Consider the Wildflowers
Consider the Wildflowers
110. How to Ditch Goal Guilt with The Lazy Genius Kendra Adachi
New year, fresh start, and that shiny list of goals you swear you'll conquer this time around. Sound familiar? By January 14 (aka Quitters’ Day), reality hits, and those dreams are collecting dust. Enter THE Lazy Genius herself, Kendra Adachi. She’s a New York Times bestselling author, podcast queen, and one of my favorite voices of reason when it comes to ditching the hustle and focusing on what really matters.
In this episode, we’re taking goal-setting off its pedestal, flipping it on its head, and turning hopes into doable, guilt-free plans. If you’re ready to stop chasing goals that leave you feeling like a failure and start creating plans that actually move you closer to the life you want—this one’s for you.
WILDFLOWER SHOWNOTES : shannaskidmore.com/kendra-adachi
📌 RESOURCES MENTIONED:
Kendra’s Benedict Cumberbatch Cookie Recipe
Kendra’s Latest Book— The Plan
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This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.
When you change the goal from greatness to integration, it changes everything. Work. Life. Balance is not even something that I work on, because that still communicates that you are sort of in charge of holding everything equally and perfectly, and so if you're out of balance, then you're not doing a good job. I think that's garbage. We just need a whole new paradigm, which is why I wrote this book. Because we still need to do our stuff. We want to do our stuff. Well, that's the thing is, like you're allowed to care about your businesses. You're allowed to care about your family like you. You want to put really beautiful, good energy into the things that matter to you, we see it through a new lens. When we shift the focus to being a whole, grounded person, to be who we are today, and honoring that versus this leveled up future self that we're chasing all the time, it changes everything you
Shanna Skidmore:you're listening to consider the wildflowers the podcast episode 110 new year fresh star and that shiny list of goals you swear you'll conquer this time around, sound familiar by January 14, aka quitters day reality hits and those dreams are collecting dust. Enter the lazy genius herself, Kendra Adachi. She's a New York Times best selling author podcast queen, and one of my favorite voices of reason when it comes to ditching the hustle and focusing on what really matters. In this episode, we're taking goal setting off its pedestal, flipping it on its head, and turning hopes into doable, guilt free plans. If you're ready to stop chasing goals that leave you feeling like a failure and start creating plans that actually move you closer to the life you want, this episode is for you. Hey, it's Shanna, and this is consider the wildflowers the podcast. For the past 15 plus years, I've had the honor to hear 1000s of stories from entrepreneurs around the world. As a former fortune 100 financial advisor turned business consultant, I have a unique opportunity to see the reel. Behind the highlight reel, I'm talking profit and loss statements, unpaid taxes, moments of burnout and those of utter victory, or, as my husband says, the content everyone is wondering, but not many are talking about. And now I'm bringing these private conversations to you hear the untold stories of how industry leaders, founders and up and coming entrepreneurs got their start, the experiences that shaped them and the journey to building the brands they have today, stories that will inspire and reignite, encourage to redefine success and build a life and business on your own terms. Welcome, Wildflower. I'm so glad you're here. You Hey, Kendra Adachi, welcome to the show. Thanks, Shanna
Unknown:for having me. What fun. Southern girls unite. I know, right, that's right.
Shanna Skidmore:Hey, I didn't ask you this before, but Greensboro did not get hit super hard with the hurricane.
Kendra Adachi:No, we did not. We got rain. We lost power for a day, but everything was back to normal within a couple of days, just some general flooding in places that normally flood so but yeah, the state definitely has, is still really struggling. So it's, um, it's very sweet, because a lot of people reached out to me on Instagram, like, Are you guys okay? Is your family Okay? Which is so kind but, um, yeah, we won't. We won't forget all the all the states that are still, they're going to be in recovery for a long time from both of these hurricanes. So it's a lot,
Shanna Skidmore:yeah, um, samesies. We're in the Knoxville area, so we just got a lot of rain, but just two hours north of us is just completely different. In the weird house. Family is from where I went to college, so went to college, so I'm glad you guys are okay. Hi, glad you're on this show. Thanks for having me. It's great. Um, how long have you been podcasting?
Kendra Adachi:I started. I started this business in 2015 started podcasting in 2016 but the first it was like the fall of 2016 but the first 10 episodes were interview episodes. I thought it was gonna be an interview show, okay? And then I was like, Wait a minute. Interviewing is hard, and I'm not super great at it, and I think I have some things to say, but I was really nervous about being the only one on the mic. And so I took about, I think it's six to eight months off to try to figure out what the show might be, and kicked off again in, like summer, I think of 2017 with the just me, lazy genius podcast. So that's what's that seven years long time, that's
Shanna Skidmore:a minute. Has it always been the lazy genius
Kendra Adachi:it has the podcast. Yes, the podcast has, this is my third internet business. The least genius is my third internet business. But yes, it's been that and will not change. This is what it is. This is this is what we're going to be for until I've done
Shanna Skidmore:genius. Thank you. Okay, Kendra, I just want to tell you I love your show. In this season of my life and motherhood, I have about a 30 minute to school and back drive. And literally, I'm not saying that. I am not saying this because you're just on the show, okay, whenever I love you, you're the podcast that I listened to, and I was and I just, I think it. I talk about money every day. That's what I do, but it's so much about designing the life that you want, building a business that and numbers to me tell that story, and I feel like with you, I was reading with your new book The plan about how did you say it like time management, but like, the um, like, kind, kind, compassionate, compassionate. Okay, yeah. And I just love that. I feel like you filter time management through that same exact lens of, like, what is the life we're living that's gonna look different for everybody. So anyways, I just want to say the work you're doing is so good. Thank you for getting on the mic. Thank you for writing your books. I know I saw it probably hard to juggle at all. So let's talk about it, Kendra, and just take us back to like, life before business. Tell me about your background. Tell me about your first of three Internet businesses. I just want to kind of hear the journey. Yeah.
