We were lucky to catch up with Kimberli Davino-Wilson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kimberli , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We love asking folks what they would do differently if they were starting today – how they would speed up the process, etc. We’d love to hear how you would set everything up if you were to start from step 1 today.

If I was starting over, I really wouldn’t want to change anything. Everything I have learned on my entrepreneurial journey, every mistake I have made and failure I went through, led me to where I am today. And I would go through it all again. They were all beautifully hard lessons that helped me grow and evolve into the business owner I am.

I think trying to figure out a way to become successful faster, doesn’t exist. Real, genuine, good, beautiful things take time. And even with what I know now, I still wouldn’t want to rush my growth and success if I had the chance to do it all over. The journey is the best part, even if it is slow and up and down .

But, if I did have to choose at least one thing I would do differently if I was starting over today, I would make sure to have in place, something that I didn’t have for a long time in my business, healthy boundaries. Not having boundaries set into place I had a lot of clients walking all over me and I also was walking all over myself. I didn’t know when to stop, when to unplug, when to take time for me or when to say no. That burnt me out real quick and I think definitely contributed to slower growth.

I may have had a lot of clients all at once, but I was over working myself and exhausted. There was no self-care or me time. There was no having that extra time to work inside of my own business, because I was too busy working on every one else’s.

So yeah, boundaries would be the one thing I would make sure I had in place a lot sooner in my business if I had to choose something to do differently!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Where to start? I am an endometriosis warrior, who, in 2018, knew I wanted and needed to created a business for myself because I mentally, physically and emotionally couldn’t handle working for someone else. I wanted to be home for when I had painful flare days, or days I wasn’t feeling well. Because not many people understand the pain those of us with endometriosis deal with on an almost daily basis.

Anyways, I started joining network marketing gigs because they were really big at the time. Little did I know, it was NOT what I was expecting. It felt more exhausting to me than anything I have ever done. And it just didn’t bring me joy. So I had a small lull of time, where I really wasn’t doing anything. I would freelance and write blogs here and there for some cash, I would take surveys for a little cash and then I started thrifting and selling clothes for money as well. But none of that brought me joy. It never really felt like, mine. But I had to do what I had to do. I eventually landed a full time gig with an endometriosis website where I wrote articles for them and was a patient advocate, checking in on people on the social media page, answering questions, etc. I started exploring more network marketing gigs and using my creative side to make jewelry to sell on Etsy.

The endometriosis gig lasted, the others, did not. I ended up finding a tea company who was looking for someone to share their tea for commission. I loved tea, so I figured why not. That was probably the best decision I could have ever made on my journey. The owners not only became best friends of mine, I became their social media manager as well. And that opened up a whole new life and doors for me. It was then I started my social media management and virtual assistant business. I have had my business for almost 4 years now, evolving and growing each year.

I handled clients social media accounts, created their content and did small virtual assistant tasks for a while. Until I realized not all of those things brought me joy. So I switched things up a bit and only offered engagement/community building for my clients on their social media accounts. And that has been my bread and butter ever since. I love being able to connect with so many people and have all sorts of conversations, all while helping my clients grow their business.

This last year or so I have become burnt out with social media though. I became mentally exhausted being in social media accounts all day every day. I needed to make a small pivot.

It has been so obvious a lot of people are sick of social media. All the noise telling you how to run your business and what success is supposed to look like. So a friend of mine and I decided to create our own community called, The Magic Makers community, for creatives and entrepreneurs feeling burnt out and exhausted from all the noise. A place where they can network, collaborate, grow and connect. A place where they can let their light shine, be themselves and where we celebrate and are there for each other always. We officially launch this community in March and I am so excited for it. I want to be the change in the online space. And I have high hopes this community will do just that. (Come join the community lounge!)

I am also a mentor for those with chronic illnesses and mindset struggles, who just need someone to relate to and walk through whatever it is they are going through. My heart has ALWAYS been with helping others and this just lights me up to be able to be that person for someone, who feels like they have no one or are all alone.

I have one more exciting business adventure that I can’t share just yet. I have been working on it behind the scenes totally in quiet and cannot wait to share. Hopefully soon.

That’s a lot and such a long journey to where I am now. But I am proud of myself for finding my way, even when I wanted to give up. For making things happen, even when they weren’t perfect. For growing and evolving when I knew something was no longer serving me. And for doing what I knew I needed to do for my own health. All while trying to figure out what my actual dreams were and making them happen.

