team. I've got my my fiance, he is the operations director. And
then I actually have his mother in law who is the admin director.
Then I have an incredible team in Pakistan, they help me a lot
with the projects that she's like my right hand woman. She's
incredible. That's awesome. What's your name? Her name is
Jamie. I've got to recruit Jamie. Okay, so
yes, I've worked with some incredible teams as well in
Pakistan. Very, very humble. Very good at the team I worked
with Elise paying attention to instructions and then
leadership as well. We, we had a nightmare with a team in the
Philippines. I have two other teams in the Philippines I love
by the way, but this one was fabricating reports. They're
falsifying their reports. Oh, wait, I'm in charge.
I'm in charge of the team in Pakistan too. And the team in
Pakistan took it really, really well. So when I had covered the
problem, and had to go eat crow, you know, and and own that I
messed this up. The Pakistan team was so cool about it. They
were they were such good people. They're ready to just jump in
and help out. They're instantly forgiving. And, you know, like
it was, it was really neat to see them step up. So it's been
so yeah, I would say the Philippines, Pakistan, India,
and then Central South America, like, I love hiring out of all
those countries, always find great people. Yeah, I think
there's something so incredible about it. And I've been hiring
a lot more from Pakistan at the moment, because they seem to
have an incredibly holistic view of business and what needs
to be done. And they're so they're able to take feedback so
well and just run with it. Like they, they solve problems that I
didn't even know I had until they said we've solved this
problem. Like, oh, my, they don't ask for like, there's not
this permission. It's like, I'm thinking like, we should do
this. It's like, yes, let's do that. I love I love it. Yes,
proactive. Proactive is very true. I saw the same thing. And
that's not the same for all cultures. And sometimes we need
somebody who's proactive. And sometimes we need somebody who's
more reserved. So we'll be talking about that as we dive
into leadership and, and this aspect of conscious and kind
CEOs that that you stand for. So before we do that, Caitlin,
what are three books or resources that you recommend for
other visionary leaders out there? I'm gonna take some
notes.
So these books were ones that completely changed my awareness
and mindset on what is possible. So the first one, it's probably
no surprise, The Secret by Rhonda Burns. She allowed me to
really see things in a not like a victim mentality, it was more
like things happen for us, not to us. So it was really, it was
so powerful in shifting my mindset and seeing the positive
out of real immense challenges that you go through in business.
So that was the second one is The Big Leap by Gay Hendrix. And
that was a beautiful way for me to start to understand more of
emotional intelligence and awareness, and to understand the
self sabotaging behaviors that we all do. So we really
normalized, you know, as there's like this dip before you really
up level, so it's really being able to identify and not hone in
on the story of it's not working. It's like, instead of
I'm in a dip, I'm like, Oh, my God, it is working. This is
working, because this is what happens next. And the third book
that I absolutely loved is called You're a Badass at Making
Money by Jensen Chero. So I love Jensen Chero. I remember I was
living in Bali, and I was going for a run. And I was listening
to her audio book. And she's she's funny. She's so relatable.
And the way that she spoke about money was in such a kind
context, that I'd never really heard before. And she really
allows in your book in the book, tangible ways to shift how you
see and view money and how to attract more of it, which is
what's obviously needed in business. So they were really
amazing books.
I'm happy you said these three. One, The Big Leap fell off my
radar. Two, You're a Badass at Making Money. I hadn't heard
that book. So that's always fun when my my library gets
expanded. And then three, I've had so many people in the last
couple of years downplay the value of, you know, the Netflix
show The Secret. I mean, the book The Secret. You know, and I
watched the Netflix version of it. And I loved it. And I got
to attend a conference with John Asirak, who's in it and and
see him speak and, and learn from him a little bit. And it
was, it is one of those types of knowledges that knowledges
that we take for granted. Oh, you know, that we're like,
instantly, as soon as you learn it, it's like, oh, well, this
is just common sense. And there's not there's no such
thing as common sense. That's just our, our, I don't know, our
ego jumping in and saying, wow, we really don't appreciate what
it is that we just learned anymore, because it was so easy
or so simple. But I'm a huge fan of that, that book, that
movie, that that concept of law of attraction and beyond that
there's just there's just so much universally applicable
value and evidences related to it that made it super easy to
shift my mind in ways that without it, I don't think I ever
would have discovered further thoughts on it. Oh, my God, I
agree totally. And I think it's in the powers in the simplicity
and the powers with you, like it completely changed my
viewpoint on I'm powerless, everyone else has the control
to actually what this is within my power. And then you have
those real tangible steps of how can I apply this in my life?
And you test it and it works. And you're like, what? And I
completely changed the way that I do business. Now I integrate
the law of attraction and all of those. I've always been quite
a positive person anyway, but a lot of the gratitude in what I
do, because I've seen the results firsthand, and it's,
it's really it and it's so simple. Yet, and especially
when things become chaotic in the business world and in life,
we ground back into the simplicity of those practices.
And then it helps recharge you back up really quickly.
