Katerina: Welcome to the show, Corrie.

Corrie: Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here.

Katerina: Corrie, I’ve introduced you very briefly. But can you tell the listeners a little bit about yourself a little bit about who is Corrie Lo?

Corrie: Sure, you got it. So I am a business strategist like I said, a coach, professional speaker and my speciality is to help people become entrepreneurs. So I work exclusively with businesses a year or less. And I help folks go from creating their business concept… you know, “I have no idea working a day job. I don’t know how to turn it into a business”. I help them go from there to generating their first client within six weeks. And then from there being able to scale and be their day job in six months.

Katerina: Yeah. And how long have you been doing this for?

Corrie: This part of my business has been over two years at this point. But I’ve been in business development for over fifteen.

Katerina: Yeah. cuz I’ve listened to I’ve been spying on you.[laughs]

Corrie: Oh, yeah?

Katerina: I’ve listened to some of your videos and your TED talk as well. But we’ll talk about this shortly. And you’ve been running other businesses right before you became a coach. What made you become a personal coach and a strategist?

Corrie: Sure, you got it. So I’m gonna give you the really brief bio, I called Reader’s Digest version of my story. So I actually went to art school, I went to a fine art school. So I graduated with a really expensive piece of paper that said, I could draw really well. And so when I got out of school, I ended up waiting tables, I couldn’t really find a job. Because, you know, folks don’t really hire painters. And my.. it really upset my father. My father is a second-generation entrepreneur. So he’s like, you know, a lot… Why don’t you come and work for us as a graphic designer, you know, it’ll just help you, you know, get some income, and you still get to make art and do this and that.

So I’m like, Okay, fine. So ultimately, what ended up happening was fifteen years later, I blinked and I was Senior Vice President of my family’s company, the third generation running it. And we were in wholesale distribution for electronics. So what happened is because we were the middleman, the more that the clients goals of our vendor products, the more money we made.

Katerina: Okay. So when you started a coaching business, you had a little son, right?

Corrie: I did. That’s the reason I started it. So I was a single mom. My son was only five months old. When I left the father and it, the stress of running a large company. In addition to never getting to see my child, I had this realisation which I shared in my TED talk one day, I was adding up the number of hours that I was paying somebody else to watch my son just while I commuted. And it was 20 hours a week, I was like, wow, I’m paying somebody a part-time salary while I sit in a car, just to go to work. That’s crazy. But I never made a change.

And ultimately, when I did decide to make the change, it was because I had to deal with suicide. And it kind of made me think like, Wow, my time is so valuable, I shouldn’t be spending it, sitting in a car for 20 hours a week working, you know, 60, blah, blah, there’s got to be a better way. So then from there, I said, Okay, well, I’ve learned how to develop businesses for 15 years. So let me do my own. So coaching was very specific for me because I knew I wanted freedom and flexibility in terms of, you know, what hours I work, I only want to work online, I want to be able to travel and be location independent. So that’s why I specifically chose that model.

Katerina: Yeah. But you said, on your website, you, you help people to profit from their passion, and I’m just quoting your, your website, so they can achieve freedom and balance as entrepreneurs. And you’ve mentioned, looking after the little one, can women really achieve balance if they have to look after the little ones and they have to look up to the family? How is it possible? How do they go about achieving that balance?

Corrie: It’s definitely possible. I’ve been a single mom for a really long time, only very recently became not single. But ya know, it’s really a matter of priorities, you have to be very, very clear on what your priorities are. So for me, even when I was working, you know, when I was working at… our grand total, I think it was like 70 hours a week as an executive. Even with that said, my days were very rigidly scheduled, that I knew what my priorities were to take care of for the day.

So for example, when I got home from work, I pretty much only ever had two hours a day with my son. And that was it because he was only sleeping before I left in the morning to go to work. And then he would be up for an hour or two before I had to put him to bed when I got home. So that time it was no cell phone, no TV, no nothing. It was just me and him, you know, playing with vitals and whatever it was to do baby at the time. But the same would be with family dinner time was always very important ‘coz that was a way that I can leverage that time when Jim and I both have what time I had available. You know, and again, it’s your priorities, I still also make time to work out when I could, which meant I had to wake up earlier to do it before my son got up.

