She Is A Leader - The Podcast

Yvonne Heimann [00:00:06]:
Hello and welcome back to another episode of She Is A Leader where I interview female leaders and poke their brains to figure out how did they build a business around their passion, their compassion, and their life. And today, I am excited to have Carol Kabaale right here, here on my show. She is a Facebook ads strategist and the founder of Best Ads limited With a passion for helping entrepreneurs build scalable businesses. Carol specializes in creating automated. Did somebody say automated? Guys, you know how much I love this word. Carol creates automated lead generation strategies that give her clients freedom. There's another one of my favorite words. While delivering results after transitioning from the corporate world, she has successfully built a business that allows her to live life on her terms, all while empowering other entrepreneurs to do the same.

Yvonne Heimann [00:01:14]:
And my audience already knows why I said yes to you. Come on. Because this is pretty much mission of Ask Yvi. It's like you got all the check boxes marked. Welcome so much for the episode. To the episode. I am so happy to have you.

Carol Kabaale [00:01:30]:
Well, I am so excited, Yvi, to be here. This is gonna be so fun. And let me tell you something. I love checking boxes. I am like, give me all the stars.

Yvonne Heimann [00:01:40]:
We used bees in school, the little busy bees. Before, sort of like they started this after I was the. The first few. Few grades. They didn't do grades. They did just bees. So I'm like, stars, bees. We take it all.
We take it all. Now.
Anything, anything. I have so many stickers. Now. Tell me, Carol, little Carol, did she think she's going to be who she is today and what you are doing, or was she like completely different? What did little Carol think you're gonna do?

Carol Kabaale [00:02:17]:
She was very fun and very outgoing child. I have always been very outgoing, very dramatic, very charismatic, very people orientated kind of person. Both my parents are doctors, so I actually thought I would become a pediatrician. And I always have this passion for children. And I love little children. So I was like, oh, yeah, this will be me. I will help the little children girl. I remember being in high school and having like to spend a week at the hospital with these poor little kids that I couldn't help.
And my heart was just breaking and I just knew, I can't do this. Are you crazy? Like, no, I'm not built for this. So that plan went out the window and I think she would enjoy this more. I will say this little Carol and big Carol, we both like nice things things. And yeah, there's nice things at the end of this career. So I like it.

Yvonne Heimann [00:03:18]:
I love that. Now I would like to tap into you. You mentioned that little Carol was already really charismatic and dramatic and outgoing. Now that there comes my past story out. And I'm curious if you experienced similar things. I was always told, kids are supposed to be heard. It's supposed to be seen, not heard. So me and my young age, I was actually be told to be less, to be quiet.
How was your childhood? Was it. Were you experiencing more of a hell, yeah, girl, go do, or did you have a similar experience to me?

Carol Kabaale [00:04:03]:
Oh, no. I was complete opposite of you. So both my parents are Cuban, so, you know, Latin American people are very loud people. We're very fun people. Very passion people. Passionate, yes. Like, we're just like, full of life and color and, you know, I think kids are at the forefront in a lot of our culture. Like, they're just like, oh, my gosh, these shiny things.
And I think it really helped that I was naturally charismatic because it also helped when my parents did immigrate. I was the one who was always constantly speaking and helping and translating. And it really helped that I had no fear. I was just like, oh, you want me to talk to that person? Great. Someone gave me a phone and was like, tell me what they're saying. And I was like, okay, cool. Hi, my name is Carol. I'm like five years old, translating for people.
So I don't know. It just came so naturally. Looking back on it as a. As an adult, I guess sometimes I forget I'm an adult. I'm like.
Looking back on it. Now you just wonder like, wow, that was, like, really brave to just be like five or six and speaking to random adults and translating and being in those rooms and never feeling like I didn't belong. Always feeling like, yeah, this is me. I can have this conversation. And there's nothing wrong with it. So, yeah, I loved being there.

Yvonne Heimann [00:05:29]:
I love that. So how did little Carol get to where she is today?
What is that path that got you to. To be this passionate ad strategist that you are today?