Absolutely. So if any of you have ever been through a period
or think there may be a period of life where something chaotic
may come up, whereas something challenging might come up, or
you're looking to also become a more conscious and more kind CEO,
this shows for you, we're going to be talking about a
profitable world and how to drive that forward. As a
conscious and kind CEO, there are multiple ways you can get
to that victory, you do not have to be kind at all in order
to drive profitability. And that's something I think
Caitlin, I both stand against is wait a second, let's do this
the right way. Let's do this the way that really lifts people
up. So we're going to be right back. We're going to dive into
Caitlin's vision, talk about that, and we'll see on the other
side. All right, welcome in to Vision Pros live with Jackson
Callum. I'm your show host. We'll be doing interviews for
visionary entrepreneurs and guest leaders who are building
fantastic visions out there. Hey, what's up, everybody?
Welcome into another episode of Vision Pros live. I'm your
show host, Jackson Callum, founder and CEO of First Class
Business, and I'm excited to have Caitlin Cook on here. She
is cooking. She has got this awesome concept of a profitable
world led by conscious and kind CEOs. We're talking about
leaders who really care at a deep level about their people
and how that can drive even greater success. I think all of
us have the opportunity to level up in this regard. And the
cool thing is when you level up in a way that helps your
people internally, you create an exponential ripple effect of
results with those that you're serving outside of your
company. So definitely come in, take some notes, see what she
has to say. And before we bring Caitlin on stage, a couple of
other resources to help you with your progress in your
journey, whether you're a beginning entrepreneur or
you're up there with the best of them and crushing it multiple
times. We got Dave Maros program hard to kill. This
program has been awesome for me as well, even though Dave is
on a mission to help 100,000 veterans lose 2 million pounds
collectively. He's an award winning podcaster. He's got one
of the best military podcasts there is he's interviewing
extremely awesome people about their health journey and about
their life lessons that they've figured out too. And one of the
challenges facing our military right now, especially the
veterans who come home is once they get reintegrated into
society, I think most of them would laugh at the idea of that.
They're not super well received, but even further, they
stop doing their basic trainings within the organization, the
military, and they start to gain weight. And as you gain
weight, I think we all know this, as we gain weight, it
becomes very hard to remember our true fall identity and
feel comfortable in our own bodies. So I love what he's up
to helping them stay on track with their health. That's why
we've joined the team and partner with him on this. And
anyway, we've got a lot to share there. And we hope you join
us over in the communities at hard to kill.org. And we have
organized that the rock hope for Latinos, that's
opportunities, opportunities for Latinos. Specifically, we
also have opportunities in India. We also have
opportunities in the Philippines. We're expanding
this program. The success that we've had with the Latinos,
we've worked with this phenomenal. They are the ones
who actually drive my show forward and are doing the
screen sharing and doing the promotion and the sharing. It's
so awesome to train these individuals up, most of which
have never been virtual assistants before. And they
don't learn how to just become virtual assistants and what
we call digital ambassadors. They become executives in the
process. We're teaching them how to be executives. And in
fact, in most cases, they already know how to be
executives. So it's mainly just an opportunity to say, Hey,
bring your executive skill sets over, come work with us and
let's all build something amazing together. They have
their own podcast as well. They just interviewed Keke
Anglais, who has 900,000 followers on subscribers rather
on YouTube. And they're learning English. They're doing
amazing things. I hope that it expands your capacity to
understand what it could be like to hire. We don't have
anybody hired in Belize, Honduras or El Salvador yet,
but the individuals that are in those specific countries,
they're often lucky to have a dollar a day wage. We can
change the world tremendously by diving in and contracting
individuals throughout the world, helping them realize
there are opportunities and leading them to greatness. What
would that be like for this family to go from $1 a day to
you perhaps paying them $3 to $5 an hour and then seeing
your business take off because of the results you can create
together? It's amazing what you can do, by the way, hint, hint
with chat, GPT and translation services online. So explore
that on your own or come join us in opportunities and see
how we can again change the world together. Another big
one is the water project. I know it looks like I'm
leaving, but I'm actually grabbing my empty water bottle.
This is the closest to thirsty I've ever been in my life. So
when I found out about the water project, I was like, my
goodness, there's millions of people who don't even have
access to clean drinking water that I need to rock this mic
and talk about this and help people understand that we've
got an opportunity to step up and help thanks to the water
project. If you go to their site, you can actually pick a
community that you want to help and it'll tell you how many
people receive the help. It'll tell you the project they're
working on. And even if you just contribute $5 to this, they
then show you the outcome of that project. So you get to see
where your money went to use. And we're talking about like a
borehole well, as they call it, or a sand dam. This is a water
source that is going to impact them for probably 10, 20, maybe
even 30 years and beyond. They educate the community on how to
maintain it. These kids celebrate water the way my kids
celebrate Christmas Day. And some of your kids don't even
celebrate Christmas Day the way these kids are celebrating
water. So if we can jump in and help out with this, that's
awesome. The best thing I think that you can do to help instead
of just feeling like you have to give $5, spreading the word,
you might be the one who connects somebody to this who
ends up giving $5,000, $10,000, $100,000 to this operation and
bringing water to many, many people. So never underestimate
your ability and power to share. While also, of course, if you
want to be one of the direct people who contributes, dive in
with us and let's make that happen. So without further ado,
Caitlin Cook, welcome to Vision Pros Live. Thanks for joining
me today. Thank you. Oh, that was so wonderful. I love the
water project. Isn't it awesome? Is that the first time you've
heard about it? Yeah, it is. That was really helpful. Yes.
Spreading the word, making it happen. I will. I love that.