Kendra Adachi:So I start a business every time I have a kid, because that seems wise. My first one, I actually started before I got pregnant with my my first kid. But we were, we were trying. We tried for a long time. And so I I started. I went to school originally to be an English teacher. I wanted to be a high school English teacher, because I love reading and I love writing. And then I went, Oh, no, wait a minute. Not every teenager is going to be like me. I'm not going to have a classroom of kids who are like I love writing essays like I had to pivot and and I needed to pivot actually, because I had some my my mom got sick, and I had to take a break from school for a little while and go home and go home and take care of her. And so it was, it was good that my my vocational thoughts shifted at the same time my logistical life had to move. So it was a good coincidence, I suppose. And but then after I graduated, I had got an English degree, and I did two, two jobs before I started my business. One was I was a youth director for, like, a programming director for my church, and so just lots of, you know, juggling lots of details and figuring out themes and entertaining the people, and then, and then I stopped doing that, and was a copy editor for a university for my local university. And I edited, so this would been in 20 when was my kid born, 2009 This was probably like 2006 so, you know, like phones were there, but they weren't like everywhere. And I edited how to documentation on how to like, program your Blackberry, stop. It was the most boring thing I'd ever done in my entire life. And I was like, words are great, but this is awful. So I remember, I was sitting on in my kitchen with my mom, just kind of, you know, like, low key whining, because I just didn't love my work and was young and didn't have kids like, what am I doing with my life? And she said, Well, if you could pick anything, what would it be? And I said, Well, I want to, I would love to teach people how to cook, because I really loved being in the kitchen. I loved cooking, and I I've always been a teacher. I think that's just always been in my bones, there's something in me that likes to take complexity and make it simple and communicate it to people. That's just, I really love doing that, and that's what I do now and and so I my first internet business before I had my son. My first son was called My first kitchen. And the point of it was to teach people who, like, were getting their first kitchen for the time. So, like, college grads, newlyweds that didn't really know what they were doing. Turns out, a lot of women who had been living on their own or married for like, a decade were like, I don't know how to cook either. Can I come and so I taught cooking classes out of my house, and I did some food writing online and and that was great, but then I started to I had my my oldest, who did not sleep. When I say he didn't sleep, I'm not this is not hyperbolic. Everyone for 18 months he did, with the exception of like, single digit times he did not sleep for more than, like, 15 minutes at a time. It was the most. It was like the it was traumatic. He didn't even in the night time, even in the night time, it was awful. It was so awful. Like I just were a shell of a human I was, I kind of like lost, literally lost my mind, like it was so hard. And then I had a kid, another kid, six months later. So that was really smart as well. But I. Found myself in that first business with the writing. I really loved the writing and the teaching, but I resented my kid for not letting me do my work, and I just felt this, I'm a Christian, and I just the Holy Spirit. Was like, Hey, girl, this isn't a great This isn't great. This is not what we want for either of you, and so let's just stop this business. And I so I quit, and it was really sad. I didn't want to, but I did, because I knew it was the right thing. And then I had a second kid, and then I was like, let's, let's do something else. And I started a business called the sugar box.
Shanna Skidmore:Okay, wait, what year was this? So what year was my first kitchen? My first kitchen was
Kendra Adachi:like 2007 to 2010 Okay, and then the sugar box was 2000 and I quit for like a year. And then sugar box was like 2012 because my second kid was born in 2011 so like 20 early, 2012 and I did that for almost, like two years. I think I did that for two years, and that was because I love dessert, I love baking, and I love pop culture, and so I did pop culture inspired boxes of themed desserts that you could buy every month and pick up at my house. It was called, we did sugar box day, and I would just sit in my kitchen. I'd make 1200 cookies by myself in one go. Just it was, it was chaos, but it was so fun. But listen, you talk about money. You ready? This is when I realized I needed to quit this business. When I went,
Unknown:how am I making anything here? And I did the I did the
Kendra Adachi:math, because it's a lot of time. It's a lot of creative energy. Of like, let's pick Downton Abbey. Downton Abbey was really big. Then I did a Downton Abbey box, trying to come up with the ideas and testing recipes, coming up, making up my own recipes, all these things I was making one cent per hour per box I sold. And my max that I could do on my own with 75 boxes. Yeah, that is not a sustainable business model. Everyone
Unknown:exactly like that. I wasn't losing money, but I don't think that counts as making money. Either
Shanna Skidmore:you were generating cash, I
Unknown:was generating pennies,
Kendra Adachi:and so I this was, this was before I had my third kid, who was a surprise. So I thought I was like, rolling my kids, my boys were about to both be in elementary school. I was going to have full days. I was ready. So I in 2014 I was like, Okay, this is not a cash cow by any means. So we need to figure out what this is going to be. Do I scale this business? Because people would ask me to ship boxes. I thought I could hire a team. We could get a we could get a facility like we could actually do this. Do I scale this business, or do I pivot and do something different that's more flexible. And then I got pregnant by surprise. And so you can imagine which one I I picked. There was your answer, the answer. And that was in 2015 early 2015 and then my daughter, okay, so 16. Okay.
