This episode of Local Talent: The Entrepreneur’s Handbook showcases the incredible and moving story of local entrepreneur and LegalShield representative Kim Acosta. Kim was born into poverty in West Virginia and moved to Texas to live with her aunt and uncle. She’s faced many challenges in her life, from being a single mother to coping with work injuries, starting her own business, and she tragically lost her daughter. However, she never gave up and instead worked hard to retrain as a representative for LegalShield, where she sells supplemental legal insurance to small businesses and individuals, who all value her insights and her dogged determination to fight for justice.

Kim and Jason discuss Kim’s unusual career path, which includes working in waste management and being a professional cake decorator. Kim describes her attitude as “Ignorance on fire,” as when she started out she had no idea how to network or how to build her own business. She happily shares some of her hard-won insights with Jason, from how she developed her own professional network to what motivates her to keep going. Listen out for her other pearls of wisdom on what dressing for success means for her and what sets female entrepreneurs apart.

You can find Kim by going here: tinyurl.com/ybykmyxn

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Timestamps

[0:34] Kim’s elevator pitch and why you need legal insurance
[3:10] “I’m not a shark”: Kim on not upselling clients on an expensive legal coverage plan
[5:42] What Kim did before LegalShield
[8:07] Starting out as a cake decorator, and Kim’s subsequent work injuries
[10:12] “What are you gonna do, live off of welfare for the rest of your life?”
[12:40] Switching to LegalShield and finding a niche
[13:56] A divorce and a life-changing decision
[16:14] Kim’s heartbreaking loss
[18:41] Door knocking and networking
[21:16] How Kim built up her impressive network of business contacts and clients
[26:21] Coping without a financial safety net
[30:15] What Kim wishes she’d known before starting in LegalShield
[32:20] Growing up without
[34:12] Kim would choose finding new client over putting up rates for her existing clients
[38:27] “When do you turn off your phone?” A happy hour call with a client
[40:55] Rates going up is a slap in the face
[41:40] It’s lightning round time!
[46:36] “You can always make more money, but you can’t buy more time”
[49:19] Are entrepreneurs made, or are they born?
[51:14] What gets Kim motivated
[52:23] What makes entrepreneurial women special
[53:53] Kim talks about how she handles her competition
[56:00] Kim’s words of wisdom
[58:34] Dressing for your audience
[59:47] People can react negatively to your success, especially on social media
[1:04:40] It’s a privilege to age