
Loading summary
Luis
Hey guys, and welcome back to Content is Profit. Yesterday we had an incredible day, just Fonzie and me working on the future of Bisphose Studio, podcast Suites, Business Creator Club and everything else that we have here, including Content Momentum, our service that.
Fonzie
We'Ve offered over the last six years.
Luis
So before we get started, I want to make sure that if you are looking for clarity on your content strategy and how to monetize, we have a couple spots that just opened up for the one on one challenge. It's a five day challenge with Fonsea. Just 20 minutes, you can go to Bistrose Co Monetize, and that is just 20 minutes a day for five days. And you're going to get incredible results. We actually had already a couple people that needed some clarity on their coaching offer, on what they needed to publish online. And after just a few things, they landed the first customer. So we're here to help you. We're here to support you. We're here to for you to take action. Go to Bistros Co Monetize. It's completely free. Go and take advantage of this now. Yesterday, me, Fonzie connected for a full day. As you know, he just became a dad and that has been taking a lot of his time, which is totally okay. So we met because we felt like we were both operating in different directions, you know, both a thousand miles per hour. And we're like, man, like, how do we bring this together and make sure that everything is cohesive? And turns out that we both were driving the same direction. We were just talking about different things. So communication super important. And after eight hours behind our computers and beating our heads and you know, I might have to put some behind the scenes clips in here and like.
Fonzie
How he called fist fighting, but it.
Luis
Wasn'T really fist fighting. We both align on what we're doing. So I can't wait to start sharing some of that with you right now. I'm just gonna keep it a little bit secret, but just so you know, it has to do with the Business Creator club. So if you want to be part of that community, you can go to BusinessCreator club. And then also on how we're gonna integrate what we're doing with the five day challenge, with Momentum, with the community and the future of the studio, I'm so, so, so excited. It was a very hard conversation, not.
Fonzie
Gonna lie, but it's all worth it.
Luis
And one of those things that helped us kind of navigate that was this episode that you guys are about to listen. So this episode is a Very special one. It's one that I recorded with my coach, Katie Richardson. This was my dream coach that I wanted to work with for a few years, and then we got the honor to work together for a couple, and she helped us navigate so many.
Randy
When.
Fonzie
We were working with her.
Luis
So we brought her back into the studio to talk about the number one mistakes CEO makes and how to solve it. And we uncover so many wonderful things.
Fonzie
That are going to help us.
Luis
And some of those principles are the ones that me personally, I utilize to navigate hard conversations like the one that we did yesterday. So I'm so excited to bring it back to you from the vault. Katie Richardson with that.
Fonzie
Enjoy.
Katie Richardson
Katie, Luis and Fonzie, you guys know, I just. I love being here. I love you guys. I'm a big believer in content is profit. I'm a big believer. And you guys putting your magic out into the world. And I'm really excited to talk to our audience about how they can do that, too.
Fonzie
That's right.
Katie Richardson
Thanks for having me.
Randy
Thank you, Katie. Thank you. Thank you for bringing always that energy and that light. I'm telling you, if people haven't. Haven't seen your content, definitely go and check her out. But if you're in the same room of Katie, as soon as you step in, you have, like, this aura, you know, this light aura, and it literally is contagious in the best of ways. So I really appreciate you. I told you before the show, I'm wearing the AFC Richmond jersey from Ted Lasso. I made that choice this morning very consciously. You know, I don't really. I don't often wear jerseys from other teams that are not mine, you know, even less fictitious teams. But in this show, there's a phrase that I absolutely love, and every time I hear it, I actually think about you. It reminds me of you, reminds me of your lessons, you know, a lot of the things that you've done with us. And the phrase is, the truth will set you free, but it will first piss you off. Right?
Fonzie
It takes a lot of work.
Randy
That is true. Right? It takes a lot of work. And every time I hear that phrase, I'm like, katie, yeah.
Katie Richardson
Yeah, it's true. It's true.
Randy
Yeah.
Katie Richardson
I love standing in the truth because that's where we get empowered, right?
Randy
Absolutely, 100%.
Katie Richardson
I haven't seen the show, but now I'm gonna have to go watch it.
Randy
I'll send you that clip. I'll send you the clip so you don't have to go watch the whole thing.
Fonzie
Yeah, but.
Randy
Yeah, thank you, Katie. I'm really appreciated of everything you've done.
Fonzie
And Katie, for those who don't know, you know, working with you has literally changed our life and we're like super grateful. But it's also really hard to get to work with you. And that's on purpose. Right. Obviously, you know, for, for us as, you know, the, the people being, being coach and on those calls and also for you to be able to deliver the value that you do and the success. Right. But today, today is super interesting because there's an opportunity that people can be introduced into your world. Right. Obviously we're going to leave the links right, right below. So you talk a lot about, you know, the mistakes that CEO make with their teams and how to overcome this. And, you know, there's many, many, many, many, many, many mistakes that I've made over the last two years and you helped me navigate through that. And you know, and, and now we use frameworks and things that we talked about to kind of elevate like the energy and move things forward with the impact that we want to make. So what is actually that number one mistake that you actually see with CEOs in general, that the people that you work that are very high level and maybe we can start there.
