E101: Is Your Business Still in Alignment? Here's How to Know for Sure

Feeling off in your business but not sure why? In this episode, Kimberly Houston shares her Empowered Alignment Framework and walks you through a five-question audit to help you recalibrate your business with clarity and confidence.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• The quiet warning signs that your business is out of alignment
• How to stop saying yes to clients and offers that drain you
• The difference between inspired action and hustle
• How to apply the Empowered Alignment Framework to daily decisions
• Why alignment isn’t a one-time check-in, but a repeatable rhythm for success

About the Episode:
This episode is a must-listen for creative entrepreneurs, culinary professionals, and service providers who want more than just sales—they want sustainability, ease, and direction. Kimberly breaks down her three-part framework: Authentic Awareness, Inspired Action, and Abundance Mindset. She shares real examples from her journey and challenges you to ask the hard questions about your business, your offers, and your time.

Whether you’re navigating a shift, scaling up, or starting fresh, this episode will help you identify what’s working, what needs to go, and what you’re truly being called to create.

Discover the Baking My Way to 6 Figures Mastermind:
If you’re ready to build a business rooted in strategy, clarity, and alignment, this mastermind was designed for you.
Learn more: https://teachmehowtobake.com/mastermind

Visit the New Website:
Explore all of Kimberly’s brands, coaching offers, and resources:
https://kimberlyihouston.com

Subscribe to the Kitchen Table Dreams Newsletter:
Get weekly insights and strategy directly from Kimberly:
https://kimberlyihouston.com/email

Take this Action:
Complete the 5-question alignment audit from this episode. Then share your biggest takeaway or “aha” moment and tag Kimberly on Instagram at @kitchentabledreams or @kimberlyihouston.

If this episode gave you clarity, make sure to subscribe and leave a review. More strategy and alignment conversations are on the way.

Visit https://nutrimill.com/KTD for $20.00 off your next purchase of a Bosch mixer or Nutrigrain Flour Mill

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Alignment in Business
• 9:45 The Three Pillars of Empowered Alignment
• 15:22 Identifying Misalignment in Your Business
• 24:49 Recalibrating for Alignment and Growth

Transcript

Kimberly Houston (00:00.664)
Hello friends and welcome back to the Kitchen Table Dreams podcast. I am your host, Chef Kimberly Houston. I am so excited you guys are back with me today. If you caught our last episode, I know you left feeling inspired and empowered. Our 100th episode was indeed one of my favorites with Professor Steven Lott from Georgia State University here in Atlanta. And we were talking about recession proofing your business, right?

We do not shy away from topics here on the Kitchen Table Dreams podcast and I want to make sure that my audience is informed on how to keep their finances in check as we move through this administration, how to make sure we are not falling into a lack mindset and we are focused on abundance, how you can grow your business in a recession and things of the sort. And so one of the things that I really wanted to dig in over the next couple of episodes with you is on alignment.

And this is something that I am asked a lot in one-on-one coaching sessions with people is how do I know I should still be doing this? How do I know if it's in alignment? How do I know when I'm out of alignment? And so I want to kind of break that down a little bit for you. For those of you who have been rocking with me for a while or those of you who are new, I'm a business strategist and alignment coach. And the reason I call myself an alignment coach versus just a transformational coach,

is because I believe that transformation comes when you're in alignment. And so I like to get to the root of entrepreneurs' issues, problems, ideas, and it boils down to is this in or out of alignment for you. And so for me, I have a three-part alignment framework. The first piece of it is authentic awareness. Are you tapping into your true identity, into your authentic

voice, personality, business ideas, or are you running a business that somebody else told you you should run? That's the first thing I'm tapping into. Secondly, do you take inspired action? People ask me all the time, Kimberly, how are you launching so many things? How have you released a textbook for children? How have you created online classes? How do you have an entire university online? How did you become the keynote speaker for CookieCon? How have you taught at conferences all over?