And before I had to commute and everything else, in terms of eating better for myself still having to do it all on my own. I used to meal prep, I would make all of my meals on a Sunday when I was home from work during my son’s nap. And then that nature about IRAs, both of us were eating you know, healthfully throughout the course of the week, without me having to rely on takeout or anything like that. And I was doing all of this on my own, you know, just me…, I had helped through, you know, old pairs and my parents were there to help with babysitting when I was working.

But when I wasn’t working, it was just me and him. So it’s definitely a possibility. It’s just a matter of determining what your priorities are knowing you can’t do everything all at once. And then just making sure that you cover all those priorities at some point throughout the course of the week, it might not mean that you get every single one every day. But as long as you’re able to kind of balance it out throughout the course of the seven days you’ll still feel fulfilled.

Katerina: Yeah. So now you’re on your own business how your life has changed as a result of being your own boss?

Corrie: Oh, my God so much. I mean, this is a lot to what my clients usually aspire to. And it’s, you know, I have complete autonomy on my schedule. You know, when I decided to work when the pandemic hit, it wasn’t a big deal for me having my son home all the time, you know, because it’s just okay. Well, I took calls when, you know, he was napping, or I planned my workday around when I was spending time with him.

And I had the freedom to do that, where if you’re working for somebody else, that’s not something you can easily do. Also, in terms of my creativity, and being able to develop products and find ways to help and serve people, that’s not something that usually comes in a position that they basically determine it for you like, this is what you’re hired to do and this is what you’re helping way. So being able to, you know, understand, well, I have more to be able to offer people and this is how I can help them and this is who I should help, having control over that is huge. You know, never mind the financial aspects of it. Let’s not sugarcoat it. starting a business is not easy.

You know, when I started again, I was a single mom, I quit my six-figure job as an executive. And ultimately, what I did was I decided to leverage, I had six months of emergency savings, something that they tell most people to do, you know, we’ve had savings, I called it an emergency of my soul. Not that I had lost my job. But I was like if I keep doing this, I’m going to die inside, I need to leverage this emergency money. And I use that ultimately to support me and my son while I built my business.

So, I mean, the money doesn’t come right away. But as I built that, and I have more flexibility, and I know one serving, and I’ve been able to build an audience, that money is coming right now. And it’s so freeing, knowing that, when I need it, it comes to me, I have flexibility. If I need more of it, I could create a new programme, or I could do an all-new off another offer, or I could pick up a speaking gig. And that’s not something that you can necessarily have if you’re set in a box career, right? You have your like annual review, and you may or may not get a raise, but that’s about it. Yeah, so it’s a lot more, a lot more control.

Katerina: How old is your son now?

Corrie: He is just five… So I’m actually pregnant with my second right now, due in May. And I have two step-sons. Which is kind of awesome. So it’s kind of crazy to be over the course of five years ago from you know… So literally within the last year, a model for my Brain exploded, just thinking about it now. That’s been a crazy year.

Katerina: Yeah, I mean, gosh, I say you’re like a wonder woman. But you know, I watched your TED Talk. And, you know, you’ve mentioned…, you know, what’s happened, what, what actually made you pivot, but you also talked in your TED Talk…/ And by the way, listeners, if you haven’t checked this out, please check out Corrie’s Ted talk, “Don’t give up: change your strategy”. And in your TED talk, you talked about the logical way and the pivotal life moment. And you spoke about your pivotal life moment, when your loved one committed suicide…. doesn’t have to be this way. Do you have to have some kind of a tragedy in your life, to realise that your life needs changing? And, that you need to make that pivot, right? Because, again, so many people are just like sleepwalking and they are miserable? Because they’re in a corporate job, which they don’t like, or don’t love, and they just almost like being dead inside? So do you have to wait for that moment when you know, have this epiphany or, or can you still logically arrive at the conclusion that you need to change your life?

