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In this episode of The Art of Imperfect Adulting, Amy Stone speaks with Kimberly Tara about navigating career pivots, entrepreneurship, and the realities of balancing family life with professional ambition. Kimberly Tara is based in the suburbs of Charlotte, North Carolina. Kimberly shares her journey from aspiring chemical engineer to CPA firm owner. Listeners will gain insight into the pressures of high achievement, handling burnout, the challenges of growing a business while raising four young kids, and the confidence required to own both your finances and your dreams.

About Kimberly Tara:

Kimberly Tara is a CPA, Certified Tax Coach, author, podcast host and founder of The Tara CPA firm and TaxMove. She's also a wife and mom to four amazing kiddos all born in 5 and a half years (no twins!). She's on a mission to help profitable business owners have access to reliable tax strategy, so they can actually use their business to pay less taxes instead of more. Kimberly believes that the definition of success isn't about more money, it's about making the most of what you have on your terms.

Main Topics Covered:

• Pivoting from chemical engineering to accounting mid-college: decision-making and overcoming feelings of failure.
• The realities of financial planning and debt after changing majors.
• Choosing between corporate career tracks and entrepreneurship, and how observing workplace role models can clarify life priorities.
• Experiencing and identifying burnout as a high-achieving parent and business owner.
• Transitioning from solopreneur to building and leading a team, including the operational and mindset shifts required.
• The societal pressures on women to “do it all,” people-pleasing, and the importance of setting boundaries.
• Strategies for sustainable business growth, scalable systems, and redefining personal and professional success.
• Empowering women to take charge of their finances and believe in their ability to thrive as business owners.

Timestamps:

[00:00:00] Show intro; Kimberly’s move from New Orleans to Charlotte, NC, and what she loves about it

[00:00:44] Reflections on generational identity and why it matters for the conversation

[00:02:39] Original college plans: chemical engineering, internships, and the hard pivot to accounting

[00:04:25] The emotional process of changing majors and facing internalized feelings of failure

[00:06:51] Financial impacts of switching majors, scholarships lost, and student debt

[00:08:14] Starting a new career in public accounting; the importance of the CPA credential

[00:09:39] Why Kimberly chose a medium-sized firm over the Big 4

[00:13:29] The partnership track in accounting and a moment of clarity: witnessing a manager balance work and motherhood

[00:16:39] Choosing personal over professional milestones; how representation informs life decisions

[00:22:04] Early career burnout, and feeling pressured to perform in every life role

[00:27:17] The ongoing influence of people-pleasing and perfectionism

[00:30:26] Deciding whether to stay small or grow the firm; math, motherhood, and management

[00:35:35] The operational reboot: packages, team-building, and shifting systems to support scale

[00:39:45] Why Kimberly shares her story—empowering women in business and financial confidence

[00:41:11] Redefining business ownership for freelancers and digital creators

[00:42:25] Kimberly’s recommended read: “Remarkably Bright Creatures”

[00:43:30] Favorite practical purchase: The Dyson stick vacuum

[00:44:53] Amy’s wrap-up, how to join the community, and podcast closing notes

ABOUT THE SHOW: The Art of Imperfect Adulting elevates the voices of experience by sharing real stories from real people figuring out adult life. Every episode features honest conversations about life's choices, changes, and challenges. These are conversations with individuals (not celebrities) who share their personal experiences and insights. Through these authentic stories, listeners find validation, motivation, and inspiration for navigating their own path through modern life. Because there's a big difference between expert advice and shared experience, and hearing another person's lived experience helps us feel less alone in our own situations.

CONNECT WITH THE GUEST: https://taracpafirm.com or https://taxmove.io

GET KIMBERLY TARA'S SPECIAL OFFER: Name: Free Tax Savings Calculator

Description: Find out how much you're overpaying on business incomes taxes

Value: Free

Link: https://taxmove.io

Note from the show: Guest offers are almost always limited-time and limited quantity. If you have any trouble redeeming the offer please reach out directly to the guest for support.

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This is The Art of Imperfect Adulting. I'm your host,

Amy Stone. I share stories from real people who have already

been through some hard stuff. Why? So that you don't feel

alone while you're busy figuring out your own life. Let's do

this.

Welcome to The Art of Imperfect Adulting. I'm

here today with Kimberly Tara. Kimberly, are you ready for a fun

chat today? I am. I'm so excited for this. It's kind of different from the

podcast interviews I normally do. I love it. I love it. I love it when

people tell me I'm different. All right, so here we go. Starting off with the

same question that I ask everybody, everybody, everybody. What part of the world do you

call home and what's something you love about living there? Yeah,

so I newly call the suburbs of Charlotte, North Carolina in

the US home. Born and bred in New Orleans.

And something that I am loving about it right now, so we are in the

summer months and we woke up to 66-degree weather this morning.

And it was an opportunity to have a conversation with my kiddos about the pros

and cons of living in different places. And a pro is that right now

it's 66 and like low humidity outside and it's beautiful.