That's like that's incredible. I would definitely be spreading
the word about that. Oh, that's awesome. I'm super happy to hear
that. We can we can wrap up. No, we've got an awesome vision to
dive into. We've got so much more to uncover. So Caitlin, do
me a favor. Tell you got you've got years on this planet.
You've been working in the CEO space and business space for
a while. You look 16 but at the same time, I know you've got
more than more than a few years in business. So walk us
through what if we were to we can look at your LinkedIn and
your resume but what are some of the things you wouldn't catch
on that that define your leadership path? Oh, so the
things you probably wouldn't see on my LinkedIn or socials
would be all the struggles I went through when I was younger.
Um I am I am a twin. So I am one I'm the youngest of four. So
the way that I grew up in being a twin is that I was never
individualized. I was always it was always the twins, the
girls. So we never really had an identity and if I did, it was
merged into the two of us. So I got to it to an age where I was
about fourteen and I just and when I would do something if my
twin sister wasn't doing it, I felt like I shouldn't be doing
it. And I was like, that's not right. So I I completely
shifted and I'm like, let me just create my own identity.
What does that mean to me? What does that look like? And I
decided I've always loved numbers. Numbers is my thing.
Like numbers tell a story for me. So I um I jumped into
banking and I absolutely loved it and it was there that I
actually became I was promoted within a year every year that
I was in the um and I never put my hand up for a promotion. I
was always asked to be promoted. So I was like, there's
something here that I'm missing. And so I've always had
that inner um that inner I guess leadership quality but
I've always um struggled with imposter syndrome. So I never
believed I could do it and I always identified as being a
twin, being the two of us. So I could never outshine her or do
something she didn't do. So it's through this real
realization um and becoming a leader in the banking industry,
I then went, I'm gonna just take a career break and
completely change everything I've ever known and then
discover who I am at 26. So I did and I moved to the other
side of the world and I met my now fiance there but it was
through that trial and error and completely changing my
environment and changing everything I ever knew. I
figured out how to stand on my own two feet. How to be a
person that I wanted to be and how to really fail at a lot of
things and then build the resilience to stand back up.
Um and that was incredible and then a real pivotal moment was
when my partner and I found out we were pregnant with our son.
He was four months and we had no idea and then um I became we
had to become parents like very very quickly and I was my I
just turned thirty and there's this real beautiful kindness
and awareness and consciousness that comes from
birthing a child and wanting to be that mother and all of a
sudden I saw myself through his eyes and there was a real
softening to how I defined myself and I went I can be a
leader but not in the masculine. You've gotta do this
in a real like empathetic understanding honest way and
that felt right to me. So that's how I kinda transitioned
into the CEO and helping leaders at this level. Yeah. Oh
I love that. I'm a big big believer that moms make the
best leaders. Um that is uh it's so overlooked in the
business world and there's so much opportunity not to. I've
got a horrible joke in the meantime. Um which is um this
interview is not gonna be complete unless I get the
chance to interview your twin. Uh I am totally kidding
though. Not not not fair. I hope nobody ever seriously tell
you to do that in the podcast world. Um I got twin nieces,
Gracie Madison. They're both amazing. Um they're
definitely their own personalities and I I hope
they don't struggle with that. Now now if I ever have twins
in the future, I'm gonna have to think, okay, how do I make
sure I help them establish their own identities because I
can see how that would that would be a interesting paradigm
to grow up in. So shifting back to moms though. Alright, so
moms making the best leaders. I have my own theories and
views on this. You just shared a dynamically powerful one
which is when your child was born, you begin to see your
life through his eyes which is an incredible manifestation
exercise. Um you know, a meditation exercise to think
through that. I guess uh not even self-awareness. It's like
beyond self-awareness. What what is it about? What is about
moms and how do we how can how can strength come from
nurture and softness and um you know, you know, even the even
the word delicate comes to mind. Um you know, like how how
do those lead to strength that also create results or
profitability? Let's try to tie this all together. Oh, I love
that. Oh and this I used to believe you can never
intertwine those. I used to believe like it was very like
you know, it's gonna be harder but it was solid and then
when you see yours think that. Yeah, very much so and I
think I when I uncovered because you have to merge when
you're a parent, you've got when you're a mom, you've gotta
merge business with life and like you know, Alfie's walked
in on me on meetings every now and then and I can't just be
like oh hi honey like that's that's not me like yes you
wear different hats and things but I wanted to kind of flow
in these different identities and I think the beautiful
thing about motherhood is in the absolute depth of empathy
of vulnerability means you are completely open and when you're
completely open you are saying I may get hurt and I'm
probably going to because I have before but I'm still
willing to do it anyway and that pivotal moment creates
profound resilience and the ability to keep showing up even
when your heart is on the line, even when your child is in
front of you, when you know at one point you have to say
goodbye to them. It's the same when you're leading a team.
You've gotta delegate and hope and pray that they can do a
good job and if they don't, you need to just lead again and
tell them how to do it and like it's this constant ebb and
flow. You're never gonna get to leadership status and then
you're done. You're constantly evolving with it and I think
that's something that I've found where people are like I'm
at the CEO level, I'm done now and it's like no, you're at
the CEO level, your leadership is now just the gun. Like you
need to now continue to nurture that and it is really in those
moments of kindness but it's first and foremost kindness to
yourself before kindness to anybody else and the kindness
to yourself means you can't be a people pleaser like you used
to be. So there's resistance, there's like it's
uncomfortable, there's boundaries you need to put up
because I want my child to be able to say yes and no when he
feels like it which means I have to do that. I have to say
what's a no to me and what's a yes to me and then know that
it's not my control how somebody else reacts. Yeah.
