Rise From The Ashes
"Burnout to Brilliance: Great CEOs, No Burnout"
Leadership is tough. Burnout makes it tougher.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Rise From The Ashes is the ultimate podcast for visionary CEOs and executives who refuse to let burnout rob them of their brilliance, legacy, and impact.
Hosted by Baz Porter, this show isn’t just about surviving leadership it’s about transforming it. Each week, we delve deep into the art and science of thriving at the top, combining actionable strategies, spiritual alignment, and raw truths that reignite your purpose and optimize your energy.
Here’s what you’ll get:
- Bold Frameworks: Learn the exact steps to conquer decision fatigue, streamline your mental energy, and reclaim control of your leadership.
- Spiritual Awakenings: Explore the intersection of purpose, alignment, and success to lead with clarity and connection.
- Transformational Insights: Hear unfiltered stories and practical wisdom from world-class leaders who’ve turned their burnout into brilliance.
This isn’t just a podcast it’s a revolution for leaders ready to rise, inspire, and leave a legacy that outlasts them.
Rise From The Ashes
The recession destroyed her life - and gave her peace for the first time in 20 years
What happens when losing everything you've worked for becomes the best thing that ever happened to you?
Kim Speed spent 20 years building her dream career as a creative director for global brands like Coca-Cola, Ford, and Toyota. She had the title, the salary, the recognition - everything she thought she wanted.
Then 2008 hit. The recession destroyed her agency. Her corporate identity vanished overnight.
But something shocking happened in the wreckage: "There was this new calm. Calmness and joy," Kim admits. "For the first time in a very long time, there was no more crazy mornings and crazy nights."
The woman who thought she was living her dream suddenly realized she'd been trapped in a nightmare of her own making. No more screaming at kids to get ready. No more flipping switches between "corporate Kim" and "mom Kim." No more performing a life that looked successful but felt suffocating.
"It was my identity, right? It was what I had worked up to. It was where I had wanted to be," she explains. But when that identity died, she discovered something terrifying: she didn't know who she was underneath the corporate costume.
The recession didn't just destroy her career - it revealed that what she called success was actually a prison. And for the first time in decades, she could finally breathe.
Discover how Kim transformed from corporate prisoner to authentic entrepreneur, and why sometimes losing everything is exactly what you need to find yourself.
Timestamps:
[00:00] Introduction and Guest Welcome
[00:33] Kim's Background and Career Transition
[01:59] The Impact of the 2008 Recession
[03:32] Finding Peace and New Opportunities
[07:44] Starting a Business Without a Plan
[09:21] Navigating Entrepreneurial Challenges
[13:35] The Power of Networking
[21:04] Realizing Self-Worth and Value
[24:13] Conclusion and Teaser for Part Two
If You’ve Been Hooked on These Episodes… This Is for You
If this podcast has been landing deep… if each story feels like it’s peeling back something raw and real in you… then don’t ignore that.
Every guest you’ve heard made the same decision: to stop performing and start healing.
Now it’s your turn.
Take the Silent Collapse Diagnostic. It’s not a quiz. It’s a wake-up tool for women who are done pretending they’re fine.
No fluff. No journaling prompts. Just a straight-up mirror into where you’re silently collapsing behind the mask of success.
If you're serious about reclaiming your energy, your clarity, your life start there.
Because breakthrough doesn’t begin with doing more. It begins with finally seeing what’s been stealing your power.
Learn more about Baz Porter at www.bazporter.com
Good morning, good day, hello and welcome to another episode of Rise from the Ashes podcast. I'm your host, baz Bors, privileged to welcome my next guest today. Her name is Kim Speed. How are you doing today and where in the world are you?
Speaker 2:I'm doing fabulous, baz, and I am in Toronto in Canada.
Speaker 1:So what's the weather like up there these days?