I love that. I love that answer. I do. I do. I know you understand

that. I love that answer. I do. All right. My

next warmup question that I ask everybody is a workaround, a sneak around

question, which maybe as a woman raised in the South, you'll identify

with. You know, I was told you're never supposed to ask people their age, but

it is a way that people align in the new

information. So now I ask people, which of these generation

descriptions do you match? Silent

Generation, Baby Boomer, Gen X, Millennial, or Gen Z? Well,

I think technically I'm a Millennial. I'm gonna be 36 this year in a

month. I don't hide my age. I just own it. So I'm

pretty sure that makes me a Millennial. I'm 1990, but probably in my

Soul, I'm probably more Gen X. Oh,

interesting. All right, very good. And the reason I ask this question, so that everybody

knows, is it's feeding information so that people can find

what they're looking for. Like, one of the goals of my show is to

cross those generational divides when it's

helpful, right? Because the best time, and that feeds into this, because

the best time to get financial information about something you're doing is

before you need it. It's before you need it, right? So

Kimberly, today we're going to talk about career change

and choices and decisions about careers. Let's

start with this. What did you study when you were in school? Like, what was

it that you studied that you thought was going to be the path for your

career? Yeah, so I actually, as a sophomore in high

school sitting in my chemistry honors class— nerd alert, yes—

um, I thought I was going to be a chemical engineer because

you can either be a chemistry researcher or a chemical engineer when you

love chemistry. And I did not. I, you'll learn very quickly. I

don't sit in a room all day by myself. I need to be around people.

So I was going to be a chemical engineer, right? It made good money. It

was innovative. So I went to Auburn University to study that. 3

and a half years in, realized that I didn't love

it, all the other engineering aspects that came with it. And I was

ultimately trying to get my bachelor's in chemical

engineering and then get my MBA. And so I had this just,

I mean, life-shattering moment where I had to admit

sort of this failure to myself that I no longer wanted to do that. I'd

had 2 internships, I had done 3 and a half years of classes, and I

just didn't love it the way that you needed to love it to get through

that curriculum. It's very difficult. And I sat in an

accounting class for non-business majors.

And I was, I was having these feelings of this, I don't wanna do engineering,

but I don't know what else I would do. I haven't thought about anything else

for 5 years. And when I sat in that class, less than 2 weeks in,

I knew it was for me. I switched from the College of Engineering to

the College of Business, and I have never looked back after I got through all

of the cries and the, the moments and the feelings that I had to work

through. So that is really interesting, and that is not actually

the pure topic that you pitched, but my focus on these

things in these conversations It's always about the choices and the decision

because we like to— we tend to tell transformation stories in our life

and life goal stories with the destination. And I mean, it's

a great story. It's the hero story. It's like, look at where I ended up

and how I got there. But this is

a really, really powerful part of a lot of people's

stories. And it's really funny because once you're through it, you

realize that A lot of people have this in their

educational story, the day that they were like, you know what? I am not going

to be this. But when

you're in it, when you're in it when you're in school, you think

you're the only person that's done it and you tend to internalize it

and think, oh, if I change now, I've done something wrong.

There's something wrong with me. So what was it that you

liked? Chemistry? Yes. I liked chemistry. You liked

chemistry and— I was good at it. Yes. And I'm a Type A

high achiever, so I like being good at everything.

And then so the— but you're obviously a Type A person that you're like,

what's the job that attaches to this? Of course. So you went into

engineering school and that is a very—

that makes a lot of sense. And how you had— if I understand the

story right, you were 3 and a half years into this before you

realized, you're like, no, I actually don't like the job

that matches this study. Is that the right sequence of events?

That is correct. And I would say, you know, a lot of people go into

engineering because it seems glamorous, it makes a lot of

money, right? Parents do it. So a lot of

my classmates were sort of pushed into it by their

parents that they needed to do that. We had a lot of ROTC.

members in there because it was one of the approved curriculums. And so a lot

of them didn't make it past the first 12 months, but I was in it

to win it, right? Yeah, no, and then how much, if you

remember, 'cause this has been a hot minute since you did this,

when you made the switch— Thank you for that reminder, Amy. Sorry,

sorry, but I, you know, like how much did it add to your study time

to make the switch from an engineering program to a business program?

And school has changed a lot. I have kids that, I have an engineer actually

who just finished an engineering program, And watching

her go through school, it was really clear how

different it was. And seeing all of her friends

announce their degrees and their specialties, that has changed a lot since I was in

school. But how much did it add to your

study time to make that change after 3 years? Yeah, so it

added a summer of study and an extra semester because for

chemical engineering and with 2 internship rotations in there,

it was already a 5-year program with the number of hours that I needed.

So it only extended me by a half, by one

semester. I took a summer where I worked

and took classes. And then because I had to go back to some

of the beginning with like the Business 101s,

I was able to take 18 and 21 hours those semesters because it was

quite frankly a joke compared to my junior level engineering classes.

Oh, man. So I mean, it probably could have been a year if I didn't

do those things, but for me it really wasn't a whole ton. The

worst part was actually, Amy, that I lost a lot of my

discipline-specific scholarships because I was in engineering,

because I was a woman in engineering. And so all of those

engineering-specific scholarships I lost. And so I would say I

incurred basically the same amount of debt post-switch

that I did in the first 3 and a half years because I lost so

many scholarships. Yeah, no, it is, that is,

education is expensive. Higher education is expensive. Yes, yes. Very, very much.

Okay, so you make this change. I'm so

glad I asked that question, 'cause sometimes that's just like filler question,

get-to-know-you question, but this is a pretty big part of your story.

Pretty pivotal part of my story. Yeah, there you go. So in the

information you gave me, you shared that after you graduated, you went

into public accounting, and I think that means that you're working

for a pretty big accounting firm, but I'm not actually sure. Can you tell us

what that means and what the career path that you went on

once you graduated after switching your degree?