Shanna Skidmore:This is all so good. Tell me, it sounds like you had a lot of fun. You were taking ideas. You were having fun with them. How did you figure out, like, pricing? Did you have financial goals? Did you have to make money? Like, were you just, and also, after quitting your first business, I'm giving all the but after quitting your first business, were you just, like, I need something creative again,
Kendra Adachi:it was bad. It was, it was, I needed something creative again. I needed a place. I love to I love to ideate. I love to have a good time. I love to throw parties. And so the sugar box was sort of my chance to, like, throw a party every month. And so it was great, but I I needed to make money, in a sense that my husband had just started working as a counselor, a middle school counselor, and North Carolina is one of the lowest states as far as pay for the school system. So we did not, we did not have much. We definitely, I cried when I got our property tax bill, because I didn't factor that into our annual budget, and all of a sudden I was like, we don't have this money. What are we going to do? Like every penny was counted for, and so anything I made was helpful, but I also anticipated that I was probably going to, quote, unquote, stay home with kids, which I did, but I also started these, these businesses. I did not have financial goals, because I have a weird relationship with goals. It has shifted over time. But as a recovering perfectionist, if there are any Enneagram listeners, I'm an Enneagram one. So I love things to be a certain way, and I also have tremendously high expectations of myself that creates a formula inside of me that started when I was a teenager, of well, if you say you're going to do something, or if you set a goal, if you do not meet that goal, you are a failure, yes. So kindred spirit, yes. And then a lot of the goals that I would set in my teens to mid 20s were also about my body. It was like diet, culture, grossness, and so now I still really have to be intentional about the language I use around goal setting and big dreams and all of that. Because, for one, we don't have to have those. You don't have to have a life of big dreams and big goals in order for it to matter. That's the first thing. But the second thing is, it was so close in the muscle memory of unhealth that I just have to be really careful and thoughtful about the language that I use. But at that time, I was like, I don't know how to run a business. I don't know what I'm doing. I'm just like, you said, I'm just having a good time. I'm just having fun. So the money was secondary. It was like, it was icing. You know, it just, it wasn't anything that we were trying to live off of. It was, it was extra. Was not much extra.
Unknown:Again, penny per hour per box. Atrocious. Everyone, atrocious.
Shanna Skidmore:Okay, so in 2015 when you're like, Okay, let's buckle you know, how did you come up with your new version, your new business model? Did you then say, Okay, I have, this is my the outcome I'm looking for, or the priority I want, whether it's a creative outlet or I want it to make sure it's just something I can do while I'm mommying or like, what, how did you kind of outline your new business, and what did it look like?
Kendra Adachi:So I noticed in both of those first two businesses, because they were on the internet, even though I was doing things in my own home, I was still writing. So with my first kitchen, I was writing about the kitchen and about cooking and recipes and everything. And then with the sugar box, I was sharing pop culture inspired recipes from those boxes. So for example, you can still, I think you can still find the recipe for my Cumber cookies, my Benedict Cumberbatch inspired triple chocolate cookies, which are excellent and it's full it's full of and it's full of picture, like the post was full of pictures of Benedict Cumberbatch, like I would cut out, like I would take a picture of a platter of those cookies with a cut out of Benedict Cumberbatch from, like, a People magazine. I found it, like the discarded magazine crate in the library, and would, like, hover it over the cookies, like it was chaos, like it was so ridiculous. So I was on the internet, and I had the luck, really, of becoming friends with someone who was already writing on the internet. Emily P Freeman is my nearest and dearest, and we live in the same neighborhood like and so we became friends before either of us really started writing books or any of that. But she, her sister is also currently an author, and was blogging at the time, so I had a couple of people who already had audiences rooting for me and sending people my way. Now, if that for anybody who is has any sort of business that you know is looking for that kind of like relational, organic growth. Yes, it is such a gift. And also you have to keep the people. So that was one of the things that I was like, okay, they are being really generous and sending their people to me and saying, I trust her. You should trust her too. You should read her too. And I wanted to do a good job of being like I want to be trustworthy here. I want to give them things that are valuable. So it's not just getting the people. You have to also keep them. The retention is important. And so anyway, I did not in those first two businesses, because I was on the internet, even though it was such a good time, I noticed the