Navigating Leadership Challenges: CEO Mistakes and Solutions with Katie Richardson

Summary

Content Is Profit Podcast Episode Summary

Title: Navigating Leadership Challenges: CEO Mistakes and Solutions with Katie Richardson
Host: BIZBROS (Luis and Fonzie)
Release Date: January 4, 2025

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Introduction

In the January 4, 2025 episode of the Content Is Profit podcast, hosts Luis and Fonzie welcome their esteemed guest, Katie Richardson. Katie, a renowned business coach and mentor, shares invaluable insights on leadership challenges faced by CEOs, common mistakes made during scaling, and effective solutions to bridge the gap between content creation and revenue generation.

The Number One CEO Mistake: Outdated Operating Systems

[02:02] Luis:
“Katie, for those who don't know, you know, working with you has literally changed our life.”

Katie Richardson emphasizes that one of the primary mistakes CEOs make is attempting to scale their businesses without updating their leadership operating systems. Entrepreneurs often start with immense passion and dedication, handling all tasks themselves until they reach a point of overload. At this juncture, they may hire employees but continue to micromanage, failing to transition into effective leaders.

Notable Quote:
[03:53] Katie Richardson:
"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."

The Importance of a North Star

The conversation delves into the significance of having a clear vision, referred to as the "North Star," which guides entrepreneurs beyond their comfort zones. This vision acts as a beacon, helping leaders stay aligned with their long-term goals and make informed decisions during challenging times.

[05:15] Katie Richardson:
"You have to have a vision of where it is that we're going. And specifically, you just 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."

Katie illustrates this concept with an analogy of leading an African safari tour. Without a distant point to aim for, the leader and participants risk wandering aimlessly, much like entrepreneurs without a clear vision risk stagnation.

Challenges Beyond the Comfort Zone

[07:28] Fonzie:
“How do they stay truthful to themselves? How do they hold themselves accountable without bouncing back into old behaviors?”

Katie discusses the multifaceted challenges CEOs face when striving to meet their North Star. She shares the story of a client, "Peter," who struggled to delegate responsibilities effectively. Despite hiring a capable team member, Peter reverted to his old habits, undermining his team's confidence and impeding the company's growth.

Notable Quote:
[10:27] Katie Richardson:
"He needs to hire the right people and he really needs to set them free and them to utilize their unique gifts and talents in their different roles and positions."

The Vital System Framework

Katie introduces her comprehensive framework, the "Vital System," designed to help entrepreneurs achieve alignment within themselves and their teams. This system comprises three primary components:

1. Vision Frame: Establishing a clear and inclusive vision that allows team members to contribute creatively.
2. Instruction Frame: Providing clear guidelines and instructions that align with the company's values and mission.
3. Team Frame: Building and empowering a cohesive team capable of making autonomous decisions that further the company's objectives.

[17:29] Katie Richardson:
"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."

Internal and External Alignment

Beyond the external components of vision, instruction, and team, Katie emphasizes the necessity of internal alignment. This involves self-awareness, overcoming personal fears and insecurities, and embodying the leadership qualities required to drive the company forward.

[19:32] Luis:
“One specifically that I think is super fresh for me... how do we maximize the good moments?”

[25:35] Katie Richardson:
"You have to align with yourself. It is the source of your strength and power as you push against the edges of your past experience and your past capacity."

Katie shares personal anecdotes and client stories to highlight the transformative power of self-alignment. She underscores that authentic confidence stems from a deep understanding and alignment with one's true self, rather than superficial appearances of competence.

Overcoming Inner Resistance

The discussion transitions to addressing internal barriers that hinder effective leadership. Katie introduces the concept of the "inner teenager," representing the internal resistance that often sabotages commitment and accountability.

[27:20] Katie Richardson:
"It's a commitment to a version of you that maybe previously hasn't existed... it's design, it's creation, it's self-creation."

She advocates for making conscious decisions to uphold commitments, thereby strengthening self-trust and enhancing one's ability to lead effectively.

Practical Applications and Reverse Engineering Success

Drawing parallels from their backgrounds in sports, Luis and Fonzie discuss how they have applied Katie's frameworks to their own businesses. They highlight the importance of modeling successful leaders, like Christian Horner of Red Bull Racing, to reverse-engineer effective leadership behaviors.

[34:58] Katie Richardson:
"Once you see it, you can't unsee it. And now that you see it, you're then empowered to affect it and change it."