Yeah, so a big thing that I knew with, with switching my career,

especially so late in the game, staring down $100,000 of

student loans that needed to be paid back, right? I knew that I needed to

become a certified public accountant. I needed those 3 letters, that

designation behind my name, because even though I've seen a lot of CPAs

not do good things, that designation, that licensure does hold a lot of

weight behind it. So in order to do that, you have to study

under another public accountant as part of— you have to take all of the exams,

you have to have 2,000 1,000 hours, all of the

things, right? And so it's one of those things where it's like, it's just the

trajectory. Like, if you're gonna be in accounting and you wanna make

it and you wanna learn and you wanna like have these credentials

behind you, you need to go into public accounting. One thing that I did do

differently, so it was, um, you probably remember, uh, you know, back

in your day it was like the Big 8, it was the Big 4. It

still is the Big 4. It still is the Big 4 now. And so I

actually— They've changed their names, so go ahead and list them so that people— They

changed their names. They changed them lots, a bunch along the way.

Uh, what are they now? Uh, so right now it's KPMG,

Deloitte, Ernst Young, and, um, PwC, PricewaterhouseCoopers.

PricewaterhouseCoopers. All right. So, right. And that, those are important. Yeah.

Those, and those are important. I did interview with Deloitte, but

ultimately I decided I didn't wanna go to one of the Big 4

because I, when I was in engineering, I

interned with BASF, which is the leading chemical, chemical company in the

world. And so like would've had opportunities to move to Germany, things like that. So

I felt that large

corporate culture from my internships there. And I knew,

look, the accounting's the accounting. We follow GAAP principles, we follow the IRS, right?

Like, the rules are the rules that you have to follow. And so I

decided to go with a medium-sized growing firm based out of

Atlanta because I didn't want that large corporate

culture. I wanted to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond because I

felt like the opportunities to learn would be better, and it just fit

my longer-term goals that I had at the time that wound up being

different. We can talk about that. So I actually went with a

medium-sized, what is classified as a medium-sized public accounting firm in

Atlanta. Well, I think that this is a very

good example of the fact that you are clearly a planner. I

would love to go back and meet the

16-year-old you and give you a

skills assessment and see where it lined you up,

because, you know, Because they're both 2

intentional things, accounting and

engineering. I just— it's fascinating to hear you talk about it at

such a young age that you were able to look at a big

picture and be like, you know what, this is this trajectory, but I'm gonna go

over here. It's not— it's just not something all of us are able to do.

I am one of those people who I have some ideas and then sometimes I

put myself in a spot and I'm like, oh, wait. Yeah.

Now that I'm here, I see— And it's so funny because like I

am so relaxed now, 4 kids later. And at the, you know,

I'd like to think I still feel very young at 35, yet I also know

that like, you know, like I'll tell my parents sometimes, I'm like, well, we're just

kids. And then they'll be like, you have kids, you're not a kid. And I'm

like, okay, you know, but I just, I feel so young. And at the same

time, I also look back and I'm like, wow, Wow, what—

like, I don't know, like, I'm just so, um, so much more relaxed. And I'm

like, why was I stressing so much at 16? But I am

who I am. You are who you are, and that works. I will tell you

that my— one of my in-laws, this is a while ago, but even

like she said in her 70s, she's like, I still feel like I'm, you

know, XYZ age. I don't think it ever— I don't think— I don't know that

that ever ends. Like, it's like we know That we're older, but it's

like we are always just the person we are. Somebody's hardworking. And I'm

definitely a more relaxed version, in a good way, of who I am. And my

husband is kind of the yin to my yang. But, um, you know, I

definitely, um, it makes me really great at my job is what I say. It

makes me really good at the thing that I do. Very cool. So

you choose intentionally to go for a medium-sized firm in Atlanta,

Georgia. You were coming out of Auburn Auburn is also in Georgia,

right? It's, it's in Alabama, but Alabama, 2

hours. So like Atlanta and Birmingham are the 2 big

recruiters from there, right? Got it. Very, very good. All right.

So you do that for a while,

and you decide to leave that job. And

there's a specific story of watching something happen with a coworker

that tied you into making a pretty big decision. I'm going to

let you tell the story of what you observed and why you decided

to leave this, uh, career trajectory,

public accounting job? Yeah. Yeah. So, um,

it's not gonna shock you, Amy, that I knew at this

firm that the youngest and quickest person to make

partner had done it in 10 years. So I was gonna do it in 9.

You had a plan. I had a plan. Did you have a checklist

or a spreadsheet of the plan? Just curious. Probably. Probably.

Probably. Um, I used to keep more checklists in my head

because I didn't have 4 kids and I could, and now I'm like, if it's

not written down or on the calendar, it's, it's gone. So I had a

plan and I moved around. It's such a wonderful firm,

such a wonderful experience, great people. And we

moved buildings while I was there. They were, they were growing. It was great. I

got to be a part of a lot of that. And when we moved buildings,

they put— so we call them bullpens in public accounting where like you're all just

kind of sitting in like cubicles and You're just kind of all out there. So

the partners get offices, but all the staff and seniors and just everybody

else, we just like— it's a— sometimes you were literally fighting for a spot to

sit. When we moved, they put the partners' offices on the

outside of our high-rise, but the managers' offices on the

inside of the high-rise so that light could come in. And we got these low

cubicles that like just kind of like you could see everybody. So it was

kind of cool. And so because they did that, because they put these managers'

offices on the inside, they made glass wall

so that they could— you could still see in. It was this very open concept.

