Accelerate Productivity & Profit with One small Change with Yvonne McCoy EP:40

Hello, my friends and welcome. You're listening to soul inspired decisions, a podcast for ordinary moms living extraordinary lives. My intention with this podcast is to teach, motivate and inspire by sharing stories, tools and strategies to help you unlock your greatest fears, annoying habits and old stories and make a move towards the things that have been on your heart. If you have been a little lost, or in a funk, and want to reconnect with your purpose, your passion and feel empowered again, then this is the best place for you to be hanging out. My name is Carrie linkway. And I'm an ordinary mom making extraordinary decisions. This is me putting one foot in front of the other, moving towards my next goal, and hoping to inspire you along the way. Let's get started.

Hello, Yvonne, how are you doing today?

I am great. Carrie, I am so excited to be here with you. I can't wait for us to talk.

Yes, this is exciting. This is our both part of an event today. And I just wanted to jump on with as many people as I could connect with who feel they can relate to having a soul inspired moment in life. And I believe you can relate. So tell us about yourself? Well,

I think you know, I'm old enough that I grew up with the idea that there were certain things you were supposed to do you know, you were supposed to get an education. You were supposed to get married, and you're supposed to have a career, but the world changed drastically. So the first the first big thing I think that happened to me was my contract was not renewed after working 15 years, which is a euphemistic way of saying I got fired. And it just really knocked the pins out of me. I mean, I really felt really unanchored, because I was really invested in this job, I put lots into it. But it was probably one of the best things that ever happened. Because for the first time, and I was about 45, at that point, at the first time, I had to really stop and go, What do I really want to do? I mean, I thought there would be more to life than this, what do I really want to do. And it was at a time when my kids were, you know, going to be a couple years out from college. So I had time to play. And it was the first time that I really thought about what I wanted versus what was expected of me as a responsible person. And so kind of kind of went into adult education. And then I went into workforce development, and you know, a whole bunch of other things, and found out that one of the things that I was really good at was putting solving problems and setting up systems for companies. And it was really kind of very rewarding that I could do it very quickly. Right, so that I could do it kind of from an accelerated perspective. And even though I talk about accelerating your productivity and profit, you know, the the real question is, you need to know where you're headed. Before you accelerate stuff, otherwise, you're going really fast. But you could be going in the wrong direction. True. Yes. Right. And so that's why, you know, my big thing is the one small change in that the One Small Change is deciding really what you want to be remembered for. Right? So that that can be kind of your GPS in life. And it happened again, you know, that that moment happened again, about two years ago, where I, you know, I turned out I had a kidney stone passed out ended up in the hospital for five days. And when I came to in the hospital, they were all in this these, you know, hazmat suits, because COVID had just started, I was like, I've been abducted. I was running a fever of 102, you know, and when I came out the world to change, I was doing working with a lot of nonprofits who all of a sudden their funding was shut down. They couldn't, you know, and suddenly, I had to reinvent my business and myself. And so I was in a situation again, where I was like, what do I really want to do? That's, that's, yeah. And, you know, or my question is who, you know, who do I want to be when I grow up? Right? But that's where the, where the One Small Change came into, because it was like, these things are going to happen. They're going to happen over and over again, and, you know, big ways and small ways. And so, you know, I think that, you know, in the end, you want to be a person that you're proud of that you want to be you want to be in a business, you want to create a business that you love, you want to have a family, you know, or community, whatever that happens to be. And so I think it's really important to say what's important to me and put it in your own terms. You know, the thing that's so interesting to me is we go through a journey for women it's you know, the it's kind of like the maiden, the mother Whether the warrior, the Crone, or the medicine woman or whatever, and, you know, my clients are not are after are typically after the mother. But when I say people, you know, Mother, not only kids and pets, but careers, you know, but when they pass that point, that's when I like to work with them. But part of that work is the limiting beliefs that they have from childhood. Okay? And when it and when it comes to making decisions, right? It's really important that we, we take a look at those because we are constantly you know, we've got the urgent and we've got the important. And we tend to do the urgent, so we go back to our default, whatever our default is at the moment that you know. And so making decisions part of it is not only just prioritizing, but learning how to know,

the new things that you need to bring in. And I always talk about change, because this was like, one of the things that has set you when I when I was 45, one of the things that happens is I lost 150 pounds after I lost that job. Yeah. So um, and so I learned a lot about myself and about change. I bet yeah. And, you know, we typically we think I'll ask you, when you think about change, do you think about new beginnings?

A new journey is how I look at it. Yeah.

