The Kindness Matters Podcast
So. Much. Division. Let's talk about how to change that. Re-engage as neighbors, friends, co-workers and family. Let's set out to change the world. Strike that. Change A World. One person at a time, make someone's life a little better and then do it again tomorrow and the day after that, through kindness.
Kindness is a Super-Power that each of us has within us. It is so powerful it has the potential to change not only your life but those around you, too. Let's talk about kindness.
The Kindness Matters Podcast
The Power of Boundaries: A Conversation with Kate Browning
"The only people that will ever have an issue with you putting a boundary in place is those that benefit from you having none." This powerful statement from Kate Browning captures the essence of our illuminating conversation about boundaries, purpose, and the courage to prioritize joy in business.
Kate Browning, the self-described "unicorn" behind Cherry Blossom Management, joins us to share her six-year entrepreneurial journey that's anything but conventional. Her business operates with a dual focus: digital marketing for impact-driven companies and boundaries mentoring for individuals seeking to live authentically. Kate recently made the bold decision to eliminate services generating 70% of her income simply because they no longer brought her joy – a move that perfectly embodies her philosophy of unapologetic living.
What makes Kate's approach remarkable is her unwavering commitment to working exclusively with businesses driven by positive impact, not just profit. She particularly enjoys partnering with companies pursuing B Corp certification, which requires meeting rigorous standards for social and environmental performance. Beyond her professional endeavors, Kate volunteers weekly with Oak Haven Hospice, spending precious time with someone facing complex terminal illness – providing companionship and perspective that enriches both their lives.
Our discussion delves deeply into the importance of boundaries in both personal and professional settings. Kate explains how proactively communicating expectations improves relationships and prevents resentment. She even shares practical tips for making a positive environmental impact, including a free browser plugin called "Reforest" that plants trees to offset your digital carbon footprint.
Whether you're struggling with setting boundaries, seeking to align your business with your values, or simply looking for practical ways to make a positive impact, this conversation offers wisdom and inspiration. Kate's story reminds us that kindness matters – not just in how we treat others, but in how we honor ourselves and our deepest values.
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This podcast is a proud member of the Mayday Media Network. If you have an idea for a podcast and need some production assistance or have a podcast and are looking for a supportive network to join, check out maydaymedianetwork.com.
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Hello everyone and welcome to the Kindness Matters podcast. I'm your host, mike Rathbun. On this podcast, we promote positivity, empathy and compassion, because we believe that kindness is alive and well, and there are people and organizations that you may not have heard of in the world, making their communities a better place for everyone, and we want you to hear their stories. On this podcast, we talk about matters of kindness because kindness matters. Hello and welcome everybody to the Kindness Matters podcast, thank you, thank you. Thank you so much for joining us everybody to the Kindness Matters podcast, thank you, thank you. Thank you so much for joining us, for making the active choice to take 30 minutes out of your day to listen to, hopefully, some positive content, something that you can walk away from smiling, as opposed to some of the other stuff that's out there these days. Right, I appreciate it. Please, if you hear anything in this podcast today that resonates with you or that inspires you or that motivates you, please, please, please, share it with your family and friends and your coworkers, and I would greatly, greatly appreciate it. I appreciate it so much and you are going to be so glad that you showed up today, because I have an amazing guest for you.
Speaker 1:Her name is Kate Browning and she is a unicorn. Should I just leave it at that? I could just leave it at that. No, kate Browning is a. She's the CEO and founder founder of cherry blossom management, correct, correct. And earlier this year, kate took kind of a drastic step and said I am my own boss, I don't need to be doing stuff I don't want to do, no more, I threw this ass in. She doesn't really sound like that. Welcome to the show, kate. Thanks so much for taking the time to be on today.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:It's absolutely lovely. The pleasure is all mine. So talk to us a little bit Now. How long have you owned Cherry Blossom Management?
Speaker 2:So it is actually going to be six years in just over a week.
Speaker 1:Wow, congratulations.
Speaker 2:Thank you, it's my six-year anniversary, yep.
Speaker 1:Six-year anniversary, yep, and, but you were. So. Cherry Blossom is a little bit about. Talk to me about what it is.
Speaker 2:So it's kind of there's two sides to the business, but the overall message is about showing up unapologetically and impactfully as you as you come. And then the two sides of the business are. There is a digital marketing side to the business, helping business owners and entrepreneurs with their marketing, and then I also do boundaries mentoring as well, to help people who want to live unapologetically, who want to say goodbye to imposter syndrome and who want to live the life that they wanted to live on their terms yeah, that's, and two very distinct sides, but but also they go together, don't they?