Speaker 2:It's beautiful, it's 24. I don't know what you guys call that, like 75. Yeah. So tell the world about you, what you do now, and then we go into where you came from and how you ended up doing what you do and serving the amazing people that you serve so I help entrepreneurs to leverage their years of experience, of knowledge, skills, talents, passions and turn that into a brand that actually starts to create awareness, visibility and attract their ideal client so they can make money with that.
Speaker 1:I love that. So you didn't always do this. Obviously, you were in a different life a few years ago. How did you evolve into serving entrepreneurs and creating amazing businesses for people?
Speaker 2:It's actually been 16 years now that I've had my own business, but before that I was in advertising and I was creative director, working on global brands like Coca-Cola, ford, toyota, td Bank all kinds of fun stuff. We had a great time and I guess at that time it was my dream career. That's what I had worked up for, even though my parents thought it was crazy that I went to art school and they thought I'll never get a job. But I did. I was making money, yeah, up until 2008, 2009, when we had a huge recession. And then, yeah, I found myself in a position.
Speaker 1:So what was that transition? Like Recession affected everybody globally, but it must have affected you in a different way, because it was your livelihood, everything that you held to be sane, so to was yeah, it was my identity, right, it was what I had worked up to.
Speaker 2:It was where I had wanted to be and having a great time. But, yeah, so we had one huge client that we lost and then a couple other other clients, so fortunately, I was able to get out with a bit of cash, so I had a bit of breathing room and so I went home and in advertising you're always changing places and positions, so that wasn't a big deal. If you wanted to work on different things, you went to a different agency, so that wasn't a big problem. But it was a recession, so I was a little bit concerned about that. So I just started reaching out, networking with all the people that were in my industry. I'd been in the industry for a lot of years almost 20 years at that point and I knew a lot of people. So I was chatting with them, figuring out what was out there, what was available opportunities and catching up with people.
Speaker 2:But at the same time, there was a really interesting thing that happened in my life.
Speaker 2:There was this new calm, calmness and joy. It felt like I was at home. I had two young children at home and, for the first time in a very long time there was no more crazy mornings and crazy nights. There was no more yelling and screaming to get ready in the morning and get out of the house and get to babysitters and school and get your clothes on and you can't wear that and everybody's disagreeing. And then at night, at the end of the day from work, all of a sudden flipping the switch and trying to rush home and be the perfect mom and get dinner on the table and get kids to activities and do homework and then get to bed at a decent time. So it was like five days of crazy and then two days of maintenance and all of a sudden that it changed completely and I was able to take my kids to school and have their friends over and not feel like I was going insane, enjoying it and having actually walking to school with them instead of driving them.
Speaker 1:What you're speaking to now is amazing because a lot of entrepreneurs and also business CEOs business owners are always on the go. Ceos, business owners are always on the go. They're forever rushing to get somewhere that there's no really substance or purpose. And then what you discovered was oh, I have space. Yeah, what was that feeling like?
Speaker 2:It was like I didn't understand. I didn't what is this? And I almost felt at first you feel like there's something strange, I feel guilty, I should be rushing. And then I was like why I don't have to? And I'm actually having conversations with my kids, I'm actually having conversations with my friends again. I could go and grab a coffee after in the morning and actually sit down and read something that I felt like reading. There was these moments. Now, it didn't mean that I didn't want to make money anymore. I still needed to do that but there was a breath to think about it. But there was a breath to think about it.
Speaker 1:When that breath. It's interesting because when people come to this space of that peace after running so fast for so long, and you have to remember too that you don't even realize you're doing it.
Speaker 2:No, it's just crazy.
Speaker 1:But that becomes normality and it becomes a habit, a way of life. But that void of uncertainty, confusion, I'm assuming what this is. I don't know, I'm not speaking, I don't want to speak for you. Was there any fear in the transition of I don't know what I'm doing?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it was more confusion of okay, I know there's opportunities out there that were very much the same as what I had, some great opportunities in that, things that I was so used to doing, going back in and having those creative moments and that brainstorming and using those skills and the things that I enjoyed doing. The whole I was so confused on. I don't want to go back to that lifestyle. So how do you make that decision? What will I do?
