Breathe with Kristin Kodenski on NRG this Week

Many thanks to Mike Weiner for having me on NRG this week. I also want to shout out to the Leon Thomas Group who host virtual events and offer production management. They truly made being on the NRG smooth, professional and most importantly fun!

Good morning and welcome to NRG this week. I'm Oryne Stewart standing in for Leon Thomas.

We have a great guest in store for you today, Ms. Kristin Kodenski.

Mike, come on in and join me so we can introduce our amazing guest.

Oren, I'm really excited. We've got a young lady, Kristin, she's been with me about a year. She is in our Philadelphia NRG group. She's definitely a serial entrepreneur. She's got more websites and the Orioles have starting pitching, I think. But indeed, let's bring Kristin in and we'll introduce her. I am really excited to have her here this morning.

We are and so glad to have you here and as Mike was saying there are so many ways that we can be able to find you on social media. You have to tell us about you. www.midnightdesign.net/links

My name is Kristin Kodenski of Midnight Design and Promos. I am an agency, and since COVID hit, I really do a lot of social media. So I am everywhere. I gave you my links page so you can find me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, but I'm really pushing YouTube and TikTok. My New Year's resolution, was the stream every day. My son who's a gamer is on Twitch. So I'm even on Twitch now. I don't belong on Twitch, but they have a get chat section and I think my Motivation thing called Midnight Motivation, everyone needs motivation everywhere. So I'm giving those gamers a little motivation on Twitch.

I appreciate you. So, Kristin, you and I have been working together about a year. I think I found you on Facebook. I find people all different places. Sometimes they find me. I know I reached out to you. You came out to the Philly group. You joined immediately. You do a lot of different things. So if you had to kind of summarize in two or three sentences for our viewing audience that will be watching today and in the future, how would you describe your businesses and maybe the main business, but if you could give us a couple of sentences, that would be great.

I'm a one stop shop. I've tried to do the value meal thing and I was disappointed for a long time that I didn't have like a million clients. But I've really been working on honing my business. I've realized that I've been doing this for over 20 years. And the clients that I have, and not many people can say this, have been with me for ten to 20 years. So once I get somebody, they stay. And the reason they stay is because I offer so many services. I offer a lot of small to medium sized businesses websites. Like if someone needs a quick website and everything, and then I help them market it with Lead Generation, Direct Mail, Online Advertising, Social Media Marketing. And so the name is Midnight Design and Promos, so if they need promos I can help their as well. I have a med spa client. They need headbands and the cold presses, but they also have Lunch and Learns and they need events and other promotional marketing. So pretty much if you can't afford a big huge agency, but you need everything. One of the things I say a lot, it's not like Field of Dreams. If you build it, they NOT just come. They don't. That's what I do. And everything overlaps.

Even now, my Midnight Motivation, I just did for an artist, a small website. Jack Dalton of Carriage House Woodworks. I just had him on my show. I did his website. But then I'm like, let me promote you. So I love promoting my clients. I've been at the Med Spa promoting them, so it all overlaps. And so, yes, website, social media marketing are the two big things that I do. I also do apparel and promos, direct mail. What's great is how everything cross markets and it is so important with Lead Generation. I have this great tool as well. Direct mail is not dead. And when people get a postcard now, you target your audience and then people, before they get the piece in the mail, they actually start seeing your company on social media in ads and posts. Then they get the piece in the mail and then, they continue to see the social media posts and with technology we can track everything, and with SMS/texting added it really all overlaps these days.

And it's very important. When I build a website, after I build it, I do the email newsletters, social media, the blogs, and it all works together. So it really isn't tons of services. It's what you have to do these days? Be a little bit of everything.

You know what I like about you? Sometimes people put up a website and it's static. It's just there, and it's not doing anything. And with you, everything is synergistic. It's working together. And what I love is that you're proactive and you're there helping the client. Let me ask you this. When you help a client, let's say they've started a business and you get them going with the website and you do some SEO and maybe some promotional products, what is your biggest satisfaction? When you help a client, they come back to you and they go, oh, my God, that website just pops, and those promotional items are just amazing. What gets you fired up and excited once you've helped a new client kind of reach some of their dreams?

Just like the person I'm talking about yesterday, the reason he came to my office, is I actually train people how they can maintain their website themselves. I just don't have that lawyer mentality. Like, every time you talk to me, you're being charged $100 an hour. Like the saying, "teach a man to fish", but no one has time, and you have to hire professionals. And it just makes me feel good when people realize that I am a professional. And then they're like, thank you, Kristin, for telling me this, but can you do it for me? And then I'm like, of course I can. So I find that really rewarding.

