Visionary's Pursuit

89. Why You Wait Until the Last Minute

Episode Summary This week we're talking about the neuroscience behind why we put things off, even when we know exactly what to do and how much our future selves would thank us for starting. The central idea is around what neuroscientists call the Goldilocks Zone, the level of pressure that is set just right for action. Too much of it and we tip into overwhelm and avoidance but too little and we go flat and reach for the nearest distraction. I explain the roles dopamine and norepinephrine play in getting us moving, and why some brains need barely any pressure to engage while others, like mine, do their best work with a deadline breathing down their neck.  Key Takeaways * Procrastination and avoidance tend to come from how your brain regulates pressure, reward, and motivation, which means they can be understood and redesigned rather than judged * There is a level of internal pressure that is set just right for action, sometimes called the Goldilocks Zone. Too much tips you into anxiety and overwhelm, and too little leaves you foggy and reaching for easy distractions * Dopamine and norepinephrine drive whether you engage, with dopamine signaling that something is worth pursuing and norepinephrine creating the alertness and urgency to act. People need very different amounts of each, so the pressure that motivates one person can shut another down * Your pacing style, whether you sprint at the deadline or fade somewhere in the middle, is a pattern rather than a fixed trait. Thanks to neuroplasticity, the brain keeps changing throughout life, so the pattern can be rebuilt with practice * You can build motivation on purpose with a framework I call VECT, which works by raising a task's value and your confidence that you can do it, then bringing the payoff closer and clearing away the distractions that compete for your attention Memorable Quotes  * "Your pacing style is not your identity. It is a pattern you can redesign." * "Understanding the brain helps us separate our behavior from our worth." * "The moment we start shaming ourselves is the moment we get stuck in the old cycle." Resources Mentioned * The Goldilocks Zone, the metaphor for the brain state with the right level of activation for action * Dopamine and norepinephrine, the chemistry behind motivation and alertness * Temporal Motivation Theory, developed by Piers Steel and Cornelius König, and the VECT adaptation of it that I use (Value, Expectancy, Closeness, Temptation) * Neuroplasticity, the brain's capacity to keep changing throughout life * The idea of the rough first draft, from Anne Lamott's "Bird by Bird," as a way past perfectionism * Implementation intentions, or if-then plans, from Peter Gollwitzer's research on follow-through * The VECT worksheet  Connect with Carolina * Website: carozuleta.com * Book a consultation: carozuleta.com/consult * LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/carolinazuletacoaching Subscribe & Review If this episode resonated, 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.

88. How Many Times Are You Willing to Try?

Episode Summary This week I'm digging into what I believe the most fundamental skill of growing a business is. We talk about the distinction between passive action and massive action, the busywork that feels productive because it keeps us safe versus the action that puts us in front of the market and hands us information we can use. We explore why so many of us retreat into safety, and it usually comes down to the emotional cost of the other kind, the rejection and the silence that come with putting yourself out there. Key Takeaways * Big results usually rest on a much higher volume of attempts than people expect. The entrepreneurs who break through tend to try far more times, and tolerate far more misses, than everyone around them is willing to * There is a difference between passive action and massive action. Passive action like reading another book or polishing the website one more time feels like progress because it feels safe, while massive action puts you in front of the market and produces information you can use * The bigger risk in taking action is usually emotional rather than strategic. Founders avoid the highest-leverage moves less because they are confused about what to do and more because of the rejection and exposure those moves require * There is no perfect formula waiting to be handed to you. Nobody knows in advance exactly how to grow your specific business, the plan only looks like a formula in hindsight, and in the middle it always feels like experimentation * Emotional capacity is itself a growth skill. When you can move through shame and disappointment without letting it stop you, you keep taking the actions that eventually work, the way professionals keep creating and testing whether or not the conditions feel right Memorable Quotes  * "Massive action is not one dramatic leap. It is thousands of small, unglamorous attempts in the direction of a result." * "The formula is created in hindsight. In the middle, it feels like experimentation." * "Most of the actions that grow a business are not complicated. They are emotionally expensive." Resources Mentioned * Amy Porterfield, online marketing entrepreneur whose business was built on years of consistent webinars * James Dyson, who built 5,127 prototypes before landing on his bagless vacuum design * Melanie Perkins, co-founder of Canva, turned down by more than 100 investors before the company took off * Tony Robbins and the idea of "massive determined action" * Brooke Castillo and The Life Coach School, for the distinction between massive action and passive action * Steven Pressfield's "The War of Art," on the difference between amateurs and professionals * Billie Eilish, on continuing to create through discomfort even at the top Connect with Carolina * Website: carozuleta.com * Book a consultation: carozuleta.com/consult * LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/carolinazuletacoaching Subscribe & Review If this episode resonated, 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.

