How to Find Your Zone of Genius to Grow Your Impact and Income with Cait Scudder: An EOFire Classic from 2021

0:02Who's ready to rock today, Fire Nation? JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like Created with John Ushai. Today, we're pulling a classic episode from the archives, and we'll be breaking down how to find your zone of genius to grow your impact and income. To drop these value bombs, I brought Kate Scudder in the EO Fire Studios. Kate is a TEDx speaker and success expert. Her mission is to empower 10 million driven, bold-hearted women to tap into their genius and create profitable, purpose-driven businesses.

0:37And today, Fire Nation, we'll talk about optimizing your schedule, time, and energy to be playing in your zone of genius. It will yield you the most financial and energetic return and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Kate and our sponsors. The Next Wave, your chief AI officer, hosted by Matt Wolf and Nathan Lands, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Matt and Nathan are leading AI creators in your guiding light in the AI and technology frontier. AI technology is transforming the way we do business and the media landscape is fragmented.

1:11The Next Wave strives to be the leading podcast on AI technology and how you can apply it to growing your business. Listen to The Next Wave wherever you get your podcasts. Kate, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. What is up, guys? First of all, John, it's such a pleasure to be here. Thank you so much for having me on the show. I love this question. I think that the biggest, I hate even to say secret to success because I don't believe in secrets, but I think a very undersung hero when it comes to creating success is valuing people over speed and really, really prioritizing the quality of the relationships that you build.

2:01I think particularly in the online space as an entrepreneur, you know, it can feel very, very easy to fall down a rabbit hole of comparison and really needing to be sharp elbowed and like get that quickest win to brag about on Instagram really fast. And what I think happens as a result of that is we throw away the focus and the priority on relationships. And I believe so much of success is created by the impact that you create, the legacy that you build, the way that you make other people feel, the way that your brand really reverberates so much beyond whatever you're putting out there into the world.

2:40And so a very important piece in my mind is being so mindful and tending a lot to the way that you prioritize relationships. And on this note, Fire Nation, a lot of people are always just saying, how can I get new clients? How can I find more leads? How can I do this, do that? What about developing closer, intimate relationships with your current customers, with current people in your audience, like spending time with them, people who are already in a place where they consume your content, where they know, like, and trust you? How about going deeper with them, building real, meaningful relationships?

3:14And I think this is really cool to use as a springboard into a conversation about your career, because you started as a high school teacher, and now you've become this successful seven-figure entrepreneur while being a mom, while traveling the world, things we'll be getting to later in this interview. Can you share that journey from teacher to seven-figure entrepreneur? Absolutely. So I come from kind of an academic background. I went to a fancy undergrad college. I had my master's at 23. So I was kind of very much bred in this fast track to success, ambitious achiever. I'm a three on the Enneagram.

3:55So I really have this kind of go-getting personality. And I found myself at 23 coming out of my master's program, which was a master's in teaching. And this incredible job at a small high school opened up to teach Spanish. And so I took it straight away. I was getting paid$38 ,000 a year. I thought I was like the richest woman in the world because it was my first job. And, you know, it took me only two years to burn, like literally burn out to the bone. I had six different classes that I had to prepare for. I had, you know, I was like the young, bright eyed, bushy tailed teacher. And so I got lumped in with all this extracurricular duty that was of course unpaid.

4:36Um, and I just, I had this moment of really realizing I, I had really bad anxiety actually at the time. And, you know, so, so hungry to impact people's lives. I loved being in the front of the room. Um, I loved impacting my students, but I just, I became very evident to me that number one, this is not sustainable for my body. This is not sustainable for my spirit. And number two, I am not meant to be teaching the subjunctive clause to high school students. I am meant to be doing, and not that that's bad or wrong. And I think anyone for whom that's their vocation, all of the power to you, it just felt very clear to me that I was meant for something more.

5:17And I think in interviews like this, it's always easy to look at, wow, look at, she went from there and now she's here and it must have just happened overnight. And what I really want to emphasize, John, is that the journey for me has been a series of, and the reason that I'm in the position that I'm in today is because I have really normalized having a relationship with taking risk and betting on myself in a way that I think in a traditional nine to five or a traditional like seven to three in a teaching job, it's just not built in, right? You land the job, you show up, sometimes you just do it begrudgingly and you don't actually love the work, but you're in and your paycheck is guaranteed.

5:55Becoming an entrepreneur means taking risk after risk after risk. And so the thing that catalyzed that journey for me, I quit my job, you know, two years into it. I actually traveled to Bali, not to be an entrepreneur, although there's like a huge digital nomad scene there, which is where I actually started my business in 2017. But I went for a women's leadership training, actually. And that But after the training, I met my now husband, which we were together at the time. And that's what drew me back to live in Bali. And when I went back to live there, that's when I started to really notice this kind of laptop lifestyle digital nomad scene.