Okay. Because, you know, it's kind of what I say to people, it's not a new beginning, it's, you're, you're not starting all over again, you're continuing on, right. But in order to do that, you have to make room for it. So you a successful change actually starts with an ending, or making room or reprioritizing. And, you know, so when I was losing weight, it was like, Okay, I'm going to exercise. So I would get up the, you know, the first day and I would go exercise, I'd be exhausted, I'd be late for my client, I'd come in the next day and go, Okay, I gotta figure out how to do this better, right. And so maybe I would put my clothes out, you know, and the next morning, I would get up, but I would be really aching. And I would be like, oh, you know, maybe I won't go as far as I do the day before, because I need to get back, you know. And so the bottom line was, I needed to either push my clients back or go to bed earlier, one of the other to make room for for exercising, but in between the ending in the beginning is what I call the push pull, you know, in the model, it's called the neutral zone, and it is anything but neutral, right? Because it's where you're questioning whether you're making a good decision, you know, why not keep doing it the way I call it, the push pull, you're being pulled back to your default position while you're trying to push forward. And so one of my mantras is I must be making a great change, because I've never been this miserable before. Yes, but that's where people quit. You're right. No percent, you know, and so when you are learning a new way to new priorities about making decisions, you have that too. I've always decided this way, or this is easier. This is what I'm familiar with. I'm not sure what's going to happen if I do it in a different way. Right. And, you know, taking a chance. I mean, one of the things that happened for me came out of the hospital was, you know, I was like, Okay, I am really going to put 100% into this. And you know, a year from now I'm either going to be like really doing the happy dance, or I'm going to be living on the streets one or the other. You know, it was kind of like, let's not let's not do it halfway. Let's really let's really do it. Right?

Yeah. So how did you see how did you come to say you woke up? You knew you want to put 100% into this journey. And then like you say, you had the journey, you had the goal and resistance comes up. So you made the little changes. So that's how you know you're moving towards your goal is because you make the shifts, you didn't make excuses. You thought How do I push the clients or lay my clothes out? You had your goal is actually has never left to you're looking at how to shift. So how do you how do you set yourself up? How did you get to the decision that that's 100% that you were going to do it and those little Gremlins are excuses that would pop up. How did you? How did you know that? They were just that?

Well, I think I think part of it is and this is and I'm speaking as a woman because I don't I've never had a man's experience. But I think as a woman, you know, for me, I came up during the time when you know women can do everything and you can do it all at once. That is such a farce. I mean that just sets you up for failure and and so you know One of the hardest lessons I had to learn was I can do better with help. And so we all have blind spots, things that we don't know that we do. And so it's really hard to you know, so somebody else can help you with that, whether it is typically it's not family as much only because they know you from before the change, and they want that you to stay that way. One of the changes that I've just made now is because I have longevity, and I have diabetes is I'm really working on having a more plant based diet, and my grown kids are going berserk. You know, because we're not having steak as much we're not I mean, it's just like making them nuts, right? Like when you know, but um, but when you have somebody else that has additional knowledge, and someone who can help you modify that knowledge so that you can actually use it. I mean, you know, one of my, one of my mottos is make your learning less. So you learn something, you apply it, if you just listen to something and you never put it to work, you're it's not going to do anything. The other next thing is, so it's learn, apply, share. So the sharing is either teaching somebody or just telling somebody about it, because just the speaking about it helps you to clarify it in the way that you're using it. And then the last one is to what's going to trigger you to use this. Because when you're in the middle of something chaotic, you can't go, okay. What tool should I use? What tips should me you know, you have to do you know, and the other thing is, if you can't remember it, you can't use it. I mean, I learned that when I was when I was in corporate, I would go to a great training booth. This is fabulous. I think you know, and then when I needed it, I didn't know what binder it was in. Yes, I agree. Right. So when you are sharing it with other people, they can say, okay, that's what you said last time, what's going to change? Or Okay, what about this? Or? Okay, have you tried this? You know, and so there's a give and take, and you get a clarification about how committed you really are? You know, I mean, you can say I'm in 100%, but I'm taking off two days. All right, well, that may not be bad. But are you running away from a problem? Are you really saying, Okay, I'm gonna, you know, I've set things in motion, so I can do that. And I think that's, that's, that's a big thing. I mean, there are people that have been where they're always going to be people ahead of you, and there gonna be people behind you. And so as you're making the changes, you are a student, to some who are like mentors to you, whether that's a program or a coach, or a group, or, you know, I have an accountability group that, you know, we meet once a week and, you know, bounce ideas off each other. I have a coach actually have two coaches right now. You know, but they can give you ideas and reflect back to you. You know, you may be saying one thing, but you're doing something else.

You're right. Yes, reflection is key. And it can be hard.