Katie Richardson
That's a great question. Oftentimes when we start a business is because we're really passionate about adding value into the world. In some ways we see a problem and we're like, hey, I think there's a better way to solve that problem. And so we get excited about hopping in and solving that problem. Entrepreneurs are really hard workers. They're committed, they're dedicated, they're super disciplined. And so in the beginning, we hop in and we do all of these things ourselves. And at some point we become maxed out and we can no longer do it all on our own. So we hire people and we unfortunately kind of keep doing it all ourselves. But like, hey, you just figure out what needs to happen over there and like, stop asking me questions and can't you make a decision over there? And so the mistake that I see entrepreneurs making is they are scaling, growing their business, hiring employees, but they're not showing up as the leader of the business. They're still continuing to show up with their old operating system. That's what I call it. Just like old software, right? When the phone starts to lag, you soon get a notification that says, hey, your apps are, are crashing because you need to update the software. And the same is true for an entrepreneur to grow your business. You have to operate differently, and therefore, you need a new operating system.
Fonzie
Yeah, I obviously resonate big time on this, right. I think there was, like, no operating system when we started working together. But we see it a lot, too, with the people that maybe are coming to the studio now. You know, we. We see there's like, these two extremes. Are, you see the creators, right? That people obviously involving in content and they want to build something out of that. And then you also see the companies or the entrepreneurs that want to become creators, right? So somewhere in the middle, the people that we have kind of fall in there, and we've seen more and more, like, the people that are actually creators that, you know, have a skill or, like, they're really good communicators or something, and they start building that business right side of it to obviously support their passion or support their families or their teams. And that's when that, you know, app starts, like, crashing, right? And. And you start like, okay, am I actually worthy? Or, like, am I actually the right person to do this? Like, why am I even doing this? Right? So one of the things that, you know, really helped me personally was the North Star, right? We talked about this many, many times. It's like, what is like. What is like that one thing? What are we driving towards? Right? Can we maybe, like, dive in a little bit more on that specifically? Because it really helped me kind of reset every single time that doubt creeped in. Or like. Or when, you know, you had some questions like, where are we actually really going? And. And it created these guardrails to make a decision that eventually, you know, started moving the thing forward again.
Katie Richardson
I was interviewing somebody recently on my podcast, and she had a really interesting professional journey. She actually started out doing African safari tours. And she told me that if you are leading a tour on the African safari by foot, you will start walking in circles. The land is so flat that your dominant foot is going to step a little bit further than the other foot, and eventually you'll be walking in circles. And so you have to have a point on the horizon, and that pulls you out of that walking in circles mode. And it might seem a little silly, but the same is true for entrepreneurs. And in order for you to lead your team, you have to have a vision of where it is that we're going. And specifically, you asked about the North Star. The reason that works, and it's so essential is for you to move out of your old operating system and expand into this new operating system. You're going to push up against your current capacity and man, it's uncomfortable. It's really uncomfortable. And for a whole host of reasons, it's going to be easier to pull back and shrink back and utilize the thinking that you've always utilized because it feels comfortable and familiar. And then therefore it feels safe.
Fonzie
Yeah.
Katie Richardson
And so unless you have something that's really meaningful for you that pushes you past this pain, because that's what it is. It's, there's pain as you push up against your edges. And you know, you use this in your professional soccer career. Right. You would push up against the edges of your pain and there were things that you wanted greater that would help you push past the pain and expand into a level of athleticism that maybe previously you hadn't experienced because you, there was something that was meaningful for you that helped you do that. And that's the power of a North Star, is if you don't have that, you'll push up against the edges of your comfort and you'll start to pull back. It's just human nature.
Fonzie
Yeah.
Katie Richardson
And so we have to, we have to override that.
Fonzie
Yeah.
Randy
I'm, I'm curious on what are some of those challenges people might start facing when they start, you know, chasing that North Star outside of their, their comfort zone? I'm sure it's not just, just one.
