Breaking Free from Corporate Life: Female Entrepreneur On Building A Successful BBQ Business | Kayla Trent

When Kayla Trent traded spreadsheets for smoked brisket, she wasn’t just changing careers—she was reclaiming her life. In this inspiring episode, Kayla, the founder of KatHouse BBQ in Oklahoma City, shares how she left a stifling accounting job to build a thriving female-owned barbecue business fueled by passion, grit, and community.

 Like many new entrepreneurs, Kayla encountered unexpected challenges—such as learning about city regulations the hard way when she was reported for selling food from home just days before Christmas. Rather than throwing in the towel, she adapted, improvised, and pushed forward, eventually securing a food trailer to keep growing her dream while staying fully compliant. Today, she's carving out space in the male-dominated world of barbecue, proving exceptional food doesn’t need sauce—and neither does a determined entrepreneur. 

In this episode, you'll hear how Kayla:
 ✅ Broke free from the corporate rat race to prioritize family and fulfillment
 ✅ Pivoted her small business after facing legal hurdles
 ✅ Navigated gender bias in the barbecue industry
 ✅ Built a loyal following of over 1,000 fans without a website
 ✅ Found her voice, charged her worth, and embraced uncomfortable growth

Whether you're dreaming of pivoting careers, starting a food business, or just need encouragement to take the leap, Kayla’s story will inspire you to bet on yourself—even when it’s scary.

🔗 Listen now and learn why not trying is the only true failure.

Kayla Trent: KatHouse BBQ, Founder & CEO

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathousebbq

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaylareshee/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kathouse_bbq

#KaylaTrent #KatHouseBBQ #SmallBusinessPivots #MichaelDMorrison #BOSS #OklahomaCity #BusinessPodcast #WomenInBusiness #FemaleEntrepreneur #BarbecueBusiness #BBQ #BBQBusiness #FoodTruckBusiness #CareerPivot #EntrepreneurJourney #SmallBusinessGrowth #SmallBusinessSuccess #WomenWhoGrill #WomenInBarbecue #OklahomaEntrepreneurs #BarbecueLife #FoodEntrepreneurship #StartupStory #LeavingCorporateAmerica #Mompreneur #SupportSmallBusiness #SmallBusinessOwner #BBQBusiness #BuildingAnEmpire #WomenOwnedBusiness #BusinessResilience 

Chapters

• 0:00 Meet Kayla Trent of Cat House Barbecue
• 4:19 Leaving Corporate Life Behind
• 10:19 Self-taught BBQ and Taking the Leap
• 15:08 Getting Caught and Pivoting Forward
• 23:09 Networking and Finding Your Voice
• 31:39 Standing Out in a Male-Dominated Industry
• 35:10 Final Advice and Building Forward

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

All right, welcome to another Small Business Pivots. And today we have another very special guest not too far down the road from where our headquarters are in Oklahoma City, and you are in for a treat today. But, as I always say every week, there's no one that can introduce their name and their business like the business owner, so I always let our guests introduce themselves. I'll let you have the floor.

Speaker 2: 0:26

First of all, thank you so much for having me on. Whenever you approached me it was, you know. It was pretty eye-opening that I have a story to tell. So I'm Kayla Trent, the owner of Cat House Barbecue here in the Oklahoma City metro area. I am a wife and a mom of five kids. We're an amazing blended family and on top of that, running this barbecue business. Believe it or not, I actually came from a background of accounting, with a bachelor's and an associate's in accounting and just left that nine to five job back in last February to do this full time. So it's been a wild ride. You know, in the corporate world you're told to stay in your lane. You're told to. You know your voice is stifled, and so I have spent the last year finding my own lane and it's been a wild ride.

Speaker 1: 1:16

Well for our listeners. You have an incredible story that caught my attention. I don't know that we knew each other before the story. It just came through my feed. So but first, I don't know if your full-time job is a mom or the barbecue. I mean, to me the barbecue would be more fun. But we'll get to that here in just a second after we introduce the show, so we'll be right back.

Speaker 1: 1:39

Welcome to Small Business Pivots, a podcast produced for small business owners. I'm your host, michael Morrison, founder and CEO of BOSS, where we make business ownership simplified for success. Our business is helping yours grow. Boss offers business loans with business coaching support. Apply in minutes and get approved and funded in as little as 24 to 48 hours at businessownershipsimplifiedcom. All right, welcome back to Small Business Pivots.