That's awesome. One last question, then we'll bring Oryne back. You and I were talking yesterday, and you're coming up on a year with NRG, getting ready to start second year. You mentioned three things to me that you were grateful for. NRG, maybe the Law of Attraction, because I know that's newer with you. I've been studying it for about eight years. If you would have met me 9-10 years ago, Kristin, or 15 years ago when I was selling Copiers, I didn't have Law of Attraction. You would have bought a copier just to get me out of your office. I was very aggressive. I'm still a personality. I don't apologize. I like who I am. But I've mixed it with Law of Attraction, and my big thing is serving people, helping people. We had a woman join NRG in Florida yesterday at 02:00. By 09:00, I did what I always do. I blown up her phone with 23 way intros. What is maybe your biggest success story? I know you've got three, probably more, but maybe it's a law of attraction for our viewing audience. They've been to groups. They haven't had success. We're very family oriented. Everything we do. So if you would share your biggest success so far, and then we'll bring our own back and kind of wrap up. But I'd love for you to share that, please. Thank you.

Yeah, well, it's just the connections you make and meeting people. So two major things that happen. We all make business mistakes. So I also do apparel and I got into this lease of this horrible machine. And anyway, I had to take legal action, but I never even knew what Legal Shield was. And I learned about it through the NRG group. So I got out of a very financially costing lease that I was told for years, you're stuck. So that was amazing. And then how the connections are a domino effect. So I got to meet Z, who is an amazing programmer, and I am working with him now on a site, but he introduced me to Frank Dew, a business coach and just phenomenal business coach. So I'm always referring NRG because not only do you meet people in the group, but those connections spread out and is a domino effect and you just meet more and more people. So it has helped me financially. And then you get advice. I met bookkeepers and financial people and credit people, and we all know our business that we are experts in. But when you run a business, you need to know so much stuff and you just don't know everything about everything.

So it's a tremendous resource of information. And I ignore when I get and we all get spam. And I'm sure some of those companies may be good, but I ignore a lot of stuff. But when something comes from a referral, it's trusted and it means so much more. I got a bookkeeper from this whole domino effect. Actually I got a bad bookkeeper and this new one Rebecca Hurt saved me. I met this bookkeeper through the NRG, from meeting one person to another person to another person. So you save yourself a lot of time and when you just can make a decision and it's trusted, valued, and vetted resource, which is great, versus some spam mail that you got in the inbox and you're like, I don't know who I'm dealing with. Is this really a valued resource?

No. I love your answer. We'll bring Oryne back in, but you brought up a good word, domino. And I always say NRG is about access. So you meet one person, that leads you to another and then to another and so forth. And I always say to people, don't prejudge anybody. The weirdest looking guy could lead you to your biggest deal. So you just don't know. And NRG. It's all family. And that's a great word, domino. I hear that word, but not enough. So I appreciate you I appreciate you being here. You've been a great addition to the Philly NRG group and more importantly, to NRG in general. I'm going to bring you back in when you're ready. And Kristin, it's been great having you here. I'm excited to see what year two is going to be like. I know you and I are planning on doing some great things together.

No problem, Great interview so far. Kristin, I have one question for you. You mentioned this backstage and I just had to have us talk a little bit about it on air, about self care. Tell us about the importance in self care and why it is that we have to take care of ourselves. Well, Mike speaks so highly about law of attraction, but when we attract people to us, or either when we're attracted to people wanting to make sure we're taking care of ourselves first so we're not giving bad energy. Can you tell us a little bit about what it is that you've done and what it is that you do so that it gives us something to putting our mental notebooks to carry us throughout 2023?

So 2021, I was actually in a bad space, as in I am a workaholic and you think you're doing such a good job working, and that's the way society is pushing us. And I knew of the story of taking your saw and the person who just keeps sawing and sawing, sawing slower than the person who takes the time to sharpen their blade. And self care is like sharpening your blade. So last year was all about self-care. I was also told I should have a theme. So I would say not this year, but last year my theme was really self-care. Because the entire year I got a counselor, a physical trainer, a business coach, when I do something, I do it, but it was all really worth it. And I've always been a positive person, but I wasn't very positive to myself. And then one thing I keep talking about, and I promote holidays, so my Midnight Motivation is about promoting holidays and positive quotes. So yesterday was World Breathing Day and that's what I streamed on. They told me to in the beginning to breathe five times a day for just like a minute.

That's 5 minutes out of your day. That was so impossible for me. I was like I can't breathe for 1 minute over a year ago when I started this whole process and now I believe in mindfully breathing. And then it's just kind of weird how things came up. I streamed on World Breathing Day yesterday. I do these quotes and I recycle my streams. These are little marketing tips. I have these cards which have positive quotes, which have my social media posts on them. So what I streamed this morning was a recycled one that I have in the system, "sometimes the most important things in a whole day is the rest between two deep breaths". But what is the coincidence that I pulled up this card and yesterday was World Breathing Day and it all comes together. There's many self care tips I could give you, but one I would say is just breathe sometimes mindfully breathe because we worry about our past, we worry about our future. But if we can stay in the present and that is the purpose of mindfully breathing.

