Why It’s Never Too Late to Start a Business with Kendra Cole

*Transcript is unedited (for the most part)

Gianna Diggs  0:05  

You are listening to the mompreneur mindset podcast, a show that empowers you to create a business that’s authentically yours. Say goodbye to stressful days, juggling multiple priorities and feeling like you’re never enough. I’m your host, Gianna Diggs, a certified mindset coach and business guide for women and mom entrepreneurs. I’m here to empower guide and align you with the tools and the mindset needed to build a thriving business. That’s true to your purpose. In each episode, we’ll explore strategies, tips and success stories designed to help you rise above your obstacles and level up your mompreneur game. So whether you’re a first time entrepreneur or a seasoned professional, grab a cup of tea, some quiet time away from the kids. And let’s dive into the mompreneur mindset together. Are you ready? Let’s get into today’s episode.

Gianna Diggs  1:00  

Welcome back to the mompreneur mindset podcast. So I am thrilled for today’s episode, we have a guest on the show. Her name is Kendra Cole. And we’re going to be talking about why it’s never the right time to start your business and go after your dreams. So a little bit about Kendra. She is the co founder and CEO of the crypto mom app, an innovative platform that’s poised to transform the world of cryptocurrency for women and moms. As a black female entrepreneur in the tech world. Kendra is on a mission to level the playing field and ensure that women have a seat at the table when it comes to digital investing. And with her husband and co founder Lord by her side, Kendra is leading the charge to close the crypto gender gap and empower the next generation of female investors through their user friendly tools and resources. The Crypto mom app is making it easier than ever for women to navigate the world of digital currency and attain financial freedom, one Bitcoin at a time. So without further ado, let’s get into the interview. Hi, Kendra, welcome to the show.

Unknown Speaker  2:08  

Hi, thank you for having me.

Gianna Diggs  2:11  

So I’m excited for our discussion today. Because I feel it is a discussion about something that I think is very important for mom entrepreneurs, a lot of times we tend to make excuses for why we don’t pursue our dreams. So I’m excited for us to talk about why it’s never the right time to start your business or go after your dream. So I want to know first Why do you think that it’s never the right time to start a business? And what was going on in your life when you started your business that makes you believe that?

Speaker 2  2:39  

Yeah, so I’m first of all, I’m so excited to be here talking to you about this, because I think that this is a really important topic for women. And whether you’re a stay at home mom, or working career woman or a working mom like me. So first of all, I think that when I had my first child back in 2017, you know, you think you’re always ready. I think anybody who has had children has always thought, you know, I’m gonna wait till the right time. And, you know, some people get it right, I was not one of those people. So it, you know, when I had her, she was also born with a medical condition. And so, because of that, I think that dealing with her sickle cell disease and trying to work, it was just there was never a right time for anything. I think the thing about sickle cell disease that is really challenging is is that it can, you know, pin crises or complications to her disease can happen at any time. So I think that’s one of the really big motivators for me to seize the day, and never take anything for never take any day for granted at all. So I think that’s the first thing. Secondly, I want to be an example for my children. And that means pushing through the hard times. That means, you know, standing up for what’s right. And I want them to see me doing the things that I’m passionate about that make me happy, because in doing that, I’m a better mom to them. I’m a better partner, to my, my husband, and I’m a better friend to my girlfriends.

Gianna Diggs  4:18  

I love that you said that. And it’s like, my body always reacts when someone says something good. So I just gotta chill. And I think the reason why I got the chill was because you touched on something that it’s really important, which is that, you know, one your children get to see you doing something that you know, when we think that okay, my kids are I have to wait till my kids are older or you know, I have to wait until you know I get more money to start this thing or I have to do this I have to do that I have to do that. Right. Everything’s I have to do something or all the excuses come and we don’t recognize that one. When we show our kids what we’re doing, right. We’re setting the example for them so that when they’re older they’re like, Wow, I watched my mom do this thing, even though it was hard and she pushed through. And now she’s, that’s an example. And then the second thing you touched on is that you just become a better person, a better human, but a better parent, a better wife a better. Mom. Right? And so I love that you that you touched on those things.

Speaker 2  5:19  

Yeah, absolutely. And I think it’s just about like, a lot of times, sometimes when we say that, we’re, we’re going to wait for something, maybe we’re also speaking from a place of fear. And so, you know, trying to learn how to push past that, that place of fear to

Gianna Diggs  5:37  

write, I think fears, that was probably the biggest thing that that I’ve seen as a mindset coach, but just in talking to people, it’s just like, Well, why are you waiting? Oh, well, because of this. And you know, most of the time, it’s the time with away from your kids. Because when you starting a business, like there are certain areas in your life that you have to make a little bit of a sacrifice for hope. So I do. I do believe that fear is probably the number one thing why people don’t do what they love. Totally. So your business is in a male dominated field that doesn’t really cater to winning probably at all. So did you ever have feelings of self doubt? And if so, how do you overcome them and pressed on to create this beautiful app that you’ve created?