Carol Kabaale [00:05:42]:
So it all started when my parents decided to immigrate. So they left Cuba and we came to South Africa. And then I had a very traditional kind of path. Went to school, went to university, got a degree. And I thought, like, you know, I would live my inverted commas American dream, but in South Africa, I guess this is where I live. So, you know, just like, go get a job, find a man, get married, have children. I thought that was going to be me. And I entered work, and I studied BCom, hospitality management.
So I worked at a hotel in the admin section. And I'm not gonna lie to you, Yvi, I loved the people. Thank the Lord for the people. Like, thank everything for the people, because I don't know where I would be here right now. But I just hated everything else. Back then. I didn't know this word burnt out, but I was burnt out. I was tired, I was exhausted.
I had no boundaries. Everything I said yes to. And I was just giving and giving and giving. Because in my mind, I was taught that this is what you do. You get a job, you work, you get money, and this is your life for the next 40 years. I didn't know anything different. There was no other model to follow in my family. And once.
Fast forward a little bit, My husband proposed to me. And it was like a movie moment. It was really a moving moment. I cannot lie to you. I just saw my whole life. It flashed before my eyes. I can still see it so clearly today. And I knew that the path I was on was not the path for me.

Carol Kabaale [00:07:27]:
I wanted a life where I had choice and freedom. And working in hospitality particularly, it doesn't give you that because everybody is on vacation. You have to be there, and you never have vacation, so you live past people. And that was really hard on me. And I was like, I can't do that. Like, my soul was like, there has to be another way. So I kind of went back and I didn't tell anyone. I just kept quiet.
And one day I quit my job. I didn't tell anyone. Didn't tell my fiance. I didn't tell my parents. I didn't tell anyone. I just quit. Yeah, I had no savings. I had no plan.
I just quit. But I knew.

Yvonne Heimann [00:08:09]:
Wow. Talk about brave.

Carol Kabaale [00:08:12]:
Yeah.

Yvonne Heimann [00:08:13]:
Just doing. Just doing the jump. It's like. And sorry to interrupt here for a second, because it's like I wanted in that moment, taking that plunge, taking that jump, just doing the thing. I would love to hear from you, the. The emotions in that moment, because so many people with me immigrating from Germany to the States are like, oh, my God, so brave, so big. And I'm like, this is actually. It doesn't feel like it's such a big thing because I packed two suitcases and a dog, jumped on a plane and didn't go back.
Not a big deal. But that's my perception. So other people's perception is like, holy cannoli. So my perception right now to you just being like, cool, I'm done. My fiance doesn't know. My family doesn't know. I have not nothing in the plan. I'm just done with this.
To me, I'm like, holy cannoli. But I would love to know your emotion, your thinking in that moment of, I'm just done.

Carol Kabaale [00:09:17]:
I was. I was done. That was you. You put it really well. I was just done. And I knew I needed more. I knew. I was like, this is not it.
And I just. I knew if I told someone about it, they would talk me out of it. That's why I didn't tell anyone. And I was like, my mom always has the saying that she said, she says, like, a secret of two is a secret of too many. So I kept that to myself. I was like, I'm not gonna tell anyone. No one's gonna walk me out of this. No one's not gonna tell me that I'm not doing this.
And that's what I did. I just quit. And I sat at home and I told my fiance at the time, I said, hey, they said, I can work from home. Lies. While I was figuring it out, you.

Yvonne Heimann [00:10:02]:
Took that job on a whole nother level.

Carol Kabaale [00:10:05]:
And I said, no, they said, I could work from home. That's why I'm here. And while I was figuring it out, like, what I was gonna do next, and I went old school. I sat down, what am I good at? What do I like? What do I don't? And I figured that out. And the biggest thing that I knew that I liked, I loved working with people. I needed to still have that in my life. I love being of service. I love being able to help.
The next thing I knew is I liked when I was creative, when I got to create and be and do, like, so how could I do that? And the other part that I really enjoyed, I used to work in business development was the marketing side of business development. And I was like, huh, what if I could do something like that? And I still, with that kind of more traditional path in mind, I went and I did my first certification in ads. And I really liked. I chose ads because it was a tangible thing. I guess the business development part of me needed that. Sometimes I find that marketers can be a little airy fairy. Sorry, guys. Please don't come for me.
But it's a little bit fluffy. There's nothing tangible that you can give the client. But with something like ads, there's data, and it's decision based. It's data, decision based thinking. So you Go with what the data is telling you. If no one is clicking on the ad, it's a bad ad. Simple, girl.