Speaker 1: 2:15

As I said, you have two full-time jobs. One sounds a little bit more fun than the other. I know we all love our kids, but come on, give me a break. There's one that we have fun with and the other that's more of a responsibility. So let's talk about you mentioned kind of coming from the corporate world. Let's talk about a little bit of your upbringing. Nothing too personal, just because I know for small business owners. We all think am I smart enough? Am I good enough? Do I have what it takes to be a business owner? And what I find with business owners is we all have trials and tribulations growing up. Most of us and for me myself, I wasn't the book smart kind of person, but I seem to be a good business owner. So tell us a little bit about your upbringing so we can get caught up to date.

Speaker 2: 2:59

So I was the book smart person. I had the straight A's. You know, that's where my dad always his dream was to be an accountant, but he never did that, and so that's kind of what instilled that into me was his love for numbers and his love for accounting, and so I really wanted to make him proud, and so, you know, let's go to school for accounting. Never in a million years did I think that I would be where I am now, though, and so I moved here by myself whenever I was 18 years old, from Arkansas and have just kind of built a life for myself, and it's led me here.

Speaker 1: 3:41

It's always interesting how we kind of live that facade, I guess you could say, of grow up, get a degree, do this, do this.

Speaker 2: 3:52

But we never really find ourselves and you mentioned that kind of early.

Speaker 1: 3:56

So let's talk about those accounting, because we need to be reminded of every job opportunity that we work in or culture that we work in is completely different. So what were the dynamics like? What was the culture like in that atmosphere? Just so others can get a little sense of the accountability and the culture that you came from.

Speaker 2: 4:20

So you know, in the corporate world you brought up being a mom of five kids and doing the barbecue. You know, working in a corporate job, if my younger son, if he needed me at school, you can't just take off and go and to be honest, if I did I would get the cold shoulder for the rest of the day because I wasn't present Whenever. In all reality, my main job in life is to raise these little human beings, and so there was that. And then you're always told in a corporate world to know your audience. Obviously I am fairly outspoken. I'm not. You know, sit in an office accounting world. I was good at it.

Speaker 2: 5:13

I was a senior accountant, but that obviously is not me and my personality. I don't belong boxed into an office. So I was constantly told to stay in my lane. Know your audience. You just do what you're supposed to be doing. And especially, you know, in the corporate world you've got women. That's another thing that I've found is outside of the corporate world. Women are so for each other. In the corporate world you're in competition 24 seven. For each other. In the corporate world you're in competition 24 seven. They're always competing with you. Coming out of the corporate world, I told my husband the other day. I said never did I ever think that I would have such a group of amazing women that supported me. And he said neither did I. And I was like, why do you say that? He said he said because you didn't like women. And I said it's because I was surrounded by the wrong women.

Speaker 1: 6:05

Yeah, there's something to be said about female entrepreneurs and the support they give each other and all entrepreneurs. It's a really big force to reckon with. So, would you say, or what would you say, is the reason for leaving the corporate world? What is what is kind of like one thing that you've learned has been the best out of everything?

Speaker 2: 6:30

That I get to make my own lane. I get to do, I get to create myself, I get to create my family and what's best for me and my family, that's what I would say.

Speaker 1: 6:44

So for those wannabe entrepreneurs that haven't quite taken that step, what encouragement would you give them to say you gotta do this if it's meant to be?

Speaker 2: 6:59

So I actually had a friend here in the very recent future or past that she owned a she does like the big balloon garlands and she was like I want my business to grow, but she was still working her full-time job. So I've become very much like if you like, if you've got this side hobby that is going amazing for you and you want it to grow, just take the leap. It is so scary. Whenever my husband said over a year ago, just quit your job, just go full time and barbecue, just do it, I was like I was the one that was like that sounds really scary because I'm very practical, I need my, I need to know that I have my safety net. But whenever you make that leap, I promise you will make it happen. You will find a way because you know that it is all dependent on you and you will make it happen.

Speaker 1: 7:57

Yeah, I can't imagine how difficult that would be for someone that counts beans. So you're saying for me to go start my business, there's no beans to count there.

Speaker 2: 8:06

Right, it was scary, but it has been the best decision that we have ever made and my husband even said yesterday he said I love your job, so yeah, Well.