6:33And I saw so many incredible people for the first time who had built a personal brand using their gifts, kind of synthesizing all of these different skill sets that they'd acquired. And rather than trying to fit that inside of a box, we're actually using it to build a brand that was all their own. And so it took me really a year to a year and a half, actually, from that moment to when I finally launched my business. It was May of 2017. I got myself in a mastermind, an in-person mastermind that I had really been like sitting on my hands and being like, oh, who am I to put out content? You know, all that classic stuff.

7:09And I just got myself accountable and ripped off the bandaid, started, you know, posting and through a website together. And, you know, it was very successful within my first year. I scaled to six figures within my first year. And then last year, when I was pregnant, we crossed the seven figure mark. And it's just been it's been an incredible journey. But I would say that the thing that really has been consistent from that first decision to leave the safety of a full-time job to going all in on myself again and again and again has been cultivating a relationship with risk. Fire Nation, there's so much to take away from that.

7:46You know, one thing before I get too deep on my kind of two cents here is love that you're into the Enneagram, a three. I feel like I know so much about you now, and I'm an eight on the Enneagram myself, so I'm a challenger. I've always challenged everything, and that's just something that's so cool. And Fire Nation, I definitely love hearing what you are on the Enneagram, so make sure to reach out and give me a little intel on that. I loved your part about betting on yourself. I mean, Fire Nation, you need to bet on yourself. You need to invest in yourself. What better use of your time, of your effort, of your finances than in yourself?

8:25There will be time later after your bet on yourself comes to fruition. You can bet on other things, but for now, bet on yourself. Now let's talk about the zone of genius and how Fire Nation can discover theirs. To me, I think about your zone of genius being sort of like that center point. If you think of like an old school, middle school, English class, you know, graphic, thinking about where your passion and what you love to do and could spend all of your time doing just getting absorbed in, where that passion and natural skill set intersects with a need of the world. that is your zone of genius in business.

9:07And I think that when you start to do some introspective work, and I would say anybody who's listening, like a way to kind of muscle test, is this my zone of genius or is this not? Does it come easily to you? Does it come effortlessly to you? So like taking this down to some brass tacks for our entrepreneurs who are listening to this, one of the things that I take my clients into, especially high level entrepreneurs who are already at that like six, multiple six, even seven figure level is looking at if you're not working inside of your zone of genius, that looks like tasks that feel draining to your energy, tasks that feel depleting, tasks that you feel like you need to rest in order to recover from.

9:46One thing that I think is really powerful to do is to make a list if you're feeling and if you're at the point in your business where you are needing to outsource and get some other team members in to alleviate the time that you're spending and expedite, you know, efficiency in the business is make a list literally of all of the tasks that are happening inside of your business. And if you are a solopreneur, or even if you're an entrepreneur needing to bring more team members into your existing team, list out what those tasks are and then circle all of the things in the business. The only things that absolutely require your time and energy.

10:22So like for you, John, That's you recording this podcast. That's you doing like live streams, things that need your face, your energy, your time, things that are just, you know, that content creation. Um, for those of us who work with clients, obviously being on those client calls and serving those clients, literally everything else can be delegated and can be outsourced. So if you're at that early stage, I would say be in the inquiry of what lights me up more than anything. What am I so good at? What do I love doing and what does the world need? And if you're a later stage entrepreneur trying to figure out how to bring more team members in to support your business, you know, a real place to, to look at and to investigate is what, what tasks in your business, what things in your business really require you.

11:09That's the zone that we want you playing in. And frankly, that your business needs you playing in, um, and everything else. So like delivering client, delivering, you know, So invoices and contracts, scheduling, all of that kind of stuff, that can be delegated. And I think that the real needle mover happens in business when we can optimize our schedule, optimize our time, and optimize our energy to be playing in our zone of genius. That's ultimately what's going to yield the most return financially and also the biggest return energetically. So many value bombs, Fire Nation, throughout that. But the one that I really want to zone back in on is the key words that Kate used for your zone of genius.

11:51Is your focus, Fire Nation, truly on a real need in this world? Is it on a real need, a specific, unique, real pain point? Think about that. Be honest with yourself. And Kate, going through some of the things that you've done, I mean, you had a huge year by pivoting your business really because of your pregnancy. So what was your secret, even though I know you don't like that word. So what was your sauce of having a$512 ,000 launch in the last month of your pregnancy? I actually love unpacking this launch for people because I think we hear a number like that and we're like, how, how, how, how?

12:31First of all, I want to say for any women listening in there who are pregnant or who have been pregnant and they're like, girl, how did you do that? Every pregnancy is different. I am, and I know this is true for a lot of women. Several of my clients have shared this with me as well. For some of us at the end of pregnancy, there's like a huge creative burst. And I don't think that's surprising. Like there's so much creative life force energy moving in you. And so for me, I actually had a lot of energy. Um, I, so I didn't need to be like lying on the couch. I know that's, you know, the experience for some women.