Kimberly Houston (02:21.058)
How do you run three, four different blogs? Inspired action, right? I don't have to second guess things. I understand what my end goal is. I know what the future version of me looks like. I know what the Houston Collective will look like in 10 years. And it is a conglomerate of more than one company. If you think about the R Us brand before they filed for bankruptcy, there was Toys R Us and there was Babys R Us, right? And that has been my mindset.

as I build out my business, it will be more than one company all underneath that umbrella. And so when the idea hits me, I don't need to consult a group of people. I don't need to wait on it. I'm not going to go out here and spend a whole lot of money and hire a bunch of people to do it. I'm going to figure out how to do it myself. And so now, because I have gathered all of these skills over the last couple of years since I closed my bakery and moved into the digital world, there was just some things I needed to have.

in order to be able to compete as a digital entrepreneur. Moving from a service-based business and a product-based business where I was dealing customer to customer in my face all the time, to moving into the digital world where my clients are literally all over the world. There were some skills I had to learn, right? And one of those included building websites, building blogs. I needed to understand how and why bloggers did the things they did because they were my clients.

and it's difficult for me to be able to provide a service for you if I don't understand your business. And so in the process of doing that, I learned how to build WordPress websites really, really quickly, really, really easily, right? And so now those are things I can do. I can wake up and be like, yeah, I'm going to launch a new blog today. And I do because inspired action. The other thing about inspired action is this. There was a story about Prince and Michael Jackson, Prince and Michael Jackson both.

separately, but both of them would go to the studio in the middle of the night or build studios near them right within their own homes and they would stay there. They would stay there for hours and hours. There's accounts of Prince being, you know, in the zone for well over 24 hours, not sleeping, not eating, like just focus creating and they would create until they were empty. And when asked why, it was because they didn't want the inspired idea.

Kimberly Houston (04:48.236)
to go to the other person. And I felt that so deeply in my soul. Yeah, I'm not going to give somebody else the opportunity to be able to release it. When the idea for Teach Me How to Bake as a company landed in my lap during the pandemic, it wasn't new to me, right? I had thought about baking classes and building out this entire institution for baking many years prior to this.

and during the pandemic it really just kind of like landed for me. I began to see what that company could actually look like and I did my research. I was looking at books for children. There are a lot of cookbooks but they were not books specifically about the science of baking for children and as someone who went to La Cordon Bleu who fully understands

baking and pastry because I'm a pastry chef, but I also got a master's degree in education so I understand instructional design and I could create my own curriculum. I wrote a textbook for children to learn how to bake. Now tapping in one more thing, I was a homeschool mom for 12 years. I know how to teach kids in the kitchen. It's literally how I made the bulk of my money while my children were growing up.

Yes, I ran a bakery, but I made more money teaching other people's children how to bake. so Teach Me How to Bake was born out of that. And as I am thinking about what Teach Me How to Bake is going to look like 10 years down the road, everything that I do now supports where we're going to be later. That's taking inspired action, right? I don't need to think about it. I'm just very flat-footed. I know where I'm going. And so if this thing is going to move the needle a little bit, I'm going to launch it.

And then number three is abundance mindset. It is such a problem for me when people feel like their emotions are facts. Your emotions are not facts. Your feelings are not facts. Neither one of those are facts, right? That is just a perception of what is happening in the world right now. While that may be your truth, it doesn't make it a fact. And so one of the things that I work,

Kimberly Houston (07:09.078)
with entrepreneurs on a lot is reframing negative beliefs. And we do that through something I'll call the proof method. P-R-O-O-F, where you pause, reflect, observe, open yourself to new ideas, and then reframe whatever that thought was. So instead of saying, I can't do this, you're going to say, how can I do this? How can I get this thing?

Right? This happens, a real easy one, is people saying, I can't afford to go to that conference. That's not what we're going to say anymore. Right? You're going to say, how can I afford to go to this conference? And that's going to allow your brain the opportunity to begin to look for creative ways for you to get there. It could be that you apply to speak. It could be that you apply to be a volunteer at this thing. You could apply to be a volunteer for the conference itself.

or one of the speakers themselves, right? Every conference that I've ever been to, I've had an assistant. I've had an assistant at every conference that I've been to. And a lot of times I grab an assistant while I'm there, but there are other times where I'm just bring my own assistant, right? And so there are ways for people to be able to attend things if they change the thought pattern of, can't go to this, to how.