Speaker 2: 8:24

No, it's more of an adventure for me. There's been so many different things happen over the last year and prior to all this happening, I was scared. I was so scared of change and I have learned to so embrace it. It's still scary, but that's that's actually been. My mantra over the last year was do all the scary things If it sounds scary.

Speaker 2: 8:52

Prior to leaving the corporate world, I didn't do the networking things. I didn't get up in front of people and talk. You know, again my voice had been stifled, I lost my voice, and so finding my voice over the last year has been pretty, pretty amazing. But to go back to do I think it's a job Now, every single time that the other day, my son got bumped in the mouth. My seven-year-old son got bumped in the mouth on the playground and the school called me and said hey, gage is having a really hard time. Would you want to come up here and just console him? Hard time, would you want to come up here and just console him? And on my way there I got teary-eyed because what I'm doing is enabling me to be able to be there for all five of my kids and for my husband. So no, it's more of an adventure.

Speaker 1: 9:40

That's amazing. A couple of quotes as a business coach I often offer, as encouragement is. Discomfort means we're growing. So you mentioned a couple of things about stepping out there to the uncomfortable zone, and then every day is an exciting adventure, with problems to be solved and memories to be made. That's my daily mantra. So just keeping in fact that we're going to have some problems here, so just get used to it, enjoy the ride. And so how did you get into? Well, let me back up a little bit, because you have this really cool neon sign behind you. For those that are listening, you can't see it, but YouTube, you can Barbecue Cat House Barbecue. So how did you get into barbecue? Female entrepreneur in the barbecue world. That's a story in itself.

Speaker 2: 10:25

Right. So it actually began, like I said, over 15 years ago. My ex-husband would kind of dabble in barbecue and then we started kind of again like a side hustle of barbecue. He had his own eight to five and I had an eight to five and we didn't do it nearly on the scale that I do it now, but I just kind of watched him. And then one day he was out of town and we got an order for several slabs of ribs and he called and he said do you think you can take this on? And I was like, well, I think so I've just watched you do it, but let's try it out. So a few days later, after the customer had picked them up and eaten them, he called my husband and said I don't know what you did to those ribs, but those are the best ribs you've ever made.

Speaker 1: 11:16

Bet that made him feel good.

Speaker 2: 11:18

Right. So that's just kind of where it started. And then after that I just kind of started taking on more and more and so it was always to make a little bit of side money and then, especially whenever we started going through the divorce, I really stepped into that to try to help support me and my three boys at the time. So that's just kind of where it's led up to today.

Speaker 1: 11:40

So self-taught.

Speaker 2: 11:42

Yes, very much self-taught yes.

Speaker 1: 11:45

What advice would you give to those entrepreneurs that have something in mind, or those wannabe entrepreneurs that have something in mind that they want to take it to the next level? What would you say has helped you, through the years, get to the point where you are today?

Speaker 2: 12:01

I mean really it was just having that hustle. You know I was working that eight to five, but on the weekends really pursuing that side hustle. You know I was working that eight to five, but on the weekends really pursuing that side hustle, and I mean never did I think I'd be doing this full time, but that hustle every weekend really led to the growth. And I mean obviously social media too. You know you've got to get that out there and build your customer base and so, and network and all those other things you mentioned that makes you uncomfortable.

Speaker 2: 12:34

Do all the uncomfortable.

Speaker 1: 12:37

That's right. Get uncomfortable, so all right. So we're going to talk about this year adventure.

Speaker 2: 12:44

Yes.

Speaker 1: 12:45

We're going to talk about it because, as a business coach, I work with some businesses that's been in business 10 years. They're still doing things that they should have quit doing on day one. What are some things that you learned when you first started that you wish you would have done different or would have done more, would have done better?

Speaker 2: 13:05

So definitely doing different, something that I've had to learn.

Speaker 1: 13:10

You're listening to Small Business Pivots. This podcast is produced by my company, Boss. Our business is helping yours grow. Boss offers business loans with business coaching support. Apply in minutes and get approved and funded in as little as 24 to 48 hours at businessownershipsimplifiedcom. If you're enjoying this podcast, don't forget to hit the subscribe button and share it as well. Now let's get back to our special guest. As a business coach, I work with some businesses that's been in business 10 years. They're still doing things that they should have quit doing on day one. What are some things that you learned when you first started? That you wish you would have done different or would have done more, would have done better.

