The 30 Days That Changed Everything

There are moments in business that remind you exactly what you're built for. In this episode, I reflect on an unexpected 30-day season that included delivering my first keynote, pitching our business on stage in front of 800 people, and stepping into the Dragon's Den. Each opportunity strengthened my confidence and revealed something I hadn't fully recognized before, that sharing vision, leading with purpose, and inspiring action is truly my zone of genius.

But the biggest breakthrough wasn't on stage, it happened behind the scenes. I share how I uncovered an upper limit I didn't know I was carrying, the belief that I was running out of time, and the mindset shift that's helping me move forward with more freedom and intention. If this episode resonates, share it with your business bestie, leave a review, and come tell me what you're building on Instagram @Kimberley.Hiebert. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to Found Her, the podcast for women who build empires, break barriers, and blaze trails all while fighting themselves. These are bestie level conversations from behind the scenes, the real work, the messy middle, and the wins that last. I'm Kimberly Hebert, founder, franchise builder, wife, mom, and Grammy, and a woman who has done the inner work while building the outer winds. Here we talk business, identity, relationships, and the kind of growth that cracks you open, then puts you back together. Stronger, better. This is your space to rise as a founder and as your truest self. Let's dive in. These 30 days, raising awareness, bringing the energy, living the vision and the mission out loud, like I was born for this. And right in the middle of it, I hit a wall I didn't even know was there. This happens to me quite often. When I say quite often, I mean like I don't mean quite often, but like I find myself over the last few years in these awesome places that also give me such deep reflection on a limit, if you will, or something else, the breakthrough that's about to come. And it's when I least expect it. And so that's what this is about. So these 30 days, there was a 30-day period that I did not orchestrate. Okay, it wasn't like I set this up like this 30 days and this period during this month, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. This is what's going to happen. It was not controlled like that. These 30 days appeared out of nowhere and they ordered themselves in a way that when I look back at it, it's so powerful. You have to, the only explanation is that it was in the flow and in the energy of my zone of genius. So, first it was the keynote. I was asked to deliver my first big keynote. I've done speaking and things like that in smaller venues and situations, but this was like uh 45 minutes to 60 minutes keynote to 100 plus women in person at an event. And while I was prepping for it, it's I kind of knew I knew what I wanted to talk about. So the prep wasn't super hard, but like in terms of the story and what I really wanted to leave the audience with. But I had also never really delivered anything big like that in person. It was it's a very personal. This keynote is a very personal journey because to me, business is a very personal journey. As you build business and grow in all of those areas, it grows you personally. The two go hand in hand. And so for me, it's a very it was a very personal speech, a presentation. And funny enough, the night before uh the keynote, there was uh like a pre-party, and the hosts of the event had given opportunity to a few of their community to use the stage in the pre-event to say a couple of things, uh, you know, to do a like a five-minute uh introduction into who they are to get a taste because they too want to become speakers. And I still remember this moment because I was feeling pretty good. I was a little bit nervous about how I would start delivering it. Cause you know, when you start talking sometimes in uh on stages or to people and sometimes even in podcast, uh your vo my voice gets like nervous and shaky. And uh it doesn't have that like strong conviction when you're super confident or whatever. Uh so I was a little bit, I had a little bit of nerves, but I was feeling like I I I kind of had done a lot of visualizing and practice. And again, it's my story, so or part like it's a blend of my story and teachings from that. And uh, so I was feeling pretty confident. But so it's the party night and uh the night before, and there's this party, and these lovely women get up to share different aspects of their life, and one woman gets up there, and she starts talking about the three things in her life, like the three barriers and uh three um hardships that she overcame. And as she started to share, it was like a very similar journey to mine. And I was, I still remember standing there listening, and my sister was there, and so listening, and she's you know, beautiful sharing, you know, vulnerable moments of her childhood and young adulthood and things like that. And uh, I look over at my sister, and my sister is already looking at me with eyes wide open, and I'm and I look at her and she looks at me, and I was like, what the fuck is she is this woman actually giving is did she just steal my thunder unknowingly? Like this was the actual like outline of my keynote the next day, and I I was like, all of the air left me. And my sister was like, Holy fuck, sister, I think she just I think she, I think that's your keynote. And uh I was like, and then my other friend is like, oh no, no, no. Everybody's story is