It is. And the other thing, I think is that sometimes, I mean, one of the things, wisdom is learning from other people's experiences, you know, you can say, I'm gonna do this, and, you know, go at it full, full bore, only to find out if you talk to somebody, if you'd made one small change, it would, it would have saved you a lot of you know, a lot of trouble, or you would have gotten much better results. I mean, a really simple thing is when I first started out, and in my opt in forms, I didn't put telephone numbers, right? Because, you know, because I didn't, which was a big mistake. So I've got a list of about, you know, I've got about 600 people on my list with no telephone numbers. Right. And that can be, you know, really important if you want to do in individual outreach. So, so I think this is I think probably the biggest thing is if you do something new, there's a really good chance that you're going to fail. But failure is not fatal. It's feedback. And that was a hard lesson for me to learn because of my upbringing was you know, it was like people are watching you. So you can't, you know, you can't make mistakes you can and so it was like, I was wound really tight as a kid. And so learning to say failure is feedback was like just really important in order for me to make better decisions and try different things.

Right. What would your advice be to someone who's super sensitive of feedback? That you know you need the feedback what you're super sensitive soul?

I think part of it is knowing yourself. And that is how do you how do you like? I mean, I had a coach who said to me once, how do you like to get bad negative feedback, or constructive feedback? And I thought nobody ever asked me that before. Right? And for me, one of the best ways to do it is to say, what would you tell your coaching client if they were in this situation? Right? Sometimes, sometimes you sometimes it's hard to hear, but you can read it. Sometimes people need a different amount of time to process. It's like, I mean, one time somebody I came in, give somebody an idea, and they said, You know, I really like you. But you thought about this for a really long time. And then you just opened up, you know, a fire hose on me. Yeah, I need I need time to think about what you're very fair. Yes, yes. You know, so feedback on how you like to get how you like to get the feedback, I think is really important.

That's been a key in my growth is in all my nonprofit and working with the school division, it is always been, okay, what can I do better? And is, you know, the thing is, is that if it's true, you feel it, and you know it. And that's how, you know, you can start working on it as well as, okay, that is an area I do need to work on, improve on it. And I'm going to do it because they see it and I know it so let's do this. But a lot of people don't like the the feedback and then don't take anything from it.

Well, I think the other thing, again, is the blind spots, there are things there are things that you're doing well, and you're not going to change and those typically are spiritual things, you know, your religion, your vegetarian, your whatever. And so if you go into a program that go, you need more protein, eat meat, and well, I'm a vegetarian, I'm not going to change that. Yeah, yeah. And to be okay with those decisions. And then there the only other part of things that are not working, the things that I want to change and are not working or where you really, you're gonna get your biggest bang for your buck and change and the blind spots where you don't even know you need to change, which is the hardest. So so I will just say that if people go to productivity coach dot today, they will get my one small change mini course it only takes about 20 minutes to go through it. But it goes through making sure you have your you know, you're looking at your limiting beliefs, looking at your change, looking at setting that desk dead reckoning that destination that you want to get to as a place to start in terms of making decisions.

Yeah, I think this is a great start to a great conversation that you've got on the go here. And Yvonne, what would your advice to someone be who's looking to make a transition or a big change in their life?

I would say give yourself some time to think about it. That which does not mean you shouldn't take opportunities. But I think again, if you say what is it that I want to be remembered for? Do you know so when you take a look at that, it's like, when I was 45, it was kind of like I I wanted to help adults learn how to read because I had so much trouble when I was a kid. Turns out I was really bad at it. But I was really good at teaching them a lot of other things. So things that you know you are passionate about if you're going to spend the time and the energy, look for things that are going to make you happy. And I think the other thing to know is you can set a goal but you can have a gap goal, something that's in between, you know, so that you can feel accomplished as you're moving along and be able to reevaluate and say is this really what I thought it was gonna be?

Yeah. I agree 100% of the gap goal. Yes. That's this is such a great conversation. I could just carry on with you forever. But this you should do

it again. Yeah, so 2023

This is great lady. So for all the listeners out there, Yvonne you know, her question is what would you want to really be remembered for and that is very key and moving forward on whether it's career change, relationship health, wealth, whatever you have on the go please remember that there's so much help out there for you and I mean, she's got two coaches and accountability group I have coaches as well so for all the listening nerds out there who think you can't do you can do it alone you actually you really do help and you can do it you just may not do it as fast so if you're looking for to move forward and and check out her links, it'll be in my my information. And if you want to be in contact with her and what she has to offer, please check out all we have to say about her nothing but good things. It's so nice to meet and oh,

can I just add one other thing real fast? I totally forgot. I'm starting starting. Shortly I am going to be doing a weekly free avons productivity hour and it's going to be a lab and so If you sign up for my course you'll get on the list and you'll get all the times and stuff for that. I like a lot of fun.

Okay, great. Well get this up on iTunes and Spotify, wherever our listeners are, and make sure you check her out. Thank you so much on and see you soon.