Corrie: Definitely not. And that’s actually one of the cases that I make in the TED Talk. Right? So you know, thinking a pivotal life moment for me it was that suicide loss that was huge and made me rethink, you know, like the words of life the way I thought my life was that morning was drastically different than the way my life was after you know I discovered my love one had done. Life is full of moments like this, we all go through job loss or divorce, or I have gone through, in five years, I had a miscarriage, an abuse of marriage, a divorce and then the suicide loss. It was a crazy wild ride over five years, but that’s what life is. And through each and every one of these losses, we learn things and we transform our lives. 

So the case that I am making in my TED talk is that some of the life moments are one of the ways that we get inspired or forced to make a change. The pandemic is a great example of this, nothing could have controlled it, our life is very different after it as it was before. It’s never gonna be the same and we are all worth changing. But the truth is if you are unhappy, you don’t have to wait, I think I have said this in my TED talk too, we can’t wait for a pivotal life moment to happen in time for your new year’s resolution. Most of the time people, you know, are inspired to make changes around new years but it’s really those moments that get us to make drastic changes.

And what I found over the new years is, if you track, I call them the 5 C’s, are called the overwhelmed cobras and there are five sources of overwhelming frustrations in your life career. So they range from not having Clarity, you know what it is, and your life in business, what you want, you know so on and so forth. There is your Confidence that what you want is possible, nothing ever gonna make it happen for you until you build up that confidence, right? So that’s the gap there. Your Community is another source that overwhelms, you could want something but If your support circle doesn’t support you doesn’t know how to do what it is you want to do doesn’t understand why you want it, you’re not going to get there. Conditioning, which for me, that means your personal health and wellness, you know, mental health and fitness. So if you’re not making time that takes care of your body, and your mind is not going to take care of you. So that’s something that’s ultimately going to hold you back and cause overwhelm. And lastly, Consistency.

So many people just don’t have the consistency needed to achieve their goals. So it’s so important to build systems into your life, that when you use them, it makes it much, much easier to pivot before a pivotal life moment. Right. It’s the people that have structured, you know, goals that I have daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly goals, whatever that might look like for the individual. But they have to have some kind of a plan to check-in for themselves to have the consistency needed to move forward with them. Because if you don’t, you’re not going to get there. And ultimately, the only thing that’s going to change you is that pivotal life moment. But if you follow any of those five areas, and the thing that’s really cool about it too, is I use it with all of my clients, it works for life improvement, career improvement or business. Right. So any one of those five, if there’s a misalignment, when you address it, you know, for example, let’s say confidence is a big one.

And you want to add, I just throw out there as an example, you really want a life partner, right? But you’re competent, you’re just not confident when you go to a garden party. Right? It just terrifies you to walk up to that person and say, I tell you to get over that. You’re not going to find that life partner. So it’s up to you to then address it. So within the five C’s, figuring out specifically what I need to work on from there, it kickstarts you and it helps you kind of rebuild those habits to then start moving forward on the action without waiting for a cup of light moments.

Katerina: Yeah, I mean, I love your analogy. A frog sitting in the boiling water. And unfortunately, now a lot of people are like frogs and them just kind of you know, especially in COVID I mean, we’ve had so many people furloughed and they just kind of wait for the normal to come back. And the thing is, this might be the new normal. And yeah, you have to act and you know you you’ve mentioned it on your TED talk several times about the action taking that action and building that confidence because unless you do something you can’t reprogram your brain to be more confident if you don’t try to be more confident like you know, smile, and then you’ll feel much better. You know, as as a result, you’re much happier and…

Corrie: I know exactly and I mean, what are the most tweeted lines I have in my TED talk when I speak I give the TED talk as a keynote is, if you want to have an extraordinary life it requires extraordinary action and it’s so true because what people want in life you know they look at other people and they compare you know what they have to you know what they personally have. And really the only difference is the other person was willing to go over and above what you’re willing to do to get it. So it’s really all in that act that inspired action and that consistency that really the only thing that stands between you whatever it is you want to be in life. 