Yvonne Heimann [00:11:35]:
It's like, there, there, we have the next I love you box. Data driven decision. Data driven decision. We are not just following our gut that is based in any kind of fear or past trauma or stress story. Data. Data.
Clear and simple.

Carol Kabaale [00:11:53]:
And I mean the. The data doesn't lie. If no one is clicking on the ad, it's a bad offer. It's a bad ad. Something needs to change. My 2024 favorite phrase for the year. Are you ready, Yvi? This is a good one. It's what you don't change, you choose.

Yvonne Heimann [00:12:11]:
Yes. Yes. And how much did it hit you over the head the first time you saw that quote?

Carol Kabaale [00:12:18]:
Oh, my gosh. I was like, it's my life. I said, it's my life. It's my life. In, like, less than 10 words. What you don't change, you choose. So with that being said, I just knew, like, this is the path I need to follow. And I finished that first degree, not that first certification.
I went and I started slow. I was very honest with people I reached out to kind of distant friends that I knew kind of had businesses. And I said, hey, this is what I want to do. I want to practice with you. Would you allow me to practice with you? By the way, I did charge them. Not a lot, but I did charge them because I also believe that it's important, even if you're learning to. To get re. To.
To get. To make some money from it.

Yvonne Heimann [00:13:15]:
It's an energy exchange. And if the energy just goes one way, it's like there is nothing there. There is nothing bad about saying, hey, I'm starting to learn when. When you look at any kind of internships or. Or any kind of hands on you doing. I'm like, me back in the day. I started out as an electrician. So there was a school part and there was working. And I did get paid to work.
Not as much as anybody else, sure. But I did get paid to work. So why wouldn't we do that in our business? The same way where it's like, yes, you are not getting paid the same amount a senior ads manager gets, but you are getting paid. And it is just that, that energy exchange of. There's. There's a different value perception. There's a different energy in that relationship. There is a different Energy in the work.
Which brings me actually to Carol today. Now, you are not that beginner ads manager anymore. You learn, you grow, you built the business. You are amazing at what you do or you wouldn't be on my podcast. But life happens and business happens. How are you taking care of your own energy nowadays with having built the business that you have? Because it's like no matter how great we are, no matter how great our clients are, sometimes life is just lifing. And how do you take care of yourself in all of this?

Carol Kabaale [00:14:52]:
Oh, I am a big. In fact, I'm probably like the world's biggest advocate for self care. I am like my. Yeah, I'm gonna hit you with all my quotes today. Another one I love is I serve, I deserve. That's another one I say to myself all the time. And because I. It comes from.
I cannot. You cannot pour from an empty cup. And that's why I deserve to get treated to stuff.

Yvonne Heimann [00:15:22]:
I love the empty cup one. And I need to. I need to either way, recreate the video or finally find it. Have you ever seen that video where they're actually challenging the fill your cup before you give to somebody else. And pretty much the lesson behind it was you are not pouring out from your cup when it's full. You are pouring from your saucer underneath. You are overfilling your cup. And what's collected on the bottom, the extra energy, the extra budget you have, the.
The overflow you have is what you are giving away. Have you ever seen that video?

Carol Kabaale [00:16:06]:
No. No, but that's fascinating. That's a, That's a different way of thinking about it.

Yvonne Heimann [00:16:10]:
Because if you actually, if you are giving from your full cup, you are going to empty your cup again. So it's a constant up and down and up and down and up and down. Now that's. How often is that our entrepreneurial story in business where it's like up and down and up and down and up and down and you have that constant roller coaster of I'm delivering to clients, but I'm not paying attention over here then. So now that is done. But I don't have fresh clients. And so I'm taking over here again to get clients and to have work that.
That's what causes that, that roller coaster in entrepreneurship, right?
So when I came across the video that talks about our own energy and taking care of us and not pouring from our cup, but actually from the saucer underneath, I'm like, now suddenly what you do with Facebook ads what I do with automations and simple systems that building a baseline. So we are not having this up and down in our entrepreneurial story. Now suddenly I had a visual in, in my personal life and my personal story of. Huh, that actually makes sense.