Well, you've taught us something, because I did not know that. So it's great to know, because you're right. Breathing is everything. We take it for granted, I'll tell you. But I had pneumonia at one point in time a few years ago. And when your lungs are compromised, you have no idea of how important it is to take the time to take those breaths and realize that all you have to do sometimes is breathe right. Not hold your breath when you get anxious. Great information. Mike this has been a great interview, Kristin. Thank you so much for joining us. Tell us where we can reach you if people would like to follow you.

My main website is www.midnightdesign. You'll find my many websites that I have on my links page www.midnightdesign.net/links and you can find all my social media accounts and all my other sites on that page. That's my YouTube www.youtube.com/@midnightdesign. I would love subscribers. I have many LinkedIn followers. My LinkedIn is huge, but would love it to see you on YouTube. And then if you want to see some fun stuff, my TikTok is www.tiktok.com/@ladymidniite, which has my motivational stuff, but I've been doing crazy TikTok dances. I celebrated every day of the week. So if you want to see my Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, fun, fun stuff, it's there as well.

That is awesome. Well, this has been great. Mike, do we have anything else?

Kristin, I appreciate you being here. It's long overcoming. I had just realized we hadn't had you on here, so I reached out to you. I tell you what, we just got things cranking with NRG. A lot of new members coming in. I've got to get a woman named Rapali on here. She's a bookkeeper helping me. And she said the NRG has made her personality. She was very shy when I met her, and I was worried about I'm like, how am I going to help this woman grow? She was shy. And she was at the California NRG meeting yesterday, and I had her do a testimonial with somebody new there. And she's like, NRG has made her personality. I've been doing this 25 years. I've never heard that before. But I don't think, for Kristin she is not shy. So for Kristin, it was not a problem. And I think NRG amplifies Kristin's strength. It gets her in front of more people. It gets her exposure. I still think a lot of people out there don't know what a real good networking group is. And Dr. Z, we've had him on before, and he's like, I'm not bold enough. I mean, I think I'm pretty bold. But you get three referrals when you come to a meeting and I blow your phone up with 20 more. We had someone in Florida yesterday within 8 hours. I'd done that and she was ecstatic. I mean, she was so pumped. And for the viewing audience, you get to meet great people like Kristin and Dr. Z and everybody through NRG. So I would encourage if you're watching this get with Kristin if you're new business or your website static, we don't use that word enough, right, Kristin? I know what static is. I can talk about if it's not generating income and it's not moving. And I love the fact that you're helping people be able to control their website. You're not holding them hostage. I've heard that term before and I had a situation and I needed legal shield as well and I've had them since one. So quick plug for them. They're phenomenal organization. I mean, for pennies on the dollar, you're going to pay an attorney $400 an hour but not when you have legal shield. And that's the thing is people ask me, it's funny, people come to a meeting and they go, well I'm afflac and we have supplemental and they go on and on. It's like I know a little bit about everything to be lethal and dangerous. I've been doing this for a while. I'm an expert in networking, that's my gig. I can't throw a football like Lamar or a baseball like Ripkin, but I know a little bit about everything that I can talk with Kristin intelligently about what she does. And I tell you one thing that Kristin hasn't talked a lot about is the promotional products. And I know you're actually looking for someone now. And if anybody is out there and you know how to sell, she wants a professional, right? You want someone good guy, gal, doesn't matter, age, color, religion, we don't care about.

Not everyone can sell and I can sell, but I'm really busy, so I really do need a professional salesperson. I have the leads, I have the set up, I have the systems in place. But yeah, that's what I'm looking for. And then I keep saying I'm looking for another me. I'm trying to find another me. So if you can identify with me and what I do, I would love to hear from you. I've been saying that for a couple of years now, but you got to speak it into existence. So I'm looking for another Kristin out.

Then what she's saying, she's looking for someone smart, intelligent, charismatic, extroverted, personable. I mean, you might as well just clone yourself, Kristin. That might be the quickest thing, going out and searching for somebody.

Yeah, they're out there. They're definitely out there. Yes indeed. You put it out there in the atmosphere and it will attract, it will attract.

Yeah, I'll wrap up Kristin, you were saying something. We thank you for being here, but I apologize. What were you going to say?

No, I just want to thank you. I don't think I've been able to thank you enough. So I want to thank NRG in general, but also for giving me this opportunity to speak and share. So, as I said, last year was my theme was self care. So this year my theme is self promotion, which is why you see me pushing so hard on the TikTok and the YouTube. But I have learned so much and people think these influencers just get a million people easily, just like the website. You build it and they will not come. You have to work at it, even on social media. These influencers that have all these people I just watched a thing, my son's into Dungeons and Dragons, and there's this amazing Dungeon master who is a huge influencer. But the science and the work that he's put in behind the social so it's all work, but at least it's fun.

That's true. Having fun while you're doing it.

Yes, indeed. Well, thank you for joining us. This has been another great episode of NRG. This week. I am Oryne Stewart, joined by our great guest, Kristin Kodenski and Mike Weiner. Self care, everyone. Take care of yourself. And following self care, self promoting, make sure, whatever your businesses are, that you promote them so that people know what it is that you do and they know where to reach you. Have a great week. See you next week.