different, blah, blah, blah, right? Which is true, true story. But I'm not gonna lie, it kind of shook me at first because I was like, oh my gosh, like I'm well, I'm not, I'm I'm not gonna be delivering anything new. And uh they've already already heard it, and you know, I just started to kind of get into my head. Continue to go to the party later that night as I was getting ready for bed and prepping for the morning. I started to spin out a bit. I started to spin out a little bit, no, no big deal. Messaged my friends, they said the same thing. You have you've got this. This is a very different experience, what you're delivering. Everybody has their own stories and their own uh way, right? That that audience connects. So anyway, so that was kind of funny. But so I go on to deliver the keynote. And um, at the beginning, I was a little nervous uh until I got kind of my footing and grounded. And oh my gosh, to be able to share the story and the stories the way I did with there were some key people that were at the event that were actually part of my keynote speech, and it was just beautiful and honoring for them to see and hear their impact on me years, like many, many years later, but also to be able to use my own experience to share with others, to be witnessed and to be held, but to have that then reflected back to me on how that impacted others in the room and um not just inspiration like fluff-wise, but like women taking action to repair relationships, to look at the different seasons in their life with a different perspective. You know, it was just really, really powerful to be able to see the impact because I mean, for anybody listening, I don't know if you go through this, but sometimes you go through this like, my story is the same as everybody else, or everybody else has a story like not like mine, but you know, everybody else, we all have stuff we go through. But what you forget is that you're put in, and what I forget sometimes is that my purpose, my whole purpose is to generate forward-moving energy for people. My whole purpose is to help people build better lives and to bring energy and passion to that in my own life so that I could be a witness and a testimony for others to do the same. And so having that opportunity to deliver that keynote and to have that transferred into the audience was so powerful. I was forever grateful that will forever stay as a moment for me. And my husband said that they all clapped after. I don't really remember, but I do remember all of the kindness that was delivered to me afterwards, like the individuals reaching out in DMs and and in person and all that kind of stuff. And so it really was a very powerful moment and a moment where I can embed those feelings of when I need like yeah, it just really encouraged me because the next week was my presentation or my pitch, sorry, on stage to 800 people. Now, this was a much more condensed event. Um, I had three minutes to pitch my business and ask for money, but I still had to do the work to embody why this was and is still such a passion of mine and the importance of it and why it matters. And I got to deliver that to 800 people. And these are not just well, it doesn't matter who they are, they're 800 people live and then to be received, and then having iconic female entrepreneurs ask me questions about my business, about my vision, about my why. Again, it's just the way it all led up this these 30 days. So, first it was just me and an audience of 100, and me really connecting to my own personal strength and my own personal vision. And then the next, you know, step up was this 800-member room. But also there was a feature video that was produced uh about me and my life that included my childhood, uh, places where I grew up, included my family today, and pictures and videos of them and our business. It was just a real emotional journey. But I from the keynote before, I was so grounded in myself as an individual that it just really felt again, truly like it felt like I was like I was born for this. I was born for sharing vision and mission and energy. That's you know, delivering that 800 to 800 people and in that energy of those people who all just want you to win, that's what I was like, oh yeah, this is it, this is it. Okay, and so then the next thought thing that was coming down for to end the 30 days was uh we got to face the dragons in the dragon den for so for you who listen that are from the US, that's the equivalent to Shark Tank. Dragon's Den in Canada is uh Shark Tank to the US, and we had been invited to face them. We had gone through the auditioning and screening process and it had advanced, it was top secret. So now this is an opportunity to be televised on national TV. So when I'm like laying this out, like I could not have ordered this in any other way. This was ordained. First, it was me individually telling and grounding myself in that story, then it was to the hundred ladies, then it was me and my partner and my family and our vision from where we came from to where we are to 800 people. And now we're going to have an opportunity to take all of that collectively and present it and perhaps have an episode aired on TV around our business, our vision, our desire, all that kind of stuff. And so when we got to the dragon's den, and I can't, well, I can't at this point of recording this, I can't actually share anything that happened inside the den. So you'll have to stay tuned or come back in the fall for that. The opportunity to present again our business, our vision, our why, all the things we've done, everything that's led up to this to six of the most