pattern is mostly women who read me, because women are once were reading blogs back in the early aughts, and I noticed a pattern of just intense pressure and trying and exhaustion so many people were needing encouragement, needing really practical help. And I had, by this time, I'd gone through a good bit of therapy. I had, I had, I had come to this really beautiful place of sort of honoring the past of this. Perfectionist way. And being like, Hey, you are really good at systems. You are really good at teaching people things like this is a strength. And also, and also, you don't have to follow the plan to a T in order for it to count. You know, there was this sort of like, you can't care about everything at once. And so when I had my, you know, I got pregnant with my third as a surprise, and it made my decision of like, okay, well, I gotta do something where I just write on the internet and eventually build to some place where I am generating income. I don't know what that will look like yet, but I think it will happen. I was talking with my friend Emily, and said, I think I just want to help people, like, figure out what matters to them and feel the permission to focus on that, but not they don't have to care about everything equally. And she's the one who came up with the name. She said, kind of like a lazy genius. And I went, Oh, that's so good. And then I immediately said, right, because you want to be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. And then we both started screaming, and it was screaming. And it was very exciting, because we found it. It was like, there it is. So, so it was perfect. Yeah, thank you. I agree. I love it so much. So it came from noticing what I was seeing. It was a big pivot from food. Both of those first two were food. And I think food for me, I'm not saying this is true for everybody who is a food writer. Food for me felt like kind of what I was saying about the beginning of my podcast, where I had people on, it was safe. It felt safe. It felt like there was something protective there. And I again, I'm not saying that people who are food bloggers are it it is. I'm one of my dearest friends as a food blogger. Is so hard. It is such a hard job to be a food blogger, especially now with how quick, quickly the internet moves like it's just such a challenge for me personally, I chose that as a path, and I chose the initial podcast structure of having guests as it was, it was less risky for me emotionally, because it was a lot to put myself out there and be like, No, I have something I think would help you. I have something practical that I think would help you. But it didn't take very long before I was like, Oh, I think I really have a lot of practical things that can help these people. And just decided to jump in with both feet, try to be confident in that. And that was seven years ago.
Shanna Skidmore:Okay, so you started writing, that was the main and were you thinking like ads, where you focus on SEO, where you just like, I'm gonna write good things and share it. Were you sharing it on social media? Like, how did you grow your audience? And when did you start thinking about books and then the podcast? Yeah, tell me about the growth of SEO.
Kendra Adachi:SEO is terrifying to me. Like, still, when people are talking about SEO. I'm like, I don't, that's another language. You guys just live your life. I couldn't. It felt like a riddle I could not solve.
Shanna Skidmore:So SEO, let's Google, what did you see?
Kendra Adachi:Like? I just it was so overwhelming. But I think that what what I hoped for, and I'm not sure that this is smart to build a business model. Business model on, but what I hoped for is that I would write good things that were helpful enough that whoever read them would share them with one other person. Like I always said to myself, this is, I mean, this was sort of before viral was even, like a word we used on the internet, you know? Like, I remember, I remember when I realized what YouTube was, because I wanted to watch the Lazy Sunday SNL sketch, and that's how I found YouTube. So, like, and that was before, that was after this. So it's sort of, it's, it's wild, the how the Internet changes things for us. Yeah, we
Shanna Skidmore:cut our teeth in the BlackBerry days.
Kendra Adachi:So I did not have any big plans. I did not utilize SEO. I think I tried for like, four days, and then I quit, and then four months later, I'm like, I guess I should draw this again. Instagram came around a little later. So I hoped for that. But really, what I the ways that I started to grow at first is I would leave comments on other blogs. That's how I tried to get noticed and to and to leave things that were connected to the writer, that that sort of validated and, you know, yeah, like, sort of honored whatever the writer was saying in their own thing, but also trying to add a little bit of value on my own. And remember, like, back in the day with blogging, you know, you could click through, you would read the comments, and everybody was a user, and you could click through and be like, Oh, they have a whatever. And then you could kind of see, I don't know if that did anything, but that's kind of what I focused on until Instagram came around.
Shanna Skidmore:Tell me about, like, what? Do you feel like went well with a lazy genius? How did it start to grow? What were and then what were some things like bumps along the way?