They were getting light. So the point, the purpose I'm telling you that is because

I could see into this manager's office, right? So my back was

to the windows facing the interior of the building,

looking right into her office in my, in my sea of

like 2, 4, 6, 8 cubemates, right? So

we're in the thick of tax season and, you know, we're all sitting there

Sherbet away. I was probably about 25

and my husband, I, you know, I had already, he had already been with me

through studying for the CPA exam, working multiple busy seasons,

studying for the CPA exam. So he was just, we didn't have kids at the

time. We had our townhouse and he would just kind of work late. Then he

would go home and do his thing. The firm fed us because if they

fed us dinner, they kept us there and we didn't have to leave so we

could continue to billable hours, right? Do more work. Yeah. Produce more stuff.

And so it was 4 nights into this one week,

and for the 4th night in a row, I watched this manager who I love,

and she was wonderful and such an inspiration for where she

was. She was a senior manager and she was FaceTiming her 3-year-old son

to sleep for the 4th night in a row. She was visibly

pregnant with her 2nd child in her

belly. And I don't know, and, and I'm gonna, I'm

gonna come back and tell you something, Amy, that we might have an aha on

this podcast. But I had this moment where I was like, I don't wanna

do that. That is so sad. I was so sad for her,

even though, even though she, like, she had chosen, and I don't know if she

was sad. I have no idea what she was feeling. Right. But I felt

sad. Right. That, that was the 4th night in a row

that she was FaceTiming her kid to sleep. And I was like, I actually don't

want that. Right. And I'll just pause and say that,

because this becomes a controversial pivot or

point between women sometimes with the choices they make. This

is just a personal decision. Yes, this is just me. Right. This is the

decision you made. And it's not actually— there's the—

and I've told plenty of these other stories also. People take the other side of

this and they're also happy with it. So it's not a value

judgment to make the decision. But your story is that you saw this

And when you saw it, it was able to reflect it back to you and

you were like, wow, is that what I want? And your

answer was no. Right. And, and it was, it was like, it was, yeah. You

know how sometimes, and, and a lot of the work that I do for our

clients is intangible. And so sometimes we really need something tangible that we

can see and that we can feel in front of us. And, and it's those

moments when we have something more tangible that it's like, wow. Yeah.

And so a couple things to note here is that. I always

thought that I was gonna have 2 kids. I was gonna have 2 kids. I

was gonna have them by the time I was 30, you know, 28 and just

before 30. Yeah. I was gonna have a boy and a girl, girl and a

boy. Didn't matter. But funny, funny story. I have 4 kids and they're 3

boys and a girl, and I love them and I couldn't imagine my life any

differently. Um, so I realized it, it

was seeing her and it was also like, you have, you

set this goal of making partner in 9 years,

right? Yeah. Which would've put me at like, 31 or

something like that, 31, 32. And I was gonna have 2 kids and it's

like, you can't have that. Like if you're gonna meet this

ridiculous goal of making partner in 9 years, that's your

life. Yeah. Like you don't even get to see your husband, much less have 2

kids. But I still, I wanted the kids more. I, I wanted the

family life more. That was more important to me. And I wanted to

find a way that I could still have my professional goals.

But I wanted the personal goals more than the

professional goals. I appreciate, I appreciate that very much. And

for some context in like how we make decisions and the value of being

able to see it, sometimes that shows up as like representation.

Like it, it, it, there's something about being a human being that we cannot

always make decisions for things or have opinions about

things that we haven't experienced to some degree. So like

you can read all about Mongolian food

and think you know what it's going to be, but that might change when you

actually try it. And so— and that's just the way it goes.

That's just the way it goes. Not 100% true, but— I really believe that. Yeah.

And we put a lot of judgment on it. Parenthood is

one of the things where that is so

often the case, right? You think you know. I mean,

it's not that people don't tell you. It is the most humbling experience.

Right. And it's not that people don't tell you how hard it is to have

a newborn and the sleep. People tell you

nonstop for your whole life and then you get there and you're

like, oh, this is what they meant. You know, I mean, and it

happens if you have siblings and it happens if you're a nurse

and it happens if you're a teacher. Watching it happen to

somebody else is one thing. Reading about it is one thing. Doing it is different.

But yeah, so that's very good. Okay, so you make this decision. When you

see this, had you already started your family

or like, uh, or was that in the future?

Yeah. So it's funny that you asked that question cuz that was the aha that

I had. I was like, so we actually didn't find out that we were pregnant

until I was 10 weeks pregnant because we were planning to

move. We were in busy season. Mm-hmm. So like I had a couple

signs when I looked back and I was like, oh, oh, I should have

probably known this. And so now that I'm sitting, I'm like, this is the first

time I'm, I, this isn't the first time I'm sharing this story. This is the

first time I'm having this realization that I was actually already

pregnant. So, who knew if that impacted what I was seeing

even subconsciously, right? Those hormones were probably starting

to kick up. I don't know. I was probably 10. I

must have been like 3 or 4, 5 weeks pregnant, 3 or 4 weeks pregnant,

something like that. Barely. Just getting started. Barely. But

there was something subconsciously that now I'm realizing, who knows

if I would have had that realization? I think I would have even if I

wasn't. Even barely pregnant, but I actually was, unbeknownst to

me, barely pregnant with our first child. That is really interesting.