Carol Kabaale [00:17:22]:
Yes, yes, a hundred percent it makes sense.

Yvonne Heimann [00:17:23]:
It's. It's not the, the constant fill up and empty and fill up and empty and do the things. Now I know you love self care, as you also already mentioned.
I also know thanks to all of the notes I have in front of me, you are doing something that I am just getting into. You are doing eft. Tell my audience what is eft?

Carol Kabaale [00:17:52]:
Oh, I love EFT tapping. It's so cool. It's so cool. So it's one of my favorite things. I do it every single day. I discovered it last year. And it's like, oh my gosh, it's so life changing. So basically what it is, if I can call it a bit of a meditation, you say out loud the negative thoughts and emotion, which is kind of weird because I think society has always told us like, think positively, think positively, but sometimes you need to feel those feelings.
You need to understand them before you can move on. Right. So with EFT tapping, you actually acknowledge those feelings. And in a way you come from a place of gratitude and like you thank them, thank you for being here. And then you teach your brain to be like, hey, that's not that scary anymore. That feeling that we have or that resentment, that anger, whatever emotion comes up, it's okay, we're safe. If you think about it like when, you know, back in the day, millions of years ago is when we were hunters. It was like, oh my gosh, something's coming to kill us.
So we had all that adrenaline, the same thing our body carries throughout the day. Something scares us, something makes us anxious, something makes us nervous. And we store those emotions, those feelings within ourselves. And it's weird because they like, you may think like, oh, it didn't affect me. Oh, it did, girl, it did. Oh, it did. And it's there. Sometimes I, I think I've already tapped on something and I'm like, no, I'm fine.
No, I'm not.

Yvonne Heimann [00:19:26]:
And suddenly life is like, hey, by the way, there's still something here. You better be taking care of that. And just drops it right onto you.

Carol Kabaale [00:19:33]:
Yeah. The best way I kind of like to do it is the method where when you start tapping, you, you acknowledge whatever it is you're feeling and you give it a number. One to ten. And then at the end of the you finishing tapping, so you go through the points and like, you'll say, like the negative statements. And maybe you'll start here and then you'll go here and here and you tap in all the different points and at the end of it. For me, I've tried traditional therapy. I've tried speaking, I've tried meditation. I'm so bad at journaling.
Please don't send me a journal, guys. I don't need one. I have like 50. I Never used journals and diaries. I never. I. I think I bought them because they were pretty.
I don't know. But this, it's the only thing that I've tried that instantly. Straight after I finished, if you can call it the tapping, the session, I felt like I went from like this action, like, oh, I'm so tense to huh. It's like my body felt safe enough to exhale to be like, yes. And that to me was like, wow. If everybody could experience that, what a wonderful place we could live in. Because I feel like most of us are always at a 10 and like, sometimes you just need to be at a seven.

Yvonne Heimann [00:20:48]:
And it is where it's. I've been. I've been body hacking for a while. If that is sleep, if that is my coffee intake, if that is alcohol, whatever it is, where it's like, I've been really working on tuning into my body and listening to it. And it's like just that. Talk, talk about latest lesson. Just to learn that it is okay to be okay.
That has been. I'm literally getting goosebumps. That is literally the work I am doing right now where it's like I was sitting there and it's like, life was really good. It's like the last six months of my business have been. It's been a shit show. It's been a shit show. I've been one of those people that 2024 was not as planned. And I'm.
I'm like you. I'm like, I'm collecting data. Okay, what happened? Where did it happen? How, what, why? Where, when? And a lot of things comes back down to my systems because I focused so much on giving my clients and helping them that I didn't keep upgrading my own business. Business, my own fault.