Speaker 1:So what did you decide to do from there? The rat race, the hustle, the bustle, it's peace, but you've tied everything to this person that has to go. Yeah, and all of a sudden you don't have to do that.
Speaker 2:But I also don't have that label anymore. So then I feel odd about it. But you know what? I took a leap of faith and I don't actually advise this to everybody. I just hung out a shingle and said, hey, I'm in business by myself and I didn't really make a plan. You literally planned all the bridges and you just went I'm in business by myself and I didn't really make a plan Literally planned all the bridges and you just went.
Speaker 1:I'm doing this here.
Speaker 2:I am Hi.
Speaker 1:That was pretty courageous.
Speaker 2:Yeah, courageous, maybe a little dumb, but in the beginning it went fabulous because I had so many people in my network that they needed help. There was a lot of people downsizing at that time, but the work, you know, the work never downsizes. So there was a lot of projects that I could go and help with and consult with, whether it was for the actual company or for an agency. I had people in all kinds of areas that needed help. So I got projects right away and said this is fantastic, I love this life, wonderful, and this is what I was meant to do, and I was able to still manage that and be at home and have family time, and it was so funny. One of the biggest things was to be able to go grocery shopping in the middle of the week, in the middle of the day.
Speaker 1:I just put that on pause. I'm going to, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so simple things like that. That just made life more bearable and made the time when everyone was off my partner and my kids when we could enjoy activities and we weren't running around trying to do life maintenance.
Speaker 1:So in this transition you ended up landing on your feet by the sounds of things, but there was still some sort of I'm assuming some sort of identity shift. From in the rat race run all of a sudden, oh I'm doing this and I don't. That shift into oh, who am I now? What? If that was the case, what was that journey like for you?
Speaker 2:I actually have to say it was like a couple year euphoria that I was working, I had projects, I still had some connection to those people that I used to work with. They looked at me and thought that looks pretty good. My big sort of issue came a couple of years in. When people start to in business, people start to move on and change positions, move companies. So those people that I relied on in certain factors in businesses giving me work started to change and then new people would come in and I didn't have the relationships with those people. The work wasn't as plentiful, my pockets weren't as full, but my bills were coming in still that always.
Speaker 1:That sometimes happens, though, and it's an entrepreneurial flow where you just have to trust the roller coaster, yeah, and we go into this oh my god, panic mode. Humans always do it, I do it. Someone says something, they don't do it, they're lying but they go into this sort of like panic mode oh my god, I haven't got it or this is going to happen and they start scenarioing things in their heads. But when you've got kids, partner bills, responsibility yeah, entrepreneur for those people who've never done any entrepreneurial work maybe won't understand this fully, but your dependence, your kids, the business, the bills is depending on you to do the thing that you said to do and provide for the rest of everybody else under the household.
Speaker 1:And if it doesn't work, there isn't usually a plan B. And as entrepreneurs and Kim, I wanted you to go into this is how do you muddle through when there isn't a plan B and you've got the water bill in East Payne, the gas bill, the electric's about to be turned off, and these are real maybe not for you, but scenarios in real people's, in entrepreneurs, like entrepreneurs lives yeah, there was some sleepless nights of what do I do if I don't have the cash and you're starting to live on the credit in between those and I have to say that the valleys come in and before the peaks.
Speaker 2:Sometimes they're wide, those valleys where you're not getting paid, and as somebody that's worked as an employee all the time all my life, where the paycheck just landed in your bank account, this was really new to me. The other thing that was new was that I was a marketer. Right, I wasn't. I was cool, I was a creative director. I knew things. I knew shit best. It took me a while to realize that, or admit it, but there were like I didn't know anything about running the business it's a whole different concept and this is what I love about you, because you went into trial by fire.