Speaker 2: 13:59

So definitely doing different. Something that I've had to learn is charging your worth, and that's a really hard one, because whenever you get into business, especially friends and family come out of the woodwork and they're like I'm here, what kind of discount do I get? And so that was a really hard one. Is not going broke trying to make your friends and family happy. So I think that was one of the biggest things that I've learned is charging my worth and sticking to it.

Speaker 1: 14:32

Well, we try to be impactful for all listeners and I will say, as a business coach that has owned several businesses, helped other businesses, your last advocate of your business will be family and friends you need to go find someone other than family than friends.

Speaker 2: 14:53

Yes, and it's so interesting and I've read something. It's because they wish that they were where you are now, so you have that is true.

Speaker 1: 14:58

That is true. Darren Hardy, who's kind of a motivational speaker, he, he uses the the crab. I think it's the crabs, like when they scoop up the crabs and the crabs try to crawl out and the other crabs pull them back down. And that's true. Whether it's intentional or not. It just makes others feel uncomfortable. And then other reasons could be. You know, they think of you as maybe Uncle Michael or Brother Michael. They don't think of you as an entrepreneur, you know. So there's lots of reasons there. What are some things that you learned after you started your business that you would offer to help other business owners?

Speaker 2: 15:40

Giving up the tasks that don't bring you joy. It's things that not only you can do, so only I can do the barbecue. I can't have somebody else come in and do barbecue for me. But saying, like posting on social media, you can hire somebody to post on social media for you. It wasn't bringing me joy. So, things that are not bringing you joy within your business, find somebody else to do that for you so that you can focus on making the money. It's going to cost you a little bit of money to do that, but I promise you you're going to make that money right back up because you have the time to pour into your business. So, for instance, I hired a virtual assistant to start posting for me. Good for you, yes, so I can take that off my plate posting for me Good for you yes, so I can take that off my plate.

Speaker 2: 16:31

I don't have to stress about it. You know she's going to be able to make five posts in the time that I would have made one.

Speaker 1: 16:39

And she knows what she's doing. Yes, just like you know what you're doing in barbecue.

Speaker 2: 16:43

Yes, yes.

Speaker 1: 16:45

What are your plans for the future of the barbecue business?

Speaker 2: 16:50

So, what does that?

Speaker 1: 16:51

look like.

Speaker 2: 16:51

I actually have news for you, since last time we talked, I know.

Speaker 1: 16:56

You're hearing it here first, folks Right.

Speaker 2: 16:59

Actually a lot of people don't know this. I mean they'll know it before this airs, but I actually secured a food trailer last week.

Speaker 1: 17:07

Very cool Congratulations. We are moving along yes. Congratulations. So you're the traveling cat house barbecue.

Speaker 2: 17:15

I am. I still want to stick, I think, more to catering. That's just where the money is. You and I have talked about that, but I'm not opposed to pulling it out to events and I look forward to doing that and it'll be a whole nother thing for this year to look forward to.

Speaker 1: 17:33

Very cool. Well, I want to touch on the story that grabbed my attention not too long ago of you got caught. We'll just say that I don't want to give anything away, just kind of share that story, because a lot of business owners they think, oh my gosh, if one more thing goes wrong, I'm shutting down, I'm quitting and you're like heck, no plow forward, come on, troops. So why don't you share your story and kind of the bits and pieces of maybe some things that you had to push yourself through, or maybe that might give some others encouragement of you just got to do it and here's why, and so I'll let you share the story first.

Speaker 2: 18:13

Yeah. So this last year, you know, we've just been kind of chugging along and I've been gaining all these new customers, gaining quite a following on Facebook I mean considering where I was and everything was going great. And then comes, you know, november. It got crazy busy, everybody needing their turkeys. And then December had probably at least like 15 caterings within a three week period and it was four days before Christmas. And the next day I actually had the biggest catering I've ever done and I was walking out to my car with a pan of food and a car pulls up and a man gets out and he says I'm with the city. You cannot be selling food out of your house, so how did you feel?

Speaker 2: 19:08

right, then you cannot be selling food out of your house.

Speaker 1: 19:10

So how did you feel right then?

Speaker 2: 19:13

I felt all the color drain from my face and like, what do I say?

Speaker 1: 19:18

You didn't drop the food, did you?