Katie encourages entrepreneurs to adopt design thinking not just in business operations but also in personal development, fostering a holistic approach to growth.

Conclusion and Call to Action

As the episode nears its end, Katie promotes her upcoming virtual event, Empire Builders Live, aimed at providing deeper dives into her frameworks and systems. She invites listeners to join the event to gain further insights and practical tools to enhance their leadership capabilities.

[39:09] Luis:
"We grew dear, like year over year 30 and 40% in our business... I highly encourage every single person to go through the link right below. Empire Builders Live dot com."

Fonzie echoes the sentiment, praising Katie's ability to foster personal and professional growth, and urging listeners to participate in her programs.

[43:54] Luis:
"Please don't forget to share this message and leave a five-star review."

Key Takeaways

• Update Leadership Operating Systems: As businesses scale, CEOs must evolve their leadership styles to empower their teams effectively.
• Establish a Clear North Star: A well-defined vision guides decision-making and keeps the team aligned with long-term goals.
• Internal Alignment: Personal self-awareness and alignment are crucial for authentic leadership and overcoming internal resistance.
• Vital System Framework: Implementing vision, instruction, and team frames fosters a cohesive and empowered organizational culture.
• Continuous Growth: Embracing design thinking and modeling successful leaders can drive sustained business and personal growth.

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• [03:53] Katie Richardson: "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."

• [05:15] Katie Richardson: "You have to have a vision of where it is that we're going... to move out of your old operating system and expand into this new operating system."

• [10:27] Katie Richardson: "He needs to hire the right people and he really needs to set them free and them to utilize their unique gifts and talents in their different roles and positions."

• [19:32] Luis: “One specifically that I think is super fresh for me... how do we maximize the good moments?”

• [25:35] Katie Richardson: "You have to align with yourself. It is the source of your strength and power as you push against the edges of your past experience and your past capacity."

• [27:20] Katie Richardson: "It's a commitment to a version of you that maybe previously hasn't existed... it's design, it's creation, it's self-creation."

• [34:58] Katie Richardson: "Once you see it, you can't unsee it. And now that you see it, you're then empowered to affect it and change it."

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This episode offers a profound exploration of the evolving role of CEOs in scaling businesses, emphasizing the necessity of updating leadership approaches and fostering both internal and external alignment. Katie Richardson's insights provide actionable strategies for entrepreneurs striving to transform their content into sustained profit while maintaining personal and organizational integrity.

Transcript

[Luis]

Hey, and welcome back to Continuous Profit. This is Luis, half of the bees res and I'm welcoming you to this incredible start of 2025 in the 10 episode series on where we go all the way from frameworks to how to monetize your content in a very specific way, even how to outrank Google or how to land your dream sponsors. So I think these 10 episodes are going to really help you. If you haven't listened to any of the other ones, go back and they start on January 3rd all the way to January 12th. So super excited to share these with. Enjoy.

[Katie Richardson]

Hey, I'm Luis.

[Fonzie]

I'm Luis.

[Luis]

And you're listening to the Content Is Profit podcast. A little personal story here. When we had our first online client was somebody that we looked up to and that person had a coach and I was like, one day, one day I will love and be honored and be very lucky to work with that person. And that is the person that we're bringing you on today. She helped us navigate a lot of conflict. She helped us like work through a lot of, you know, friction with our team, personal relationships. She helped us make the decision of purchasing this studio. Navigating all of that and so many more things. Like, it's crazy, guys. And you know, she's bringing, she's bringing the fire today and she's bringing an opportunity for you, the listener, the watcher, to go and check out, you know, her process and what she does, which, you know firsthand, we've experimented. So please welcome back our dear friend, our continuous profit hall of Famer, our mentor, our coach, Katie Richardson.

[Katie Richardson]

Katie. Hey, Louise 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.

[Luis]

That's right.

[Katie Richardson]

Thanks for having me.

[Luis]

Katie, for those who don't know, you know, working with you has, 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? You talk a lot about, you know, the, the mistakes that CEO make with their teams and how to overcome this. 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 way. 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 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. System.

[Luis]

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, right? You, you see the creators, right? That people obviously involving 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 help 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 communicator 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 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. Like, what is, like, what is like, that one thing? Where 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 crept in or, like. Or when, you know, you had some questions like, where are we actually really going? And. And it created these guard rails 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.