So, there's so much opportunity there and moms who are getting
back into the workforce, I see some self-sabotage happening
where they they feel like they don't they don't belong in the
workforce, they don't have a job description or a resume when
in reality they just don't often know how to talk about the
reality of their existing resume. Two, on the flip side,
a lot of leaders might bring somebody in who's that softer,
kinder, more delicate person but they don't know how to
activate. They they don't know how to endorse and empower that
individual and so they end up almost muzzling. You know,
somebody who could be their greatest strength by their side
to bring a new dynamic. So, there's gotta be a respect
provided by the executive in order to benefit from it but
moms, you guys have you have been managers for however long
your child, right, has has been with you and our children are
in subordinate in nature. They they do not always listen. You
cannot fire your child. You don't want to fire your child
for fun but like they might hate you, right, and and really
struggle with a situation and you have to have the ingenuity
to figure out, alright, how do I keep loving this entity that
hates me, right, and and how to make things work. The
superpowers that come with with that level of dedication as a
manager, I don't understand how companies don't see the power
of that, how they don't realize the byproduct of having
somebody who can keep your retention together which is one
of the bottom line factors of whether a company is gonna
succeed or not. So, I'm I'm I'm gonna get my my my high horse
now on on or my my pulpit I guess. So, Caitlin, what's your
vision for the those that you serve? So, my vision from a
simplistic standpoint has always been to help people
grow their business, make more money and impact the world.
And from a more complex expansion on that, it's being
able to intertwine serving and helping the world become a
better place. However, that is means to the CEO or the leader
that I'm working with. As well as making more money
obviously because it drives business. Um but growing their
business means they have to grow. So, there's always an
underlying factor. So, the thing that I absolutely love is
helping people grow. Helping people grow how they show up.
Grow in their emotional intelligence and awareness. Grow
in their joy and their capacity to lead a team. So,
that if you're not willing to grow your business isn't
gonna grow which means you're not gonna make as much more
money. It means you can't improve. So, let's start at
this sector. Um that's so fun. It is so fun when someone
actually goes, I get it. I get it. I've done it. Like I'm
growing and you can see the joy in the journey. It's not
now a destination. It's the journey. The moments on that
journey. It's creating them to be the person they're meant
to be. That better version of themselves and they just light
up when they find that and it's I'm addicted to that. Right.
Yeah. To seeing them just go, oh, this is who I'm meant to
be. This is what I want. Yes, absolutely. It is. That's kind
of the pinnacle of of leadership. Um right is is
seeing that. Um I'm I'm grateful for the way that you
defined it. Let's talk about your vision. You mentioned
Bali. You've mentioned Spain. A couple of different different
countries and opportunities but what do you what do you see
for yourself on the horizon? So, a vision for me has always
been freedom. Complete freedom and I mean obviously
financial freedom but I also mean time freedom and I mean
emotional freedom. So, being able to detach from the
emotional addictions that I have so I can teach my son how
to do that and I can be with my partner better and be more
present and more aware and then those around me who want
to learn how to do it can do it too. Um but I want to be
able to to take time off when I need because I need it and
I'm wanting it and I want to be able to teach other people
how to do that. So, I'm the first coach to myself and then
I help other people do that. Okay, you you opened uh another
vein there. I'm going to go off into this uh down to this
path. You talked about emotional addictions. Um so
certainly feel free to share what your emotional addictions
are. Um the people that you're serving, you know, let's look
at and I I shouldn't say it's the people you're serving.
You serve a lot of people but the the CEOs and the business
owners out there. Um what emotional addictions are common
to have? Um and I'm thinking more so to these these men. Um
these masculine individuals that are like, oh, I don't let
emotions get in the way. It's business. I don't take it
personal. So, what does that look like first and let's
gravitate towards the the people who are more open minded
about this reality. So, the men who are like, oh, I don't
like emotions. Um there's patterns. So, emotions are our
patterns. Our patterns, our habits. The way we do one
thing is the way we do everything. And the pattern is
always um stress. The addiction to stress. The
addiction to feeling like I have to be in control and I have
to be in charge of everything. There's a real control
mentality. Um where the clients will come to me primarily
in the seven figure range trying to get to eight and I'm
like the only way you're gonna get to eight is if you like
reduce this emotional addiction and they're just like I'm not
addicted and I'm like can you step away for a day? No, they
can't. And they can't because they're wanting that
validation of I'm needed, I'm wanted, I I need to be in this
business but it's like you also have a life, you also have a
family, you can step away. Um so that's a huge component of
what I see with my male client. I actually say the women
clients that I work with from an there's so much more
emotionally aware and so willing to accept and
understand that there is something that they can
improve on. And I think it's from a societal understanding
women are normally brought up to be like you're a problem,
you need to fix all these things. And as a mother,
you're like, yes, I'll fix everything. Right. When you
speak woman a woman a core understanding of your
emotional addiction is you're not enough. So that's creating
resistance, that's creating frustration. If you can change
that story, then all of this unlocks and then they change
the story and everything unlocks. And then because
they've got evidence, they do it again and again and they
become so successful because they've got to the core root
of it. Okay. Very good. So this you talked about the root
of stress. Um and you talked about the seven, eight
figures. It reminded me, big shout out to Josh Long. I
think I'm giving the right person credit. Um I believe it
was him who said uh who coined the term the seven figured
desert. Um and I was like, oh, that that is that is something
most people aren't aware of. It's just how difficult the
the journey at seven figure becomes. Uh people think, well,
it'll be easy once I'm making six figures. Once I'm making
high six figures, life will become so much easier and and
uh it's it's interesting. Uh you know, we'll we'll leave it
at that for now. Coming back to this emotional addictions
aspect and stress. Um I mean, I'd I'd love to see your
thought process on this because I think a lot of people
relate to what I'm about to say. So, my mom's a single single
mom of six. I'm the youngest of those six and so providing for
all of us. Um her first husband died in a plane crash. No no
child support there obviously. Um my dad spent all of their
savings um and then did not pay child support either. Um so,
we she had a lot of challenges to figure out how to provide
for us and you know, we'd wake up super early in the morning,
go to her, she owned a gas station outside of the city and
we would go to that from, you know, we were up four and we
were closing that shop around ten uh at night and then coming
back home and starting over. She was everywhere too. Uh
church, all my sports activities, I mean, I have no
idea how she did it all. I don't think anybody does
including her. My question for you though, back to that stress
aspect, um is there a healthy degree of stress and is there a
time where that's something we lean into or could my mom have
possibly had an easier route? And how'd she let go of the
stress? Um you know and had she decided, you know what? It's
not just on me. Um you know, to provide. I have no idea what
the answer is but I'm I'm curious what your what your
thoughts are related to that. Firstly, your mom, wow. She's
incredible. And absolutely. Well done to her. Love that. Um
so when we're talking stress, it's definitely a a healthy
level of stress because it does kind of kick your **** into
gear if you're like, it's a little bit like, eh, I can't
hold it. But then you're like, oh, I'm stressing to do this.
So, that I definitely agree on. But when I, so for me, the
way I look at stress, it's what are you telling yourself in
those moments? If you're feeling stressed and going,
I've got this, I've got the the fuel to drive this, I can do
this and you're actually rewiring your brain to
associate that to deliver a really good outcome which is
healthier for your body. But even those moments of stress,
you're like, I'm not good enough, I can't do this, it
will never work and you're literally running yourself into
the ground. That perpetual cycle of stress and
storytelling is not going to get you anywhere because
you're literally going to be running around in a circle
because you're telling yourself you can't do it. Your
stress will continue to increase and the result you're
wanting won't be there. You might have fleeting moments of
success or what it is that you want but you're going to burn
out from a long-term stability. So, what I always state, if
you're addicted to an emotion, that is something we need to
work on because if you're addicted to something, that
means it controls you and when you're wanting to live a life
of freedom in my viewpoint and you're wanting to have the
success of the life that you want, you can't have things
control you. Yeah. You want to be able to control the things
that you can control and from a stress standpoint, it is very
good but it's about being able to rewire that and bring it
back and go, well, why am I feeling stressed? Okay, I'm
feeling stressed because of this. Okay, cool. So, what do I
do now? And what I find going back to the point you made
before about if I make more money, I'll be happy. Money
amplifies us. So, who you are today, the emotions you feel
today, the stress you potentially have, the stories
you have about money, it's only ever going to amplify unless
you deal with it. Making more money does not heal your money
but working on yourself helps you make more money and make
more money. So, that is a big component when I meet people at
seven figures, they've always gone, I just need to get to
eight because if I get to eight, then I'll feel this and
I'm like, you didn't feel this at five figures, you didn't
feel this at six figures, you're not feeling this at
seven figures. What the hell? Why do you think you're going to
feel this at eight figures? Because you're not willing to
do the internal work or you haven't done it yet and that's
what I really shift people into. How do we now do the
internal work? So, when you get to the eight figures, you
don't feel this and you're not trying to, I have to get the
right there, it's, I get to strive for that, I get to
achieve it and feel more calm. I'm writing that down because
it reminds me of a very important scientific study by
Malcolm Gladwell in Talking With Strangers where he talks
about how alcohol is an amplifier and amplified as the
emotion or the setting that we're in. If somebody is
depressed, for instance, and alone, it actually amplifies
the solitude and the depression versus if they're in a party
atmosphere, then naturally they're going to get a little
bit more crazy and perhaps fun and I believe you're
spot on with the same thing. It hit me, I was like, whoa, I
can see how money is that same amplifier, something that
pushes us in a direction, that propels us rather in the
direction that we're already going, it creates momentum for
it. So that's really, really helpful to understand when it
comes to our own lives visionaries and what direction
are we choosing to go in or are we stuck in, know that
whatever resource you have is going to amplify that
direction. So that's a really profound simple truth. The
other truth I want to circle back to, Dan Martel, SAS
Academy, he talks about mindset being the greatest
problem that entrepreneurs face and I think that goes with
any vision or anybody who's trying to move life forward,
that knowing that our mindset can be amplified or reworked,
we can do work on this. That's why coaches exist. That's why
therapists, psychologists, there's a lot of opportunities
to take control of life and see how can I do this better. The
one that I would say the lack of emotion or the anti-motion
is the one I see most executives and people of great
purpose end up moving towards is they almost check out
emotionally. And so the addiction often comes in the
form, and I went through this as well, where Netflix or
sports or some type of distraction, it could be alcohol,
could be drugs, that distracts me from the emotions I don't
want to face. That external addiction also is a form of what
I'll tie into un-doctorly, the emotional addictions phase or
reality. So just think on that. Those of you listening in, if
that's, you know, this isn't about learning from me or
Caitlin, like what our wisdom is, it's about you taking this
and going and thinking through what are you going to do with
it and how is this going to help you or your team members,
you know, with whatever they might need. So let's step into
a dark subject. What's the worst leadership experience that
you've ever had?
This actually ties in wonderfully to the emotional
side of what we're talking about. So I worked with a leader
and they were at the seven figure mark and they wanted to
get to eight and they just weren't listening when I was
saying from an emotional standpoint, we need to deal with
your emotional state because when you feel something, you
react and it's that reaction that's creating a lot of
issues in your business. So we want to be a bit more proactive
instead of reaction like, oh my god, all these things and I've
been working on them for a few months and we jumped on the
call like we normally do and I'm like, and I knew something had
happened that he didn't want to happen in the business and I
was like, okay, so what, tell me what's going on and it's like
I fired everybody. I'm like what? I'm like why? And he's
like because they all made this mistake and he was so unwilling
to admit that he had made mistakes and there was such a
perfectionistic mindset of I have to do everything perfect
which I used to believe, don't get me wrong but he just was
not willing to to look at the areas that he could improve on
so instead of having his team provide feedback, he just fired
everybody and I'm just like we're going in crisis recovery
mode here like what the hell is going on and I was really
honest with him and I was just like, can I just be really
honest? He's like, yeah, that's my fire. How is your fall? And
I'm like, you have continuously not listened to what I'm
saying and I have to be honest, you are the problem. You are the
problem which also means you're the solution. So stop looking
at the problems and figure out you're the solution and I've
got some options if you're willing to admit that you made
a mistake and he did and we worked together quite intensely
to shift that for him because he was in such a he'd gone into
the into the the real numbing. He'd been in a burnt out phase
for years. He'd been numb. Anytime he felt anything, he
got scared. So he he lashed out to somebody else or it was
always somebody else's fault and I was like, you can't do
that as a leader. You can't. What are you? What have you
done? How are you responsible in this? Because you can
under control you. When you address what you've what like
you've done wrong, you can then have an open, very vulnerable
conversation, sometimes difficult with your team
members but you have to be the one first willing to admit
where you went wrong because if you don't communicate that
they don't know how to. So we did work together quite
intensely for a while and we shifted that and then he hired
he started hiring a team back.
And then yeah slowly slowly but surely kind of his business
got back up to where it needs to be and he's leading with
more heart which is what I always say. You need to
you need to balance both of the two. It's not one or the
other. It's always a combination of the two. So that's one of
the keys on that. You you leveraged the art and in a in a
very organic way of radical candor, right? You let him
know and and you did so but it was just such a perfect
balance of helping him realize like I'm probably gonna use
that line in the in the future. You are the problem which
means you are the solution. I think a lot of people forget
to say that. I also think a lot of people don't want to
hear anything after that first segment. So what good on him.
You know for being able to listen and be willing to go
through that that humble gut check of like whoa okay I need
to do something right here and for you too for sticking with
him for recognizing that you know he made a massive mistake
but you both found a way to overcome that as a team. That
is a very very rare story and in today's world it was it was
different when we didn't have access to swipe left. You know
it was different when we didn't have access to endless people
on LinkedIn and and resumes on Fiverr and Upwork and Beyond.
So to hear that in today's world it I that just makes me
really happy the way that that story turned out. So let's go
into the best leadership. What's the best leadership
experience that you've ever had that I mean you pretty much
nailed that right there. We're gonna do another one. We're
gonna double down. It was actually with a woman that I
worked with. She is one of the most the kindest leaders. Such
a powerful woman in her own right. And she came to me and
she had said like she was hiring more people and she's
like how do I start like I know we're doing ROI on the
financials but how do I start actually figuring out the ROI
on the impact. The impact for the team as well as the impact
for our customers. And she's like I really think that's
important and I want my team to feel and know that they're
they're important to me. And I want that culture to really
enhance. And for her to because normally I address that and
we'll talk to somebody but for her to just come out and go I
wanna now start making this a priority. And she would always
in our conversations be talking about how she can be a better
leader for the team. How can she improve? And I think it was
that self awareness of she kind of gotten rid of all the I'm
to blame like all of that was gone. It was just like I know
that I'm here to serve. I'm here to lead a team. How can I
lead them to the best of my absolute ability? And it was so
incredible and she has the best company culture I have ever
ever seen in a company. And they absolutely adore her. And
she just truly cares at the bottom of her heart. And I was
always in tears many times when we were having our
coaching sessions because I was just like you just your heart
is so open like you're just so wonderful. Do we get to know
who this is? Her name is Kelsey Kloss. Kelsey what? Kelsey
Kloss of Kloss Creates. K-L-O-S-S. Oh that's awesome. We
gotta I just I I hope we get to like tag her in this and let
her know that that's you know that's that she's there. She's
the poster child of best leadership. I mean that that's
awesome. So. And she does PR. PR and media. And so to find
somebody at that level of care who has that amount of talent
in an industry that's quite predominantly not in the care
factor was it's really rare. Right. Absolutely. Um and
that's that's the best of the best typically. Um and I was
the ones who do have that X factor of both components. So
again thank you for sharing. Now before we dive into the
powerful lesson. Um I'm curious were you were you this easy to
talk to about leadership before becoming a mom or is that
something that developed as part of that or after the fact
like you you you have an aura when it comes to leadership and
I'm curious what what what's the root change that occurred or
experience that that drove that? Honestly it was my son.
So for me everything I do is merging strategy. So your your
brain. How how can we really create the high performance with
your mission and your vision and your heart? And I'd always
done things on a very masculine ROI like let's do this. Very
strategic brain side of things. When I had my son he opened my
heart in a way that I've never even ever experienced to such a
level of vulnerability that I didn't realise was needed for
leadership. I'd only ever seen it as there's a mask that you
wear and I realised my heart's just open now with him and my
like don't get me wrong my partner's incredible and like
he did open my heart when we when we met and it's just even
more. Um and then I realised I had to redefine the way that I
saw and viewed leadership and so I kind of just stepped into
me. Just this version of me who can speak from the heart and
use her her intellect and understanding of business and
finance to really help people understand where they are
because if I'm not willing to do it my clients can't do it. So
I have to be the example which means I gotta do it. And don't
get me wrong. It's hard. Like it is difficult if you're trying
to shift um from something you've always known to
something new but it's worth it because when I break through
my clients know how to break through and I can hold their
hand while they do it. Um and I've always kind of been a
natural I've done my my personality test and I've
always been a natural leader but always been scared to do it.
Yeah. That's that's amazing. Um and it's it's funny I haven't
thought about life in that way but I became an uncle when I
was nine years old. And that you know it's it wasn't my first
time being a parent obviously but it did come with a certain
responsibility and a dedication to I wanna be an example for um
you know my nephew and then at eleven I held my sister's hand
to the birth of my my niece and she grew up in our house. So I
had these these strange parental experiences early on
when my child was born. My first daughter was born uh but
the honestly the the strangest excitement about that
experience was people had always told me I didn't know what
it was like to be a parent and then I didn't know that
feeling and my first feeling was yes I did. Um you know I I
didn't feel any different. I felt as much love for my
daughter as I did for my nephews and nieces. Um and it
was a really really strange experience to to kind of go
through that but I I can I think that would be too. I think
what you're talking about. You may have experienced a
different timeline but it it helps me see and now I can
gravitate back to and think through those experiences. So
thank you for um sharing that. That's that's possibly the most
powerful lesson that you could share. At least it is
with me. Um we'll see though. He might you might one up it. If
this was the last chance Caitlin that you had to share a
powerful lesson with the world. What powerful lesson can other
visionaries learn from your experience?
Such a good question. There's so many things. Um the only
thing you should try to be striving for is happiness.
Everything unlocks with happiness. Um because when a
leader's happy, their team's happy. When a leader knows how
to be happy, their team know how to be happy. And happiness
doesn't mean you don't have hard conversations. It doesn't
mean that you don't fire people. It doesn't mean that
you don't have mistakes but it means that you always go back
to being happy and there's always an underlying love and
self acceptance with happiness. Accept who you are um with all
your flaws because you're gonna make mistakes and that's okay
we're meant to. That's how you get better. Just stand back up.
I've literally taught my son every time he stands he falls
down. I say what are we doing before Dan says we get back up.
I'm like yep we get back up. You just keep getting back up.
And you can do this. That's right Bruce. Um alright that's
a Batman quote. Um and I love it. It's it's fantastic. And I
not the original or the original quote. The one you
shared. The only thing you should be you should try to be
striving for is happiness. Everything unlocks with
happiness. Um I I'm going to add that as well. That's that's
definitely a part of my homework today and for the next
century. Um is to to pay attention to that more. Um I'll
add a little tweet to it. Um my my base is peace. Um that's
where I would I would I would interchange those words as for
me step one. Um and that has a lot to do with religion for me.
That's my my base of um guaranteed uh emotion no matter
what somebody does. I can I can have peace. However I think
from the the next level of that is happiness. Um is I I need
if I'm going to maximize this life. I can't have a mindset
that um that blocks me from hoping for happiness or that
keeps me from thinking I can cultivate this in my life. If I
don't allow myself to really dive into that then as you
mentioned I end up creating a chasm or a struggle for
everybody involved in my equations. Um you know and in
in my potential results. So that's that's that's really
powerful. Happiness is one of those things that I struggle
with. It is not a natural um a natural feeling for me to to
gravitate towards. Um so even more important if uh you know
if you're out there visionary leader style um if that's
something that also uh you struggle with all the more
reason for us to jump in and say hey how do we how do we
cultivate this and create this in our lives? So again thank
you for that. Uh before we wrap up if do you have an extra
few minutes? I know we're right at the hour and if you
gotta go, it's okay. Yeah, I got a few minutes. Okay. So I'd
love to dive into this concept just a little bit more
directly. A profitable world and led by conscious and kind
CEOs. Uh the show and the time is yours. What does that look
like and how do we achieve that as entrepreneurs or what
question should I be asking related to that topic? So my
belief with this is always starts from ourselves. So
profitability obviously means financial profitability but
profitability in wealth and riches in how much love you
feel, how much gratitude you cultivate, your overall
happiness. Um and I've started creating a world of leaders who
merge so beautifully strategic elements of their business to
drive profitability but also to enhance their company culture
so they can be happy. They can enjoy life and it's not this
rigid you have to work nine to five. It's like there's
fluidity, there's ebbs and flows and with with life and
it's kind of breaking all the boxes and it's like what do you
define as that? And I love this question I always ask my
clients. I'm like they're like what is what is success? I'm
like what do you define success as? And they're like
making this amount. I'm like cool what would that do for you?
