies Co. "shine", they whole-heartedly understand the value of and become intentional with their time, money and communication to experience a beautiful union of purpose and passion. Our Shine Seekers realize their full potential and uncover all that they were made to be using the collaborative tools we provide.

Tell us about the moment you finally felt like you went from wantrepreneur to entrepreneur.

The moment I finally felt like I went from wantrepreneur to entrepreneur was when I landed my first client. 

I had been exploring my next steps in life and business for years at this point and didn't have a clear direction. How could an artist, wife and new mom find her footing after moving to her hometown post-pandemic? I felt like I had so much to share with the world and a passion to help people but I didn't really know what that meant or how to turn that into a business that would fit into the new life my family was creating.

In typical KB fashion, I started exploring my new surroundings and met what would-be my first client. I took the skills I had acquired over the last decade in small business and filled a need by volunteering for a local non-profit. Soon after, a member of that non-profit pursued me to help her with her real estate business and The Sunburst Strategies Co. was finally born!

Describe the moment or period in your life/career that motivated you to make the entrepreneurial leap.

I think entrepreneurship looks different for everyone and just because you're not a "full-time entrepreneur" doesn't mean you're not a real businessperson. Take me, for example. I have yet to take the proverbial "leap" into entrepreneurship. It's been more like baby steps over the past four years. And if we want to get really philosophical, it's been a journey that has been building since I was a little girl. For me, entrepreneurship is a mindset, a lifestyle and a creative outlet. We all have skills inside of us that others need in some capacity. I think it's just a matter of tapping into that and deciding what you're going to do with it. I've been learning about small business all my life and discovering my place & role within this entrepreneurial world. Believe it or not, I'm still a full-time employee for someone else, too. For me and the stage of life that my family is in, this is what is working. Will it always look this way? Probably not. I think that's the magic in understanding the entrepreneur life: how it looks today is not how it will look tomorrow and you've got to tap into your inner artist to create a new path for yourself as circumstances change.

Describe a tool, service, or software that has been a game-changer for your business. How does it contribute to your success?

The foundation of The Sunburst Strategies Co. has been blogging. I LOVE to write! At the beginning of this entrepreneurial journey, writing blogs was honestly just a cathartic healing process for me as I dealt with postpartum depression in the midst of the pandemic. Fast forward to today, where life is absolutely insane with my four-year-old, living up the street from the family, working from home with my husband doing the same in the next room over and figuring out this online business day by day. I honestly love the chaos and wouldn't have it any other way! But those days of writing endlessly for hours in the early morning or during nap time are really few and far between now. Yes, I still write, but my process looks a bit different these days. 

Enter RightBlogger. This is like ChatGPT but on steroids! The guys who founded this have taken the reins on what bloggers need and made their lives a whole lot easier. My favorite tool is the Blogging Tool called the Article Writer. I have inserted knowledge from my website and a writing sample, so with a few more instructions, this thing takes my ideas and puts them to paper. I really love how the founders send out emails highlighting the different tools with a quick video tutorial. AND they are firm believers in using RightBlogger as a STARTING POINT or rough draft, as do I. I was pretty skeptical of the AI game and honestly, wasn't that impressed with what ChatGPT was cooking up. It didn't sound like me and I spent so much time editing, that I might as well have just done it myself from the start.

If you're anything like me, you're an entrepreneur with a billion ideas per second, and it can be tough for our physical bodies to keep up with our brains. RightBlogger fixed that problem for me! I'm able to save time by skipping writer's block and can get a ton of ideas started at once. Whichever idea is burning brightest in my soul that day, I run with it and get an article going. If you're a writer, do yourself a favor and jump on this AI tool NOW. You will not be disappointed!

We know that success is very often a non-linear path. Tell us about a failure, pivot point, or lesson that changed your course or direction and helped to get you where you are today.

This online business of mine started out as a lifestyle blog. As I look back, I totally see that it was an experiment and foundational to my business today. But at the time, I didn't see it that way. 

I started the lifestyle blog in the early mornings once my daughter was sleeping through the night. I didn't have a super clear direction and I was kinda overwhelmed at making this thing a working business that made money. At the same time, I couldn't get enough of the actual writing, learning more about online business and making websites. The joy I got from that was truly soul-filling (and still is!).

Once we got through the pandemic, we decided to move to my hometown as a family of three. A move that big and with a baby was no small feat, so guess what went to the back burner? Once we got settled in, I tried to pick back up the non-business I had and get it launched. But there was always something in the way. And it never felt like it did in those early mornings I talked about. So, through lots of soul-searching and therapy sessions, I decided to shut it down. The feeling of that time and money "wasted" crushed me and I really felt like a failure. So, I honestly just tried to forget about it all.

Well, if you're a fellow entrepreneur and creative, you know that wasn't going to last! I eventually met some people through a local non-profit in our new town and they needed skills that I had. I started volunteering for them and eventually, a member asked me if she could pay me to help her with her small business. SOLD! 

If I saw the skillset needed for that non-profit and ignored it because I was too hurt by my own "failure" The Sunburst Strategies Co. wouldn't even be here today. When I look back and try to understand why that lifestyle blog never made it, it was because there was something greater for me, my life, and the people who needed what I could give them. I see those early days of blogging and learning about online business as the education I needed and the experiment that had to happen so that I could serve people in the best way possible! Back then, I wasn't ready for everything that this business means and for the level of service it provides today. And I wouldn't be pleased if it was anything less. So, that "failure" of the lifestyle blog was actually the foundation from which The Sunburst Strategies Co. was built.

What unconventional strategy did you employ that significantly impacted your business?

The Sunburst Strategies Co. looks at a small business owner as a whole person. We're never going to divide up your life between life vs. business because if you've taken the risk and put in the heart it takes to create a small business, then it is a huge part of your life. This thing of work/life balance, in the traditional sense, isn't real for you and your family. However, we do believe in batch-working, implementing boundaries and compartmentalizing strategies so that our clients can feel a sense of balance and that every aspect of their life is getting the attention it needs. Intricate intentionality is the name of our game and no detail goes unchecked. By doing this, we're able to change people's LIVES, not just their business.

What’s something you wish you knew sooner that you’d give as advice for aspiring or newer entrepreneurs?

Something I wish I knew sooner that I'd give as advice for aspiring or newer entrepreneurs is "don't ask for permission." In my early days of trying to make a lifestyle blog happen, I sent every single blog I wrote to a group of people that I called my "editors." While well-intentioned, and maybe was ok for the first couple of blogs, this was an utter waste of time and energy. Because I had never written a blog before, I didn't truly believe that I was qualified for this job I was giving myself. As I look back, the role of some of the editors I chose was to pump me up and give me the permission I thought I needed to make this thing happen. Seriously, I wouldn't post a blog until everyone in this editor group had read it and gave me feedback. This stifled my creative process and gave me an excuse to not put my expertise or voice out in the world because my content "wasn't ready yet." I could have said all day that I didn't care what people thought, but I most certainly did.

Y'all, you don't need permission. ESPECIALLY from people who have never done what you're trying to do. Asking for permission is a great way to hold your thoughts so sacred that you're scared to put them out into the world for fear that they won't be perfectly received. ***K PERFECTION! Get that ish outta here right now! Our brilliance and ability to serve the world are so profoundly rooted in our imperfections and that is something that we should be immensely proud of. So if you're anything like I was (or can still kinda be like), DON'T ASK FOR PERMISSION and get your brainchild out there. The people that need you to serve them will thank you.

Want to dive deeper into Katie-Beth's work? Check out the links below!