Speaker 2  6:25  

Yeah, I mean, first of all, I experienced self doubt every single day. I think that when you are going into an industry that is male dominated, not only is it male dominated, there’s very few people of color. So I’ve got the double whammy of being a black woman in tech and specifically in crypto. So they think that there’s always going to be something that is standing in the way of what you want to achieve. And you can either let those challenges and let the fear stop you. Or you can find a way to help it motivate you. And in creating the crypto mom, that which is what me and my partner are building, our entire mission is to support women in their wealth building journey of cryptocurrency, and ultimately supporting them to find financial freedom, financial independence. And when you’re doing something really hard, it’s never going to be easy. And so that’s a really big motivator for me is that the more that I push through, and if when we get this off the ground, and we’re providing secure, safe and inclusive tools for women to learn about cryptocurrency and capitalize it as a part of their portfolios, the more that I push through, I’m also breaking down barriers for the next people who are coming in, and then they could do the same thing for the women who are falling behind them as well.

Gianna Diggs  7:59  

All right, I love that I got to I got another chili, you said you were breaking down barriers, because I think that, um, that’s the thing when you aren’t waiting for the right time. Like I think that’s, that’s the connection that came in my brain was like, okay, you know, there’s a purpose behind it. And when you sit and you wait, you don’t know how one you’re kind of stepping away from that purpose. And you don’t know, we never know who we’re going to inspire. Right? Like, I always laugh when I hear people say, Well, I don’t want to be a role model. And it’s like, you don’t have a choice in this world. Like, somebody’s gonna look up to you either, you know, so it’s like, and you know, people can do what they’re going to do, they can be who they’re gonna be. I’m not saying you have to be the role model, but you just know that there is someone that’s looking at what you’re doing, and they feel inspired by it. Yeah.

Speaker 2  8:49  

And we got to stick together to especially black women, you know, we got to stick together. And, you know, look out for each other. Right, right.

Gianna Diggs  8:59  

So in a previous conversation mean, you’ve had and I’ve talked about this a lot about my mom having me at 17. And watching her, obviously, I don’t remember, but I know, I know this to be true, right? That she graduated college, you know, I mean, she graduated high school on time with her class, she didn’t drop out, she went straight to college, right? And so she kind of instilled in me the thing that I always see from others that I don’t see from others, which is that like, having her children having me at a young age did not stop her from her dreams. Right and so

Speaker 2  9:31  

isolations to her, by the way. That’s right. That is amazing.

Gianna Diggs  9:36  

And I think that’s why I’ve always had this thing of like, you know, timing is going to be what it’s going to be and you know, obviously you have to work through it if like as a starting time, like we all have those mindset things. But I will say that having that example helped me so I wanted to know, was there someone in your life that inspired you to kind of go after your dreams or was that something you had to learn on your own?

Speaker 2  9:55  

Absolutely. I’m the same as you. Same with my kids, my mother, for sure. My mom, when I was growing up, she was a single mom to me. And you know, she had a high school degree, and didn’t have any college experience. And she was a single mom and trying to raise me. And she started out as a operator at a telephone company, and, you know, worked her way up to be a manager of a crisis control of the crisis control center. And so I think that when I see that there were lots of nights where I went with her to work and did my homework under the desk, and a lot of weekends where there was nobody there, but us. And for her, I know that she says that she’s always felt this immense guilt for that. But I can tell her that what I remember is it being so cool to go to my mom’s job after daycare, and, you know, running through the halls and making up my own games, or maybe popping into my mom’s job on the weekends, but then we would go to bowling afterward. And so I don’t necessarily remember, you know, to your point, I don’t necessarily remember the things or the hard times and things like that, like, I remember seeing my mom being an inspiration to me, I remember seeing our hard working woman doing the damn thing. And I remember just having a loving mom who always showed up to my activities, and always allowed me to explore the things that I was curious about and passionate about. So I think that if I had to pick a person who would hands down, be my mother.

Gianna Diggs  11:40  

I love that you said that about the things that you remember versus how your mom felt, because I think that speaks to a point of how we guilt ourselves into what we think we’re doing, when we don’t actually know, right? We don’t, you know, you remembered the fun times of it being kind of cool, right? When your mom felt guilty because she had you at work because it’s like, we should be doing this and that. And I think, going back to the point of pursuing dreams of, of it not being the right time is that you don’t necessarily know like, in your creation, right, we’re gonna use the worker in your creation of the thing that you love, how we can involve our kids, but how we can, you know, we don’t have to feel guilty about the things that we’re working on. Because there might be parts of that, that the kids remember of like, that was fun, I got to help my mom design this thing. And she asked my opinion, or whatever you’re doing. Because the whole point of this is to really reframe that notion of like, it has to be perfect. Like, that’s why I wanted to do this type of episode, because I hear too often. And I’m just like, No, it doesn’t it, you know, I’m working on the perfectionism myself, but the timing of it doesn’t have to be perfect.