Katie Richardson
No. In fact, they're really surprising and they're really, really simple. I'll give you a really timely example. I have a client who, he's building a solar company and he had an initial buyout, but he's still part of a longer term goal. They're building a billion dollar business and he, in order to do this, he's got to step out of the doing in the business and he really needs to lead and empower his team. So he needs to hire the right people and he really needs to set them free and empower them to utilize their unique gifts and talents in their different roles and positions. And that means, let's just call him Peter, for example. He wouldn't, he wouldn't mind me using his name. I'm just gonna call him Peter. You know, part of what got Peter to where he's at is he was the guy out there pounding the pavement. Right. And he was very good at it. And, and now he needs to empower the people who are pounding the pavement. Pavement. And so he's, he's got to shift into a new operating system. And what's interesting is the edges of that are really deceptive. And, and he, and he doesn't see it as Painful. And I'll give you a really timely example. So he runs these training meetings, and part of him needing to be in his role in his position is actually he's needed to replace himself in some of these meetings. So he hired somebody. He's been training him, and he told the guy, hey, you need to run these meetings. Well, it's like an hour before the meeting, no notifications gone out, nobody knows about the meeting, nothing's happened. And so he hops in, he messages everybody and says, hey, we were going to try and do this meeting in person, but clearly no one's planning on that, so let's just hurry and do a meeting over zoom. And what happened in that moment is he didn't. He didn't expand into that leader. He actually disempowered the guy he just hired and took back the responsibility out of. And I asked him, I said, why'd you do that? Well, I felt bad. I hadn't really trained him very well. And it's not like I'm above this. And so there was, like, this guilt and shame that he was running into. That was the pain that he was running into. Fonzie.
Randy
Yeah.
Katie Richardson
And it's interesting because it's like this wolf in sheep's clothing. And it's again, like, the thinking of, I'm not above this, I'm not too important, that I'm not willing to send everybody a message. It's not that inconvenient. That's how he was viewing it. But that comes from his old operating system. And his new operating system needs to empower his team. But can you see how, like, he actually disempowered his team and he trained them to not trust themselves, and they. He trained them for him to be the silver bullet, and he needs them to be the silver. Silver bullet.
Fonzie
Yeah.
Katie Richardson
So can you see? It's like, it's so interesting because he wouldn't have said that was painful and uncomfortable for me, but for him to not send that message and for him to sit in the discomfort of, I'm not above this and I'm not going to do it. That was his pain that he was actively avoiding, and that's what pulled him back.
Fonzie
Yeah. You know, I. As. I'm going through so many scenarios that something similar happened. Right. With us, me personally and many. It was painful. Right. But on the other side, you do see, you know, when you actually bring awareness to the situation and be like, what's. What's my new operating system? Right. This is aligned to the objective that we're trying to achieve that is aligned to the person that I'm trying to grow into. It's, it's so worth it. Right. So, you know, I, I encourage people to kind of dive into that, of course. And then also I go through, man, we worked so hard to hire a first team. Right. It was so, it was one of, one of those moments of expansion of like learning a ton. And we probably had the worst first team story ever. We can dive into that later on a different episode. But then it turned out like the second team kind of started growing and, you know, we started developing some habits, some good, some not so good, and we're navigating through that. Right. But there's a lot of opportunities in our, in our, in the last couple of years that we have to course correct on those behaviors. Right. So how can people start, you know, first identifying those issues with their own teams? Especially, you know, we talk a lot on content teams and for a creator like to, to start focusing on one of those six levers and obviously one of them is production. And you're going to have to start dealing with people if you want to, to scale to a certain degree. Right. And maybe some of these bad habits start developing.
Luis
Right.
Fonzie
How do we start course correcting? What are some of the things that we start. Look, need to start looking for as leaders?
Katie Richardson
Yeah.
Fonzie
To identify them and then continue on that path.
Katie Richardson
Yeah. My objective is to empower an entrepreneur, a founder, a CEO. That's my objective. And so I teach by principles. And when I can teach somebody principles, they can make decisions and they even decide what tactics they're going to utilize. And so with that in mind, I do have frameworks that I teach people that gives them clarity, guidance and direction on how to operate with their team and like, where they need to jump in and where they need to not jump in and how they're contributing to the dysfunction of their team and what it is that they're doing to create the dynamic within their partnership that maybe they're frustrated with or why are they actively losing their best customers right now? Like maybe there's a way you're contributing to that or something you could actively be doing to prevent it. So my objective is to empower people. And what's really cool is my background is in product design and that means that I approach things very differently than a lot of your typical entrepreneurs and CEOs. Oftentimes it's very logical, linear thinking that has helped you build your six or seven figure business. But if you don't know how to also engage another part of your brain, which is more design thinking. Then you'll be. You'll continually get stuck in the linear thinking. So those are like several different pieces that I wanted to share with you. With that in mind, I do want to share a framework that I use personally when I'm coaching people that helps me help them find solutions and possibilities and answers, and then also that guides people. So, okay, you know, I like visuals. Let's use it, shall we? When you're building your business, you have this vision of this dream place that you want to get to, right? And so maybe, maybe it's some tropical island. For example, I live in Puerto Rico. And so you're, you're trying to get to this place, this island, and it's a dream. You've never been there