We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kathryn E. Nuñez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Kathryn E. thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s something crazy on unexpected that’s happened to you or your business

This is a funny story, and it is related to wanting to take advantage of using artificial intelligence, and in this example, ChatGPT specifically.

My agency was hired to work on a project with a specific sports team. We needed to find journalists that were writing about the team members and we had to build a database with all the usual suspects, names, phones, emails, company, etc.

I decided it was time to jump into modern times and use ai for work.

Well, I ask the platform the specific questions I needed and refined them to what I felt was very focused and like, amazing, all the names, contacts, website urls to stories came back to me quickly. I felt like I was in Vegas hitting the jackpot with data.

I had my assistant on another computer while we were on zoom and we moved our fingers at lightning speed to keep up with the information that was being fed back to me faster than I was asking for it.

1,000+ entries were delivered to us. We were smiling as we had just won the data game.

The next day, my Q.C./Project manager opened the data and was like WOW this is amazing. Let me do a few checks on the links and names.

Wait, he said, the first few links don’t go anywhere or the page has moved.

Keep checking I stated.

Nope, spot-checking, none of these links go anywhere.

How about the contact information?

Some of them seem valid, wait, this guy retired 3 years ago. This email address isn’t valid, I found the journalist’s real email address.

By this point, I decided to giggle vs. throw my expensive computer across the room. The platform had made up ALL the links and assumed it could figure out the email configuration of one person based on another it had in its database.

A complete mess.

There is a lesson in this. Technology has its limits and the user has a learning curve. From that day forward, I have my ChatGPT window open and my Google search window open and I use them as if I had a person sitting by me to ask and refine questions.

It makes me a better writer, and communicator and I am determined to make artificial intelligence work for my agency to both save time and money in my business. Embracing new technologies and learning how to use them and how they can serve my clients in a more efficient manner is key.

I have always been on the front line to try new things, take risks and take the fall or the rise when needed. This new entrée into the world of ai is nothing new. New tools, new opportunities.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Kathryn E. Nuñez is a LinkedIn marketing expert who has been driving B2B lead generation, client acquisition, and revenue through social media sales and marketing strategies for the past 30 years. She has served thousands of clients both small and large, including Fortune 500s and multinationals.

Kathryn is a respected speaker and thought leader who regularly delivers workshops for Empower by GoDaddy, in partnership with ignite sparked by BBB, Hera Hub the first international female-focused coworking space & business accelerator, and The National Association for Women Sales Professionals (NAWSP). Early in her career, Kathryn began winning multiple awards such as Rookie of the Year (Quest Diagnostics) and President’s Club (Quest Diagnostics) and in 2020 was nominated for the NAWBO Rising Star Award.

Kathryn has spent the past 30 years studying, testing, and reverse engineering strategies for turning relationships into income (without looking or feeling like a sleazeball). She realizes how difficult it is for women to sell in ways that feel good (to them and their customers). Through reframing techniques, curiosity, and goal setting, Kathryn builds repeatable processes so her clients always have a step-by-step plan to turn to. Her strategies have helped clients see a 30% increase in engagement and opportunities.

Kathryn holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Arizona State University with a minor in Spanish. When she’s not working, Kathryn enjoys traveling the world and cooking with her teenage boys, and spending time with her fur baby, Loki.

Can you talk to us about your experience with buying businesses?

Oh yes, I have purchased three different businesses. My first purchase was in 2007 when I bought a signpost installation company. I had just given birth and was downsized from corporate. I had always loved real estate and had flipped quite a few homes and was even studying for my real estate license so I thought it would be a good purchase.

Just after that purchase, I decided I also needed a real estate sign-making business so I could print the signs, and then offer the sign installation as a service. So I did.

Big lessons from those two business acquisitions. While I had experience in buying and selling my own properties, becoming a service provider to realtors was a whole different ball game. I was a woman, buying two companies that involved a lot of manual labor. Nothing I was afraid of, but with a newborn and consolidating two companies into one, with ONE person was hysterical now that I look back on it.

Also, all of this was focused on one industry in Arizona. What happened in 2008? The fall of the real estate market. Brokers went under, they filed BK, the whole industry seemed to implode and my savings could not keep up.

Lots of lessons were learned from this. But man, can I run a mean large format printer and I am so skilled with a saw and shovel it’s ridiculous. I would say stay in an industry where you have a depth of knowledge and make sure you have the funding needed to withstand unknown circumstances.

Have you ever had to pivot?

This story I am sure can be heard around the globe. In March 2020, I received a phone call from the CFO of the company where I was employed.

The net-net of the call was, “Kathryn, to preserve the company in light of the pandemic, we have decided to completely eliminate our commercial operations. That includes you and your entire team.”

Now as a single mother of two children (12 + 19) that is a scary phone call.

I had already planned to exit because the environment I was working in was completely toxic. But I hadn’t yet gained enough consulting clients to replace my high 6 figure earnings.

Through some fuel to this fire, during this time I lost my dog, my cheating fiancé, and the murder of my father and the death of my step-father. It was kind of a sh*t show time in my life.

The lessons in resilience that I had to learn were HUGE. But, the entire country was going through financial pain and the loss of loved ones so I knew I was not alone.

Fast forward to 2022 and it was my best year in business ever. 2023 is on track to be amazing and my systems and processes are in place for scale.

Tools I used to make it through this time include meditation, journaling, lots of walking, and hypnosis. I have hired many coaches and built a wonderful network of friends that lift me up and make me laugh.

These are the experiences that make us strong and want to be a better humans for everyone. If I can share my story and inspire just one person to know that there are others that may be walking in the same thick muddy water but the key is to keep moving forward because on the other side is your success waiting to embrace you!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kathrynevans.net/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealkathrynenunez/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/therealkathrynnunez/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathrynevansnunez/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/KEvansNunez
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOrBjNoVMzjuWiBlztk0UFw

Image Credits
Ian Gough Photography, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and Chelsea V Photography