Speaker 2:they do go together really well because um about everyone needs boundaries and a lot of people struggle with boundaries, particularly women or those that are brought up to be people pleasers. And if you're able to put those boundaries in place in your personal life and you are a business owner, or even if you're not a business owner, in your job, you need boundaries in place to be able to manage people's expectations and to manage your expectations, so they interlink really well together so and and I was reading through your blogs and you talked about because when we're entrepreneurs, oftentimes we we feel like we have to do certain jobs that maybe I mean we're capable of doing them, but they're really maybe not our favorite thing to do.
Speaker 1:And you need to really. I'll just go out and say it a bold step to say I'm not going to do that anymore.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to do that anymore. Yeah, yeah, I think I think, especially if you are running your own business or multiple businesses, you sometimes put a very heavy emphasis on the financial responsibilities and the income because you need to pay your bills. Of course you do and you want to be financially secure Everyone does but in doing so you often say yes to things that you probably wouldn't have said yes to otherwise, and that's kind of where I've made that change in my business. I've always been really good at saying no to potential clients that perhaps aren't the right fit and I'll introduce them to someone else who would be a better fit.
Speaker 2:But recently I found myself falling into a pattern of offering services that, as you say, yes, I can do them, but I don't enjoy them anymore. They actually cause me stress, they cause me overwhelm and I found myself dreading having to do those things. And unfortunately they those two particular tasks in my business bring in about 70% of my regular retainer income, but they don't bring me joy. They bring me the opposite. So I made the decision about a month ago to announce that I am scrapping those services going forward and I'm going to focus on the things that bring me joy that make me happy and where I can really see a difference with the clients I work with. So it's absolutely terrifying, but it needs to be done, because if, if you're not happy, what's the point?
Speaker 1:yeah, for sure. And and that's the one thing I love about being an entrepreneur, right? Um, my wife and I started a, a home cleaning business back in 2006,. I want to say, and we would get asked you know well, do you do window cleaning? No, we don't do window cleaning, but could we? I suppose we could and we tried it a little bit, and it just the first job we did. It was in the springtime, late, late winter here, and I was doing somebody's outside windows and a snow blob melt was melting in it, off the house and right down my back. I'm like I don't enjoy this, and so we did it for a couple of months and then I'm like, no, no, we're not doing that anymore. But yes, it increased our bottom line, it increased the amount of money that we brought in and there were a lot of number of things with home cleanings, move-out cleanings.
Speaker 1:Don't want to do that anymore. Hoarder situations not doing that, so you know. So I totally get where you're coming from with that and and and your, your fascination or not. Fascination, that's not wrong, that's not the right word. But each of us has to find what makes us happy and do those things, Because, Lord knows, there's probably a dozen more companies out there that actually enjoy that kind of thing and will do that thing right, You're not the only one in the whole world.
Speaker 2:And that saves the stuff that you like to do for you, and I also think if you're if you're doing things that you genuinely enjoy, you're going to be more invested in it and you're going to do a better job at it.
Speaker 2:If you're doing things that you don't enjoy, the client or the customer is probably not going to be getting the best out of you. And I also think it's a really great thing as well with niching down to what you are really good at, because it helps you find your potential clients and strengthens your brand, because you're then attracting the people that you really want to work with. So, although it can feel, it can feel really tough. I resisted niching for so long when I first started my business, but now that I've niched, the type of people that I attract are the people that I want to work with, and it also does the opposite it tends to repel a lot of the people that perhaps we wouldn't be a good match for, so I'm finding myself having to say no a lot less now because of that to say no, a lot less now because of that.
Speaker 1:yeah, and speaking of finding people that you connect with you, you have taken kind of a unique approach to your business because you only work with people who are driven by their positive impact, not just profit, but the positive impact that a company can have on their neighborhood, their city, their business, their little piece of the world. Yeah, and I find that so fascinating and so inspiring for me.
Speaker 2:I've always been driven by impact. It's I've always. It's all. It makes me happy to make other people happy. It's a driving force for me. It always has been, and when I decided that I wanted to set my business up, I decided that I wanted to work with people that were like minded and shared my values. So you can absolutely be motivated by money, because money is motivated for me, because I want to be financially stable, I want to have life experiences, but I'm not driven by material things.