before. Wouldn't it be so cool if we had a podcasting studio and we had team members and, you know, we could take a couple weeks off with our family. Right? We have this dream of where it is that we want to go. And what happens is you single handedly ensure, through discipline and hard work that you get to this island. And soon you get to the island only to realize, wait a minute, I wanted to get to that island. I thought my dream was this. And almost immediately, and I see this all the time. I saw it with Josh, 40, I saw it with Katherine. It was like, whoa. I mean, yeah, you could say that this is everything that I described that I wanted. But. And like Catherine specifically, she's coming to mind. She built the business that she wanted, right? It was seven figures plus and she was selling one product. But very quickly it was, the people that I'm attracting are draining me. And my calendar is filled up with conversations that are not interesting to me. I'm getting bored in my business, right? And so we get to the dream location only to realize there's actually some major components of our dream destination that we're missing in our previous def. Definition of where it is that we want to go. And so the beautiful thing is you don't have to freak out when you get there. You just realize, oh, actually at this point now we just need to make a few tweaks. That's it. We just need to make a few tweaks. So what are those tweaks and how are you going to determine what those tweaks are? I have a system. It's called the vital system. And these are kind of rails and guidelines to direct you into finding the actual dream destination. Okay, so the first one we've already talked about, which is vision. You have to have a vision of where it is that you're going. And it's interesting because you can't have the vision so defined that there's not room for your team to contribute to the vision. In a sense, you need, like, a really good outline of where it is that we're going. And then you need to hand colored pencils to your team and say, what color should we make the sky? And what color should we make this building? And what color do you want these flowers to be? And they need an opportunity to be a part of building out the vision. If you try and hand it to them, they won't take on accountability or responsibility for things. And so you'll continually be shouldering that yourself, and you'll keep being frustrated. So the first is you need the vision frame. The second is you need to have clear instruction on how you want to get there. And these are things like the North Star, the values, the vehicle of the business. And these are things that you're familiar with. Luis. Because we've worked together.
Fonzie
Yeah.
Katie Richardson
There's maybe a thousand ways that you could get to that location. And part of this realization of, oh, that's not actually the dream place that I wanted to get to. Part of it is, is you have values, things that really matter to you. And so it needs to be the path to getting to your dream destination. It needs to be the path that aligns for you. And so we need clarity on what are the values, what. What's the way in which. How do you want to get there? Not just where do you want to go, but how do you want to get there? Because life is meant to be lived and enjoyed, and it's not about the destination, it's about the journey. So you need those two points.
Fonzie
Yeah.
Katie Richardson
The third piece of the vital system is your team. If you're building something significant, you're going to have to build a team to support you in getting there. You can't do it on your own. We certainly try, but that's when we become the bottleneck of our business. And it's super frustrating when everyone's coming to you to make decisions. So how can you not just build out a team, but, like, really empower them to make decisions, Decisions that align with the mission, decisions that align with the values of the company, decisions that even tap into their unique talents and abilities as your team member. Right. They have skills and abilities and a perspective that you don't have. So how can we develop trust as a team that we're all in the same boat, headed in the same direction, and I'm not going to just hand you the answers to everything. I trust you and I believe in you, and I want you to make that decision. Like, that's amazing and what a cool opportunity. And for me, it's a big part of what lights me up as an entrepreneur is like, really encouraging people to trust themselves as your team members. Right. And the business becomes a really powerful vehicle for them to develop that. So those are the first three. What are some thoughts that come to your mind when I talk about vision, instruction, and team?
Fonzie
Oh, man, so many. One specifically that I think is super fresh for me. You know, I was listening to an episode of Layla Hormozy's show yesterday. I don't know if you guys are familiar with. With her show, but it's. She's like full on operator, right? And she was talking about an experience where she had to go to work and the boss was like, super encouraging and like all like the best case scenarios. And she, she's like, she had it so good that she didn't know, like, for her that was the norm. And then this boss goes to a different place and she gets these other bosses. Complete opposite, right? And she was like, really scared to go to work and she was like crying in the car every. Every morning. Right. And you know, to us, I resonated with that story because I've been on her position as well, where I was in a job that I loved, my boss, it was really exciting to go to work every single day. And then I also. That same job completely flipped on me. And it was like, wow, this is like really crazy experience. And that's what led me to. I want to do my own thing. And, you know, now we're sitting in the leadership position, right? And in charge of like that vision some things. And, you know, we're. Sometimes we're so in the business or in the weeds, right? And we did a lot of exercises to kind of pull me away from like the weeds and like, trying to see it from a different perspective. And that's what comes to mind as far as like now from the boss perspective, I want to be. Or from the leader or from like the. Yeah, yeah, like the. That person. I want to go to an environment that I'm excited to go and work with the people that I'm working with, right? That I'm excited to have a daily huddle with them, that I'm excited to chat what's going. And in our business, I've experienced that. And I've also experienced, like, oh, man, I. I don't really want to go to this call today or really want to go talk about, you know, X, Y, Z. And that's what comes to mind. And, you know, it's like, okay, how do I maximize the good moments? Right. How do we curate.
Randy
Right.