Yvonne Heimann [00:22:00]:
On the other hand, I'm like, but why didn't I. Why didn't I. I've been saying for a year this, I want to implement this, I want to do this, I want to do this. Why didn't I I was doing really good, yet I didn't focus on this. And suddenly I'm like, I'm not used to being okay. I'm not used to run around not being anxious. I'm not used to calm. I am used to drama.
I am used to a narcissistic boyfriend. I am used to being told I'm too much. I'm used to too loud, too many emotions. This is not a problem. And I'm like, I had good. And looking back at things that I did subconsciously, I'm like, I wasn't okay being okay, even though I was already working on a whole bunch of things and leveling out my hormones and all the stuff. And I'm like, yeah, great that we got the next lesson. It's like, never ending.
I'm like, on one hand, I'm really excited and proud of all the work I've done. On the other hand, I'm like, we really are never done, are we?

Carol Kabaale [00:23:16]:
No, we never are done. And, you know, we spoke a little bit about this before the show. I had lunch with a friend of mine, and she was in a situation, and one of the things I said to her is, life will keep giving you the same situation until you choose differently. So I like following on what you were saying. I think you needed to have that peace so that you could choose, like, hey, am I going to invite the drama back into my life? Where am I going to be okay being okay? So I think that was, like, part of your choice and like, part of, like, what happened next. And I'm so happy for you that you got to, like, experience that. What a. What a gift.
Trudy, I love that for you.

Yvonne Heimann [00:24:02]:
The thing is, when we are in it, I'm like, looking back, it's like, it's.
It's all clear. It's all great. It's all fine. But when you're in it, I'm like, really? I did that again, really? But then I also. And I'm fortunate to be surrounded by. By people in my personal life as well, in my business life that bring me back that. That I like. You get to take a day off if your body is like, girl, you need a break.
My partner, even. It's like, I'm paying really close attention to my cycle because my hormones and emotions right now with everything that's going on is just really elevated. And I had a day where it's like, I can't think. I have full on brain fog. Nothing is working. My body is full on, amped up, and I'm. I'm creative and I have a whole bunch of ideas, but I can't finish it up because the gears in my head are just not connecting. And my partner was like, where in your cycle are you right now? I'm like, oh, I'm going on the couch.
I'm going on the couch. I'm taking my phone, I'm taking my AI bot to just collect all the ideas I have right now, and I'm calling it a day. I'm going to. I'm going to bed. So it's nice having that. Having that support system that's reminding us, too, where it's like, but you actually did work, but you actually also do get to take a day off. And it's. It's nice just not being where I was just a few years ago.
Now. We dove a lot into mindset and. And how you do things and how you help yourself and how you level your business. Now, part of this also, as we entrepreneurs, right. Part of our life is running a business, getting clients in the door, getting business. And I know a lot of my community has been struggling in 2024 because so much has shifted. And I believe ads are actually a big piece of this, where we don't have to show up constantly every day and daily shorts and all the things if we don't want to do those. So I want to take a few minutes here to dive a little bit in system and what's possible and what that can look like for my audience of just generating traffic and being able to step away. I believe in business, we either spend our time or we spend our money.
I'm moving into a point where I'm spending more of my money and less of my time. So for everybody that is ready to spend a little bit more money and a lot less time, where can they start? What can they do? How can they integrate what you do and Facebook ads into their business?

Carol Kabaale [00:27:05]:
So I always say starting this journey of doing ads is choosing yourself. It's actually an investment. You're choosing you. I don't say it to my clients like, hey, we're not gambling. We're not, like, throwing spaghetti and hoping it's gonna stick, stick at the wall. What you're doing right now, whether you put in, like, $10, $100, $100,000, it doesn't matter. You're betting on yourself every time you post on any of these platforms, I really don't care which one it is you're playing. You're playing to lose, because you cannot control that Algorithm, you're posting, you're spending time creating the content, creating the captions, automating it and scheduling it, or giving it to a team member.
And like you said, said, using your time and your precious energy. And then you have to, like, pray to the algorithm gods, as I like to call them, and be like, please, please, please, please go viral, please. And then if it does go viral, you have no idea why or how or who. And if it does go viral, does that bring you money or does it not? So choosing something like ads for me is choosing yourself. It's investing in yourself. The first kind of ad that, that everyone should be running, everyone should be running. This type of ad is an awareness ad, right? And brand awareness is all this beautiful content that you're spending time creating. You want people to see it.
So you can do something as slow as starting with like a dollar a day or $2 a day on one ad. And your audience will be people who already follow you or have interacted with your account. Basically, what you're doing is you're beating the algorithm, saying, show people my content. Right? That's the way you should start getting people to actually see what you've created. And then from there, I want you to take a moment and not just come up with a goal of, like, I want to make money. I want you to be really strategic with how you're going to spend your money. When you go, you know, I'm going to show a bit of my age here. Back in my day, we didn't have these fancy apps where you swipe and swipe and swipe and you meet people.