My hope for those that come across me is that they see my journey and have the inspiration and drive to believe they can make their dreams happen too. Even if they are on a hard journey like myself. I want them to know they are strong and that it is okay to be different and to do things different. And that no matter what, they will find their way. But to not give up.

I have such a multi passionate heart and for so long I was embarrassed to have multiple different businesses and things I offer/am doing. But I am just here, living out my dreams. And I no longer care what others think of me. I show up as me, I do things for me, and I want everyone to know that. Because I want them to do the same, for themselves!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I think my entire journey has been based on resilience. But there was one really big difficult situation I went through in my business that shattered me for a long time. One of my very first clients when I first started out, also became my best friend and a business sidekick. She was also my business coach on and off too. We had this amazing relationship and I truly adored her. I helped both of her businesses get to $6+ figures, grew her social medias, and was always there as a friend when she needed. Last year (2023), we had just got through talking about how my prices were increasing and that she of course was fine with it. She wanted me to go to the top with her and be by her side. I believed it of course, we had already been together for so long and I had helped her SO much, so why wouldn’t she.

A few days later she messaged me saying she wanted to also add my services to one of her services as an add on for her clients. And I was over the moon excited about it.

A few days after that I received another message from her. This time saying she has decided to hire someone else who can make her more money and was letting me go. Just like that. After about 4 years of being together and all the exciting business plans and things we had talked about just a few short days before that.

To say I was crushed doesn’t even begin to describe how I felt when I received that message. I was broken. I know clients come and go, but given what we were planning and had talked about, this was not something I expected.

What was I going to say though? I said okay and kindly asked if she wanted this to be the last day since she was in such a rush? She sent me an unpleasant message and logged me out of her accounts. All while still saying she wanted my services to be an add on for her clients- but she wanted me to do more work and add more tasks.

Anger bubbled up in me but I held my composure, and I politely said no. I unsubscribed from her emails and started doing things to break away from her as quickly as possible. I received one more unpleasant message from her and I didn’t respond. I blocked her from everything, deleted everything and let myself just lose it.

I cried the entire day, made myself so sick and thought my entire life and business was over.

By the end of the day I had no more tears and tried to look at what had happened in a different light. I was underpaid for how much work I provided her. And was about to agree to add my services to something of hers that sounded like it would have been a nightmare. I also really sat with my thoughts to think of her as a person. Someone who I had looked up to and bowed down to, really wasn’t the nicest person when I thought about it. It was a one way friendship/business relationship. But I had been to blind to ever see it before.

And while this entire situation crushed me, it also saved me. I didn’t realize that until a few days later of course. The first few days I wanted to give up on my business. I talked badly about myself that I was a failure, no good, all the possible bad things I could have told myself.

And then I snapped out of it. I came back stronger than ever. And do you know what happened? New clients came around. New clients who were aligned, who appreciated me, who were kind and who were exactly what I needed in my life.

It was that moment where I made sure a situation like that would never happen again. Where I learned I was absolutely none of those bad things I was saying about myself. Where I finally saw that situation happened for a reason. It was a lesson. A lesson that I learned from and bounced back from stronger than ever. And today, as I sit here writing this, I am proud of how I handled the situation. How I got through the situation. How even though I thought my world was crushing because of this one very person, I knew I had the ability to get through it and that bigger and better things were coming to me.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Ah building an audience on social media is something that just comes natural to me. I absolutely LOVE engaging with people there. There really isn’t a huge story of how I built my audience except for, I show up and I genuinely try having conversations with others. I don’t buy followers. I don’t kill myself posting content every single day trying to get the algorithm to bring people to my account. I just simply talk to people when I feel like it. Does that mean it takes a while for me to grow my audience on social media? It does. But I would rather have only a few genuine connections, than thousand of followers who could care less about me.

My advice for those just starting out building a social media, numbers don’t mean anything. You can have tons of followers, but not be making any sales or have any real connections. You can have only a handful of followers and be making $6+ figures and have some of the best friends and clients ever. Don’t be fooled into thinking you have to grow your following to this big number and that you have to do it fast.

Take your time to connect with people and have real conversations. Be yourself. And make sure, the person you are connecting with knows you have their best interest at heart. That to you they are a human, not another dollar sign.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lifewithkimberli.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/inspiredbykimberli
• Other: I have published Amazon Journals I would love to share! https://www.amazon.com/stores/Kimberli-Davino-Wilson/author/B0CGNTZGK8?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1708725736&sr=8-1&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Image Credits
All are my photos.