cannot go to this, right? And then you begin to think of creative ways that you can make that happen for you. So in my framework for empowered alignment is three steps. One, authentic awareness. Two, inspired action. And three, abundance mindset. Now let's talk about alignment as an entrepreneur. Alignment doesn't fall off a cliff. That's not how this works, right? So typically this happens when you are out of alignment.

is that it's slipping quietly when you say yes to things you're not excited about. My signature via email is if it's not a hell yes, it's a no. And the reason that it is that is that back in 2020, 2021 when I was working with the therapist, she was like, why do you keep saying yes to things you don't actually want to do? And so when she gave me that reframe of if it's not an immediate hell yes for me, the answer is no, it completely changed my entire life.

Kimberly Houston (09:30.4)
It completely changed my entire life. And now people know, like there is no, let me get back to you. None of that. If I pause, I don't want to do it. if I tell you like, let me check my schedule. I'm not telling you, let me check my schedule and then I'm to blow you off. am quite literally checking my schedule and adjusting it.

so that I can show up for you as my best self. I never tell somebody, me check my schedule if I don't need it. And the reason for that is, is that I am very comfortable saying no. No, thank you. I appreciate the opportunity, but that is out of alignment with what's in my life right now. And so that has made all the world of difference for me, right? If it's not a hell yes, it's a no.

When you are out of alignment, you have been quietly saying yes to things you don't want to do. You're not excited about them. You are chasing trends or you are taking clients out of fear instead of strategy. I cannot tell you how many times I have, and this is me speaking from personal experience. I can't say if you've ever done this or not, right? But there have been times with as an entrepreneur where I have taken last minute orders I didn't want to take.

Nine times out of 10, that client was horrible. And me taking that last minute order just to get a little extra bumps, I could pay a bill or something, it wasn't worth it. It wasn't worth the attitude of the client. It wasn't worth the demands of the client. It wasn't worth me missing out on something with my children. It wasn't worth it, right? And so you have to understand that when you do things out of alignment, you don't feel good about

You don't feel good about it. When you are operating your business from a place of fear where you and the professor Stephen Lott and I talk about this on the 100th episode, if you haven't listened, please go listen. We talk about what it looks like when you are taking on clients out of fear that you aren't going be able to pay a bill, right? Like there's no reason you should be living. I used to say cake to cake.

Kimberly Houston (11:51.47)
There's no reason we should be living cake to cake, order to order, paycheck to paycheck. There's no reason for that. And we talk about that on the podcast last week. And I want you guys to fully understand that when you are running your business with strategy, you know when you're releasing a new product. You know when you're going to launch something. Y'all, there were times where I would create offers because it was close to Christmas. I would create offers because my account was in a negative, right? You're creating from a place of lack.

as opposed to a place from abundance. This year I made the change of going, all right, let's look at the calendar and let's look at when we're going to do launches in this business, right? I know when I'm launching everything this year, I'm not creating a whole bunch of extra stuff for people. I'm not creating lead magnets in the middle of the night so I can throw it up. I'm not doing any of that. It is very strategic when I'm launching things based upon my cali-

based upon when I can show up, based upon me building a business out of authentic alignment, right? Based upon me building a business out of ease. I know when I'm releasing something and guess what? The price reflects it. I don't need to throw up a special. I don't need to throw up, I remember when I had the bakery, I never offered like $2 cupcakes because for me it wasn't worth it. And I know a lot of people have made a lot of money doing that.

but for me and what I wanted to do that didn't work. And so my clients knew Kim really wasn't going to do that. The only time I ran some sort of special was during the holidays. That's it. You might've been able to bundle some things, but that was the extent of my offerings. And the reason I did that was when I first started my bakery, I was told if you become the cheap baker, people will never let that go.

They will never let that go. If you fall into the trap of always offering special sales, whatever, because people don't want to pay your price. When you fall into that trap of constantly devaluing yourself, devaluing your ability, your customers are going to do the same. And that's your fault because that's what you've taught them.

Kimberly Houston (14:09.6)
And so I had to stand steadfast in that and not offer it. Yes, there were times where I wanted to just do the things and just take on a last minute offer and it was never worth it. And so when I moved into the digital space, that rolled right on over with me, right? We're not taking clients out of fear instead of strategy. So now let's talk about how to do a little mini audit in knowing when you are in or out of alignment. Okay.