Speaker 1:I go, I know everything, but all of a sudden there was this clip.
Speaker 2:I don't actually know anything about running a business no, and you know what, maybe it's best that I went in without knowing, because if I did know, it probably would have scared me. But yeah, I just went in blind, no plans and, like I said, I don't always advise this way. But yeah, when it started to run dry, oh my God, you start panicking again. And there was that moment of okay, I think I have to go get a job. And that's really disappointing, because life was good and liked what it had become. I liked who I had become, yeah.
Speaker 1:And then so the big epiphany somebody invited me to a networking group okay now this is fun because there's an old saying I know you've heard it and many listeners probably have your network is your net worth. But it's not entirely true. Hear me out because I'm controversial in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1:Oh yes you are, but it's not entirely true, because you can have a network but you don't know how to utilize them or leverage them. The people connections could just be sat there and you don't know how to have a conversation with them to deliver value. It's not that's so true. However, if you can learn to understand the people in your circle, understand what their desires, wants, fears, et cetera, et cetera all are, then you can start to serve them and actually build real relationships. How did you find that network? You don't have to name the network. How did you find it and what was the experience like when you came into it?
Speaker 2:So I found it through a friend. A friend invited me and said hey, come to this meeting. It's a breakfast meeting and it's a bunch of small business owners and entrepreneurs that get together and I think you'll really like it. And I said oh, ok, and then she told me it's seven in the morning. I'm like what?
Speaker 1:There was two sevens in the daytime. Come on.
Speaker 2:What. So, anyway, I went and a new world opened to me that there was a lot of business owners small business owners, people that were running their own show like myself, or people that had really small teams show like myself, or people that had really small teams and they were actually talking about things that stressed them out and sharing ways to deal with bill or like invoicing and finances and things that I didn't have a clue about. But also what was really funny is they were talking and they were a community that they were sharing. When you worked in corporate, you could be.
Speaker 2:You and your team could be running around with your hair on fire and trying to get things done for the client, and as soon as the client arrives, it was like everything's fine, we're so good, everything's just peachy keen. But yeah, so to actually talk about things that weren't perfect or that you were struggling with was new for me, and that's where I actually met my first coach. I didn't even know there was such a thing as a business coach Like coach. I didn't even know there was such a thing as a business coach Like what People that help you with this, and between meeting the community and meeting a coach that helped me from not having to go back and find a job.
Speaker 1:So a lot of the coaching I'm going to come into the coaching in a bit. But the network dynamic there are levels of network and I love what you're touching on now, because people don't realize and they're not sometimes aware that they may be in the wrong rooms. Now you started off in a breakfast meeting that went into something else, into something else, and then you had a coach accelerate into. Oh my God, I've got all this stuff and knowledge and I don't know what to do with it now and I've got all these people I want to serve. Did you build a team or did you do it on your own?
Speaker 2:So I used the community. I couldn't afford a team at that point, okay, or I didn't really know what I needed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can relate.
Speaker 2:And I was still out there serving corporations, large corporations and agencies and it wasn't until somebody said to me I think there's somebody that you should meet. She's got some problems, she's trying to get her business up and going and she could probably use some of your advice. And I said, okay, fine, and I never at that point thought about working with a small business owner. But she and I chatted and she'd actually gone to an agency to get help An agency. I actually knew the agency and I was surprised, like thinking they took you on as a client because there were two people in her company and she had a few contract staff, and so I didn't say anything. I let her talk and she said, yeah, she went, they took her on and they took her money, but they didn't give her enough attention. She was always waiting to when is the next thing going to be that they're going to help her with. And she said it just was a struggle. So that's why she was looking for an alternate route, because she didn't know what to do.
