Kimberly Hogate

Kimberly Hogate is the owner and founder of Faceted Media – a socially conscious marketing agency in Denver, Colorado. She started her company in 2014 and has worked with hundreds of businesses and start-ups over the years.

She grew up in Cook County, Illinois right outside of Chicago with a brief stint in the total wilderness of Idaho and then on to Colorado where she started her company.

Kimberly and her international team build websites and provide SEO, marketing, social media, branding, lead generation, tech support and more.

What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?

A typical day for me starts before dawn (I go to bed early to make this happen). You see, as a mother of a toddler, and a business owner, my “zen” time is before the baby wakes. And the baby wakes early sometimes!

I try to do a meditation and a stretch and wait on the coffee, just a bit. I’ll absorb the day’s news and then start hitting work before I have to start making snacks and getting my child ready for the day. Plus, the big one, my husband, wakes up around then too and we all chat and play a little bit together.

After the little one gets off to her day care, I get to do deeper work, or hold meetings. Sometimes…. I get a massage or yummy lunch during my work day.
A few short hours later, it’s time to pick up my girl. We spend the rest of the afternoon together and pick-up as we start to transition to dinner time. Early. Because… I have to go to bed early, to do it all over again tomorrow. Sometimes as early as 3am depending on what I have on my plate.

My body is used to early evenings and early mornings now, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t strenuous. While my life is in this transition period with a child, running my business and getting quiet time has to find a different spot on the shelf of my day. It’s unique to say the least… ask me again in 5 years and it will probably be a whole lot different.

How do you bring ideas to life?

I like to dream about them! Usually an idea needs to be planted and then takes time to grow. Just like all things. Eventually, the thought comes to you – if you let it. And, it’s usually perfect.

What’s one trend that excites you?

Artificial intelligence all the way. It is a bit creepy. It is a bit novel. Yet, so far in my practical application of AI for my calendar, for example, got me to sit down and write this. No, this is not written by AI, it’s me, a lowly human. However, the AI mechanism for my calendar helps shuffle my week depending on the priority level of the task – automatically and intuitively. So, because I told my calendar that this was important to me, it helped me prioritize it. I will be totally honest, that without that tool, I found myself over and over again pushing it back. It is thanks to this tool that this task was completed and I truly mean that. This is just one example of so many.

What is one habit that helps you be productive?

A recent thing I have been exploring is taking two days a month to leave the house, stay at a hotel and just get sleep and time to recharge creativity. I find that two days where my husband can watch our child and give me time to simply not talk to anyone or have to split my concentration several ways all day, not to mention catch up on sleep deprivation – is crucial for me. I tend to go to a yoga class, eat healthy food, watch TV, and generally just take a breather for myself. Just having the bodily autonomy to decide what you want to do for two days out of the month as a mom is a luxury I didn’t know how badly I needed. Ironically, it’s not much more than childcare would have cost me when I figure in hotel points and deals I find. 10/10 highly recommend a mini monthly momcation for all the moms owning their own business out there. Such a great refresher.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Don’t worry so much. It will all work out. Though, in reality, it’s the worry that pushed me forward to where I am today. I needed to go through every step and there are so many more to go. Yet, while I needed to worry a bit, I could have also physically relaxed – something I actively seek now in my life however I can. The more relaxed I can be, the better I can perform. For myself, my family – and my business.

Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you.

I believe that we put too much pressure on ourselves and constantly underestimate the time it takes to do various tasks. We end up making mistakes when we rush or having to reschedule things anyway. Why not realistically analyze the situation and schedule the appropriate time that it takes. For example, in construction, projects are notoriously pushed back. In a way, I think it’s because we “want to hear what we want to hear.” As humans, we want to think something will be done quickly and would rather hear it get pushed back several times than if we said how long it would take in the first place – realistically. We need to shift away from instant gratification and honor the steps of a process more in our society I truly believe.

What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?

Listen to binaural beats in headphones. It is proven to help regulate your nervous system and can be found easily on Apple, Spotify, or even YouTube. You can fine tune your frequency to the exact one that you need at that moment. And, if you look up brain waves throughout the day, or even just types of brain waves, you can see which waves you should listen to to compliment your current emotions, activity level, time of day, etc. It’s excellent for focus and concentration, creativity, creating a flow state, resting, and sleeping. You get to choose the frequency. It’s amazing and I am often preaching about this to friends, family and colleagues.

When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?

Take a break. And, when possible, get outside in nature. It’s always grounding to me and helps me regain clarity on my life and business.

What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?

Always taking new educational courses and always learning. In my work as a marketing agency owner, technology changes fast. I am fascinated by my industry, so it’s easy to want to always learn more about it. I started when my industry was relatively new and it’s only been recently that some of the tools that I always dreamed and wished existed – do now. It’s incredible to watch and so what I do is always stay up on the latest things and pass that value along to my clients, always upgrading their service and experience with my company.

What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?

Like everyone in business and life, I’ve also failed. Usually it was when I undervalued my services and made a mismatch between a needy client and their budget. I’ve since learned to be more competitive in my pricing so that I am not working for peanuts with a repressive client, although occasionally I also get myself in this jam. It’s usually when I discount my prices and so I try not to do that anymore as it’s not in anyone’s best interest.

What is one business idea you’re willing to give away to our readers?

One business idea that I always think is a great one is simply setting up a niche directory, maximizing it’s SEO, monetizing it, and then listing it for sale. I’ve seen this done and I’ve always wanted to try it as a passive income generator – with a lump sum sale at the end of the rainbow.

What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?

I love using AI for my calendar and tasks. I have recently started using Motion App for that and it’s been incredible so far. I use AI for creative writing at times and to clarify and understand ideas. I also use Trello for project management which is a neat and visually appealing piece of software.

What is the best $100 you recently spent?

A deep tissue massage and craniosacral. I had never gotten it before and I felt so relaxed afterwards…. In fact… I should probably make another appointment soon!

Do you have a favorite book or podcast from which you’ve received much value?

One of my favorite books is Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I know it’s fairly popular, so it’s probably not unique, but I tend to think this way a lot – that I should enjoy the process of life (eat it), be grateful for it (pray it), and that I’m on my way to the love part (loving me totally – that’s the journey).

What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?

Not really honestly. I have been watching less and less. It tends to make me have more anxiety and stranger dreams lately!

Key learnings:

• Go slow to go fast. Taking your time to do quality work will always win in the end.
• Nothing matters (that much). You don’t need to work so hard. Honor every step of the way.
• Follow that voice inside and let it lead you to wherever you are meant to be.

Photo Credit: SD Brown Photo