IAM486- Founder Helps Entrepreneurs Grow Their Visibility

Stories = visibility = diversity = equality — and it's Kay's mission to lead a movement for underrepresented leaders who are ready to step into the spotlight and grow their audience of raving fans and paying clients.

Kay Fabella launched her business as the Story Finder in 2014 and created a bilingual English/Spanish brand that ​quickly ​reached an audience in 27 countries. She was featured in Fast Company, Thrive Global, Huffington Post, and El País. She leveraged her experience as a Filipina-American expat based in Madrid, Spain, to help solopreneurs in Fortune 500 companies grow their visibility through the power of storytelling.

She now teaches her simple *three-step visibility system* to entrepreneurs who want to learn to grow profitable businesses with integrity, amplify their platform, and reach the clients who need their talents most.

• CEO Hack: Visual calendar
• CEO Nugget: It's never too late to re-write your story
• CEO Defined: Making an impact using the fullest gifts and potential

Website: http://kayfabella.com/

https://kayfabella.com/rewrite-your-story-book

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KayFabellaStoryteller/
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/kayfabella/

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Transcription:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:29

Hello, this is Gresh from I AM CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I've Kay Fabella of kayfabella.com. Kay, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Kay Fabella 0:38

Thank you so much for having me.

Gresham Harkless 0:39

No problem. Super excited to have you on. I wanted to read a little a little bit more about Kay so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Stories = visibility = diversity = equality and it's Kay's mission to lead a movement for underrepresented leaders who are ready to step into the spotlight and grow their audience of raving fans and paying clients.

Kay launched her business as the story finder in 2014 and created a bilingual English and Spanish brand that quickly reached an audience in 27 countries. She was featured in Fast Company, Thrive Global, Huffington Post, and El País. She leveraged her experience as a Filipina-American expat based in Madrid, Spain, to help solopreneurs in Fortune 500 companies grow their visibility through the power of storytelling. She now teaches her simple three-step visibility system to entrepreneurs who want to learn to grow profitable businesses with integrity, amplify their platform, and reach the clients who need their talents the most. Kay, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Kay Fabella 1:33

You bet I am.

Gresham Harkless 1:34

Awesome. Let's do it. I feel like it's only right for the storyteller and people that it teaches so much about storytelling that I wanted to kick the questions off by hearing your story. Well, then you get started with your business what's your CEO story?

Kay Fabella 1:46

Yeah, fantastic. Well, thank you so much for having me on. And I'm excited to be here and share my story. I'm originally from Los Angeles, California, but I've been living in Madrid, Spain since 2010. Going on, 10 years next year. That's crazy. It's funny. I think the one thing that's kind of followed me all of these years has been my love for stories. It was when I was much younger, I think many people and I say this to people as diplomatically as possible people with non-European faces, often get the second question when they're growing up.

So you learn very quickly, you can either open your hands or close your fist whenever you hear that question. It was the first time that I decided to open my hands and share that story.

When I was around seven or eight on the playground, growing up in LA, I realized I was able to expand the person's worldview by having this person in front of me who asked me simply like, who are you? And where are you really from, by just sharing who I was? I think that the power of the story never really left me and has accompanied me all these years up until now.

Now it's really cool that I get to be here in Madrid, which I fell in love with. When I studied abroad in college, it was my happy place. I decided after I burned out at my first job after I finished my degree that I would find a way back here supposed to be for a year. I met my Spanish-now husband, in my first year here. So obviously, my life had different plans for me. Now what I've been able to do is connect business owners and their audiences with the very same skill set and the same passion that I have for story.

In really, ultimately all we want, even though we say a lot of like business to customer business to business in the online space, it really is person to person, its connection to connection, and the best and the easiest way to do that it comes back to this tribal desire for understanding who that person is in front of you and locating where they fit and what their trajectory and what their journey has been. The easiest way to do that is through the story. I think like every story, you guys have probably seen this graphic online where you see what we think success looks like. We think it's a straight line, and what sex success actually looks like and it's like the squiggly line. My life had a lot of squiggles. Every single goal has led to me creating the business that I have, and I'm so grateful that it has nice,

Gresham Harkless 4:02

I definitely appreciate that. I too can speak to my life being a spaghetti noodle, at times just going around and around and all around. I completely understand that and I really appreciate talking about the idea of a story because I think usually I say usually when we tell stories, we realise we're so much different than we are dissimilar, so much more similar than we are dissimilar. I love that you talked about the fact that I never thought of storytelling as a way to kind of teach and kind of expand somebody's horizons and let them know about certain things.

I think sometimes they just said you said if we don't look at it that way, sometimes we can have that closed space instead of that open aren't that open hand and give that as an opportunity and kind of a duty as us as leaders sometimes it just kind of tell our story and talk about what makes us unique and and give that person another perspective.