So as I explained before, my Empowered Alignment Framework Authentic Awareness is the first pillar. And so this is what I tell my clients when we're trying to figure out if things are in and out of alignment. Number one, does this business reflect who I am today, not who I was when I started?

There are some things that you offer in the very beginning that no longer serve you. When I was running my bakery 12 years ago, when I started, I had not been to culinary school yet. I had not taken any cake decorating classes yet. I was just someone who was really good at baking and people loved my cake. And so I made pound cakes and I did drop cookies. That's how I started my business. Then I went to culinary school. Then I took some cake decorating classes at my local Michael's and then I started teaching those classes. Right.

And so as I began to progress and as I moved forward within my business and grew as an artist, offering panel cakes and drop cookies became a thing of the past. It did not reflect who I was as a custom cake and cookie artist. And so I had to focus my fans. I had to stop posting the things that people were ordering and start posting what I wanted them to order.

That was one of the most important lessons I learned as a new business owner in the culinary world. Just because people are ordering one thing from you doesn't mean you have to post it online all the time. You start posting what you want people to buy, right? And so I did. And I did that for every transition when I went from just pound cakes and cookies into custom cakes. I only started posting custom cakes when I was doing weddings.

Kimberly Houston (16:26.03)
All I posted was weddings when I was tired of doing weddings and I wanted to focus on kid cakes. I stopped posting wedding cakes even though I was still doing weddings and I only posted kid cakes. Then people order what I said. Then when I moved into cookies and I started to phase out of doing cakes and I was only offering custom cookies, that's all I posted. Also changed name of my business at that point. But that was all I posted for people to see.

to tell people what you do and who you are in business. So ask yourself the question, does this business reflect who I am today, not who I was when I started? And that's a yes or no question. Question number two, would I be excited to rebuild this version of my business from scratch? Yes or no? I ask entrepreneurs all the time, why are you working in a business you don't like?

And people are shocked when I ask them that question. You don't have to convince me or yourself that a business idea is worth it, right? It might be worth it. That doesn't mean you like it. It doesn't mean you want to do it. So ask yourself the question, would I be excited to rebuild this version of my business from scratch? Yes or no. Number three, are the offers I'm selling still solving the problem I care most about?

This I'm going to challenge you to really think about personally and professionally. The offers that you currently have that you are selling, are you charging enough money for them to solve the immediate problems within your personal life? Or are you still in other people's pockets in charging what you think people would pay for a service and then you can't pay your own bills? Because one of the things we don't think about is

When you devalue your business, you also devalue your lifestyle. And so if you are working in a business that can't support your lifestyle, we have a problem. Also, as a business owner, your business should solve a problem for your clients. Are you or do you have offers that still solve the problem?

Kimberly Houston (18:49.826)
that you most care about? Have you adjusted what you want to solve and do your offers now represent that? Number four, and this is one of my favorites, do my current clients energize or drain me? Let's have a moment for this one. All money is not good money. We've all heard that. We all know this. Are you taking on clients that get on your nerves?

are the only clients, and this is a limiting belief that I want to point out for people. I have heard many entrepreneurs state that they can't raise their prices for a high end client because those high end clients drain them. Those high end clients want too much from them. That to me, as someone who has done low ticket and high ticket,

That is a limiting belief. High ticket clients, if I'm paying you a whole lot of money for something, you cannot run it as though I'm not paying you a whole lot of money for it. So there are some services that entrepreneurs offer that cost a whole lot of money. Let's just say it's a $10,000 project.

If I am paying you $10,000, it is my expectation that you show up more for me than you do for somebody paying you $100. And one of the things that I know for a fact, because I've coached people through this, is that we want to show up in the same way for the $100 client that we showed for the $10,000 client. And that's not how this works. You are going to have to adjust who you are as a person.

If you want a high ticket client, are you a company? Do you have the capacity to offer what needs to be offered on the $10,000 client? And when people really sit with that, it might adjust how you position yourself as an entrepreneur. But thinking about the question, do my clients energize or drain me? That's real easy. There's clients that as soon as they email you, you're like, my God.