Katerina: Yeah, you’re also talking about overcoming fears and what was your most fearful moment, since you started your coaching business?

Corrie:  I don’t know I need to be honest, I’ve started so many businesses from, even when I was a kid I was never really afraid of the business side I mean if there was anything that was that I was afraid of at each and every life transition I had and like I said there was a lot within five years. I was more afraid at those moments but again the fear is based on not knowing what’s happening next right… there’s so much comfort in the routines that we have built into our lives, that when you have that kind of a forced change, it’s terrifying.

So for me when I left my marriage with my five-month-old son… literally my five-month-old son and his suitcase. And I showed it to all my parents… I was like, What do I do now like… I had no one to watch my kid and I knew I had to work. I had no money, you know… I’ve lost everything in the divorce. So it’s like where do you go from here and that is that I find to be more terrifying than anything having to do with business because if you say no with the business you still have control, you’re going to fail. Along the way, failure is not something I’m afraid of. I kind of joke that I’m a professional failure. But when you think about it, all successful entrepreneurs are. So that’s something you just have to become comfortable with and you don’t become comfortable with it until you have that repeated action.

Katerina: Yeah, I was really looking at what’s going on, and presenting on the TED talk. I’m just looking at your, you know YouTube video on TED talk has like 27 million subscribers. You’ve been watched by 27 million and how did it make you feel being on that red carpet?

Corrie: Alright, the whole experience with the TED talk is unreal. Because, you know, this is gonna sound like so. I don’t know how it’s gonna sound but I never ever expected in my life to become a speaker. It’s one of those things that it kind of chose me. And initially, it started as one of my mentors that I employed when I first started my business which by the way if you’re starting a business. I definitely recommend if you don’t have the business experience you always hire a mentor or a coach or consultant, whatever that might look like and that was something. I knew right off the bat because even though I had so many years of experience. I didn’t know the coaching industry, right?

Very different business models so I wanted to make sure that I was working with somebody that already knew how to do it so I could do it the right way the first time and not spend a lot of time, you know, testing and failing, right? So, one of my first mentors, you know, told me at one point she was like, well, you should apply for a TED talk your story’s insane. Your story’s crazy you have a lot to say and it was one of those things that I was like, that I think you’re insane. No, I’ve never been on a stage before I’ve never spoken like, why would, you know, TED talk which is like the, you know, grand stage for speakers, like why would they ever even consider me.

And it was one of those things over the course of the year then I started getting requests when I would do networking and stuff you will do professional speaking you have a great energy that this got that, but your story is really interesting so people started requesting it, and then the universe started giving me signs in terms of like books that would suddenly cross my path on the speaking business or online courses on it’s on like, all right, all right, I’ll get into it. So I want to say it was the fall of 2019 that I officially went in to learn to become a speaker, you know, learn how to craft the keynote learned. You know, I started doing free public speaking gigs to practice and started working on my website all of that. And by January, I got the TED talk. It was never anything I expected but again it’s that inspired action when I decided and I finally had the confidence.

Yeah, I can do this, all these other people are telling me the universe is telling me it’s up to me to see the signs. Because a lot of times people see our potential before we can see it ourselves. So it’s so important to be, you know, on the lookout and really trusting your community, in a way, to be guiding you in the right direction so it wasn’t until I felt confident that I could do it that the momentum moves back right so if my story’s not normal, most people do not land a TED talk as quickly as they did, but a lot of it is because of how focused and strategic I was when I did decide to go all in that I checked all the boxes and like I said to. I didn’t go in line. I employed a mentor, again, who was a professional speaker who had courses, stuff like that I read about it and I educated myself. That’s how you make games back.