Kay Fabella 4:46

Absolutely. Yeah. 100% Yeah,

Gresham Harkless 4:49

I know that I also say that a lot of times when you peel back the onion of a business you find out that it's not just a corporation is actually made up of people and each of us has those differences, no worries. Of course, you work with a lot of different organizations and business owners. So I wanted to drill down a little a little bit deeper. Could you take us through exactly how you work with clients you have?

Kay Fabella 5:08

Absolutely. So I have obviously two arms, I work with companies specifically. A lot of diversity and inclusion is quite a buzzword right now but how to actually do it is another story. I work with companies to either help HR or recruiting arms to hire less than have their own image. Hiring minorities or people who are from different diverse backgrounds, and what that looks like, as well as internal teams who tend to have a lot more underrepresented leaders and underrepresented groups are looking to either advocate for themselves better or have better communications within their teams.

That's the b2b side, a lot of like workshops and virtual and in person, so institute, and then the other arm is b2c. I do a lot of work with, like you mentioned, in my bio, the solopreneur side of things, a lot of people who tend to be the face of their business, even if they're not no longer solopreneurs. Personal brands and entrepreneurs, coaches, thought leaders, speakers influencers, because ultimately, especially as the face of their business, they really have to bring their identity to the forefront. We start first with identity. As you can imagine, from underrepresented groups, I've realized that there are more layers to that there are more layers to unpack in their story.

That obviously is the core of the work that I do but once we understand who you are truly, and which parts of your story, you're willing to share how your story fits into your larger business mission and values and purpose, then we bring that to the forefront and how we then communicate it to the audience we want to position you for, to impact the most and then how do we position you for influence.

Through the content that we put out there? How often you're visible, what different audiences you can leverage, and how you can get a message to spread that could be positively or negatively polarizing, how are you different in your space? It's a lot of playing around with observing what's culturally relevant, predicting what could be culturally relevant in the future, looking at what the competition is for them, and then working through those three pillars identity, impact, and influence, either one on one or in my group services.

Gresham Harkless 7:03

Nice. I appreciate that and I don't know if you find this, but I usually see that this is, if you find that one's more important than the other. But I feel like a lot of times, it seems like we skipped over that very first piece that identity piece where we have to kind of create a space and do the work to figure out who we are and how to communicate that. A lot of times, we don't even get that chance to really kind of figure out who we are, before we start jumping into those other things. I don't know if you find the exact same thing.

Kay Fabella 7:27

I agree. Absolutely, I think it's really, it's really easy to get caught up in the outcome and the attachment to the outcome of like, I want an online business that lets me work wherever I want or sleep and make money, whatever it is. That's fine, that's glamorous, if that's part of what you're working for great but it shouldn't be the only motivation. I think there's also a tendency, especially after having been in the online space for a while and written stories for quite a few business owners across 17 different industries, that was the Italian.

Now, a lot of the businesses start at least the bios, the about pages, start to sign sound kind of similar until you really dialed down into well, what really makes me different? What's my unique set of perspectives, what have I lived through, that really positions me as the person that really wants to do this because you can't Frankenstein a bunch of different copy geniuses that you've seen online for you to then have this bio that's going to just draw people in you, it really just comes down to well, why are you and why now? And how can you articulate that in the best way possible, that speaks to the audience you want to attract and resonate with?

Gresham Harkless 8:24

That makes perfect sense. That's definitely my word of the day, Frankenstein, I love that. It's just that kind of concept. Because you're absolutely right, a lot of times you're like, I like this, I'm gonna use this, I like that, I'm gonna use that. Then all of a sudden becomes not it, at least from my perspective, something that kind of flows and is organic, and probably authentic as well, it seems like something that is kind of just pieced together, but not really, truly line in the business and a lot of times the person and individuals well.

Kay Fabella 8:46

Yeah, and people are smart. Maybe three, four, or five years ago, when I first started in the space, it was really easy for you to hire a really good copywriter and a good messaging strategist, and you could stand out super easy, or your ads would go really far. I think consumers are smarter. We're smarter as business owners. For the better, I think we should be demanding more of the people who are positioning themselves as leaders in the online space. It's up to us to also respect the customers we're trying to attract the integrity of our platforms, and show up in a bolder way.

Gresham Harkless 9:17

Yeah, absolutely and it's great that we have the tools and platforms like podcasts, blogs, and videos to be able to do that. Because it just as you said, like four or five years ago, it wouldn't have necessarily been possible to do that technology-wise and also with the tools that we have today. I know you've touched on it a little bit but I want to ask you, for you personally, what do you feel is kind of like your secret sauce or for you or your organization? What do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

Kay Fabella 9:40

I think empathy is my superpower. I say this all the time. It's the reason why within the span of a week, I helped a solopreneur with her spiritual resource library for people who are on the weak side of the spectrum, to look for a place to gain those resources. At the same time, I was helping a startup that was working in robotic processing automation in cloud technology with 10 different verticals and five different countries. You can imagine how many voices were in my head that way. There was so much happening. But because I can tap into what ultimately makes each of us human-like,, what we care about is what is this going to do for me? And how is this going to make my life better?