Speaker 2:However, my main driving force is the positive impact I can have on others, whether it's on my clients, whether it's in my community, because I volunteer weekly, whether it is working to be more sustainable and kinder to the environment, because we've only got one planet. She's very precious. We need to take care of her. But if I work with other people that then share those values, it then creates that ripple effect because they then start to go into that mindset and it ripples out into others and I think it can only do good. And if someone wasn't driven by impact and didn't want to make the world a better place or didn't want to work to be more sustainable, then they're probably not my kind of person anyway, because that's really important to me.
Speaker 1:Oh for sure, yeah, so talk to me. Can you give me an example of somebody that you teamed up with? Because of their impact?
Speaker 2:So one of my clients. She's been my client.
Speaker 1:And you don't have to name drop. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:That's okay. One of my clients. I've worked with her. Probably I've been in business six years, so we've probably worked together for about five and a half years now. I've been in business six years, so we've probably worked together for about five and a half years now and um we send each other referral work all the time because we share a lot of values, and one of the reasons I went with her she's a web developer, so she designs websites for other people and websites are an amazing tool, but the a lot of people don't realize the amount of energy they can give out can actually add quite a lot to emissions. Now she is a green host, which means that all of her websites that she creates and runs and hosts are um only generated with green energy and it's fully sustainable and um therefore, it actually doesn't contribute to the emissions output yeah so that's why I work with them, because every website she creates means it's a green host and green energy, so they're actually carbon neutral, which is an amazing thing to achieve to be carbon neutral.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Do you know? This is completely well, not completely off topic, Are you? Do you know where Wiltshire is? Yes, Is that near you.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Okay, where Wiltshire is? Yes, is that near you? Yes, okay, there is a company on Wiltshire called Wiltshire Digital Drive. I've been trying forever to get in touch with these people to have them on the show, but they are doing something really cool. They are taking in and refurbishing electronics phones, tablets, computers, that type of thing and then giving them to underserved or underprivileged youth. So they're doing two things. Actually that's four, isn't it? Oh, thank God this is an audio-only podcast. They're reducing because, from what I understand from talking, becca shaw, I think, is her name um, she was talking about how the uk has kind of a horrible record on on e-waste. Yep, um, and, and so you know she's. They're reducing that, plus providing underserved, marginalized youth these tablets.
Speaker 2:That might be a really good fit for you yeah, that's an amazing thing to do and I think a lot of it.
Speaker 1:Is that what you were talking about, that type of impact?
Speaker 2:yeah, and I think a lot of it is it's not because people don't want to have a positive impact? I think there's not. It is it's not because people don't want to have a positive impact. I think there's not enough education around it. I think people don't know about it. Like I use a plugin on my uh google, which is called reforest or reforest, because it's double o and it means every time I, so every time I use the internet, whether it's on a social media or whether it's on another website. They then record your journey and they plant trees to offset your carbon footprint just from using the internet. And it costs nothing. It's free.
Speaker 2:But people don't know it exists. It's a free tool and they they record. They keep a record of how many trees they're planting because of your usage to offset your carbon footprint, but I think more people would use it if they knew about it. I think it's a lack of education.
Speaker 1:What's the name of the app again?
Speaker 2:Reforest. So it's Reforest, but with a double O instead.
Speaker 1:R-E-F-O-O-R-E-S-T.
Speaker 2:Yes, and it's a simple plugin. It records where you visit on the internet and then it plants trees and you have a little thing in the corner saying we've planted 10 trees today for you being on the internet.
Speaker 1:That's so cool. We will have a link to that in the show notes, as well as to Cherry Blossom Management, for sure. So now let's switch gears a little bit and let's talk about boundaries, because that's also very important to you, and it really is kind of a buzzword these days, isn't it? Everybody's talking about boundaries.
Speaker 2:It is. When I started doing the boundaries work a few years ago, very few people talked about boundaries or knew what boundaries were. When I said I'm a boundaries mentor, like what's a boundary? Few years ago, very few people talked about boundaries or knew what boundaries were. When I said I'm a boundaries mentor, like what's a boundary? And I was finding myself having to explain and educate people on what a boundary was in the first place. But now when I talk to people about it, they're like oh my god, boundaries are so important. I need help with that. Most people I speak to I would say about 80 to 90 percent say I'm not very good with boundaries and I would like to be better, which is really interesting the fact that people are starting to learn about it now. But boundaries are so, so important.