Fonzie
Or facilitate an environment where we can go through that? That's what's coming to mind right now more often than the opposite. Right. The opposite is almost an indicator of, like, well, that's the path. That's the thing that we have to tackle today or the thing that we have to talk about today to try to figure out how to solve it. So that's. That's what's in my head right now. Like, how can we maximize those moments of like. Yeah, the good moments?
Katie Richardson
Yeah. I mean, the short answer is you have to intentionally create it. Right. So these first three things, the vision frame, the instruct frame, the team frame, are awesome and great, and it's a really good start. And they have to do with kind of external things and external circumstances. And what's interesting is that is not enough. There needs to be work happening internally as well. And. And these are the places in which we'll kind of bump up against our own fears, our own insecurities. So to illustrate the next one, I want to talk about a client that you guys know, Josh, 40.
Fonzie
Yeah.
Katie Richardson
When he first started working with me, there was so much of this, like, I don't know what I totally want. And he was just kind of. He knew how to work really, really hard, and he had a ton of energy, and he was willing to try and do a lot of different things. And it was time to, like, really focus and channel all of that energy and effort. And part of my conversation is, I need to know what's going on inside of you. And, you know, I asked him, who are you? And it was interesting because he really struggled with that question. He was like, I don't know what you mean. Like, I'm a Patriots fan. I'm a funnel. And, you know, it was all these kind of, again, they were all external things. And I was like, no, you the man. Who are you? And what's interesting is, you know, we hear this phrase, fake it till you make it right. We kind of. We. We buttress up our own self confidence. And yes, it's uncomfortable, and we start building our business, and it's almost like we're building this Jenga tower. But in order to build the height of the Jenga Tower, what are we doing? We're stealing from the foundation. Right. And eventually what happens over time is you steal from the foundation, which is essentially what was happening for Josh when you steal from the foundation, what happens over time is the foundation weakens and the building can't stand anymore. And that's where he was at. And I was like, you need to know who you are, and it's a decision and it's a choice that you make. And then you need to. To use what you were talking about in the beginning, Phonzi. Use truth of action. And you need to truly show up as this man in your life. And you need to notice where you're out of alignment with yourself in whether it's in your relationships, whether it's with your team members, whether it's even with a customer and client. And if you can stand in the truth of those things, then in a sense, it's like we're going back and we're plugging in all the holes of that weak Jenga foundation, and we're strengthening the foundation. And so as you build a bish, a vision and a team, and you're instructing them, you have to have a solid foundation with yourself. And so what does that mean? It means the fourth component, which is alignment. You have to align with yourself. It is. It is the. The source of your strength and power as you push against the edges of your past experience, in your past capacity. And you need that strength so that you can stand in confidence with your team. Right. And it's not. It's not that fake it till you make it disempowered, pretend confidence. It's real confidence. It's confidence in who you are and how you're showing up in the world and, and choosing to be that man, that woman. And there's so much power in that. And it starts, yes, with self. And as you guys experienced, you know, when we first started working together, I could see there were things that in your partnership were being avoided.
Fonzie
Yeah.
Katie Richardson
And so that's what we did, is I first had to get each of you in alignment with self. And then when you're in alignment with self, then you can start to create alignment in your partnerships. And so this is a essential piece of your journey and creating something significant in the world. You have to understand that self alignment piece. And then you have to understand how to create alignment with team members, business partners, customers, everybody. Right. So it's internal self alignment, and then it's also this external alignment with others.
Randy
Yeah, that's interesting. One of my Favorite phrases as of when I started dating my now fiance is, you know, what doesn't get says create distance, which I feel after this conversation, it can also translate to lack of truth creates distance, right? Or lack of truth creates this alignment. And that starts with yourself, right? Being truthful with yourself and holding yourself accountable, which is also part of that conversation that we've had in the past, right? On what are those values that you have and catching yourself now, where I see the challenge, right? And I've seen this personally multiple times, and I feel like I see it in other people. And I think you can speak a lot of truth to this and really help people is, you know, when people are stuck in some behaviors for years, right? And maybe they want something, but they don't quite yet believe it, how do they move beyond that? Or, like, how do they stay truthful to sell themselves? How do they hold themselves accountable without bouncing back into old behaviors?