Katerina: Yeah, yeah. I mean well well done to you. I mean, I’m also considering maybe after I’ve published my book but yeah it’s, I guess I’m not quite sure with COVID  though I mean are they gonna offer a virtual talk or so what.
Corrie: They are. Yeah, there’s a lot of virtual, even as a professional speaker majority of the engagements I’ve done have been virtual.

Katerina: Yeah, yeah. I mean it’s it’s, but I can give it to you I mean you, it just. You’ve been so authentic and vulnerable, I’d say because you know sharing your story, but at the same time. This is why it’s so inspiring because again this is your personal journey you went through, and this is what brought you to the path you are currently on and yeah I mean it’s. Thank you for sharing this with millions of people out there, but I’m talking about your, your method, your strategy method of five C’s clarity, confidence, a community, conditioning and consistency. All of those elements should be aligning. Right? 

Corrie: Like when they’re in alignment you’re going to find that you take action.

Katerina: Right. You’re not afraid of factors that are more important than others or do starting entrepreneurs have to focus on all of those factors to make themselves more successful.

Corrie: Sure. So for a new entrepreneur, what, it varies depending on what the person’s goal is right so talking about new entrepreneurs, new entrepreneur goal is, I want to start a business, I need to make money right? So really what I focus on what then it’s all about Clarity and your Confidence. Right now, the important thing to realise is the confidence is not going to come without clarity. If you are not clear you are not going to be able to confidently demand what you’re worth in a pricing conversation right because you’re not going to be clear on who your survey is, what the market going rate is.

You know what perceived problems are in the market and what you’re solving, and that’s usually the first thing that I work on with a new entrepreneur, but it really, as I said, it depends on the individual and what their goal is for somebody who’s looking for high performance. As an example, let’s just talk about an executive, you know who’s looking to improve their performance for them they may be you know they’ve got a personality as I do, you know when I was an executive I didn’t stop. So for me conditioning was a big one, I was not taking care of my health and fitness, I wasn’t sleeping. I wasn’t working out as much as I could have because my hours were spent in a car, every day commuting right I have limited hours. So that’s the one that you really have to address. So for everybody is going to be different but specifically to answer your question for new entrepreneurs it all stemmed from clarity.

Katerina: Yeah, but what you think is the biggest mistake that many starting intrapreneurs make?

Corrie: Not picking one problem to solve. For sure, and there are so many people I work with and I do strategy sessions all the time, with new entrepreneurs, you know, just to kind of validate their idea and understand if there’s a market for it. Usually, the conversation I get is, well, you know, I think I could do this but I want to also create a blog with it and maybe do a podcast, and then monetize it during eCommerce and there’s like so many different verticals with the business stuff that pick one thing and usually you know I’m a little bias towards this because my experience is more in the service-related industry.

So I have worked in eCommerce and retail and distribution and stuff like that. But if you’re a new entrepreneur and you’re looking to make money fast, you’re going to need money in a service business because you’re gonna have no overhead there’s nothing to buy it’s just you. You know you and a conversation and a promise to deliver a result, and you make money. So you don’t need a website, you don’t have social media accounts, you don’t need any of that. You know, if you’re building a service business, depending on what strategy you use to do it, which is what I usually know work on with my clients. With that said, Yes, I think the number one problem is people don’t focus on one specific problem for one specific audience.

Katerina: Yeah, I mean that leads me to another question. And like I said I’ve done a little bit of digging on you. Yeah, you’ve been running your own podcast, but you stopped at Episode 48. Yeah. Are you planning on continuing or will you change the priorities? Or are you planning to have a Season 2?

Corrie: I would definitely like to continue so here’s what ultimately happened with my podcast. So when I first started my business I was more in the life coaching business, and it was through the evolution of seeing you know the types of clients that I was attracting. I was getting a lot of people who were interested in my entrepreneurial background. So I wanted to do the same thing so eventually at some point I think it was probably around this time last year I made a pretty hard pivot into the business. And some of that did carry on a little bit into my podcast, but my podcast at that time was much more focused on personal stories of resilience, which many of them were entrepreneurs, but it was kind of like this weird in-between place as to where my business is now.