Speaker 2:And again, there's something that I didn't have growing up, because most people learn about boundaries from your family, as you are a child growing up.
Speaker 2:So if you were in a family that wasn't very structured and didn't have those boundaries, then you probably haven't learned them.
Speaker 2:I found myself putting because I put boundaries in place in my business, but I also put them in place in my personal lives as well my personal relationships.
Speaker 2:I have them with family for various reasons, and when I found myself talking to my mother who's now 66, but she was 60 at the time and I explained to her I'm putting these boundaries in place and it's here to protect me, but it's also to protect you, and this is what I'm doing, and I then she was what's a boundary? And I was like this is why I don't didn't have any boundaries. So I was then educating her at the age of 60 on what a boundary is, but now she's learned about it and she respects those boundaries, because they can be quite scary to put in place. A lot of people are scared of what people will think of them or how they will be perceived if a boundary is put in place. Um, and I just want to say that the only people that will ever have an issue with you putting a boundary in place is those that benefit from you having none.
Speaker 1:Exactly, exactly, yeah, and it really is so important, and both in your personal life and in your business life, for those people who are, for those people who are because again I've run into it in our business life. You know, somebody says I want you to work for me on Saturday. I don't work Saturdays and I feel awful saying that, but I don't.
Speaker 2:This is for me right and that's the same with me. I don't. This is for me, right and that's the same thing. I don't work Fridays. So when someone first comes to me and they want to work with me, I explain. I actually send them a document which lays out my boundaries on my time, how they can communicate with me, when they can expect responses from me. I lay out a number of boundaries before they sign a contract, so they can see these are my expectations of you and this is what you can expect from me in return. And if this doesn't sit with you, then you don't need to sign the contract.
Speaker 2:But I've worked with someone recently who came to me and they they're struggling with a difficult client. And they said to me I'm really struggling with this person, they are really pushing boundaries. I'm finding it very stressful, overwhelming, I don't know how to manage the situation. And when we dug deep into the conversation, it turned out that this person hadn't set boundaries in the first place. So although this client was pushing their boundaries, they didn't know they were doing it. So I ended up having a conversation with my client saying you can't get mad at someone for not respecting your boundaries if you haven't told them what those boundaries are. You need to say yeah communication is so important it is and boundaries just they make communication clearer.
Speaker 2:A lot of people are afraid of what's going to happen, but boundaries are there to let others know how you want and expect to be treated and what they can expect from you in return. So you're setting that really clear communication to start with. So it means that that relationship is so much easier to manage going forward.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, if we just talk to each other, right? Yes, if we just say and I can, I totally get the whole um, I don't want to have to tell this person this.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:But to that I say be like Kate Browning. Be, fearless and oh shoot, what's the word?
Speaker 2:You need to protect your peace and protect your joy.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's not being harsh or being mean. If you are making it clear to others it, then my relationship with my mother, since I put boundaries in place, is actually better, because she now knows how I want to be treated, how I expect us to communicate and what I want from the relationship, and now she understands that. It's so much more clear for her and it's more clear for me, because there's no more. I now know this is a boundary, this is in place. I now don't have it. There's no hidden resentment that you're pushing those boundaries, because you're not anymore, because you now understand them and my expectations are managed yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Um, so you talk about working with companies that are B Corp. Now I'm not entirely sure what B Corp is. I think it's kind of like a nonprofit in the US. Is that correct or no?
Speaker 2:No. So a B Corp is when a company pledges to be a sustainable company. But they don't just pledge to be a sustainable company. They have to jump through lots of hoops, they have to pay licensing fees, they have to do certain training, they have auditors come in and test their output and their waste, whether it's electronic, whether it's physical. It's very hard to become B Corp registered, but it means that when someone reaches that status, they are a company that is of high ethical and moral value and they prioritize sustainability in their business.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I think that pretty much answers what my next question was going to be was why do you enjoy working with them so much?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's because it means that they are driven by impact, because I've gone to B Corp training and I've gone to conferences on it to learn about it and I understand the amount of effort, the amount of money, the amount of time, the investment that goes into it. So if a company manages to hit that B Corp status, they are fully committed to reducing their carbon footprint and being even. It's not even reducing it, it's even reversing it and becoming carbon neutral. So it means that they are very much impact driven perfect, okay, last one before we go um.