Kendra Adachi:So the podcast, when I started on my own is kind of when the rocket fuel happened, and I think that it's a good lesson, because I love writing, and I've written three books now, and I still write, like in my newsletter and, you know, Instagram or whatever, I really do love writing. I think that I find teaching to be more impactful and effective when I'm speaking it, as opposed to writing it, or at least they're working in conjunction with each other. So once I started talking into a microphone, it was like, Oh, this is what it is. This is what I'm supposed to be doing. And so from a from kind of like a confidence, emotional place, that was the thing that went, Oh, now this is what this this business is. It took me a while. It took me a year and a half, probably, maybe longer, before I was comfortable having ads on the show. And even then, it was like, it was like, a book of the month reached out to us, just organically. I wasn't with a network or anything, and they reached out and said, Can we do an ad on the show? And I'm a huge reader. And I was like, Yes, of course, this is perfect, that I had a weird thing for a long time, a long like a long time two years in business, which is 100 years in business in many ways. You know, it's like 20 minutes and 100 years. Yeah, I was so insecure about having ads on my show, because I felt like it. Part of it was my own story. Part of it was because I grew up in a in an abusive home and a home with mental illness, and there were a lot of things that I'm still I still find myself unlearning and relearning in that time, but my without going into it too much, basically, I just had this huge hang up that if I had ads on the show, that it somehow negated the authenticity of what I was trying to say in the actual show. It's like it cheapened it trying to make money off of what I was saying. Felt like it was cheapening the message which, hear me, everyone that is so deeply untrue, so deeply untrue. In fact, I think the opposite is true. I think that sometimes, when we put the confidence in this is valuable, like this has monetary value, it raises the value like it the perceived value for the customer, but also for yourself. It just, it's like it just made my spine straighter when I finally decided this is not cheapening this. This is a wise business decision, and we're gonna put one ad on this show, but it took me a long time, so I didn't monetize the business. I mean, it was, yeah, it was at least two years. Maybe I'm trying to remember, I had one digital product that I made, and it might have been a little bit before I started doing ads, but I didn't have any grant. I didn't know how I was gonna make money. I was just sort of hoping for like that, when an opportunity presented itself, I would take it, yeah, again. I don't know if that's a great business approach,
Shanna Skidmore:but that's what I think this is. I think this is so helpful a because I Kendra. I know so many people I talk to, have a I mean, all of us have some type of money story that we come in with and a lot of people feel like making money feels icky, or they they want to do the work and the the money, yeah, it kind of feels like dirty, or they're afraid of how it's going to change them. Or, you know, I think that's a very real what you shared. I also love how you said, I mean, just the mindset work. It feels like you've had to do about overcoming your own maybe imposter syndrome and charging people for something that you're like, I don't know. I just made this up. That's right. Speaking of, how did you come up with your content? And were you, I mean, you had littles at home, so were you just kind of like I'm dealing with this. So let me figure out. Like, were you kind of sharing your systems as you're developing them, or did you ever feel like I got to develop it, first test it, and then share? Like, how did you come up with the content you were sharing?
Kendra Adachi:So I don't, I don't really know. I think that I which is really quite funny, in the beginning, I thought I had some good perspectives on things, like, I didn't have the 13 lazy genius principles yet, which is in my first book, The lazy genius way, but they were kind of inherently there already. Like, that's how I created that. Book is I wrote an entire book that I did not, that I didn't use to find the book, that it was because I thought that my first book was going to be, like, broken up by rooms or chores or like, this is how you lazy genius this thing. And then every single chapter, I was like, Wait a minute. But everybody has different priorities. They might not care, or they might not even have this thing in the season of life. Like, what does this even mean? Even mean? And I remember asking myself, this would have been in 2018 2019 I was asking myself, are there like underlying principles that I've been talking about for the last year and a half, two years in my episodes? And went back, and sure enough, there they were. So they were kind of intuitively part of my life already, and some of them were spoken out loud in the phrases that I use all the time now and that people use along with me. But then I think it was just like, this is working for me. I'm gonna share what's working for me, but it might not work for you. And also, let's go up a level here, because we have to name what matters about this for you, like my very first episode on my own was the lazy genius shops at Aldi, which is ribbing riveting content, riveting, but I was a profitable grocery store. I do. I know seriously, I was like, Well, I do shop at Aldi, and it is kind of like a some people are intimidated the first time they go, and they might not know about the quarter, and they might not, you know, like, they're all you know. May not know at the time. They don't have bags. They do now, but then they didn't, you know. Like, what do you buy there? And how do you how do you manage? Like, if you're trying to go to four grocery stores a week, and the energy of all that, and so those kinds of things, I was able to kind of take to 10,000 feet for people, and immediately start to go, Okay, what matters to you about this? That was the whole tagline of the business, be genius about the things that matter, and lazy about the things that don't. And you can't actually know what that is until you name what matters. And so the the actual episodes at first where all the lazy genius does something like lazy shops at Aldi. The lazy genius buys a gift. The lazy genius plans a birthday party. You know, it was, like, all of these things that we just do and and that's how the content was for, I don't know, maybe six months, something like that. Around that time, I hired somebody to help me with, like, admin stuff. And also, she was really good at content, and so she started to help me kind of break out, like, what some of these ideas might be. And but in the beginning I just, it was just me in a notepad, being like, what are things that moms do? Like, it wasn't all mom stuff, but it's like, what are things that ladies and moms do? Let's do an episode on this see what happens? Yeah,
Shanna Skidmore:oh my gosh. Kendra, I love it. And also, I've never shopped at Aldi for all those reasons. Right order, I don't know what to do with the cart. It's so stressful. The first time I went to Costco, I was like, there's no bag. I
Kendra Adachi:think I did a Costco episode too. Like, I just like, let's find things that make people feel nervous or insecure or like they don't know what they're doing, which none of us know what we're doing anytime. Really, we're all kind of making it up as we go based on what matters to us. That's fine, but I think we do find more confidence when we're like, Oh no, this does matter to me, so I'm going to move into this thing more easily. But I did have to start pivoting the content on the podcast. Well, not pivoting, expanding. That's a better word. I had to start expanding the content, because after a while, Leah, who's my content director, still, she was like, I feel like we've done an episode on like, everything, like, literally everything, like, all of these sort of topical things that you do as a person. And so the the expansion of like, okay, how do we? How do we think seasonally, right where we are, or things that were more permission giving of like, Hey, you can or, how do we? How do we get along with people? How do we live with people when we disagree about what matters in this particular context, like just expanding that language more and deepening it, which took some time to find my footing there, yeah, but we're now on like 340 something episodes, I think so it tasted
Shanna Skidmore:the business is the podcast. It
Kendra Adachi:is. Yeah, that's main revenue. That's our main revenue stream is the podcast.