So in terms of why the podcast kind of dropped off, and again its priorities right. So I am one person, I choose to be a one-person operation. Right. That was one of the reasons I left corporate. I didn’t want to be responsible for 80 people anymore I just wanted to be responsible for myself. So with that said when I was producing the YouTube show as well as a podcast they both went hand in hand. It’s a lot to produce a YouTube show especially the way that I was producing it because I have a video background so I have a very very highly perfectionist page with it. And it was taking me way more time. It was time that I would be better served speaking to people and helping them build their business as opposed to creating marketing materials.

So earlier this year I decided to start experimenting more with live streaming. And that worked really, really well for me and that’s I’ll probably start repurposing more of my live stream and kind of turn that into the podcast, at some point in time I just haven’t really had a need for it because the truth is the podcast isn’t really necessarily generating my clients right now my social media feeds and my live streams are. Yeah. So you always want to go with us when it comes to marketing and this is just like a great way to entrepreneurship, you only want to focus on the tactics that are literally giving you built conversations. It doesn’t matter how many likes, comments and shares you have, what matters is how many people contact you and say I want to buy what you have.

Katerina: Yeah. Yeah. That’s true, it’s the ultimate test of your business model. Yeah, and how many people actually pay for your services, as opposed to how many likes you have. It’s a small tribe but you know enthusiasm people dedicated to, you know, buying from you, whatever you do. But no, I mean, it’s that attraction. But yeah, I guess. The next question I will ask and again this relates to one of your C’s. And again, this is because the topic of this podcast is, you know, mental wealth, mental health, mental well being and one of you see is to do with conditioning the mental health. My next question is have you ever struggled with some mental health problems, or, or conditions and how did you overcome, what’s your strategy for well being

Corrie: Of course. So this is actually something I focus on at length. And yes, I have struggled with mental health. For me, it’s situational right so it’s very important to mention that for me it’s never been any kind of chemical thing there are some folks that they struggle with, you know, hereditary mental illness. You know situations for me it was never like that it was a direct result of my suicide loss.

That really threw me for a loop suicide is a very complicated loss, because you’re angry at the person suicide because they did it to themselves, no one really quite understands it and lasts they’ve experienced the suicide loss and as a result of that it’s very isolating because it’s not something that people talk about, and then the more that people who haven’t experienced that try to console you there’s even more of a disconnect right because they really don’t get what it’s like. So it was a very dark time for me immediately following the loss, and I’m very candid about it. I mean it was difficult for me to take care of my son when he was about three.

At that time I relied a lot on my family and friends that kind of stepped in and helped with him. I slept a lot. I really thank goodness you know I’ve always been a very big proponent of therapy. And I was undergoing therapy and I talked about this in the TED talk I was undergoing before me. I lost them. So luckily I had that support system in place to work through the situational depression. But it was really, you know, it’s an effort. So, and again, you know, I think that’s the important thing too and I always talk a lot about action, but it’s one thing having the self-awareness like yes I’m depressed. Yes, that’s okay. You have to take things, one day at a time, and what can I do to make today better, right so for me I. So kind of funny I found Reiki kind of by accident. It was one of those things the universe just kind of served it up to me.

I became certified for it. As a result, I didn’t know why I was becoming certified, but ultimately I found that kind of energy healing to be very very effective and helping with my brief, in particular about journaling, I was an avid journaler through that whole time because I think what happens when it comes especially to both anxiety and depression that different kind of feelings related to both the past and the future that don’t get verbalised so you hold on to it as energy, and the process of journaling helps you get it out, which journaling was something that always terrified me, because for me before I learned how to journal. I always think of it as well if I write it down.

That means it really happened. And that’s something I have to revisit, and that’s something that is scary especially undergoing trauma, you know, and I had undergone trauma, you know through an abusive relationship. So, that’s not something that was very scary so you asked me before about the fears and that in particular for me was very scary being able to come face to face with it. But what I learned through the process is until you get it out. You can’t compete, you can’t truly come face to face with it and once it’s out, you have the choice to release it. So learning those processes again, taking things day by day. The thing that helped me the most, and I’ve spoken about this a lot is a gratitude practice.