Speaker 2  12:50  

Yeah. And actually, even just when you were just talking about that, it made me think about my own mom guilt that I have. And, you know, maybe it’s possible that my kids don’t even remember all the things that I feel guilty about, either. So I think even just being able to have this moment of reflection, as well, to know that, knowing that my mom was doing felt like she was trying to do her best and do the best that she can, I know that I’m doing the best that I can. I hope that I turned out, okay. And I don’t, you know, I don’t remember those things as well. So I think that, you know, I really appreciate you even just bringing that up, because it was a nice moment of self reflection, knowing that and it makes me excited, because like when we walk in and we have wins for the app, you know, the kids are like, Go crypto mom, you know, they love it. And they dance to do and they make up their own dances and songs and stuff. So you know, again, like, We’re all just trying to do our best. And, you know, we’re out here trying to create generational wealth for our families. And I think that when we keep that in mind, and keep at the heart of why we’re doing this, and why this is important, that the outcomes are always going to be positive.

Gianna Diggs  14:01  

Right. And I love you say that your kids have their own dance, because that’s what they’re gonna remember. Yeah. Right. They’re gonna look back on it, you know, however many years from now and be like, Yeah, whenever my mom every time there was a win, like we celebrate it, right? And that’s teaching them how to celebrate their wins as well. And I think if we release the guilt, then we can kind of see the positives in in what we’re doing. And I know it’s hard right in any moment, because my daughter just said this. This past weekend, you know, we just celebrated Thanksgiving, right? And at the time of this recording, and I was working on these emails for this workshop, I’m working on and she’s like, You don’t play with me? And I’m like, we just play like in your mind, you’re like, Wait a second. We just did. We just did that. But I had to remember that one. She’s not only child anymore. Obviously she has a younger brother, but he can’t play with her. He’s four months right? So she just wanted me to put things aside to play with her and so I told her like okay, let me mommy finish this and then We’ll do something else. And I think speaking back to the point of your mom, her guilt probably was like, Okay, now we’re gonna go bowling after because like you sat at work with me all day. And so but she doesn’t realize that she gave you the double whammy of fun because you had fun at her job. And then she took you to do something else. But I think that we probably try to tack on that extra thing because we feel guilty. And so that’s kind of what that made me think of. So what would you tell a mom entrepreneur who is listening to this, and they still feel like, you know that they should wait, that timing has to be perfect to start their business? What’s that one piece of advice or many pieces of advice, however many you want to get that you would just tell them to kind of consider,

Speaker 2  15:41  

I would say, if you can swing it, get you some dependable childcare, childcare is so expensive. It’s hard to find consistent childcare that you can depend on. But if you can find it, do it. I think that’s the only way that I’ve been able to continue on with my career. So the only way that I can travel for whether we’re doing pitch competitions or anything like that, so only way that I can build this, it’s the only way that I can work late. And the other thing I would say is that if you have it, rely on your family, rely on your network rely on your village, because the times that I can’t be there for bedtime, I’m fortunate enough to have my mom be there for bedtime with my kids. Or, you know, my partner and I switch off days where he’s doing dinner in bed with the kids. And then he does that for the week, or you know, the whatever. So I think it’s fine, dependable, reliable childcare, and rely on your village. Those are the two things.

Gianna Diggs  16:47  

I love that. I love that you said that because I think we often as moms, we try to be super women. And we think we can do it all. And this I have my mother in law, my mom lives, a couple of states away. But I have my mom in law who she I love her because she has the kids right now as I’m recording this podcast. And you know, she helps with my son when I need to work on something. And I was resistant to that at first because I was like, I don’t want that to be a reflection of me, right? Like, I’m a mom, you know, I don’t need. But I had to sit back and say you know what, if you want to, if you want to really press forward and move this business forward, you need to rely on people who are here who don’t mind it because they get to spend time with the kids. So I love that you said I love your answer. Thank you. So before we wrap up, can you tell the audience where they can find you online where they can find your app?

Speaker 2  17:35  

Yeah, so we are building the crypto mom app we’re going to be it’s the premier destination for all things, crypto for women and by women. Follow us on social media at the crypto mom app, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. And you can go to our website, the crypto mn dot app to sign up for our waitlist to stay up to date on all of the latest updates. And we also distribute really fun stuff like newsletters education, and really we’re just kind of creating an inclusive community for women to learn about crypto, capitalize on crypto, and incorporate it into your wealth building journey. Alright, Kendra, thank

Gianna Diggs  18:11  

you so much for being here. Yes, thank

Speaker 2  18:13  

you so much. I loved having this. And thank you, and looking forward to connecting online. Yes, thank you.

Gianna Diggs  18:26  

Thank you for tuning into today’s episode of The mompreneur mindset podcast. I truly hope that our conversation has inspired and motivated you to take charge of your entrepreneurial journey. If you found today’s episode valuable. Please take a moment and SUBSCRIBE And leave us a review on your preferred podcast platform. Your support means the world to me, and it’s vital for helping me to reach more entrepreneurs like you and empower our growing community to thrive. Until next time, keep pushing boundaries. Never settle and remember, the world is waiting for your unique gifts that only you can offer. See you in the next episode.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai