Visionary's Pursuit

85. Why Hitting Your Goals Never Feels Like Enough

MAY 18TH - 30TH, JOIN ME FOR MY FREE DAILY MINI-WORKSHOP SERIES ON ESSENTIALISM AND HOW TO THINK ABOUT YOUR CALENDAR. IF YOU CAN'T MAKE IT LIVE, YOU CAN STILL ENROLL THROUGH MAY 22ND TO RECEIVE ALL RECORDINGS AND PDFS. LINK TO SAVE YOUR SEAT BELOW: HTTPS://WWW.CAROZULETA.COM/10X [https://www.carozuleta.com/10x] EPISODE SUMMARY I've been fascinated by the idea of potential since my late teens. For me, it has always been motivating, a possibility of what I could learn, develop, and become. But over the years, talking with friends and clients, I've heard a very different version of that word. Many people grew up hearing "you're wasting your potential," and they reference it as proof that who they are right now isn't enough. In this episode, I want to reset that. I talk about why potential should come from desire rather than lack, why we get to choose which potential we develop instead of treating it as an obligation, and why some of our potential will go undeveloped and that's perfectly okay. I draw on the concept of the gap and the gain from 10X Is Easier Than 2X and share a story about an ultra-high achieving client who almost abandoned her vision two weeks in because of the way she was looking at her goals. Be sure to tune in, this one is a goodie. Key Takeaways * Potential is a possibility, not a finish line. There will always be more we could learn or achieve, and that fact doesn't mean where we are today is wrong or that we are not good enough * The potential worth developing comes from desire, from what genuinely excites and matters to you, rather than from a place of lack or what others think you should be doing with your natural abilities * The gap and the gain describe two ways of measuring progress. Focusing on the gap, on how far you still are from the vision, breeds anxiety and a sense of falling short. Focusing on the gain, on how much you've already learned and become, builds motivation, confidence, and gratitude * Life is 50/50. No amount of revenue, freedom, or achievement makes the human experience permanently happy, and recognizing that takes the urgency and pressure out of chasing the next goal * The destination is rarely better than where you are. What makes ambition worth it is the journey and what you discover about your own strength, creativity, and capacity along the way * You can be fully content and proud of who you are today and still want to grow, not because here isn't enough, but because you get to keep exploring what you're capable of Memorable Quotes "To fulfill our potential is not a place we all need to get to. It's not an end line." "Potential cannot be this rigid thing that we think we should be. It really has to come from our true desires." "That is the secret to sustain our ambition, to be able to dream bigger and to not collapse because we're just focused on the gap." Resources Mentioned * 10X Is Easier Than 2X by Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy, and the concept of the gap and the gain * Brooke Castillo and the Life Coach School, and the idea that life is 50/50 Connect with Carolina Website: carozuleta.com

84. Your Lack of Time is A Leadership Problem

The Self-Led CEO: a FREE 5-day Workshop May 18th - 22nd for business founders who think, behave and lead like a CEO.  Go here to enroll: https://www.carozuleta.com/10x [https://www.carozuleta.com/10x] Episode Summary A mentor once told me that if you are working more than 40 hours a week, you do not have a time problem, you have a leadership problem. In this episode I get into why your calendar is actually a mirror reflecting your current level of leadership, how many decisions still run through you, and how much of your business still depends on your personal capacity. Drawing from Dan Sullivan's and Benjamin Hardy's ,10X Is Easier Than 2X I explore the difference between a 2X mindset that asks, "How do I do more?" and a 10X mindset that asks, "What can I remove, delegate, or upgrade?" I also introduce the concept of over-functioning, which is the pattern most visionary CEOs fall into without realizing it, and the identity work required to lead at a higher level without giving your business every waking hour. This episode is the philosophy behind my brand new free mini course, The Self-Led CEO, which starts Monday. Key Takeaways * Working long hours is rarely a time management problem. It is a leadership problem, and underneath that, an identity problem. Your calendar is a mirror reflecting how much your business still depends on your personal capacity * The 2X mindset asks, "How can I do more, faster, with less waste?" The 10X mindset asks, "What needs to be removed, delegated, or upgraded?" 10X growth rarely comes from working ten times harder. It comes from doing less of the wrong things and more of the right ones at a higher level * Over-functioning is the pattern where your business borrows from your energy and speed instead of building the structures, team, and decision-making muscles it needs to grow on its own. It is not about doing everything. It is about doing things you are capable of doing but should not be doing anymore * Many CEOs over-function because they can. They are fast, they know the business deeply, and they can execute well. The same bias for action that built the business can become the very thing that caps its growth * There is a meaningful difference between hiring for relief and hiring for ownership. Hiring for relief often creates more work in the short term. Hiring for ownership brings in someone who can do the job better than you and frees you to lead at a higher level * The identity shift can happen in a single conversation. The operational shift takes longer. Expect cognitive dissonance as your old identity tries to pull you back into familiar patterns of overworking, over-controlling, and over-delivering * Recovery is a leadership strategy, not a reward for working hard enough. Building a business that can grow beyond your personal capacity requires you to value rest, thinking time, and empty space on the calendar as much as you value execution Memorable Quotes * "Your calendar is the mirror reflecting back to you your level of leadership." * "10X mindset is about removing things off your plate. 2X mindset is about adding things to your plate." * "Over-functioning is when your business borrows from your energy and capacity instead of building the structure to grow on its own." * "The most important thing you can do for your business is use your brain." * "The mindset shift can happen in a moment. The operational shift takes time, and that distinction matters." Resources Mentioned * 10X Is Easier Than 2X by Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy * The Self-Led CEO, a free five-day mini course starting Monday, twenty minutes per day, enroll through the link in the episode description Connect with Carolina * Website: carozuleta.com * Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts * Interested in working together? Book a discovery call to learn more about the Visionary Mindset Program, where founders go from winging it to CEO over six months of group coaching