Speaker 2:She knew she had this great new fitness idea and she wanted to open up a studio, and so I worked with her and I helped her and it was a lot of fun. We had a great time. We built her brand. I helped her with some marketing ideas and introduced her to some people and helped her launch her business, which was something I'd never been part of as a small business that was launching, and she did so well. After a few months, she opened another location and then, after a few more months, she opened another location and that was my. This is amazing and that's why I say I did not choose my ideal client. My ideal client came to me and smacked me on the face and said, hey, sometimes it happens like that though.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:It didn't, for me certainly, but I'm a different, I'm not a marketeer, but what you did as well, you found your passion, you went fire through trial. Yeah, that one. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know what you mean.
Speaker 1:And then the uncertainty for a couple of years testing the waters, the worry, the exchange, the financial burden, which is incredibly hard to sometimes navigate, especially with all the other responsibilities that families have. And we all, you've got kids, you've got spouses, business roles, other commitments, car payments, but this can go on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we had just rebuilt a home. So there was like this new massive mortgage.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, just for the icing on the cake. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then out of somewhat out of the blue. But there's a pattern here. You trusted, you had faith in something you couldn't see and that wasn't quite tangible yet. But there was something bigger at play. I believe here, and tell me if I'm wrong or I'm off. Was that belief in an external thing or was the belief within yourself?
Speaker 2:The belief was realizing that I could believe in myself.
Speaker 1:So it was a self-worth thing. Is that correct? Yes, I don't know. That's interesting. The reason I mention this is not to put Kim on the spot. It's actually to address this area of self-worth and knowing what your value is. There's many people go around in life, not just entrepreneurs, but business owners, corporate executives the list can go on School teachers and they do something because they want to get validated initiatives the list can go on school teachers, and they do something because they get one to get validated. The only person truly is going to come and save you, as kim experienced, is yourself, and it starts at that knowing or realizing point of I'm actually worth this. Whatever this bit is, what she's about to say to you now will surprise you, because I know what's going to happen. She doesn't know yet. I do because I'm thinking what. But when you realize that, kim, what was the knock-on effect?
Speaker 2:funny enough, when I started working with this woman, the small business owner, some of this stuff that I was working with her on, I just assumed everybody knew Everybody does this and because you've done it for so long and it just comes naturally to you, I just assumed that, like, even it comes out in the language that you speak to them and you find this out when you have these conversations, live with people and you're listening to them and they're not. They don't. I don't know what you're talking about. Oh, let me explain. And to realize that I had knowledge that other people didn't have, that could be of value. I had value that I didn't know. I had the answer you're looking for.
Speaker 1:It's not the answer. It is the answer, but it's not about my answer. It's not about. It's about your realization. Why I touch on that, kim, is because there's people out there right now maybe the person listening to this now going oh my God, that's me, I've got all what she has, and this is where I'm at right now.
Speaker 1:Take a leaf out of Kim's book Trust in what you know, trust in yourself, because no one truly is going to come and rescue you unless you start believing in yourself. Get a coach, get someone who can guide you through it, but make sure you do your research, because there's a lot of people out there who say they can do things and I know this because I spent $2.1 million with this very painful thing I'm just about to talk to you about, and that is investing in the wrong people, being gullible basically, yes, I was gullible, I completely admit that. But then I meet people like Kim, who have similar stories, that have trusted in themselves. They've ventured into the fire and they've come out the other side, but it starts with realizing your own worth. If you could turn back the time today, kim, and go back until 2008 and change one thing about the journey going forward from then. What would that be?
Speaker 2:I would tell myself you are good enough. You're just as good as other people. Stop worrying about it so much. There's always going to be somebody that knows more. It's not even better, but there's people that know more. Watch and learn rather than think about what you don't have and what knowledge you don't have, because there's people that do need what you have.
Speaker 1:I love that advice and it's very true, kim. Thank you very much for this conversation. This is part one. Stay tuned for part two. We're going to delve into a bit of inspiration with artificial intelligence and what it is in, what Kim's world is and how it's helped her. From myself, I'm Baz. Thank you, kim, and I'll see you on the next episode.
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