Katie Richardson
I was just training a client on this just this morning. Too often we. We show up and take action because of what we're feeling. And that's great and awesome when our feeling can line up with what we know we need to do. But at some point, we have to mature beyond that and we have to grow up. And, like, you guys experience this as your. You have significant partner, business partners with each other. And, you know, Fonzie, you'll experience this as you have kids. There's a lot of days you don't feel like being the dad, but. But when you choose to have kids, you take on that responsibility. And so, yeah, I don't feel like making you breakfast today, but that's my responsibility. Because you're two. And so you. You. You learn that I have to. Well, you. You have a decision to make. That's where you push up against the edges of your current capacity. So this client that I was talking to today, you know, he has these meetings that he's having to go to with some of his business partners, and he was like, katie, they're so boring. I just want to, like, rip my eyeballs out. And I was like, hold on a second. We need to talk about this. Because I. I get it that you don't feel like going to this meeting, but you have a contract with these people, and there's a partnership there, and you've been trying to force yourself to go to these meetings. You need to stop forcing yourself, and you need to choose. Like, it's time to grow up and choose to do it. And the feeling will eventually follow, but only doing things because I feel like doing that. Well, that's what 12 year olds do. And it's time for him to grow up and be the man that I know he is capable of being and that he tells me he wants to be. And it's time to start taking action. And the feelings will eventually follow. But it, for me, it always comes down to like when I push up against that and there's something inside of me and I experienced this too. There's something inside of me that's like, I don't feel like doing that. I call it myself inner teenager. We talk about an inner child. Well, I have an inner teenager, let me tell you. She frequently doesn't feel like exercising in the morning, morning. And, and so I can like engage with that inner teenager and be like, okay, yeah, you're right, we don't feel like doing it. But I know I have to pay the price of that long term. And so I've made a decision on who I want to be in my life. And it's a woman who makes commitments and promises, including to herself self, and takes action because of those commitments. And there's power in that, there's tremendous power in making commitments and then taking action on those commitments and promises that you've made with yourself. And too often we will, we will extend that commitment to other people and then we give ourselves a pass. And what happens over time is when you don't give that level of respect to yourself, you start to erode trust with self. And if Fonzie, if, if we can't trust ourselves, who can we trust? Really? It's a, it's a really dangerous game to play. So this is about making a decision on who you want to be in your life and then taking the action required to be that individual. It's the opposite of fake it till you make it. It's design, it's creation, it's self creation. And it's a commitment to a version of you that maybe previously hasn't existed. Maybe every time. Maybe you have tons of proof and evidence in your life. And when, when I'm saying you, I also mean me and all of this, right? I'm not, I'm not just talking to you, but like we might have lots of proof and evidence on other times when I haven't, I've made commitments and then I've fallen short and I haven't followed through. And that's where you have a decision to make every day on do I want to continue habitually. And that's part of it is it becomes A habit? Do I want to continually continue to habitually be the person I've always been, or do I value growth and expansion? Do I value keeping commitments? And maybe I don't have proof and evidence of me valuing that in the past, but that stops today.
Fonzie
Yeah.
Katie Richardson
And I get to be in charge of that. And so I can make a decision, starting right now, that I'm not going to be that woman anymore. I'm not going to be that man anymore. And I see the chaos that that creates in my relationships and my team, but I don't keep my commitments, and that's not okay. So I understand that I've made a lot of mistakes in the past, and right now I'm making a decision and I'm cutting myself off from no longer trusting myself. That's not okay for me anymore. And I'm. I'm taking action to support that decision.
Fonzie
Yeah.
Katie Richardson
So that's the key.
Fonzie
So many, so many thoughts through my mind. One on environment, one on, like, how do we anchor that? I re, you know, in many of our conversations, obviously, you know, we come from soccer. That's our world, right? So I remember very clearly when we're a little. We had. We knew who made it, and we're like, we reverse engineer of like, that player, for example, be like, what do they do? Right? They train every single day. They take care of the nutrition, they rest, they do X, right? And then there's like a map almost kind of following that, and it's like, this is what it takes, right? And that's a conversation we have with our dad so many, many times, right? But. But there's like that margin of like, okay, you know, we have to take care of our bodies. We have to eat X amount of, you know, calories so we can sustain the growth and sustain all this stuff or practice every sing and technique and all that. Now translate that into. I remember a very vivid conversation that you and me had, and you were like, well, who are you now, Luis? And we're like, you're a CEO. You have to start behaving as a CEO. And I was like, well, how does that CEO behave? Right? Like, and he's like, well, we get to create it today, right? And that was like one of the, I think, most impactful, you know, sessions that I personally had. Because it's like, okay, now we. We get to shape, you know, the future. Louise, or the Louise starts today. And I remember starting to research and listen to, in that specific moment, Christian Horner, who's the CEO of Red Bull, Racing. Right. It's like, obviously I love sports and all of that. And I was like, this guy is so productive. This guy has one of the most successful teams out there. And he's not just a team is an organization and they run this and they're effective. And I want to know how he thinks. Right. And I think we had a conversation on that. It's like, how do we anchor? How do we find that person that is doing maybe something close to what we want to do as well and start reverse engineering that? And he doesn't, he doesn't have a book, he doesn't have a course, he doesn't have all this stuff. Right. So it's like, you know, finding the trail on how they behave or like grabbing these clues and start piecing it together with our own things and our behaviors on how we want to do that. And, you know, I always go back to, I need to probably do more of that as I catch myself going to my back Louise. And one of the big elements, and maybe this helps people listening and watching, was when I was low on energy, I will default to the all Louise versus when I was high on energy, I would, you know, it was easier for me to become the new Louise. Right. So we're like backtracking that. We're like, okay, well, what's the cause of me being low energy? Well, going to bed late or going to, you know, all this stuff. So okay, perfect. If we solve that, then I'm going to be high energy, then it's going to be easier to become the new Louise. That's very tactical on that side. That's my specific case. But I encourage every single person to kind of go through those elements.