iconic Canadian entrepreneurs and listen to their or answer their questions, listen to their feedback, and also have the opportunity for this to be televised. Again, it was so surreal because for the last probably 20, 15 years, I mean, I think I've watched Dragon's Den from the beginning of time, so 20 years ago. I have loved this show for forever and never really knew what kind of like I would love to be on there. But here's the thing, and I never really knew what business would I bring to there. I had a couple of different businesses, but they weren't really like Dragon's Den worthy businesses. So um, to find myself in the place where I'm taking door gurus, my husband and myself are taking door gurus to present in front of the dragons, like I can't tell you, mind blowing. But here's here's in the moment, and I can't talk, like I said, I can't talk about what took place. But what I can tell you is you have all, you know, there's a lot of questions. You have six very smart, smart people asking you questions. And I was so nervous at first going in, I thought, this is really funny because I thought, oh my God, I'm gonna, when I get really nervous, uh, I it can trigger a hot flash. And then when I get a hot flash, I sweat. And I mean it, I sweat like a man running a marathon sweat. And so my biggest fear was that I was gonna have a hot flash while the cameras were on me, and they were gonna like zoom into the sweat pouring down my face as I gulp really loudly because of course my throat is, you know, mouth is dry from talking. So that was my fear. But in the moment while I was standing there, again, grounded in the vision of what we're doing, our mission, what I'm born for, it felt so natural and so it was my zone of genius. I I, you know, I tongue in cheek say I could have just pushed my husband out of the way. Not because he doesn't have any value, but because the 30 days preceding, I'd had these other events that I had been um working towards and the way they stacked up, I was like, this is my zone of genius. Again, here I am pitching the vision, the mission. I, you know, bringing the energy, like all of those kinds of things. This is, and so to me, I was like, these 30 days taught me that that's my zone of genius. Okay, so that's kind of the lineup, if you will, uh something I dreamed of that showed up in my calendar, was not parts of it were on my 2020 bingo card, but not collectively, not one after another like that. And this, like, this was the I was like, this is where I shine. I mean, I even got the fan feedback about it and you know, all that kind of stuff. But this is where, remember what I said? I hit a wall that I didn't even know was there. Okay, so this is where the wall is started showing up. So behind the scenes, so all of that's happening, and now behind the scenes, inside voices, my inside voices are always this you're too old, or time is running out, or you gotta, we don't have enough time to really build what we want to build. Like that's always kind of playing in the background. What happens if something happens to one of us? Where is this gonna, you know, impact the vision? So I have those really deep-rooted voices. But what I guess so that wasn't a big aha for me. But what was the bigger aha was that suddenly I started to hear the external voices around us by loved ones and I say naysayers, doubters, and haters and and loved ones, things like, wow, uh, shouldn't you guys be retired by now? I we Darren and I hear this all the time. I thought you guys retired. I thought, I thought, I thought you were just gonna be like riding bikes and playing pickleball and babysitting grandkids. Um, why are you why are you still doing this? We get a lot of this. Why are you still doing this at your age? Why, why aren't you just like doing whatever? Why aren't you just doing nothing? Um, when are you gonna quit? When are you gonna stop? When is enough enough? Like all of those kind of comments, uh, and those have been going on for years, ever since we because we did say five years ago or something like that, eight years ago, it's time to cash it all in, we're gonna retire. But that lasted like 12 minutes. We retired from the things we were doing before. But I don't know if the world just, you know, there's this narrative out there that the world just thinks you're gonna, you know, you become 50 or 60 and it's time to shut everything down. And you're just no longer gonna be, it's not even income producing, but you're no no longer gonna be value in commerce or you know, you should be just like chillaxing. Now, if that's what you want to do, great. But anyway, so we hear this a lot. We hear, and you know, we always push back, blah, blah, blah. Like, I mean, even last week I was on a walk with Darren, and I was like, you know, I really had didn't have much to do today. Um, and I don't know, I don't know without having a big vision, um, I don't know how I would handle kind of like not like not having structure or not having vision to something bigger or you know, something that keeps me like, I feel like sometimes even at my age, I see I still say it at my age, I'm like a puppy with the I need mental stimulation because uh, you know, sitting around just relaxing and reading a book and watching TV to me is fine for an hour at the beginning or end of a day, but it's not what I do with my day, if that makes sense. So anyway, now I'm I digress, sorry. So anyway, I have, you know, we we face these questions a lot, but what I found is I actually had started to internalize this. And as I have, you know, working towards building this hundred