Shanna Skidmore:And so, yeah, let's talk revenue streams. So ads, it sounds like you had some digital products. I have digital products, yeah, now, of course, the books, the books, that's right. And then I'm assuming affiliate revenue, like, did all of it just kind of come organically. So
Kendra Adachi:the I tried affiliate revenue for a while, because that was one of the, I think that's one of the, I don't want to say simplest or easiest, but it was the most accessible revenue stream in the beginning. Because, yeah, I could put an affiliate link for you know. Amazon or I could have an affiliate link at the time. Affiliate links were like, huge in terms of, like, other people selling their courses, or, you know, those were really starting to pick up and but I found, I found, for me, that I got distracted by affiliate income. Now, this is a personal this is a personal take, because I know people who, like most of their business, is affiliated income, and that's wonderful for me. What it did is it, it made me less focused on and also less confident in my own work, because I was so like, well, how can we, how can we get an affiliate link in here? And should we like it? It changed. It changed the structure, like when we would talk about breaking an episode, if I was if affiliate income was our top stream, then it, it, it kind of shifted what the content was going to be so that I could make room for affiliate links. And I didn't, I didn't like that. I didn't like that. That's what it was doing. And so we, we're pretty we're almost like, we don't, we have very little affiliate income. It, it has to be something that is like, hardcore. This is someone who has a lazy genius perspective on something I don't something that I'm not an expert in, and they are. And so I will naturally send you that direction, because this is an excellent, excellent resource,
Shanna Skidmore:but it would send the link, even if it wasn't an affiliate link, that 100% right? That's actually
Kendra Adachi:like a we have. One of the lazy genius principles is to set house rules, because it's they're just things that help you kind of stay on the path and not get distracted by what does not matter. And we have some house rules in our business, and that's one of them, is we don't, we're not affiliate for anything that we would not share if we didn't get paid for it. Yeah, I love
Shanna Skidmore:it. Okay, let's talk about money for just second. Okay, let's do it, and then we're gonna quick fire and, oh, we gotta talk about work, about so many things, actually, let me just ask you, Kendra, how did you figure out so let's talk work life balance for a second, in a world that really asks us to do everything. Well, mom will be the boss. Make the money, do the things like this is what you do your work every single day. How have you personally, like, found harmony in growing, like, doing work. You love growing this business while also growing your family. Like, how have you done that where, aka, could just be like, Hey, listen to my 300 plus episodes on the lazy genius. Because that's what?
Kendra Adachi:No, I have an answer for that. Well, the the, the expanded answer is, is the plan. It is the book that I just wrote. Well, I wrote it two years ago, but, you know, whatever, it's here, and I pumped about it. But the here's the thing. This is a life changing thing that I'm about to say, it won't sound like it, but the more you sit with it, the more you're like, Dude, we live in a culture, and particularly a productivity culture, yes, which, if you own a business, you have read all the productivity time management books, of course you have. We live in a culture that says the goal of everything, the main goal, the primary purpose, is greatness. It is, master your time, optimize whatever, be as efficient as possible. Everything is about leveling up. Yeah, and if you are and making millions, and if you are not constantly leveling up, you're lazy, you're lazy, you're undisciplined, you're not motivated, you're not doing it right. Yeah, and which makes sense, if the goal is greatness, if the goal is for you to be as great as possible, to to create and manufacture an invisible future, a 510, 20 year plan for your business. Again, you guys, we didn't have YouTube when I started my business to look down the road and create an invisible future and then reverse engineer that and work the plan until you die, because every day is supposed to build on tomorrow to lead you to this manufactured future of greatness. Okay? If that is the goal, then of course, we're always going to be tired. Of course, we're trying to find work life balance. Okay? Because it is impossible, especially for women, for anybody, but especially for women, because women carry a lot more expectations and responsibilities invisible, the invisible scaffolding of their lives than men do in general, not always, but in general. So if that is the expectation, if that is the goal, if that is the priority, that is in the water, it's in the air we breathe, because it is, you guys, it is. It's the American dream, absolutely, instead, instead. Like, what happens? What happens if we change the goal from greatness to integration, meaning, what if my goal every day is to be a whole person, to be who I am, where I am, no matter what is happening, to honor whatever feelings I'm having that day. It's not always about being peaceful or calm or having it all together. It's about being kind to whoever you are today. What if we started there? What if you look back on your day and instead of being like, I checked off my whole list, or I just made this much money, or I it's not that those things aren't valuable. Those can be things you celebrate, and should be should celebrate. I think that's wonderful. But if they are the point, you will always be behind, that you will always be behind. So if we shift the goal from greatness to integration, it puts the humanity back in what we're doing. It puts ourselves back into the equation. It makes it so that when you have worked really hard on your business all day, and then you come home and you feel, let's say you have kids, or you stay home, you've been home, and because you work from home, trying to do your job, and you feel the pressure at the end of the day, well, I need to make a home cooked dinner, because that's what a balanced lady does. That's right, without honoring the fact that you just worked your little patootie off all day on your job. And you know what you can do a frozen pizza with your family. And it is not settling. It is not a cop out. It is not a stop gap measure. It is necessary, because it is what you need today, and you are being kind to yourself in that that's part of it. Making the pizza or whatever it is, that's just an avatar for things that we see as lazy choices. Yes, making those choices is not morally negative. Making those choices is actually morally neutral, in my opinion, but, but it's not just making the choice that is important. It is making that choice kindly. It is being kind and compassionate to yourself as you make the choice and going like, this is a good choice for us today, not Well, I guess I'm gonna do a pizza because
Shanna Skidmore:it's like, because I'm a horrible person, exactly.
