Coffee Chat with Inspirational Women: Featuring KJ Blattenbauer
Welcome to a new post in my lovely series called “Coffee Chat.” This series is focused on inspirational women who love their jobs and want to inspire other women to find their passions and transform their lives. Today’s coffee chat features a boss lady doing it all and loving it, KJ Blattenbauer, who is not only founded Hearsay Public Relations, but also has her own dress line! and blog! Keep reading to learn more about this triple threat gal and find out some wonderful tips she has to share with you!
1. Where do you live and what is one random fact about you to break the ice with our readers?
When I’m not traveling 43 weeks out of the year for work, I split my time between San Diego and Dallas. A random fact about me is, I eat like an unsupervised toddler loose in a mall food court—pizza, French fries, ice cream, and Dr. Pepper!
2. What is the first thing you like to do before you start your day?
I’m definitely a creature of habit. I spend the first hour of every day email and text-free doing something active. It may be exercise, playing with the dog, chatting with my husband, or reading. I also am particular about how I end my day. I read my horoscope every night before I go to sleep. Then I spend 15-20 minutes analyzing where it may apply in my day-to-day and setting mindful intentions to wake up positively.
3. What inspired you to go choose your career path as a entrepreneur? Is there a childhood memory that made you decide?
I’m a public relations professional and a dress designer. I was inspired to go into PR in college, I was originally pre-law but loved helping people out not through arguing my point but chatting them up. I have always loved dresses and hated wearing pants—I call them leg prisons. I’ve always tweaked and played with any dresses I’ve bought, so I decided to take the leap and just start designing my own.
4. What was your very first step to get you where you are today as an entrepreneur?
Taking the leap without having any back up plan, just knowing that my determination and hard work would make me successful.
5. What was your big challenge you had to overcome to help you move forward with growing your business with new clients/customers?
I had absolutely no idea how to run a business before I started my business. I’m still learning!
6. What are three habits you would recommend to someone pursuing their dream career as an entrepreneur?
Be organized: You have to be organized so that when you have to juggle multiple things, you don’t lose anything in the shuffle. You have to wear a lot of hats to make your dream business a success.
Never quit: You need to be tenacious and never willing to give up on your dreams no matter what the doubters say. If you don’t believe in yourself enough to constant push your dream forward, who else will?
Dial in your passion: You need to be passionate about your dream enough so that no one can ever dissuade you from pursuing it. No matter what. You also need to passionate about your dream because you are going to be living, eating, and breathing it 24/7 to make it your career. You can’t fake that passion.
7. How would you describe your support network? Who is in it?
My support network includes my crazy supportive husband, a core group of amazing like-minded female entrepreneurs and small business owners from around the globe, my awesome immediate family, and one solid best friend from every decade I’ve been alive.
8. What’s one skill you are currently working on to be an effective leader?
Always asking why and never letting up. I’m expanding my businesses and exploring new things this year and, rather than leave anything up to assumption or chance, I need to keep asking why we are doing something the way we are doing it so that no stone is left unturned and there are no surprises.
9. To balance out your work life, what’s your fitness and health regime?
I try to run at least 3.5 miles every morning or I am a bear to deal with. I incorporate yoga and pilates when I can, but it’s hard on the road. Lately, I’ve been forcing my husband and I to aim for at least seven hours of sleep, no screens on after 10:30 pm, and to eat as healthy as we can when we can. He’s better at it than I am.
10. What is one book that helped you on your career journey that you would recommend?
The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday helped me immensely and is one I highly recommend. When you’re a solo entrepreneur or small business owner, it’s easy to fall prey to the victim mindset or get trapped thinking that the trials of owning and operating a business is too much. People give up too easily. I love the perspective shift Holiday’s book gave me after reading it. It revolutionized my business.
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