That's what helps me tap into no matter if I've never worked in the industry. I mean, the RPA guys, I had to have them explain their service to me like five different times, like what? Sorry, what can you run that one more time? But even if I've never worked in it, I think the beauty of it is, that I know exactly what humans want, we have shared needs and shared desires, and that helps me to frame the message or the positioning for them. I think the other element to that is aside from the fact that I grew up as a child of immigrants, my parents, originally from the Philippines I'm now an immigrant, myself, being a woman for identifying as a woman of color.

There's a real deep empathy with people who have always been other they're considered themselves outsiders, so you can speak to them a lot more fluidly and a lot more clearly, because what they've lived through genuinely what they've been looking for is in terms of having their needs met, having their desires met, having their sense of other nests, not seen as different, but actually celebrated and recognized. That also helps my empathy superpower is on, you know, dial it up to 100.

I think there's also the element of me being here in Spain being an immigrant and being an immigrant in another language really gives you an entirely new perspective on how the world works, because you see culture not just as an observer, but from the inside. That has also helped me in the different teams that I work with, who are multinational companies, for example, a lot of business owners that are solopreneurs, who've grown their teams, and a lot of them have remote workers in different parts of the world. Helping them communicate not just externally to their audiences, but sometimes even in some cases internally, comes from what I've lived through, and I'm grateful for that.

Gresham Harkless 11:59

Alright, hey, I truly appreciate that. What I wanted to do is switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO heck. So this could be like an apple book or a habit that you have, what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Kay Fabella 12:09

It's funny, I don't think it's made me more efficient but it's definitely made me more balanced in my approach. One of those things is I now have a joy calendar. Because I'm a visual person, on Google Calendar, I have different colors so it depends on if it's like, for my contact calendar, or for meetings with my team, or with clients, or whatever. I have a joy calendar, that's perfect. Because I think that I suffered burnout quite early on at age 22, there's a part of me that now knows that if I don't have enough purple in my calendar, I'm not going to be of service to others and I'm definitely not going to be in an optimal state for myself.

Gresham Harkless 12:49

Now I want to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. This is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. Or if you happen to be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Kay Fabella 12:57

So I would say it's never too late to rewrite your story. I think that we we tend to rightly or wrongly think I've started it and I have to see it through. Yes, you have to see your business through, this is the thing that you want to do. This is what you're meant to do. This is the audience that you're meant to serve but it doesn't necessarily have to be the same iteration of your business every single day.

Gresham Harkless 13:20

Now, I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote, CEOs on the show. What does being a CEO mean to you?

Kay Fabella 13:28

For me, it means getting to make an impact using the fullest range of my gifts and my potential as a human.

Gresham Harkless 13:37

I appreciate that and I appreciate you even more and all the awesome things you're doing. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional, you want to let our readers and listeners know. Then of course, how best they can get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome things you guys are working on.

Kay Fabella 13:49

Yeah, absolutely. I would say one of the other things that I learned over the past five and a half years is entrepreneurship has actually been a literal lifesaver for me. As I mentioned before I was diagnosed, so I was burnt out a stray too, but I was diagnosed with clinical depression. One of the things I also champion is mental health in the online space, I think that it's really easy to be on and connected. Especially for what I do, I have to be kind of have my pulse on what's happening culturally, to know how to help my clients and myself. I think that there's something to be said for the purple in my calendar, or just the moment.

As the CEO who's in the driver's seat, I also have the opportunity to give myself self-care routines, whether it happens to be taking weekends off, or not being connected to my phone for certain hours of the day. I think building a business ultimately like yes, if you want to get to that. I think there was for a time when I first started the online space, there was this six figures in six months kind of success story.

That's cool if that's something you want to do applies to you but for those of us who know the importance of balance and sustainability for ourselves and for others, it's it's really important to also remember that you have to create a business that ultimately is around the ideal life, you want not just ideal income that you want.

I think that's a really important reminder for all of us who tend to, especially when we see a lot of these kinds of hustle messages or these 30 under 34 sort of standards that you have to like, aim for as if that's like an arbitrary standard to our expectation. I think it's okay to give yourself permission to ease up off the gap, and gas pedal every so often, because your worth does not equal your work.

Gresham Harkless 15:35

People who want to reach out to you, what's the best way for them to do that and find out about everything else you're working on as well?

Kay Fabella 15:40

Yeah, absolutely. They can get in touch with me, obviously kayfabella.com. I offer free visibility multiplayer calls for everybody who joins my list and subscribes and is like, hey, how do I reach an audience without having to do all the things and be all the places? That's definitely something that we can talk about for your specific business goals on that call. Or if you want to check out my book, where I talk about the practices that I put in place after burning out. It's called Rewrite Your Story and it's at rewriteyourstorybook.com It's available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle. So you can check me out on those places.

Gresham Harkless 16:11

Awesome. Well, thank you so much again Kay. We will make sure to have those links and information in the show notes as well too, so that everybody can follow up with you. I truly appreciate you appreciate your time and I hope you have a phenomenal day.

Outro 16:22

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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