All right. So you go on to— there's a couple of things. So you go

on to have a medium-sized family. You guys go on to have 4 kids.

And— but you come to this realization that the firm public

life is not gonna match what

you are— your new goals and your new plan of family.

And so that's a shift. That's a decision. You make that decision. What

you do then is you leave and start your own

accounting firm. Do I understand that correctly? Yep, that's correct. You

achieve pretty rapid success. At the

time you're doing this, I think you have 1, maybe 2 kids.

Yeah, all of this, I just kept having kids as I was growing the business.

Having kids and growing and stuff like that. So you have success with

this business. You take it to 6 figures. And

then I think you experienced some burnout, some stress and overwhelm. Okay.

So tell us, tell us what the burnout felt like

and, and what, how you realized that that

was what was going on. Yeah. So I would say it wasn't the

first time I experienced burnout. I, looking back, you know, we're, we're

wiser now as we get older and we just learn more. And I put a

lot into my personal and professional development education.

I probably burnt out the first time when I was a junior in high school.

Okay. Um, because again, I was in all the honors and AP

classes, needed to get A's, not because my parents made me, but because

I held myself to those standards. I was in all the clubs. Junior year was

when I started becoming president of the clubs and on the executive

boards and all the things. So that was the first time that I really burnt

out then. So when I went to college, I was like, I'm not doing

anything. I'm just doing one thing because I needed that break. So

once again, by junior year of college, I was I was in all the things

starting to become in those leadership positions. So I had experienced

burnout before, but it had been a while. It had been a hot minute since

college when I really started experiencing burnout. And so when it first,

cuz, and I've experienced it more than once in, in this business as a CEO.

When I first started experiencing it, I was probably a little over a year

into the business. I was coming up on having a 1-year-old

and I realized that yes, I had hit 6

figures in 12 months, but I was basically working

the hours that I was working— not quite, but I felt like I was almost

working the hours that I was working in public accounting. I had

way more stress, right? Because anyone who is self-employed or runs a business

knows there's so much that comes into play when you

run this business, when you are the business, when you have clients

expecting certain things from you. And by

18 months in, I was burnt out. And I was even considering,

is this worth it? Because now I have to pay for all of my licensures

and all of my continuing education. And I have to think about all these things.

And I'm laying in bed at night, not just thinking about my problems, but all

my clients' problems, because I care so much. And I want to help them. And

I want to overdeliver. And it just, it kind of came

to a head where I was like, I have to figure something out.

Because this is This is not the dream. This is not what I left public

accounting for. And, um, I really

like, the signs were there that I was working more hours

than I planned on. I was missing out on things

with my son. I, and some of it was my own guilt that I created,

right, Amy? That like he was home with, with a sitter. And so I was

like, well, if I'm not out working and I hurry home, I can be with

him. Right? Mm-hmm. And so I was, I was trying to be 100% as a

mom, as a business owner, as a wife, as a friend, as a, I was

a 26, 27-year-old young adult and,

you know, I hadn't realized yet that I couldn't give 100% to all of

those things at the same time. Yeah. And when I have this discussion

with other people on the

show and in real life, one of the things that I like to offer as

reflection, and we'll see if you agree with it, is that, you know,

first of all, I think burnout is very hard. to pick out in the moment.

It's easier to see and name it in the rearview mirror,

which a lot of things are like that. You know, in the moment, you're just

getting to the next thing. The second thing is

that, you know, this is not a

diagnosis, but

we get a lot of positive reinforcement

societally and community-ishness,

like from people around us, for leaning

into all of those things. Like, so

there's a really great— you know, people love to

reward the women who are selfless for their kids at school

and at home and at fundraising and at work. So it's like, if

you— it's very— it's easier than people think

to fall into the be all things to all people. It is. And if you

can't, then you've done it wrong. sort

of thing. And I'd love to say that that's not happening to the younger

generation of women, but I do think it still is because I think that

it's not— we want to blame the system and we want to

blame the tools and we want to blame social media and we want to blame

whatever. In the '80s, we blamed magazines and catalogs.

There's a piece of this that sort of comes to education

and peer support and somebody showing you like, hey,

Even if you think that every woman is supposed to look like a Victoria's Secret

model, look around because that might not actually be

what your reality is and the awareness that you get to decide

for yourself. And so I just always throw that in that it's like, you know,

you think— I told myself I wasn't gonna do it. And it was looking

back and I was like, oh my God, I don't care about some of these

things. Why am I doing this? You know? I don't actually care. It's very

hard. Yes. And I've actually recently learned— so I have a nervous system regulation coach,

so I've I've, you know, for the last probably

7 or 8 years— That is so modern. I just have to say, I'd love

to— I'd love to get— my dad passed away years and years ago, but I

would love to have given that sequence of words to my father in heaven and

been like, what? I've always

had some form of business coaching, right? Right. No, no, it's

fantastic. This is the most that has like worked on

me as a human. And so I've recently learned that I'm a people

pleaser. And I've always thought of myself as kind of outspoken, little

bit lack of a filter. Yeah. Kind of do what I want. And I've realized

that I'm a people pleaser in the sense that I do wanna make everybody happy.

Yeah. I do want them to think that I'm the best mom and I'm the

best CEO and I'm the best wife. And that, that

doing it outwardly is what proves that. And being room mom and

being on the boards. Yeah. And all the things instead of, um,

prioritizing and saying, No. So I'm working on that.