83. Why Do You Keep Attracting Difficult Clients?

Episode Summary I have a theory that may sound a bit harsh... but stick with me. Most of the time, difficult clients are a symptom of bad leadership. Yes, hard people exist in the world. Yes, some clients will push every boundary you have. But when I peek behind the curtain of a business that's drowning in difficult client situations, I almost always find the same three things missing. In this episode, I walk through what those three things are and how to start rebuilding them. If you've been resenting your clients lately, or if you've been tolerating misalignment because you're scared the next client won't come, this one is for you. Key Takeaways * Difficult clients are usually a symptom of three things missing in your leadership: clarity, ownership, and follow-through. Hard people exist, but when difficult clients become the norm, the work is on you * Most founders haven't actually defined their ideal client beyond someone who can pay. Values alignment, communication style, payment behavior, scope clarity, and the energy you feel working with them all belong on that list * Saying yes to clients out of scarcity is one of the most expensive habits in business. You over-accommodate, lose money on scope, and build resentment toward the work you used to love * The manual is a tool I learned at the Life Coach School. It's the unconscious set of expectations we carry for how others should behave. The two problems with it are that we rarely communicate it, and even when we do, people are still going to be people * Even when a client crosses one of your boundaries, you are not a victim to their choices. You get to decide how to respond, whether that's holding the line or extending grace, and that decision needs to come from leadership rather than fear * Follow-through is where most founders break down. They get clear, they communicate the rules, and then they go quiet the moment a client pushes back because they're scared of the difficult conversation * You can fire clients. In 15 years of coaching, I've fired maybe two, and both times it was because I knew the work wasn't serving them. You can hold a hard line and still stay in connection and integrity with the person across from you Connect with Carolina * Book a consultation: carozuleta.com/consult * LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/carolinazuletacoaching * Email: info (at) carolinazuleta (dot) com Subscribe & Review If this episode was helpful, please leave a rating and follow the show. It helps other founders find the podcast and allows us to keep creating this content for free.

