Building Your DREAM Life with Tara Kirby
Tara is a coach and mentor. She stepped into this role after a loooong entrepreneurship journey! In her words, “ya girl has done everything.” Her goal and her mission is to help female entrepreneurs step in their own power and grow income to build their dream lives.
Tara’s Entrepreneurship Journey
“I feel like I’ve been an entrepreneur most of my adult life. I had a passion for fashion and was screen printing shirts in my dorm room back in college. As I got into school I realized I didn’t need school to do fashion and merchandise. So I dropped out three years into college and went to beauty school while working at a spa.”
“I loved the transformation that people would make when they would leave the spa! That was my step into the service industry and I built a business there, kept my passion for fashion and worked as a fashion stylist. And that’s how I jumped into the photographer world. I dipped my toe into entrepreneurship in everything I was doing, I always had a side hustle and didn’t realize it was actually a business until I was pregnant with my first kiddo and working full time. I had a salary and had PTO, was secure but wanted to be creative and help women feel their best selves. I actually quit my full time job because they went back on paid maternity leave so I dove right into that side hustle of doing hair and realized it could support me and my baby.”
“So I was doing hair for a while but I got bored so my friend and I opened a photography studio in Provo. I opened a bigger photography studio that ended up being an event space. It was still just me and my little girl and it was an incredible learning experience for me. Then I met my current husband six weeks after I signed our lease for our new studio. It was a lot of life in a little bit of time, I ended up selling that same studio because my dreams shifted. I now had two kids, got pregnant shortly after marrying my hubby, had a solid family and a husband. I had to release something because my lifestyle had shifted and I was just doing too much. I took a step back but people would come to me and say ‘how do I do what you do?’ and I realized that could be a viable business and that’s how I was introduced to the coaching world.”
The Shift to Coaching
“Shifting was actually really scary for me. I was working with my mentor, who did coaching very very differently than how I do it now. I knew that I was coaching, I knew that I was good at it but my mentor changed her mind and decided she didn’t want to continue with the program anymore. So I told her that I was going to step into her role either in the organization or out of the organization. And it ended up being out of the organization.”
“And that was scary for me because I had built this community inside of my organization with my mentor, and that’s when the imposter syndrome hit. I had doubts, thinking ‘will anyone take me seriously…do I even know what I’m doing?’ And up until that point I had not built a profitable business for myself. We were living paycheck to paycheck, I would get it and spend it and I would think how can I help other women build their business if I don’t even have a six-figure business for myself? So I was kind of secretly coaching because I was nervous to put it out there in the open. I hadn’t come out and said I was coaching on Instagram, I was reaching out to clients and asking them to invest a small amount of money so I could prove to myself that I could help them do what they want to do.”
“In January of 2019 I made a goal that I was going to do 10K a month, that five-figure month was my goal and in September of 2019 I made my first 10K month. You never really expect things to happen, you have to take action so you can look back and see that it’s working out. I started professional coaching on my own, for my own business in March 2019 and by the end of 2019, I had made six figures in a coaching business all on my own! And that’s when the Dream Method, what I teach now, was born.”
The Creation of the DREAM Coach
“The DREAM program was not part of the plan. In November 2019 my plan was to be a business coach and help women live their best lives. That was going to be enough and I was going to be satisfied. I was working with a one-on-one client and she asked ‘how do I do what you do?’ So I started teaching her my coaching methods, my tools that I use to help my clients, we sat down and did a 5-week intensive training and I saw that it worked for her. So I realized coaching women how to be coaches could actually be a thing. So instead of doing one-on-one I switched and started doing groups, to train women to become DREAM Coaches.”
“At the end of 2020 I had nine certified coaches who I had taken through the program and I loved it. I saw the ripple effect, how the tools that helped me, help these women help their clients. When you heal your own self, it doesn’t just help you. It helps every single person in your vicinity. So much magic happens in that ripple effect by taking care of yourself. But also, I’m here to make money. I’m not going to ignore it. Money can only serve us if we use it in the right way and if you even have the money. So we want to help you make a PROFITABLE business which is why my business makes an impact and profit.”
The Money Stigma
There is a weird stigma about women making money. It doesn’t need to be there and the more we talk about it, the more it goes away.
“I talk about money a lot, and I do that to show you what is possible, not to flaunt what I have. We don’t want to accept that we’re making the money or bringing in the figures. And that is so bogus! I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my husband to feel like he has to provide for our family, I want us to be equals and I want our kids to grow up without that social stigma. At the end of the day, it’s not about making money, it’s about living a life you’re obsessed with and the money will serve that.”
I love that I have a team of helpers, I love that I can invest in my helpers to help them get to their goals. Anyone I hire who has the goal to support themselves and their business is a worthy investment. It’s not a shameful thing at all to have a nanny help a few hours a week or to outsource work to assistance.”
There’s Seasons in Business and There’s Seasons in Motherhood
“My workflow now is totally different than it was one year ago. Motherhood ebbs and flows. Right now, my oldest just started kindergarten, I have a three-year-old in preschool and a one-year old so we are just in a very hands-on part of family life right now but I’m in a hands-off part of my business.”
“A year or two ago, If I wasn’t working, I was not making money. I would do coaching calls Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and then I would immediately go to mom life when I got out. I knew I wanted another baby, I needed to pay off my debt and buy a house. I could not be working the way I was working if I wanted to reach those goals. Now we have our house, we have our baby, we have support inside the home and things move more seamlessly. I feel confident stepping out and going to the office to focus on work because I know my kids are taking care of, either at work or with the nanny. And because of my assistant, I know that the business can still work even if I am not physically working. I cannot imagine trading my time for money any longer. If things are chaotic now, don’t worry, it’s just part of the season.”
“Everyone tells me they can’t afford a nanny but I know that if I did not hire a nanny, I could not make more money. Invest in a nanny to come 2-3 hours a week, what could you get done? Where can you put your focused productivity? That amount you can get done in that 2-3 hours is leaps and bounds more than if you have your tiny people with you.”
“If you feel stuck in the chaos between work and family, think about what you want. Really, really dial in what you want your days to look like and feel like, start there and build your life around that very very clear WHAT. What can you do right now to create that space? If you don’t know what you actually want, there’s no way you can do what you actually want to do. A lot of people start with WHY but not WHAT. We know our WHY, we want to give to our families. We already know that. But the more we support ourselves, the more we can give to our families. So focus on your WHAT”
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