Katie Richardson
Yes. I love that you're speaking to our audience because. Is it okay if I speak to.
Fonzie
Absolutely.
Katie Richardson
Audience right now too?
Randy
Please.
Katie Richardson
Just for reference, the reason I'm doing, what I'm doing is I've built my own significant business. It was a multimillion dollar international company. Built it for seven years. My husband was my business partner. We had product that we were shipping to 2,000 stores in the US and distribution in 26 different countries. We've been featured on the Ellen show, the Rachel A show, that Today show, on the COVID of Entrepreneur magazine. And I, I saw how I had figured something out in the business realm that had the business on this flywheel of like the. A continual upward spiral. Right. And yet personally, I felt like I couldn't keep up and it wasn't sustainable for me. And I felt like I was in this Double Bind, where I was excited about the business that I was building. I felt really passionate about the solutions that we're putting in the world. I saw the good that it was bringing to people's lives. But personally, I felt like my life was kind of chaotic. And I wasn't being the mom, the wife, the woman of God. I just wasn't feeling, I wasn't getting enough sleep. Right. So I was really torn and conflicted. And as I looked out into the world and I read books and I read magazine articles, the solution to my problem was not clear and it wasn't out there. And I was really disappointed and sad. And I. I remember being at the precipice of, do I need to give this up? My business, my brand, the companies that I feel strongly about, Like. Cause it was at that point I knew if I continued to move forward in the way that I was operating, it wasn't sustainable and I would someday regret prioritizing my business.
Fonzie
Yeah.
Katie Richardson
And that terrified me. And in that moment, I had an insight. And I'm. Of course, it's visual. My life felt like chaos. Right. But I had figured something out in my business, like the business. There were a lot of things about the business that actually were working. And I realized it was my design thinking. I needed to turn it on myself. And I had applied my design thinking to my business, but I needed to turn it on myself. And I felt like I was being pulled in a thousand different directions. And what I needed to do was I needed to align all of my targets so that when I was taking out my bow and arrow and aiming that it wasn't all of this lost energy and effort in trying to orient myself and understand distance. I know this is really visual, but the visual I'm showing people is like one has really scattered targets that are just all over the place.
Fonzie
Yeah.
Katie Richardson
And then the other. All of the targets line up. And I, I had that visual, but I didn't know what the answer was. And so what I'm doing for people is for five days, I'm going deep on how you create this level of alignment in yourself and in your business so that you don't have to walk down a road that someday you're going to regret. And I couldn't find the answers. And so through so much trial and error, prayer, scripture study, I had to figure it out on my own. And I just feel like entrepreneurship is lonely enough. And so I feel really passionate about empowering purpose driven entrepreneurs with these frameworks and systems so that they can be empowered to go do the things that they feel called to do. And I don't need to be the hero of your story, but if I can just teach these to you, then you'll be empowered to do that. And so what we're doing is we've got a virtual event that starts April 22nd and for one hour every day. Well, and I recommend the VIP ticket, which would give you two hours a day. I'm going to go deep with you on these things because as you, both of you have experienced, once you see it, you can't unsee it. And it's like you're looking through a new pair of lenses. And so that's what we're doing at this event. It's called Empire Builders Live. Go toempire builders live.com and you can find out more about it.
Randy
So good.
Fonzie
And then I can speak firsthand, guys. Like, obviously, I've seen firsthand the results that, you know, those frameworks allow us to do. I mean, we grew year, like, year over year, 30 and 40% in our business. More opportunities, more conversations, more connections. We grew as people. Fonzie found a fiance, you know, many things. And I highly encourage every single person to go through the link right below. Empires Builders. Com. Empires builder. Sorry. Empiresbuildinglive.com. right. Is that it? No.
Katie Richardson
Empire Builders Live.
Fonzie
Empire Builders live dot com. That was definitely on purpose. You pay attention, listener. So, and, and come hang out. You know, I'm gonna do my best to be there as well. Every second I get to spend with Katie and her, her, you know, frameworks. It's greatly appreciated. And, and my iPad is full of notes and hopefully going execute. So I hope to see you there.
Randy
One of the, I would say one of the earliest phrases I remember from when we started, you know, diving into entrepreneurship and going to events was your business growth to the extent that you do. And honestly, there's only a very few people that I would point others towards growing themselves, not just like business skill set. Like, there's other people that I, you know, trust and they know a lot of business skill sets. But for growing yourself internally. Right. Looking inside, reflecting and, you know, doing the hard work, there's literally probably like two or three people that I would point out to. Right. That I would recommend, and you're one of them. Like, you're absolutely amazing. I know that you always come from a place of love too, so really appreciate it. And I, again, you're listening right now. It's a great, great opportunity for you to tap into Katie's world and learn Right. And learn what you potentially don't know, which is, you know, there's a lot out there. Thank you.