So I remember vividly, you know, in the weeks following the suicide loss that I would wake up in the morning and I just want to cry, immediately you know just like that because it’s terrible. It’s terrible. And I would struggle, each morning, to find three things I was grateful for. And what I learned was, it doesn’t have to be anything mind-blowing. You don’t need many people. They think they have to be grateful and it needs to be like rainbows and unicorns and sunshine. And that is the way I feel authentically at that time so it feels really well. So instead, it would be stupid things like I’m glad I did laundry yesterday and I don’t have to do it today. I’m glad I found my son’s missing shoe. You know that it didn’t last forever so really like stupid minimal things that I was truly grateful for. And the more you do it, the easier it becomes and then finally you know be grateful for the sunshine and for your family and stuff like that it becomes much easier to see it again, but it’s a practice, and you have to take action on it and it’s something that you have to do every day just take things day by day.

Katerina: Yeah, so, what are you doing today to keep yourself in check, you know, mentally? How do you relax? What do you do for fun?

Corrie: Sure, that’s a great question. So I love it. One of my core problems and this is definitely something that affects my mental health is I’m a workaholic. I love to work especially now that I’m owning my own business, I’m helping people I feel very fulfilled. And if I give any downtime at all my intuition is to open up the laptop and create and make something that can help people which is good but at the same time, it’s bad, because I really need that downtime. So, for me knowing that this is a challenge I have a few different strategies that I put into play to help with that. The first side is my partner is aware of my challenge, and he forces me every day at the third time, are you off the laptop, drop the laptop you’re with us. Come on, thinking I hired a coach to keep me on point like you are, you’re overproducing as well but you need to take some time off. Another thing that I do is, I work a minimise work schedule on purpose.

So I work. Some during the summer I’ll do four days a week and I take Fridays off and I go to the beach when my Zumba School, which is amazing. Now during the school year, I am set just, I work from 9 to 2. And then I take my son off at school and then I’m done right. I work at an abbreviated workday instead but that again just helps me keep that workaholism in check. And it makes me more productive because I get more done in that short timeframe. But then when I do have that time off, you know that I’m so busy spending all this time trying to protect. I love hiking, I love being outside. I love going to the beach is my happy place. That’s where I go when I’m by myself. I love salsa dancing, you know, doing anything to stay active. Probably the number one thing I love to do is read. I’m an avid reader. I love personal development. I read probably two to three books a month. And that’s how I know I mean…

Katerina: Thank you so much and just to wrap up our conversation I could talk to you for hours at some other time with a glass of wine. Just the last question. If you want to teach one lesson to start entrepreneur entrepreneurs, what would it be your final sort of advice for starting entrepreneurs?

Corrie: My final advice and this is something I actually teach in a workshop called “Monetize me” information is on my website for it, but I am a big proponent of determining why you want to run a business. So again, that clarity element is so, so important you have to know why you want to start your business, how it’s going to change your life. What changed you want to impact the world? what problem you want to solve, and who needs that problem solved. Right. If you don’t have all those items working for you You’re never going to have a business that takes off on a truly scalable, you know, level. So, really, knowing why you want your business is so important and just to be transparent when I choose to work with people. You know someone comes to me and is like I want to be an entrepreneur because I want passive income and I want to sit on the beach, that’s a no go for me. But I don’t want to work with you. I specifically work with value and service-driven entrepreneurs so for folks who are like, I know I am meant to like help people with this specific problem because I overcame it and I can help them. Those are the types of people I want to work with. But if you’re not clear on your why you don’t know. Right, I would probably be very helpful.

Katerina: Thank you so much for coming to the show and it’s been an absolute pleasure talking to you. Thank you so much.

Corrie: Thank you so much for having me. It’s been great. Thank you.