13:03So number one, my body was in a place to really support that. But honestly, John, I was working maybe like seven hours a week and I was not, and it actually builds so beautifully off of our conversation of zone of genius. So the program that I was launching started in January of this year. I actually started the launch in August of last year. So it was an incredibly spacious period. We had an early enrollment bonus window. Um, I priced the offer. So the, the offer is for one of my masterminds, one of my high level masterminds. And I had an early enrollment discount that was like$5 ,000 off the program.

13:44Now I intentionally set the price to be such that receiving for that early enrollment, you know, it wasn't like an afterthought. And then I was like, Oh, I don't actually want to receive that money. It's too low. I priced it. The regular tuition such that I was happy about what the early enrollment bonus discount was. So there were definitely some strategic elements there. There was a bonus that was just too good to pass up that for people who opted in early. So I gave myself number one, a really spacious launch window. Number two, I made it very, the offer very, very appealing and attractive and really incentivize those action takers, which is exactly who I was calling in for the mastermind.

14:22very self-directed, self-assured action taker, established entrepreneurs who knew and were already thinking in August about setting themselves up for the year ahead. This was not for people who were like, oh, I got to figure my shit out in December of 2020. This was really people who were thinking a lot ahead. So the structure and the timeline of the launch really supported me to then show up in my zone of genius. So the things that I was doing, again, I was even though I had a lot of energy, I was still pregnant. I was not available, like just completely unavailable to grind. And so all I did was show up in the places that I knew my audience was most responsive to.

15:05And that really supported my energy, my teaching, my zone of genius to shine through. And for me, that is video audio. So I would do two, maybe three Facebook lives, um, per week. And my team would repurpose some of that for Instagram, for podcasts. But that was me, that the thing that I was actually doing marketing wise was supporting me to show up in that full magnetic energy, sell without stress, without pressure, without a really crunchy timeline. And then for this particular launch, I did sales calls. And so I held those sales calls. And that was literally all that I did. We're talking an hour and a half maybe of live streams per week.

15:46and then a little bit of communicating with my team via Slack and then just getting on the phone, listening to people. Again, what I spoke about in the beginning, building those relationships, really discerning a fit. I actually turned down, it could have been an even bigger launch, but I turned down several people for the mastermind who wanted in and were ready to pay, but weren't the right fit for it. And I think all of these things together contributed to a huge launch that felt like the most spacious launch that I've ever had. And I think that was a real combination of me being so discerning and deliberate about only being in my zone of genius and giving myself and my team an ample timeline to have those ideal clients come in.

16:26Fire Nation, I hope you're really absorbing everything that went into that$512 ,000 launch. I mean, it's not about nose to the grindstone from morning until midnight. It's about do you have a coherent, specific dialed-in message? Do you have a team around you that can support you? And then can you just do and spend your time on what you should be doing and spending your time on? And that's what we're going to be talking about next. Productivity, being profitable, nailing your niche when we get back from thanking our sponsors. The overwhelm that comes with choosing the right software and tools for growing your business is real.

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17:38Plus, with built-in AI to answer common customer questions, brainstorm and write marketing content, easily pull reports and more, your teams can slash their busy work. meaning your marketers, sales reps, and service teams actually have the time to be, well, marketers, sales reps, and service teams. And when they grow, the sky's the limit for your business too. Grow better, faster with HubSpot's all-in-one intuitive customer platform. Visit HubSpot.com to learn more. So Kate, we're back and everybody whines about time or of course their lack of time. So as a new mom, you've learned some pretty amazing productivity hacks.

18:20How the heck do you get it all done? Such a good question. First of all, I mean, I think it was like my first reel that I ever made was about being productive. And basically when the first time for all my new mamas who are listening to this, you will know this when you cross that threshold. But like the first time that your baby takes a day nap, I felt like I was super woman or like Bradley Cooper in Limitless, like the amount of stuff that I got done in a 45 minute nap just astounded me. So I think, you know, necessity is the mother of invention. And when your time is not your own anymore, you really learn to prioritize the moments that you get.

18:58So, um, there's a couple of things that I would say here. The first number one is, um, accept support. I will be so honest and transparent and say that I would not be the, at all the product as productive as I am without having support at home. So I have, you know, I'm very blessed to have a nanny who is here full-time and able to support Ella, even though I'm not working full-time. Um, she really enables me to drop in to again, that work day, that zone of genius in the time that I have. But you know, I want to spend time with my daughter. I want to be spending time with my husband and out in the garden and doing other things in my life.