Kendra Adachi:It's like, No, I can't do everything, and I work real hard today on my job, and so we're gonna have a pizza, and I'm gonna sit on the couch with my people, and we're gonna watch Bake Off, and it's gonna be great, like, when you change the goal from greatness to integration. When you start there, it changes everything. Work, life balance is not even something that I work on. It's not even something I think about anymore because it's it's not an either or. It's because that still communicates that you are, that you are sort of in charge of holding everything equally and perfectly, and so if you're out of balance, then you're not doing a good job. Yeah, I just think that's garbage. I think that's garbage. We just need a whole new paradigm, which is why I wrote this book. Because we still need to do our stuff. We want to do our stuff. Well, yes, that's the thing is, like you're allowed to care about your businesses, you're allowed to care about your family like you. You want to put really beautiful, good energy into the things that matter to you. But we see, we see it through a new lens. When we shift the focus to being a whole, grounded person, to be who we are today, and honoring that versus this leveled up future self that we're chasing all the time, it changes everything.
Shanna Skidmore:Kendra, I you know, I'm obsessed with you. I really love that you say it
Unknown:like that every time, like with that voice, because
Shanna Skidmore:we are so kindred spirits. Somebody sent me your podcast years ago. That's how I found you. A friend of mine sent and she was like, this is you, this is you're gonna be your best friend. But, yeah, we don't as I am all the time, but I do that for the through the lens of money, because my background is in money and finance and Black Power suits and three inch high heels that gave me bunions. And chasing success, like you chase, you know, where you your background, like with productivity and like in my world, it's like, if you don't make more money. It's the same thing, the chase of greatness. But you know, if you look up the term success, it's basically more money, more power, more influence. That is, let's say. And so it's so interesting, because I feel like a very similar message, in the sense, for me. Me on the money side of like, name your priority. How much money does it take for you to live the life you want? And I'm just so grateful, like, as a recovering perfectionist myself, like, the permission of like, I stay in all my episodes. I don't even say work life balance, but I do want harmony. I do want to find the harmony. And like you said, that looks different for everybody and like and
Kendra Adachi:it's different seasons of life. That's the other thing too, is it looks it looks different from person to person, but it looks different when with one person in different seasons of life. And so to honor that piece of it is so critical.
Shanna Skidmore:I'm so excited about your book. Literally, it's in my Amazon cart right now. Um, everybody, the plan I don't read. You'll be you'll laugh. Maybe I don't know as I wish I was like you in this like, I do not read like you. I'm amazed. I've read half a book, like, basically this whole year. Like, what I only read through audio listening. That's the way I could do it. Anyway, that is reading, that's reading,
Unknown:don't downplay, don't play what you love. Actually,
Shanna Skidmore:read a lot of business books because I think I have a very busy mind, and I just really careful about, like, what I let in, yeah, and the influence, but like, the plan I am reading, because I do, I just I wholeheartedly like you give permission in such a kind way, and I'm just so grateful for the work you do. I could spend so much more time with you. But I have one question before we go to quick fire that I do love to ask everyone, and I'm gonna give it a little bit of a different spin, just because of my background, I always like to ask, what is the best thing you've learned about money, but I would like to ask it Kendra from the lens of building a business that you just truly love and enjoy. I'm sure it's not lovely every day, but you like the work you're doing 50% what would you say you've learned in building your business, the best thing you've learned about money,
Kendra Adachi:I think it's similar to what you just said. It's, it's that money is a tool. It is not. It is not the treasure, like it is, it is a tool and, and I would rather we've said no to some lucrative things over the years, especially over the last couple of years, that companies and, you know, ad networks and whoever just assumed we would say yes To because of how much money they were offering, but it didn't feel like it was in alignment with what I was doing at the time. It also required energy and time for me that I would rather spend reading or being with my kids or doing other parts of my job, you know. And so looking at it, if we see money as a treasure, just ultimately, like how much money can this business make, like you were just saying, then you're naturally going to say yes to everything that makes you more money, when you don't necessarily have the desire for more money. So instead, instead, from a business standpoint, seeing it as a tool, it's like, what are we what are we wanting to accomplish here? I want to pay my team really well. I want to be able to not feel like we're going to financially catch on fire, you know, like be so like, I want to, I want to have plenty of margin. I don't want to have to panic or reactively respond when a revenue stream breaks down to the point that we're like making decisions that we might not normally make. We're making them out of desperation rather than wisdom, because we don't have enough margin. Those are priorities for me in the business, and so money, money is a tool for those things. But it's like, once those tools are in the box and they're sharp and they're ready, I don't need more tools. Yeah, like, that's great, because money's not, money's not the treasure. Like, I don't, I will. I've seen this before, something similar, like in a, you know, memes and such. But I always think about, you know, the shows where people win the lottery, and it shows what all the people do with all their money. And my husband loves, He loves a he loves a what if scenario question. He's a window shopper. He's a catalog flipper, like he just loves to look through things. And so he'll say, if we win the lottery, what would what would you do, what would we do? And I'm always like, I the honest truth, I don't think we would live much differently. I think I would buy more shoes and better skin care, and we would maybe take family vacations more often, and we would be able to give more money when people with any time, anyone was like, like, there was a there was a hurricane. We would. Give as much money as we were able, like it wouldn't really change my life very much, because I genuinely love our 2000 foot, square foot house and our sweet little living room and my black my books on my shelves, like I love my life. I love my dead end street, like I love my planet fitness down the street. Like they're just all these things that are. They're just right here. And I grew up here too. Like we talked about this before we went on Mike, like I live in the town I was born in, and so roots are important. And I love where I am. I love where I'm so content where I am. And I don't, I don't need more than I need.