So I will share with you that based on my own personal experience, and I'm

not a psychologist, sociologist, or anybody who's qualified to say this systemically,

but I believe that that assessment can shift for

individuals. So, and the reason I think that is just my own personal experience. I

was a driven, results-oriented person that people,

you know, like I was, you know, a leader but not always a good team

player in projects if people weren't on my way. That was my assessment from

teamwork my whole life. And then when I was

in my 30s, I took a personality test and they were like, you are a

people pleaser. You are a nurturer and a people pleaser. And I was so

shocked by that result that I was like, this test is broken.

This test is wrong. That sounds like me. It's like, I don't know what

you're— you don't know what you're talking about. I took it over and over again.

I was like, this is wrong. And then I was in a community where a

bunch of people were taking the test and they were all like, this is so

spot on. I was like, what? And it was a season of reflection for me

that I was I was like, why did I do that? So, but I had

changed my life to be— I was in the season of, you know,

lots of young kids and lots of community things, and I had changed my life

and was making my decision for the benefit of these folks that showed up with

me being a nurturer. And I support that decision. I understand why I made

it. But it's super fascinating to me that, like, I changed so much

that when I took that quiz, I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then now

I'm on the backside of that. I mean, my youngest is now in college.

It's like, oh, I can make decisions for myself again. Yay.

So anyway, just for reflection. Anyway, we're off topic and we're on a tight timeline,

so let's keep going because there's another decision that you make here,

right? Okay. So you've realized you're in burnout. You're doing these things.

There's a part of your pitch that I think is really helpful to know, which

is that you're an accountant. You're an engineer. You're financially aware.

You shared with me that you knew that your family was a 2-income family.

Right? We are still. So, 2-income family, and that was a part of your budget.

Very, very smart decision. You had a— you were a

solopreneur. You always— you thought that this business was gonna just be

you, but you find yourself in a position where you're like, hey, if— and I

don't know if this is related to the burnout story or not, you can tell

me. You realize that in order for this to do

what you need it to do, you have to make a decision to,

I think, bring on other accountants. Walk me

through that decision process if

you can, because I think this is a decision that, uh,

maybe every single solo service

business faces at some time. Yeah, and I

can tell you that's accurate because I've— I get to see— I've seen the behind

the scenes for the last 15+ years, right? Um, I'm also the

child of 2 entrepreneurs, so like I just I just grew up, this was my

life. Dinner was a nightly economics lesson. So yeah, I

remember it. I was holding our

3-month-old baby at the time and our 2 bigger kids had gone

to school, right? They were in like pre-K 3 and kindergarten or something like that.

So naively— If you're listening on the audio, I'm chuckling because she puts school

in finger quotes because they're so little. It's like— Yeah, because they're so

little. They're so little. It's like school, which Cool. Singing and

art. Right. But it was all day. They were gonna go from 7:50

10 because in New Orleans they were in private school at the time. And

so it was all day. I was dropping them off at the same place and

I naively thought that because I was now dropping

them off that I was gonna have 7 hours a day, 5

days a week because they were in school. So you're chuckling because— Yeah, I've lived

this. I've lived this. And then, yes, then day 2 is a performance and

day 3 is the flu and Yes. Day 5 is music

conferences. So I didn't know that yet. I didn't know that yet. So I had

to learn that. And I realized,

wow, by the time you go in, we had accidents

and forgotten lunches and I wanted to be an involved parent. Let's go

back to, remember, I wanted to put being a mom

just as important, equally as my career, right? So I wanted to be

there for fair dance practice. and teacher appreciation lunches

and book fair days when parents could come. But by the time

I started doing that, and we only live 7 minutes from the school, but by

the time I started doing that round trip and I was like, wait, I'm only

doing this for 2 kids and I'm gonna have to do this times 4. Like,

yeah, I'm actually not gonna have 35 hours uninterrupted

each week to work. And so like, again, y'all already know how my

brain processes. I'm like doing the math, I'm doing the numbers. I'm like, this is

not gonna work. And to add onto that was

for the previous 5 years of my business,

right? If I was with the kids, I was thinking about, I was checking my

phone, emails coming through from clients, calls, texts, all the things.

And so I was thinking about work when I was with my kids and I

was thinking about my kids when I was working. And I'm like, what are we

like? I don't want to do this for the next 30 years. This is not,

this is not what I signed up for. So I, I kind of was

laying in bed. I was holding our 4th little baby. We were done having babies.

4 was— I thought I was gonna have 2, so 4 was already a lot.

And I told him, I said, you know, I have to make a decision that

I can't keep taking on new clients. I have to stay small and

highly profitable like I am right now, or

I need to grow the business enough that I can afford to bring on another,

another tax professional. And I have high standards, so that's not like a

$30,000 a year hire. That's like a

significant payroll amount. And so my

sweet husband, always my biggest supporter, he's like, well, you know, I just

kind of feel like you won't be happy staying small, even though you

say you will, you won't. Like, he knows me. And

I didn't feel good about that either. I felt like I didn't

want to be thinking about clients when I was with my kids and worrying

about if they were being taken care of. I wanted to be able to take

a vacation. Yeah. where I could actually take a break and not still have to

work on vacation because my clients' businesses were still going. I

had some apprehensions because again, I had helped clients navigate

bad employees, bad employee situations, stress of not having

enough cash, all the things. But we made the decision together that,

you know, I would take this leap of faith, I would figure out the plan.