Speaker 2: 19:20

No, no it's like. But how do I get out of this? How do I, you know, spend this? And I said, well, not even for friends and family. And he said, well, your Facebook for friends and family. And he said, well, your Facebook has been turned in also, so we've seen everything.

Speaker 2: 19:33

Wow, somebody had intentionally turned me in and turned in the Facebook, and so that completely obviously knocked me off my feet. You know, with it being four days before Christmas, five kids, you know, I still had a couple of Christmas presents to buy and I'm asking myself do the kids really need those presents? Do they really need that last present? Because what if I can't have? I'm not going to have this income, because somebody was so offended by my success that they wanted to hurt me and my family so badly. So I definitely had my pity party for a good couple weeks. You know, it really, really knocked me off my feet.

Speaker 2: 20:20

So I had my pity party. I cried, talked to my husband a lot about it and like, what am I doing? Like why, why am I even doing this if people are going to try to knock me down? And then I realized that it's not people, that it was only one person I had built. So all all these people I have this huge circle now that support me, and just because one person is trying to take me down doesn't mean that I need to go down. So that started the search of the food truck and it's taken, you know, four months now to actually find that, but we're finally getting there. But it was really the hard realization that it was just that one person. So we're moving along.

Speaker 1: 21:13

That's awesome, as they say, you know, you know you're doing something right when you got somebody watching.

Speaker 2: 21:19

Yes, and you know, that's something that I've also realized, because I was having a hard time pulling the you know the plug on getting the food truck, and I realized it's because I do have so many people watching now that I'm afraid of that one person or a few people getting to celebrate in my failure. I mean, to me failure is not an option. I'm going to make it in one way or another but if, say, the food truck doesn't work out, that somebody gets to relish in my failure, and that was bothering me so much and I finally had to realize who cares. At least I'm doing what a lot of people aren't doing. I took that step, I took that leap and I'm doing it. So if they get to see a failure here and there, at least I'm going for it.

Speaker 1: 22:13

Good for you. We have more people approach us that want to start a business than have started a business. It's scary, always envious of those that have and then complain in the background. You know about their success. It's never about their. Whatever it is, they're stuck in, but it's usually about someone else going to that next level. That's interesting that you, you, you bring that up. So today, what would you say is a life lesson you've learned fast forward, from the day you started your business to today. What is like the first thing that comes to mind that says I'm glad I did this, because oh man.

Speaker 1: 22:57

That's a that's a hard one, cause you'll go through different seasons in business and and that answer can constantly evolve and change. At first it was the freedom you know which is most people while you're thinking. I want to share with them that most wannabe entrepreneurs are usually thinking about the money, but after you start the business it's like, wow, the freedom I have. I don't have to ask permission to go see my child in the daytime.

Speaker 2: 23:28

Yes, recognized here lately is the people that I'm getting to meet and really the places that I'm getting to go. That I wouldn't have done I just did a women's retreat for women entrepreneurs and just the locations that I'm getting to go cater to. That I would have never. I would have been stuck in my bubble and accounting in my office, you know, just sitting there on a day-to-day basis. But I'm getting to travel and I'm getting to go do these things and meet all these people and I would have never thought that I would have such a huge circle at this point.

Speaker 1: 24:07

Yeah, that is truly amazing. Say, as a female entrepreneur is one of your current challenges and then also one of your current successes, so that other female entrepreneurs can kind of feel the love.

Speaker 2: 24:22

Well, and obviously in a man's industry of barbecue, it's kind of funny. We'll go do a catering and my husband calls himself the best free help that I have and he is, he's amazing free help.

Speaker 1: 24:35

He's probably the chief taste officer, right.

Speaker 2: 24:39

Yes, yes, along with the all the kids. But it's so funny Cause we'll get to an event and the men especially, we'll walk up to him man, this is really good, what kind of wood did you use? And he'll be like it's not me, I didn't do any of this. And they'll like, they'll literally acknowledge that with like nodding their head and they'll be like well, how long did you smoke the brisket for? And he's like you don't understand, I had no. He's like I literally helped package it and that's about it. So it's funny. So, going into a man's world, they have a really hard time acknowledging that I'm. This blonde haired girl over here is the one that that made this food. Yeah, and then what was the second question?

Speaker 1: 25:27

So what would be the like a success that, moving from day one, it was kind of the freedom you have. You recognized right away that you could go, you know, check on your son. What is something that you've appreciated now, being a female entrepreneur, that others need to know?