[Luis]

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.

[Luis]

Yeah.

[Katie Richardson]

And so we have to. We have to override that.

[Luis]

Yeah.

[Fonzie]

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. And 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 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 going to 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.

[Luis]

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 bullet.

[Luis]

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 gonna do it, that was his pain that he was actively avoiding, and that's what pulled him back.

[Luis]

Yeah. You know, as I'm going through so many scenarios that something similar happened. Right. With us, me personally. Right. And, man, it was painful.

[Katie Richardson]

Right.

[Luis]

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. Does this align to the objective that we're trying to achieve? Does this align to the person that I'm trying to grow into? It's. It's so worth it. Right. So, you know, 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 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 still 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 scale to a certain level degree. Right. And maybe some of these bad habits start developing. Right. 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.

[Luis]

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, 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 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 Catherine. 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 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 handle colored pencils to your team and say, what color should we make the sky? And what. What color should we make this building? And what color do you want these flowers to be? And they need. 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.

[Luis]

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.

[Luis]

Yeah.

[Katie Richardson]

The third piece of the vital system is your team. If you're building something significant, you're gonna 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 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 it, 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?

[Luis]

Oh, man, so many. One specifically that I think is super fresh for me. You know, I was listening to an episode of Leila Hormazi'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'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. 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 love, 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, 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. And, you know, 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 respect I want to be. Or from the leader or from, like, the. 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. Right. 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. I'm 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. Yeah. 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 hacker. 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. 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, Fonzie, 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 and 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. 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.

[Luis]

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 an 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.

[Fonzie]

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?

[Luis]

Right?

[Fonzie]

Like, how do they stay truthful to themselves? How do they hold themselves accountable without bouncing back into old behaviors?

[Katie Richardson]

There 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 you're. 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 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 too. 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. And 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, 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? Yeah, 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 I'm saying you, I also mean me and all of us. 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. 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 when 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.

[Luis]

Yeah.

[Katie Richardson]

So that's the key.

[Luis]

So many, so many thoughts through my mind. I know 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 were little, we had. We knew who made it. And we're like. We reverse engineer of like that player, for example, me. Like, what do they do? Right? They train every single day. They take care of their 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 single day 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 Luis, or the Luis 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. It's 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 he'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, 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. We solve that. Then I'm going to be high energy, then it's going to be easier to be the new Louise. That's very tactical on that side. That was 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.

[Luis]

Absolutely.

[Katie Richardson]

Audience right now too?

[Fonzie]

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, the Today show, on the COVID of Entrepreneur magazine. And I saw how I had figured something out in the business realm that had the business on this flywheel of 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 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, because 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.

[Luis]

Yeah.

[Katie Richardson]

And that terrified me. And in that moment, I had an insight. And 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.

[Luis]

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 to empirebuilderslive.com and you can find out more about it.

[Luis]

So good. And then I can speak firsthand, guys. Like, obviously, I've seen firsthand the results that those frameworks allow us to do. I mean, we grew dear, 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. Empires builder. Sorry, Empires Building live dot com. Right? Is that it?

[Katie Richardson]

No, no. Empire Builders Live.

[Luis]

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, you know, frameworks. It's greatly appreciated. And my iPad is full of notes and hopefully going execute. So I hope to see you there.

[Fonzie]

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 you, 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.

[Luis]

Thank you. 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 by. To affect it and change it.

[Fonzie]

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 hard working 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. 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 that dreading of going in. Am I gonna have to talk to these guys?

[Luis]

Yeah.

[Katie Richardson]

Because I've been there before. I know what that's like and I also know what it's like to.

[Luis]

Yeah. 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 it the decision and realign and continue to. Because it's going to continue to happen. Right. New situation is going to happen. So yeah. 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. Fonzie, is there anything else you want to, you know, share with us?

[Fonzie]

No, just thank you. Go watch that last was pretty awesome. You know, really good messages and of course go and join yeah. Katie on her journey. She's absolutely amazing.

[Luis]

Thank you guys. Link right below with that said, thank you guys. Thank you so much for tuning to the contents Profit podcast. Go ahead and follow the show in your favorite podcasting platform and on social media at missbrosco.

[Fonzie]

That is random. Katie here help you move one step closer to towards your goal. Please don't forget to share this message and leave a five star review.

[Luis]

See ya. Bye guys.