And it's expanding beyond just the numbers. Because numbers
are just they're not good or bad they're just numbers but
what's what's the meaning you want to attach to it? So when
we're speaking on profitability it's the life they
get to create with it. If more people got to create the life
they want to grow into and that is their deciding factor. It's
being able to have the time with your children or not have
the time with your children. It's being able to to create
such profound impact in your own companies that you have a
channel where you just fund not-for-profit organizations
because there's more than enough and it helps serve your
heart as well as serve your mission, serve your mind and
what you ultimately love to do in the world. Wow. Okay you
have masterful listening skills like ultra masterful and one
of them was when you talked about you are the problem and
you can also be the solution and then there's this one where
what do you define success as and you and I know there's a
superficial element right there's a lack of depth to
you know money is everything but you didn't come at it like
that. You didn't react, you didn't respond, you didn't just
listen to understand you provided a new key of depth to
honor what was said by asking next well you know what would
that do for you? You're honoring the reality of where the
person's at. How the heck did you learn to do that? I was
always like a media so I'm I'm one of four and my parents
didn't really get along. They do now but they didn't. So I was
always kind of a mediator in the family so I would be the
person who communicates to everybody so I'd have to be very
astute with my listening but I've been a coach consultant
for 18 years and the results and I'm I'm just so about impact
and transformation and it's normally you can't just go
surface deep because it's surface results isn't it? You've
gotta go deeper. So it's obvious there's a tone in the
cadence you use. I'm gonna shoot down the 18 year aspect
because I've met a lot of coaches who've been coaches for
1800 years and they still suck at it. So again, where did you
where did you unlock this?
I think I was honestly
I love being able to expand on somebody's viewpoint because
when I've had because I've traveled the world and I've
been able to speak to so many people of different cultures
and understanding and you know even being in the UK now and
I'm Australian I have to explain some of the things that
I'm saying because even though it's English it's completely
different the meaning of it. So it's so important the
intentionality and the meaning behind your conversation. So
there's always kind of in a depth to the way that I think
and speak and English was never my best subject. I was
always a numbers person. So I really tried hard in English to
really understand what people were saying. But when I became
when I left the bank and I started to figure out who I was
I would just sit down and have conversations with when I was
in London or like on my own. I was like who are you? Tell me
about yourself and they'd always be like miserable and I
was like let me see if I can if you can leave here with a
smile like that was what I was saying in my head and that was
just a game I like to play and then I was like and then I
figured out the way you could change their mindset and change
their their mood is by expanding on their thought and
by shifting what they believe to be true so that it unloved
something was an aha moment and I love that aha moment
because then their life is never the same again. Yeah.
Oh man I just want to marinate in this. So the the another
the next takeaway I have for myself on this is you said I
love to expand on people's viewpoint and I think a lot of
times as leaders we either get uncomfortable or we get laser
focused on wanting other people to understand our viewpoint
and and see something new or see something better than what
they may have said. I know I'm I'm very guilty of that so
you've given me yet another awesome opportunity to to think
through this. I will be contacting you after the show
for sure and visionary leaders you can of course do the same
there's going to be action steps in the landing page below
the show notes that you can take with Caitlin Cook and her
brand. There will be the resources down below that as
well the resources that Caitlin and I have both learned
from to get to where we're at in life. If those are helpful
for you awesome and then also in the top right corner of the
screen you're going to see a button that says be our guest.
If you are a visionary leader and you're looking to launch
something it does not matter if you're that stay at home mom
who's who's just you know moving on from that and
realizing you want to do something different in life.
Come and share that vision if you're the stay at home mom in
the middle of that and that's your vision and how to be a
great mom come and share that with us on vision pros live.
This isn't just about business and then if you're you know
you're off to the races in business and crushing it of
course you're welcome to be on the show too. We look forward
to continuing to host excellent leaders Caitlin. This has been
an absolute pleasure any final thoughts you want to share
with the audience. I'll let you do the wrap up today. First of
all I want to say thank you so much Jackson this has been so
lovely and I love the depth of our conversation and that you
just don't bypass the difficult things which I really really
appreciate. I guess my final thoughts would be like I want
to normalize the process and the journey and it's not all
rainbows and butterflies. The reason people succeed is
because they fail a lot and failure means being put up
against yourself and having to go what have I done here that
I could have done differently and it's being aware of your
emotions and holding space for all of it because all of it is
you and that is okay and you get to have moments where
you're thriving and you get to have moments where you're like
I'm just going to have chicken wings and sit on the couch and
laughing and watch a movie because today is just not my
day but it's a journey you ebb and flow just accept it and
embrace every moment of it. You've got this. You heard it
and you felt it from visionary CEO, Caitlin Cook. Thank you
for being here today. I'm really happy that you tuned in
to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward to seeing your
reactions as these episodes continue to move forward. This
is going to get more and more fun. We'll have more and more
engagement as well. We'll invite people to participate in
the show and thank you for giving us your time and
attention. Have an excellent time building out your.