Speaker 2: 25:45

Well, obviously, like I said, the support system from women coming out of the corporate world, it can be really catty. Corporate world it can be really catty, it's. It can not be a pretty scene sometimes and go home feeling really down because you're constantly competing with all these other women and to now have all this whole support system that not only supports me, but I get calls all the time that they are referring me to people and people that I've never even met before, and so it's become the weirdest thing to me and I don't know if I'll ever get used to getting phone calls from people that I don't know, that I've never met, asking me to cook food for them all because they've heard about it from somebody else down the line and it's. It's so amazing and so freeing for it to get to that point.

Speaker 1: 26:38

Well, let's talk about that, because, coming from the corporate world, where you don't know anyone outside of that box that you mentioned, how did you step out there? What kind of groups are there? What's the best way to network and sell? Because, obviously, friends and family. I, for most, most people, I always say don't start with friends and family. They're not going to pay you what you're worth.

Speaker 1: 27:04

They're not going to be your advocate. They think of you as the aunt or the brother or the sister, whoever. But how did you step out there? How did you find these groups and then any kind of tips to give people on how to network best? Because I know if you've never networked or sold, been in sales before, you can take the wrong approach and offend people as well.

Speaker 2: 27:26

So it's actually interesting. Whenever I stepped out of accounting to start doing barbecue full-time, I still second-guessed myself. I thought while I'm getting barbecue up and running full-time, I need another revenue stream. So I started selling roofs with a friend. That was pretty short lived but he was doing a network group called Gold Star, which is here in the metro. So I started attending that and I very quickly joined with under barbecue. But that's really.

Speaker 2: 28:03

You have to get up every single time and speak for 45 seconds about what you do, and I remember the very first time that I got up my voice was quivering like my. I'm shaking, like I. It's a terrible feeling and each and every time it got easier and easier. So that was a weekly thing, so that was almost practice every week getting up speaking, and then here in the Oklahoma City metro area we also have an organization called Mix and Mingle which is where you and I met. But again you get up in front of a room full of people. You have 30 seconds to introduce who you are, what you do.

Speaker 2: 28:41

So it's a very short snippet, but again, can be extremely uncomfortable in the beginning. Extremely uncomfortable in the beginning. So but just keep on practicing that and finding those networking groups and there's a lot of like after hours networking groups where you can actually you have more time to mingle and interact with people. It's not so much the elevator pitch right off the bat. So just doing those over and over and over again has gotten me to where I'm at least comfortable enough to come talk to you on this.

Speaker 2: 29:14

So I would say that that's what I did, but again doing the uncomfortable things. Because whenever I remember there was one meeting that I was trying to talk myself out of going, I didn't want to go. I felt really uncomfortable. It was like probably the third meeting I'd ever been to. I didn't want to go and I even called my husband. I was like, well, I didn't effectively talk myself out of going because I'm on my way and it wasn't five minutes of being in this room, I landed a catering gig. It was making that conscious decision to go do that uncomfortable thing.

Speaker 1: 29:53

That's a reward.

Speaker 2: 29:54

Yes, and then from that catering gig I actually got another one. So and so I. I actually sometimes I like to sit and be like man. This catering literally came from this and this and this and, like you know, track it down the line of like where it that actually started.

Speaker 1: 30:16

That's really cool. I bet there are some people listening to this. When you talk about getting up and talking in front of people, they're just shivering in their boots right now going. I can't even imagine.

Speaker 2: 30:22

It's uncomfortable and it still makes me feel uncomfortable. But I've you know, some people will get up and they have their very set elevator pitch and you can tell it's rehearsed and I decided fairly early on that that wasn't me. So I just kind of get up and I'm just me and I talk about whatever I'm doing right then, because if you get too rehearsed it doesn't sound authentic and it doesn't resonate with people. People completely tune out. I know I do that whenever people get up and are rehearsed. So I just try to be, try to be myself.

Speaker 1: 30:56

Yeah, yeah, that's yeah, you're. No, don't try to be the next Google or, you know, amazon or anything like that. Just be yourself. People buy from those they know, like and trust. So anything in this past year that you would say you wish you would have known how to do better or you would have done better, or are you just going with the flow every day?