Um, and that was ultimately what led me to the decision to

Grow the business, which meant, and, and because that decision that you were talking

about, I, the way that I looked at it, and look, I had been trying

to get more time back. Okay? Anybody who has a kid knows, anybody who has

more than one kid knows, and, and you just keep adding on kids and you

just keep having less time. I had 4 kids in 5 and a half years.

Those years are, we call them the lost years. I didn't even know Taylor Swift

put out 5 more albums. Talk about like, Amy, how you go back to like,

maybe you don't want kids and, and that's not for you. Talk about like Taylor

and I are basically the same age. Talk about 2 very different lives, right? Yeah.

Right? I'm popping out 4 babies, she's popping out 4 multi-platinum

albums or whatever, and I didn't even know it because those are the lost years.

Yeah, I just was surviving. Um, and so, you know,

what it came down to— so that was, um, towards the end of 2022.

So I started coming up with a plan by the end of 2022. I started,

um, figuring out like lead magnets and email lists

because I was just growing by referrals at that point. I was like, okay, I

actually have to like, go out and do some active marketing if I wanna control

who knows about me and how many clients come in. So I spent the bulk

of 2023 starting to guest on podcasts and putting it out there

that, you know, I was gonna grow the firm. I wanted to, and it really

started selfishly because I wanted to make more money. And I was,

I was, I was ready to do something for me after spending 7,

almost 7 years now giving my body and my life and my brain

to these kids, which— Yes. No regrets there. But I was ready to, I was

ready to kind of not put that behind me, but like forge a new

path and be like, okay, I can, I can do, I can take this on.

So basically what happened was I started growing the business. I

then took a pay cut and I was able to hire

about a year later. Exactly. I was about to hire a year later, a

qualified person who I pay very well. She has become

my ride or die, my right hand. I couldn't do this without her. And

from November, so October of

2023, it was just me. November of 2023 was my first

hire. We are in, uh, summer of

2026 and we now have a 6-person team.

So a, uh, system-level back office

question. Are these employees, partners, consultants? These are all

full-time W-2 employees. That, that is

really fascinating. Okay. One more back. strategy question that—

and then we'll wrap this, begin to wrap this up.

Would you say that in making this decision— I'm

writing this question on the fly, so it'll be a little bit

long-winded— but would you say that in making this decision to go from

solopreneur to a firm that supported

employees, it was really a grounds-up redesign

of how the revenue structure and promotion and everything would work? Yeah.

Everything. And that was what I was really working on in that

year. Because again, I'm the numbers person. I've seen the back ends of

businesses. And so I did it the way that most business owners should,

but they just don't know any better. And so instead of getting the business, having

the broken systems, and then figuring it all out, I got the business— That's the

reason I asked. That's the reason I asked. Got to put the systems in place.

And look, we're still learning and like we always have room for improvement. But some

of the things that I did, I was doing all customized work. I was, was

constantly sending emails. I was scheduling, um,

uh, calendar events back and forth. So I had to do little things

like give up control and just have a calendar system where people could book

a call with me based on the open calendar slots. Yeah. I had to

create packages instead of everything being customized, right? I

just had to put a price on tax prep for specific

types of tax return types, at least a starting

point, right? And our prices are starting at so that if there's complexity, we

have some wiggle room. And so yes, I spent a whole year in addition

to getting out there, putting myself out there with podcasts and

some visibility, I also worked on the efficiencies, the

operations, and the backend systems in order to make it

something that someone could come in and help me with. Yeah. And the

reason I asked is because the training that we give a lot of

service-based entrepreneurs is build your solo practice

and then scale, as if they are 2 different steps. And I have come

to a realization many, many years ago that that

is very, very hard to do because you

are really— you're putting yourself in a position to really redesign, and what works

at solo doesn't work with scale. So it might actually be— You're so correct that

we could do an entire episode on how to flip from that. Yeah. And that's

not the focus, right? That's not the focus of this show. We could do a

whole episode on what I would do differently. Yeah.

I just really think that, I mean, because you can see it as you watch

people like redesign and it's like, then people are like, oh my God, she's changing

everything. And it's like, yeah, I kind of, I just, so anyway, that's it, but

it's off topic. And it's also very hard for people like me who are like,

here we go again. And like, again, I'm working on giving myself

grace because, and like my nervous system regulation coach is like, yeah,

but what you built 7 years ago wouldn't Wouldn't work today, right? Like, you've got

to give yourself grace for the pivots and the imperfections as we go along

and we learn. Yeah. No, absolutely. And you've done an excellent job of talking about

this. All right. So very good. In a second, we

are going to wrap this up, but I do want to ask you,

what is what you hope that— what is the thing that you hope that people

will take away from hearing your story? What's the reason you like to share your

story publicly?

I think why I share my story publicly is

because the women that I work with, Amy, they, they lack

the confidence to think that they can do this, that they think that they can

have a business, that they think that they can be in charge of their finances

and their taxes and take the lead on this. And I am

adamant that they can do this, that they should do this,

that don't let kids stop you. Don't let Don't let spouses stop you. Don't let

the world stop you. If you have a dream, go after it. You can, you

can do it as, as a mom. You can do it if you're not a

mom. You can do it if you're a caretaker of elderly parents, whatever your life

looks like. And you are so much more capable,

uh, at the numbers and the finances than you think you are.