Speaker 1:Would you want to share out the charity that you work for in your city?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Who do you volunteer for?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I volunteer regularly for a local charity called the Oak Haven Hospice. They are effectively a charity that support people that have complex terminal diagnoses. So it's not just someone that will go to them who has a cancer diagnosis that's terminal. They have to have additional complex needs on top of that in order to be supported by Oak Haven. So and I don't work in the hospice itself I am what's called a neighbor and I have a we call them clients and I go and see her every week and she has complex terminal illnesses. She can't leave the house for her health reasons and although she has carers and she has family, the carers are only there to do their job. The family work full time. So I go in once a week, spend a couple of hours with her, have a cuppa, have a slice of cake. We just have a catch up and talk about the world and I just try and brighten her day a little bit, because I am her connection to the outside world, and I absolutely love it it.
Speaker 2:It really does put things into perspective as well. If I'm having a bad day and then I go and see my Oak Haven client, it puts everything into perspective. It could be so much worse.
Speaker 1:Oh God, yeah, I can only imagine. And what a I mean, how nice is it for that client? I mean, and we've talked on this show many times about the epidemic of loneliness and I realize that's maybe not necessarily what's going on with your clients, and I realize that's maybe not necessarily what's going on with your clients, but really you are taking away some of that loneliness for them and just, yeah, it really is kind of a symbiotic thing, isn't it? Because you're doing her good and in return she's doing you good.
Speaker 2:It's making me feel good to be able to have that impact on someone, and I mean it's two hours a week. Everyone could find two hours a week to enrich someone's life. It costs me nothing but time and I'm very precious as to who I give my time and energy to. They're the two most important things to me, because they are two things I can't get back. But to be able to give two hours of my time to someone that it could make such an impact in their life just makes me happy. Why wouldn't you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, that's so cool. I love that because, boy, because when people are dying, there's some guilt issues here that I won't go into right now when my mom passed.
Speaker 1:We're not going to talk about that. I wish that I had been there more. This is not a therapy show. We are not going there. I love everything about you, you little unicorn, you, and I really, really, really appreciate the time that you've been able to give me and the time that we got to get to talk, and I wish you all the best, all the success in the world, kate.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I really appreciate it and I've really enjoyed chatting to you, and the name of your podcast kind of says it all, doesn't it? As for me, I always say that kindness and manners are a bare minimum that I expect from every human being, and they cost nothing. They're so easy to give, so why would you not want to be kind and that?
Speaker 1:and we're back to boundaries yes, exactly that exactly that. Thank you, kate. I appreciate it. We're going to. We will. You'll be your episode. We'll go live on August 14th ish, whatever that Thursday is the second August and second week in August and um, we'll be in touch before then to get it all promoted.
Speaker 2:Amazing Sounds great.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much and have a great week.
Speaker 2:Thanks, mike, sounds great, thank you so much and have a great week.
Speaker 1:Thanks, mike. I want to thank you for for taking this time to to listen to this episode with my guest, kate browning from cherry blossom management, um I. I hope that you're able to take something positive from this episode. Maybe you'll be inspired, maybe you'll be motivated, maybe you'll be moved. Whatever those positive feelings are, I hope you will take them out into the world and spread them and tell your friends, your family, your neighbors, your co-workers that you found a really cool podcast that doesn't leave you feeling angry after you listen to it. I'm always striving to create a better podcast for you, for all of my listeners, something that knocks your socks off, but I need some feedback to do that right. I have to know what I'm doing right and what I'm doing wrong, so please don't hold back on your comments or your reviews or anything that you feel might improve this podcast. Let me know. Let me know how you think I'm doing. You can email me, you can leave a message on the podcast itself. Whatever platform you're listening to, or my socials it would mean the world. And, speaking of socials, make sure to follow us on all of our socials, like YouTube, facebook, linkedin, instagram, tiktok. I could go on and on and, on and on, and I probably will.
Speaker 1:This podcast is part of the Mayday Media Network. If you have an idea for a podcast and you need some production assistance or maybe you already have a podcast and you're looking for a supportive network to join check out maydaymedianetworkcom and check out all the other podcasts they have. You have shows like Afrocentric Spoil, my Movie Generation Mixtape In a Pickle Radio Show, wake Up and Dream with D'Anthony Palin, staxo, pax and the Time Pals. We will be back again next week with a brand new episode and we would be honored if you would join us again. You've been listening to the Kindness Matters podcast. I'm your host, mike Rathbun. Have a fantastic week.