82. Guilty at Work, Guilty at Home

Episode Summary This episode is more personal than most. I sat down to share what I've learned about being a mom while running a business. This episode is a lot about how carefully I've thought about how to design a life where parenting and a career can exist without one constantly losing to the other. If you're a parent who works, or someone trying to build a life where ambition and love for the people closest to you don't have to compete, this one is for you. Key Takeaways * The question is not whether to choose career or family, it is how to design a life that holds both. Trade-offs exist, but they rarely look the way we assume they do when fear is making the decision for us * Guilt is information. When you feel it, the work is to ask whether you're out of integrity with your own values or absorbing someone else's idea of who you should be. Those are very different problems with very different responses * There is no single template for a good mother. The most powerful version of motherhood is the one that flows from who you actually are, not from what you've watched other women do well * Being present in your child's life is not measured in hours. It is measured in connection, in knowing what's happening in their world, and in showing up for the moments that matter to them * The same coaching skills that work in business work in parenting. Awareness of your own thoughts, regulation of your own emotions, and intentionality about your impact are life skills that translate to every relationship you have * Children give immediate, honest feedback. When you stop trying to fix their experience and start witnessing it instead, the entire dynamic changes. Most kids do not want their feelings solved, they want their feelings seen * Modeling matters more than instruction. When children watch a parent love their work, take ownership of mistakes, and repair ruptures honestly, they learn to do the same in their own lives * Setting limits and staying connected are not in conflict. You can hold a hard line, give a consequence, or have a difficult conversation while keeping the love completely intact Memorable Quotes * "I think one of my biggest parenting tools is to pay attention." * "There is no way of loving a child in excess. The problem is that we confuse not setting boundaries with love." * "My job is not to fix this. My job is to hold space for her emotions and witness her experience." * "We parent more with our example than our words." Resources Mentioned * The Whole-Brain Child by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson * Dr. Becky Kennedy and the Good Inside app (highly recommend for parents) * Elizabeth Gilbert's framing on the three types of mothers Connect with Me * Website: carozuleta.com [https://carozuleta.com] * If this episode resonated, please rate and follow the podcast. It helps more founders find this work and shapes the content we create each week

81. The Most Common Leadership Blindspots in Small Businesses

Episode Summary So many of my conversations with high level executives are about their disdain for their work. One told me he goes to the office every day to breathe toxic air. That's what prompted this episode. Research from the National Association for the Self-Employed shows employees of smaller businesses report higher satisfaction than those at larger corporations, but only by about 11 points, which tells me there's still a lot of room for smaller businesses to do better. And the biggest lever for that sits with the founder. In this episode, I move past the usual conversation about "happy employees" and make the case for something more durable, which is engagement. I walk through the three categories of reactive tendencies we all carry into leadership, the ones we developed as kids to keep ourselves safe, and how the overuse of those tendencies quietly erodes trust, culture, and performance inside small businesses. If you've ever wondered why your team isn't following through, why the same patterns keep surfacing no matter who you hire, or why you feel resistance to the harder parts of leading, this episode is for you. Key Takeaways * Employees at smaller businesses report 11 points higher satisfaction than those at larger companies, according to the National Association for the Self-Employed. But small doesn't automatically mean engaged, and the founder's leadership is the single biggest variable * Happiness is fleeting. Engagement is different. William Kahn defined it in 1990 as the degree to which people bring their full selves physically, cognitively, and emotionally to their work. That's what we should be optimizing for * Reactive tendencies are behaviors we developed as young children to keep ourselves safe. They made sense then, and many of them still serve us now. The problem is the overuse, which is where they start damaging our leadership * The complying tendency shows up as people-pleasing, avoiding difficult conversations, and saying yes to keep harmony. It builds affection in the short term and erodes trust in the longer term * The protecting tendency shows up as "I can do it better myself," emotional distance from the team, or harsh critical feedback. It produces self-sufficiency and the ability to make hard calls, but it blocks the warmth and empathy teams need from their leader * The controlling tendency shows up as perfectionism, overworking, needing to be right, and pursuing results at the expense of people. High standards are a gift. Impossible standards are a shield * Leadership is not a fixed trait. You are either actively working on it and getting better, or you're not, in which case your unconscious patterns are making you worse over time * Your calendar, your culture, and the engagement of your team all reflect what's happening inside you as a leader. The work is internal before it's tactical Memorable Quotes * "Walking into a new business and understanding how it operates is like walking inside the brain of the founder." * "Perfectionism is a shield we put on to protect ourselves. The lie of perfectionism is that if we do everything perfectly, we will not suffer. But perfectionism itself is creating the suffering." * "If you have 50,000 employees and one is disengaged, it barely registers. If you have 10 employees and one is disengaged, that's 10% of your workforce." Resources Mentioned * The Leadership Circle Profile — the assessment tool Carolina uses with her private clients, including a self-assessment option on their website * William Kahn's 1990 research defining employee engagement * Brené Brown on perfectionism as a "20-ton shield" * National Association for the Self-Employed research on employee satisfaction across company sizes Connect with Carolina If you're interested in taking your leadership to the next level, I invite you to book a free hour call with me by going to carozuleta.com/consult.  And if you're enjoying this content, please take two seconds to rate the podcast. It helps other founders find the show and allows us to keep creating this content for free. Learn more at carozuleta.com