Um, that's why I'm here to share my story. I love that. I love that.

All right, so you have a special offer for the

audience. And for people who are listening and watching, the details of this

are always in the audio show notes. They're in the YouTube show

description. The easiest way to get the links for these offers is always to be

a subscriber to the Imperfect Adulting email community, which I call the village,

because then the links are right in the email. So anyway, there you go. All

right. It is a free tax savings calculator. And it's to help people

find out how much they're overpaying on business income taxes. It is

free and the link is taxmove.io.

All right, so that and all the contact information for Kimberly is

in the show notes. And I wanna add, remember that you're a business

owner if you are self-employed, if you're a freelancer, if you're a

digital creator, if you get a 1099 for income,

remember that classifies you as a business owner. That's something I'm learning is like

people don't identify as a business owner, but they call themselves self-employed. And I'm like,

girl, you a business owner. Yeah, no, it's, it's a whole thing. It's interesting 'cause

it took me, um, like I, in entrepreneurship, I found myself in all these money

mindset type things. My dad was a freelancer my whole life,

and I was— like you were saying, like, money was just a thing that was

talked about. Like, I just— people are like, oh, I'm nervous talking about money. I

was like, why am I not? And I've tied it back to the

fact that it was just something we talked about all the time. But we're so—

you and I are so lucky, right? Because we're actually the exception, not the rule.

The exception, right? The exception. And, and yeah, so

100%. So it's very good. All right, we're gonna wrap this up with our wrap-up

questions. All right. Kimberly, share with us, like, at

this time in the world, like, there's no shortage of information, right? But

personal referrals and recommendations are really important in finding the good stuff. Share

with us something in the entertainment world, the news world, the information source, a podcast,

a book, a movie, a TV show, something that you enjoy that you would

like to recommend to the people in the audience. Yeah, so a book

that I recently read that I've really enjoyed is Remarkably Bright

Creatures. I've actually gotten back into fiction reading, not just just business book

reading. And it's funny, I listen to business podcasts and I

like to read fiction books, and I loved that book because of the way it

ended. And I don't wanna give any spoilers, but that's why I loved it. And

then, yeah, that's a recent read that I loved. That's a good one.

Absolutely. That's a wonderful suggestion. It's very

entertaining. I will say they personify

the octopus to a point that I— it pushed my boundaries, but there we go.

It did. It did. But I liked the way that it ended

because it didn't end— it didn't come back to make it all like sunshine

and rainbows, right? And so I think that's the part that I liked. It was

like not reality, but also not like, well, of course it

ended with sunshine and rainbows. There you go. Very good. All right. This last question

I call unsupervised online shopping.

What is something that you have purchased online that was pretty great and

we should all know about it? Can be big, can be little, can be recent,

can be a long time ago. Just anything. Yeah. I feel like

this, I feel like I should be able to think of something better that has

been more like instrumental in my life as a mom.

But truly the Dyson vacuum,

stick vacuum that charges and doesn't have a cord. As a

mom of 4 little kids who doesn't even have any pets to take care of,

I vacuum every night. We have the robo one, but I still go grab that

stick to clean stuff up. It's, it's just the worst. I think that's an excellent

suggestion. There's somebody in the audience that's listening that's like, ah, that is what I

need in my life. I did not wanna buy it. I got it on a

Black Friday. Friday sale, because it's like, I am not spending $300 or $400 on

a vacuum. That is ridiculous. And I am like, I'm a changed person

5 years later. I take back what I said. I love that

because when I was young and I got a job, one of the marketing jobs,

one of the case studies that was used for successful positioning and so

on and so forth was a very expensive vacuum. And

it was a wonderful thing. And the guy who was my mentor, he was like,

I bought it. Because I had to see why this vacuum was so expensive.

And he's like, I still own it because I forgot to return it. It

was just— I mean, it was so funny. Anyway,

thank you very much, Kimberly, for being on the show and sharing

your story today on The Art of Imperfect Adulting. Yeah, thanks for having

me. This has been great. Thank you for joining me

today. I hope you enjoyed the show. Before I go, I want to

encourage you to become a bigger part of the conversation.

Please subscribe wherever you're listening or watching the show.

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the only way to find out is to get the emails. Yeah. Plus, you're busy.

You don't have time or desire to follow every single tidbit on social media,

and you don't have to because I'm happy to send it to you. If you

have a story you'd like to share with the audience, I have an open application

for guests. Guess where you'll find it? That's right, on the website and in

the emails. And that's a wrap for this episode.

Until next time, remember that the journey is the destination.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said that, not me. Well, until just now. I did just say

it. But what I want you to hear today is that if your adulting journey

isn't going the way you expected, that just may not mean you're lost.

It may mean that you're just on your way. And now the fine

print. The Art of Imperfect Adulting podcast and streaming video show

is a copyrighted work created and produced by Amy Stone and Amy Says So.

The music was written and produced by Todd Thompson at Dharma Bomb

Studios. All rights are reserved. Anything expressed

on this show is offered as entertainment, and the views of the guests may

not always represent the ideas and viewpoints of the host. That's

me. Amy Stone does not intend to hold myself— herself

out to provide professional advice or recommendations of any kind. In

the end, you and you alone need to make those kinds of decisions

based on your personal and individual situation. needs,

circumstances, and comfort level. Yeah, it's a little weird for me to talk

about myself in the third person, but you get the idea. This is Amy Stone,

signing off.