19:35And so I think that productivity, rather than really centering on these like three hacks and, and practices that you have to do, it actually starts in a much deeper place, a place of understanding your values and being very intentional about your biggest asset in life and in business, which is your time. And so for me, I am very, very clear that I only want to be working 25 hours a week. I know that per week, anywhere from 10 to 12 hours of that is client work. Um, and then everything else. So like writing copy, recording podcasts, um, anything marketing related, anything high level strategy or planning related goes into that other, you know, uh, 10 to 13, 15, 14, 15 hours.

20:22And so with that, um, I find that having limits and knowing why you have those limits, not just saying 25 hours is an arbitrary number, but 25 hours so that the rest of that time I'm able to spend time pouring into the things that really matter to me. I find that that makes actually sticking to the productivity hacks themselves actually work. And so one of the things I do in a very like brass tack sort of a way is I map out in my calendar, um, time that I have and, and almost use like the Pomodoro method. So I have what I call like power hours that are in my calendar inside of those power hours, I'll say like review sales page copy or, you know, go live or record a solo podcast episode rather than just having like blank space in my calendar and a to-do list written on my desk.

21:11I actually plug it into my Google calendar, like what I'm doing. But the reason I didn't want to just share that John is because that I have many clients for whom that doesn't work for them. And the place that we need to go, if that's not working is, well, why are you feeling like it's okay to just be really like bleeding out your energy and your time? Why aren't we protecting your time? And I think that is really where we have to look at and be super intentional with. If I'm not working outside of work, outside of my identity as an entrepreneur, what do I value and what, what time does that require?

21:44And do I desire to pour into that? And I find that that helps keep the container of your productive hours so much more efficient. A lot of value there, Fire Nation. One thing that I want to circle back to is once you know your limit of hours that you are able and or willing to work, you can fit in the most important things in your life within those hours. Believe me, you can because you will get ruthless about cutting out the crap. You need to find ways to be ruthless about cutting out the crap. And Parkinson's law really comes in here. It's that tasks will expand to the time allotted. If you give yourself all day to write a sales page, you will take all day to write a sales page.

22:25If you give yourself 45 minutes, you'll get it done in 45 minutes. And using that Pomodoro method, like really starting a timer and watching the first couple seconds tick off of it, that mentally shifts you into go mode, Fire Nation. You need to be in go mode. So you're not just a homebody, Kate, which some people may just assume being a mother and just not really wanting to put in more than 25 hours a week right now with what you're doing, but you actually travel internationally. And we're talking every other month. I'm sure some of that has changed and adjusted a little bit recently for different reasons, but how do you stay so productive and so profitable even when you're traveling?

23:06Such a good question. Yes, COVID has definitely impacted that. But as I shared earlier, I started my business while living abroad in Bali. I actually lived in Bali for about three and a half years. My husband's Australian. So we go, well, pre COVID, we would go to Australia at least a couple of times a year, travel back to the States. Now I'm based Stateside. We actually took a three month trip to Australia earlier this year with our daughter. So this is interesting learning this new identity of being very on the go. Also having our daughter in tow and our two businesses. My husband is also an entrepreneur.

23:41And so, um, there's a couple of things that really support that staying productive, um, while being on the go, uh, especially as a mom, one of them is clear communication, clear communication with my team, clear communication with my husband. I think, especially when traveling and, you know, there are those of us who travel alone. There are those of us who travel with a partner, with families. Um, When you are traveling, and especially if you're running a company with team members, communication is just everything. I think communication is such a huge part of running a successful business. So letting your team know, hey, I'm going to be in this new time zone.

24:18Here are working hours. Here's what you can expect from me in terms of communication. Or hey, I'm on this trip and I'm going to be working normal hours these days, but these days I'm actually going to be out of office. So making sure that all of that is done productively and proactively. On the other hand, and especially in partnership and in family, like communicating with my husband, hey, these are the things that I've got going on in the business. If there is like life admin stuff, which usually there is more of when traveling, whether it's like booking accommodation or organizing travel plans or events or dinners or whatever is happening, having really clear time to communicate about those things.

24:57So my husband and I usually do that over breakfast for like the day, week ahead. That's our time to really drop in, delegate any life tasks. So I think part of it is just like organization and communication and making sure that anyone who's impacted in the day-to-day flow of operating both your life and business, you are being proactive about communicating your needs, communicating what needs to happen. And then it's just dropping into, you know, the previous thing that I was talking about, being intentional about your working hours. And I think even more ruthless, um, because usually if you're traveling, you have other like really important life experiences, maybe family, friend commitments, um, that you want to honor.

25:38The last thing you want to do is like show up late to a dinner because you couldn't like keep yourself organized with what had to happen. So, um, set your working hours for the day, plug in there, the most important things that need to happen. Make sure that you are communicating and delegating and getting as much off your plate to your team as possible and make sure you're looping in the other people in your life who are, who need to be looped in, in order for you to get everything done. Nailing your niche, or as I like to say, niche your face off Fire Nation. I mean, I personally believe in nailing your niche so much.