Speaker 2: 31:20

I think I'm going with the flow. However, I think time management whenever you don't have somebody else telling you this, this and this need to get done every day. Whenever it's up to you for you to make your schedule, it becomes like a whole nother thing. So really, time management as an entrepreneur like making your schedule for yourself and sticking to it every day, not just waking up whenever you want to wake up. You know you actually treat it as as a job, but you even though you still have that freedom. So that has been probably one of my hardest things to do is time management making myself follow that schedule, and I'm getting better at it.

Speaker 1: 32:04

So Well, I will tell you, having worked with so many business owners, that's probably all of our biggest challenges the time management and prioritizing what really needs to be done versus what's easy to be done.

Speaker 2: 32:19

Yep.

Speaker 1: 32:19

Well, how can people find out more about your business?

Speaker 2: 32:24

So I have a Facebook. I have Cat House Barbecue and then also Kayla Trent on Facebook, and then I also have an Instagram. You can find it at Kayla Trent or Cat House Barbecue Working on a website. I'm hoping that that and that'll be like a one year goal I think this coming year, but definitely needed to get some other things up and going before focusing on that.

Speaker 1: 32:47

So well, I will commend you on that, because it sounds like you're prioritizing what makes sales. I just had a meeting with a fairly new business owner and they're doing everything but sales. So they're doing these websites and this social and I'm like you realize that's like a long-term sell versus if I were to just call somebody go to a networking event. So you're doing a lot of great things in the right order, so kind of what makes your barbecue a little bit different than everybody else's.

Speaker 2: 33:18

on the catering side, so whenever I do cater you know, catering barbecue isn't like this, like it's not pretty. I mean, it's a pan of meat, you know so it is, and so I love to set it up in a different way. A matter of fact, I just started also doing graze boards, also graze tables and charcuterie boxes. Yeah, so I mean, to be honest, what happened back in December of being turned in has made me think of, like how can I branch out? Because the guy that came by from the city, he was actually very, very nice and very helpful and I've been able to talk with him since and ask him for a few pointers of how I move forward, of how I move forward. So it was basically just the meat I could not.

Speaker 2: 34:13

I can't post the meat until I'm licensed in a food truck. So it made me branch out to the graze boards because you can, you can do that. So it that also made my mindset change of how I lay out the meat and present it more pretty, more eye-catching, because people eat with their eyes first, so I don't just set that pan of meat on the table and so it's more of a presentation for me. I also make my own rub. People ask me if I make my own sauce and I don't, mainly because I don't think that my meat needs a sauce.

Speaker 1: 34:56

That's like a good steak, doesn't? When they ask for do you need a sauce? I shouldn't need one if it's that right.

Speaker 2: 35:03

So I've really pushed back on making a sauce and I know I need to cater to my customers and what they want and what they're asking for, but I have a really hard time thinking about people putting sauce on my barbecue.

Speaker 1: 35:16

Yeah, no, I'm with you on that. I am with you on that. So well, what last bit of information, insights, would you give to other entrepreneurs, something you've learned along the way? It could be a quote, it could be a book, it could be anything about life, doesn't even have to be about business.

Speaker 2: 35:34

I would say just take that leap, just do it. It's scary, it's scary, but, like I said, if you take that leap, you have no other choice but to push yourself forward. There's no going. You can go back, but what's that going to get you? You're just going to be stuck right in the same spot that you were. So take that leap, move forward, keep taking those steps and you're not going to regret it. If it does fail, at least you did it. You can say you tried. So if you don't, you're never going to know, and that's a failure in itself you're never going to know, and that's a failure in itself.

Speaker 1: 36:15

Yeah, that's, that's powerful. Well, you're a blessing to many and you've shared a bunch of information that's going to impact others. Wish you continued success and I can't wait to come to your next catering. I'm ready for barbecue. All right, have a good one. We'll see you around.

Speaker 2: 36:26

Thank you, you too.

Speaker 1: 36:28

Thank you for listening to small business pivots. This podcast is created and produced by my company boss. Our business is growing. Yours. Boss offers flexible business loans with business coaching support. Apply in minutes and get approved and funded in as little as 24 to 48 hours at businessownershipsimplifiedcom. If you're enjoying this podcast, don't forget to hit the subscribe button and share it as well. If you need help growing your business, email me at michael at michaeldmorrisoncom. We'll see you next time on Small Business Pivots.