Fonzie
Katie, Is there anything else you want to it?
Katie Richardson
Right. We're just blind to it. And so, like, that's the cool thing is, you know, each of these interactions that you and I have had, when I help you see something and suddenly you see it, then you can't unsee it. And now that you see it, you're then empowered to. To affect it and change it.
Randy
Yeah.
Katie Richardson
And transform it. And it's just so exciting. So I'm so grateful to you guys that you would have this conversation with me, that you would share me and my systems and processes with your audience. And if people can't tell, I'm really passionate about this. I know too many people personally who are so hardworking and so disciplined that they. And then they just kind of keep utilizing their old operating system that it, it starts to become self destructive.
Luis
Yeah.
Katie Richardson
And that terrifies me. And I see people who are in so much pain, but then they have a high tolerance for pain, so they kind of are in denial. Like, no, I'm good, everything's good. But like, I can see it on their face because I've been there and I know it. And if they just understood that there's actually just a few tweaks, that if you made these tweaks, everything would start to fall into place. And you don't have to be alone on this and you can actually learn a really powerful way of operating with your team. And like in that, in that place, it just becomes fun and exciting. And like you were saying earlier, Luis, your business lights you up and there's no more of that dreading of going in. Am I going to have to talk to these guys? Yeah, because I've been there before. I know what that's like. And I also know what it's like to. Yeah.
Fonzie
And you know, the best part is like, if it shows up, we now are aware of it and we know the path to make the decision and realign and continue to. Because it's going to continue to happen. Right. New situation is going to happen. So thank you for allowing us to, you know, share your message with our content is profit, community, and hopefully we'll see a ton there and can't wait. So awesome this opportunity that you bring it to us, Katie. Appreciate it. Fonsi, is there anything else you want to, you know, share with us?
Randy
No, just thank you. Go watch. That last was pretty awesome. You know, really good messages and of course, go and join Katie on her journey. She's absolutely amazing.
Fonzie
Thank you Katie. Guys, link right below. With that said, thank you guys. Thank you so much for tuning to the Contents Prophet Podcast. Go ahead and follow the show in your favorite podcasting platform and on social media at Ms. Roseco.
Randy
That is Randy Katie here help you move one step closer towards your goal. Please don't forget to share this message and and leave a five star review. See ya.
Fonzie
Bye guys.
Release Date: November 13, 2025
Host(s): BIZBROS (Luis & Fonzie)
Guest: Katie Richardson
This episode dives deep into the biggest mistake CEOs make as they transition from founder to business leader. Katie Richardson—entrepreneur, business coach, and former international brand owner—returns to share her frameworks for sustainable leadership, team empowerment, and the personal transformation required for growth. The conversation is vivid, personal, and actionable, with both hosts reflecting on their own leadership journeys. Katie draws on compelling stories and metaphors that help business owners identify patterns holding them back, and lays out her “VITAL” system for aligning vision, team, and self.
Timestamp: 05:51–07:13
Timestamp: 08:36–10:45
Timestamp: 11:00–14:09
Timestamp: 15:40–22:53
Timestamp: 25:16–29:29
Timestamp: 29:29–35:28
Timestamp: 35:30–38:19
Timestamp: 38:19–42:30
Timestamp: 42:30–46:19
On embracing the truth:
“The truth will set you free, but it will first piss you off.” (Randy, quoting Ted Lasso, 04:10)
On leadership operating systems:
"You have to operate differently, and therefore you need a new operating system." (Katie, 06:58)
On vision and the North Star:
"Unless you have something that's really meaningful for you that pushes you past this pain... that's the power of a North Star." (Katie, 10:05)
On empowering teams:
"You hand colored pencils to your team and say, what color should we make the sky? ... They need an opportunity to be a part of building out the vision." (Katie, 19:33)
On self-alignment and leadership:
"You need to know who you are, and it's a decision and a choice that you make... It's real confidence." (Katie, 26:57)
On maturity in leadership:
"Only doing things because I feel like doing that—well, that’s what 12-year-olds do. And it’s time for him to grow up." (Katie, 31:20)
On the power of choosing transformation:
"I understand that I've made a lot of mistakes in the past, and right now I'm making a decision and I'm cutting myself off from no longer trusting myself. That's not okay for me anymore." (Katie, 35:15)
The conversation is lively, vulnerable, and practical. The hosts balance humor, candor, and deep self-reflection, while Katie’s coaching style is direct but empowering. The tone is encouraging—striving for both personal and professional growth, making this episode valuable for any business owner or aspiring leader.
For listeners:
If you’re feeling maxed out, stuck in old habits, or unsure how to empower your team for the next phase, this episode is packed with practical frameworks and relatable stories to help you step into your true potential as a leader.