87. You Got What You Wanted. So Why Do You Feel Stuck?

Episode Summary Lately I've watched several clients and prospective clients arrive at the same strange crossroads. They set a vision years ago, chased it down with everything they had, and now they've actually reached it. They have the income, the title, the reputation, the kind of flexibility most people would envy but they keep circling back to is some version of "what's next for me?" In this episode we sit with that question. I talk about why human beings are wired to keep growing and what actually happens to us when we stop. I share the story of a CMO who landed the role she'd dreamed of and now feels boxed in by it, and a founder who sold her company for millions and is now sitting at home asking who she is without it. If you've reached a summit and the view isn't quite what you pictured, or you're still climbing and want to do it differently this time, this episode is for you. Key Takeaways * Growth is one of our core human needs. When we stop growing we don't hold steady, we slowly start to feel smaller, even when nothing about our circumstances has gotten worse * Getting stuck after a big win is usually a belief problem before it's a circumstance problem. When your current life is genuinely good, your brain struggles to believe something even better is available, and the old dream quietly becomes evidence against the new one * The first vision asks you to risk failure and rejection. The next one asks you to risk the identity you built on the way up, which is why the second mountain can feel heavier than the first even when it looks smaller from the outside * Once you've succeeded, the pull toward certainty grows because you finally have something real to lose. The known starts to feel safer than the fulfilling, and plenty of people trade aliveness for predictability without ever consciously choosing to * A complete vision is a "yes, and" rather than an "either/or." Most founders frame the next chapter as growing the business or having a life, when the deeper work is learning to believe in a version where both are true at once. Sometimes the next mountain points inward instead of upward, an internal evolution toward pursuing something big without abandoning yourself along the way Memorable Quotes * "Either we're growing or we're dying." * "Our first vision asks us to risk failure, to risk rejection. But when you have achieved that vision, the next mountain is asking us to risk not only failure and rejection, but the identity we have built." Resources Mentioned * The Visionary Mindset Program, Carolina's six-month coaching program, and its practice of building a complete vision across every area of life rather than career or business alone Connect with Carolina * Website: carozuleta.com * Book a consultation: carozuleta.com/consult * LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/carolinazuletacoaching Subscribe & Review If this episode resonated, 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.

86. How Well Do You Know Your Customers?

Episode Summary In this episode, we talk about what it means to be obsessed with your customer, why so many skip building a real customer profile, and how the businesses I admire most use that profile as a filter for every decision they make. I share what I learned at the University of Chicago about the unsexy practice of picking up the phone and talking to your customers, why "I sell to women between 30 and 50" is not specific enough to build a business on, and how Anthropologie speaks to one very particular woman without losing anyone else. If you have been feeling like your marketing is not hitting the mark, your clients aren't quite the right fit, or your business has gone stagnant without an obvious reason, this episode will give you a clearer place to start looking. Key Takeaways * Successful businesses are obsessed with their customers. They know how their customers think, what keeps them up at night, what they dream about, and what they are actually trying to solve * Trying to sell to everyone is one of the most expensive mistakes a founder can make. If you talk to everyone, no one listens. If you talk to one person clearly enough, the right people raise their hand and the wrong people self-select out * A real customer profile goes well past demographics. It includes psychographics, buying behavior, media habits, values, fears, and what people want their lives to look like. The deeper you understand the psychology, the better you can speak to it * Anthropologie is a useful study. They design and market for one specific woman with a clear identity, lifestyle, and values, and people outside that profile still buy from them. Specificity does not shrink your audience, it sharpens it * Once you have an ideal customer profile, it becomes a filter for every decision. Hiring, pricing, marketing, partnerships, product, and which clients you say yes to all run through it. Taking on a paying client who is not your ideal client almost always costs more than it earns * Your ideal customer changes over time, and your profile needs to change with them. Revisiting it at least once a year is a strong habit. Markets shift, behavior shifts, and the person who bought from you two years ago may not be the one buying now * Quest Bars assumed their customers were outdoor athletes and launched apparel that did not sell. The actual customer was a busy mom skipping breakfast. Even companies doing hundreds of millions in revenue lose money when they stop checking who is really buying * The second half of the customer relationship matters as much as the first. Eric Yuan saw where customers were headed, left Webex, and built Zoom around simplicity and user happiness. Tony Robbins had to challenge his belief that transformation only happens in a physical room in order to grow his reach online * For small companies, the most reliable growth strategy is to choose one type of customer, solve one meaningful problem better than anyone else, and let those clients tell other people about you Memorable Quotes * "Successful businesses are obsessed with their clients." * "If you talk to everyone, no one will listen. If you talk to one person, your customers will hear you."\  Resources Mentioned * Anthropologie as a case study in ideal customer profile design * Tom Bilyeu and the Quest Bars apparel story * Eric Yuan, Webex, and the founding of Zoom * Tony Robbins and the move to online events during the pandemic * "Cash is king" and "talk to your customers," two lessons from the University of Chicago Booth MBA Connect with Carolina * Website: carozuleta.com * Book a consultation: carozuleta.com/consult * LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/carolinazuletacoaching Subscribe & Review If this episode resonated, 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.

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