Shanna Skidmore:Yeah, I love it. Kendra, I just want to spend so much more time with you, but we're going to quick fire. Let's do it and round it out. Thank you, just thank you for the work you do. And I don't know if you feel this, maybe I would guess that you do. You're carving a path that is culturally different. And that's not easy work to do. And so I just want to say thank you for sharing your heart with others and giving permission to others to choose what matters and not care about what doesn't. All right, let's quick fire one thing you would be embarrassed if people knew
Kendra Adachi:I don't get embarrassed very easily, but probably how many James McAvoy interviews I watch that's probably fairly embarrassing. He's
Unknown:my favorite. I love him so much.
Shanna Skidmore:I love it. Any regrets or wish you could do over moments?
Kendra Adachi:I think I I am not a regret person, either, because I think that anything that is a mistake or even just like a like a bad choice, it always teaches us. Everything teaches us. So I don't know what my life would look like. I do think I wish I had, I had hired people sooner, but then I probably wouldn't have the people that I do, and I've had the same team this whole time, and I love them. So what I know, Kendra,
Shanna Skidmore:I love that. Sound all about hiring, right? Get you back on big win. Or pinch me moment
Kendra Adachi:when I think when my first book hit the New York Times, that was wild. I did not expect that. And also, when Jennifer Garner held that book up on Instagram, I was like, well, we're done here, folks, we did it.
Shanna Skidmore:I got chills on my arms when you said
Unknown:that wild. That was I still, I still think about that. That was crazy town. Kendra,
Shanna Skidmore:you do live. I love the way you do life. Okay, best advice, or just really good advice that you've received
Kendra Adachi:really good advice, because I'm not a best person. I'm weird about the word best, because then I have to overthink, like, what is best? Do you love how I have a disclaimer for every single one of your quick cars, my friend large, her main always says, you already have everything you need. You have everything you need. I think that's a I go to that all the time. I go to that all the time.
Shanna Skidmore:I'm going to sit with that one all right, last quick fire, and then we'll send it off. What are you working on now, or have been working on for two years and or one resource you would like to share?
Kendra Adachi:Yeah, the plan. The plan is what I was put on the search to do. Truly, I think my whole life has been to make this book, and I'm so happy it's in
Shanna Skidmore:the world. I'm so excited. At the time of this recording, it's been in the world a week less than Right? Very exciting. Yeah. It came out October. Exciting. I know. Congratulations. I'm excited to read it. We'll be on my 2024 making it a priority. Okay, let's send it off. Kendra, looking back, what would you tell yourself on day one? And I'm gonna say you can tell yourself day one of your first business, or day one of launching the lazy genius, either one,
Kendra Adachi:I would tell myself on day one, you don't have to know everything right now, and you might not know everything ever. Yeah, we don't have to know everything. You can just do the next thing.
Shanna Skidmore:Just do the next thing. Kendra, thank you so much for your time. Thank you for writing the plan. I'm very excited to get it. I know you're on your book tour. You're probably tired. Thanks for joining us and sharing your story. It's great to know. Ya happy to be here. Thanks for having me. Hey, Wildflower, you just finished another episode of consider the wildflowers the podcast. Head over to consider the wildflowers podcast.com For show notes, resource links and to learn how you can connect with Kendra, one of my favorite gems from today's episode. You don't need big dreams or big goals for your life to matter as always. Thank you for listening. I'll see you next time consider the wildflowers. Podcast is produced and edited in partnership with the team at Palm Tree podco. Special thanks to our producers, Anthony Palmer, our audio mixologist of palm tree podco, and Lauren from Team Skidmore, without whom this podcast would never reach your earbuds each week.