Kimberly Houston (21:12.654)
there's clients that as soon as you see their number on your phone, you're like, oh my God, right? You already know. Are you, why are you still working with these people? You can say that you're booked. You can say that you're full. But again, if you are working from a place of lack and not from a place of abundance, you will feel like the only way you're going to make the money is if you take on those clients.

And then number five, the last question I want you to ask yourself when you're trying to figure out if you're in or out of alignment is, is the way I spend my time aligned with the future I say I want? This one really hits home, right? If you say you want a life of ease, you want to be at home with your children for...

spring break, summer vacation, winter breaks. You don't want your kids to be stuck in a daycare. You don't want to have to your kids to their grandparents' house. You want to be able to take them on trips. You want to be able to work outside of the business. Are you spending your time to create that life? If you continue to work in your business instead of on your business, you are not going to have the financial freedom that you want. That's not how this works. And so you have to do a hard look in the mirror.

and say, is the way I'm spending my time? Are the things that you are committing to, are the things you're saying yes to when you really want to say no? Are those things taking you closer to the life you want or further away from it? So I'm going to give you those five questions one more time. Number one, does your business reflect who I am today, not who I was when I started? Number two, would I be excited to rebuild this version of my business from scratch? Number three.

Are the offers I'm selling still solving the problem I most care about? Number four, do my current clients energize or drain me? And number five, is the way I spend my time aligned with the future I say I want? Yes or no. All right. Well, once you have those answers to the yes or no, I don't want you to freak out. Okay. If those questions revealed some friction for you, do not panic. You don't have to burn the business down.

Kimberly Houston (23:23.65)
You just need to do some recalibration. So I'm going to give you some suggestions on how we begin to adjust the fabric of your company, how we begin to mold it into something that you want, something that is sustainable and something you can grow. So the first thing I would tell you to do is drop one offer or a client that feels misaligned. Those questions about, your offers still solving the problem?

that you currently want to solve. If you have offers that don't solve the problem, drop it. Don't even think about it, drop it. If you have clients that drain you, drop them. That's the first step. Second, revisit your original vision. Does that still fit with who you are at this phase of your life? I can tell you 100%, I have grown leaps and bounds over the last ...

five years being in digital entrepreneurship. Who I was in 2020 is now who I am in 2025. The original vision no longer fits. And you have to make that adjustment in order for you to be able to continue to progress. It is our job as humans to continue to grow, to continue to adjust. Okay. Please don't feel bad about that. It's a good thing. It's a good thing that you're growing. And then number three, I want you to use this five question audit every quarter.

not just a once in a year good check. I want you to evaluate this at the top of every quarter. So since we're at the top of Q2 right now, you're going to do this again in July and then you're going to do it again in October, okay? Or September, end of September, beginning of October. You're going to do it again and see are you still in alignment with where you're trying to go.

The thing I want you remember is that alignment isn't a destination, it's a rhythm. When you build a business that reflects the truth of who you are right now, not who you were and not who people want you to be, everything else works better in your life. If you were someone who was a creative entrepreneur or you are in the culinary space and you are looking for help, guidance, support,

Kimberly Houston (25:39.38)
on creating a business that is fully aligned with you. I would love to invite you to the Baking My Way to Six Figures Mastermind. That is our kitchen table dreams mastermind. There are so many things involved in that from live coaching with me on a weekly, sometimes bi-weekly basis to other resources that will help you grow as a business owner from photography classes to mindset classes to meditations to help ground you.

teaching you emotional intelligence finance classes, understanding money management, understanding how to manifest money and being open to keeping it, not just receiving it because those are two different frequencies. All of those things are included inside of the mastermind. Would love to invite you to that. And if you do this audit, if you do this five question audit, please take a screenshot of it.

share a breakthrough moment on Instagram and tag me at kichentabledreams or at kimberlyihouston. And if you want more information about working with me one-on-one or working with me in a group setting, I am so excited to announce that my new website kimberlyihouston.com is now available. It is live. You can go there, check it out, scroll through. She's real cute.

And you can learn all about all the things that I do, all of the companies that I run, as well as figure out ways to be able to connect with me, learn with me, and grow. Until next time, stay sweet friends.