million dollar brand, there's a financial risk and financial implications in building it as well. And so I'm always kind of balancing in between, you know, like the like we're we're scaling today and tomorrow we're shutting down, like kind of that whole dichotomy of entrepreneurship. Um, so there is a financial implication 100% to what we're doing. But what happened, what was happening is this external noise that we've been facing for a number of years, very subtly, sometimes kind of tongue in cheek and jokey, and you push back, had actually transferred into an internal dialogue where I suddenly internally feel like I am racing the clock to achieve our vision. I've and this just like blew my mind when I realized that this is my new upper limit. It wasn't insecurity or imposter syndrome or, you know, I don't know what I'm doing because I I, you know, I I know nobody knows what the hell they're doing. So that's a lie. I that one doesn't live in my brain for very long. Um, I have an overconfidence that I just have lived my life with. Uh so I don't really suffer from imposter syndrome, and I'm not really an insecure person. And so these are not um, this is not language that rolls around in my head. This is not limit, these are not limits for me, but this ageism, this whole race against time is what was now, what was what I was seeing was this new upper limit. It was like I had told, well, I am still, because I'm currently still in the moment of this, right? I'm in the moment of the aha, and I'm uh dismantling this new upper limit. And this is like I was reading this book called The Upper Limit Problem because it's what I found myself in. And Gay Hendricks is the author, and they're they're saying that the moment we reach this verge of this new next breakthrough, which is what I think those 30 days were. The 30 days were like the preamble to this big breakthrough, is that my subconscious then starts to throw up a ceiling. It's gonna pull me back. It's gonna, and so the whole like, oh my gosh, we're on a race against time started to it's like it, it's like it got fuel and it became uh it wasn't the scarcity of the money, it was scarcity of time that really started has started to undo me. So that is my new upper limit. And so that's what the 30 days uh prior really revealed to me. It revealed, I guess, two things. Number one, my zone of genius is really bringing the energy to the vision and mission, and so that's where I want to live. That's where my new uh limit is gonna be. Well, it's not where my new limit, that's the limit I'm breaking through to being. And live there instead of my zone of excellence, um, which is good, zone of excellence, good, but my zone of genius is up there, and this kind of limit that I'm in right now is where I'm breaking through to get that. But I have a task, if you will, that uh I want to leave with you and for you guys to kind of start to audit and figure out what was your or how to kind of find your own limits. So it's three things. So the first is the language audit. So for seven days, every time you say or think uh you don't have enough time, what if you don't make it? Maybe you're struggling with something like I am with the age, right? Write it down. No judgment, just data. I did this years ago before when I had a fear of dying. You can't break the pattern unless you've named it. And so that's what I went through just recently. I named the pattern. I'm like, oh, this is ageism. This is what this. So the urgency versus scarcity is the catch to. So urgency is a rocket and scarcity is a leak. So I want you to think of those things. Both will make you move fast, but one is powered by vision and the other by fear. So ask yourself am I running towards something or away from something? And know which one is running your decisions right now. So that was a big one for me. And then build the counterbelief. Write this down. I am not racing against time. I am building something that time will remember. So for me, because it's time, that's what I'm using. I am not racing against time. And maybe for you, you feel that urgency that you need to get and find the success and the realization now. This is what I want you to say. I am not racing against time. I am building something time will remember. And that is powerful. And I want you to continue to say it until you mean it. Remember, you didn't get to the stage of your life, your business, or your vision by playing small or scared. The upper limit has showed up because you were about to break through. That's not a warning sign, that's a green light. So that's my encouragement. The most dangerous limits aren't the ones other people put on you, they're the ones we quietly adopt on our own. And so that was the bit of the mind F for me, right? All this these years of people saying these things uh slowly had internalized into an internal dialogue that when I was faced with my zone of genius and actually stepping into that, that's what instantly started to bring me down is this urgency and race against time. So now I am forever saying this. I am not racing against time, I am building something that time will remember. You caught it. Now go break through it. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Found Her podcast. If you've enjoyed it, please, please, please leave me a review, subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes. And more importantly, please share with your business bestie. You can join our newsletter, find me on Instagram, all the places. I would love to hear your feedback and connect with you during your journey of building your legacy.