Carol Kabaale [00:29:16]:
You would go to the club and you would, like, dance and whatever. And some guy would come and he would like, be like, yo, what's good? And he'd, like, bring you a drink or something. You'd be like. You'd look at your friend and be like, is he cute? Is he not? And like, you know, you'd have that moment and remember those days. We were probably in the same club, Yvi. We were probably there. But in that moment, if he asked you to marry you, you wouldn't say yes. You'd be like, please, bye, go away.
So why in business do we start with the sale? Why is it that when people come and to get to know us, we're like, buy my stuff. Buy my stuff.
Buy my stuff. Buy my stuff. It's so flipping annoying. Like, stop. Like, I'm just trying to, like, look around. I'm just trying to browse. I'm just trying to see something. So I always say, don't lead with the sale because you will be disappointed.
People who run ads that are like, buy my stuff. One, they have a huge budget, which you don't have. I'm sorry, you just don't. Okay. If you do, I don't know, you're probably not listening to this podcast. You're having like a mimosa somewhere, like on a private island. That's the kind of money I'm saying. Right? But for the rest of us, the ones that are still, you know, figuring it out, how we get to the mimosa, we.
We don't need to be doing that. I would encourage you to grow your email list. Yes. The email list. You said you were going to start in 2015 and you still haven't started. Grow your email list. Move people off these platforms right? Into an environment that you can control, because at the end of the day, you could get hacked. You are dependent on algorithms, and you don't control that sandbox.
Right. So that would be my goal. Maybe grow an email list, grow a community. And from there, once people you know the basic know, like, and trust you, then ask them to buy your stuff. It sounds so simple. Because it truly is. We just like to overcomplicate things.

Yvonne Heimann [00:31:22]:
Yeah. Did I mention I knew why I get it, why I wanted to get you on the podcast? And it's like, it's. It's just where no matter where we look, if it is in Facebook groups, if it is in LinkedIn, it's like, here. That's what I have. I'm like, can you just talk with. Can you at least buy me a drink before asking me to go home with you? Can you please at least buy me a drink before you take me home? It's like so. And I. Guys, I can.
I can completely vouch for this. With us starting to play with ads and do things, engagement ads is the first thing we did to. To really, first of all get in front of people, but also save money in the back end. Because when you go into full on then sales ads or traffic ads, you already have a warm audience. You have an audience you can work off of rather than going out there and throwing it at people that have never seen you before. With that Carol. Where can people find you? Where can people. Yes, I encourage online stalking only.
Online stalk stalking. Be nice. Where can people find you? Where can people get to know you better?

Carol Kabaale [00:33:45]:
So I'm sure it's above or below, wherever the little box will be. Yvi will put it there. And in the box, there will be a link to my Facebook Ads quiz. It measures your Facebook Ads readiness score. So if you've been listening to this conversation and you're like, oh my gosh, am I ready to run ads? Should I be running ads? Is this something I should do? Then I encourage you to take my quiz. It's literally going to be like two minutes of your life and it's going to save you so much time and so much guesswork and save you money. Who doesn't like doing that? So go take the quiz. It's really fun.
And then if you want to stalk me only online, remember, and all the socials, my name is just @carol kabaale, like you see on the screen.

Yvonne Heimann [00:33:27]:
Love that. And yes, you already mentioned it. It is going to be in the show notes going to be in the description. Wherever you listen, watch or read, it is everywhere. And make sure you subscribe. If you subscribe to the YouTube channel or the podcast, give it a like, give it a follow so that first of all, you don't miss the next episode. And second of all, the algorithm gods know that you are actually interested in this stuff and you get to see more of it. Carol, thanks so much for joining me and everybody, I'll see you in the next episode.