Team GB Powerlifter, Jodie Cook: The new rules for success

0:00Jodie, why should people stick around and listen to this episode?

0:03Jodie Cook:We are going to cover the counterintuitive way to achieve all your business goals, live your dream life without all the hustle and grind and all that graft that everyone believes that you have to have in place to achieve magic. You just don't need to do that. We're going to cover all of the stuff around that. And I feel like anyone watching is going to leave feeling this big sense of relief that they already have the answers. They don't need extra podcasts, books, apart from this one. Apart from this one. Anything else. They have it all within them. Nice. Love it. All right. Sounds good. Let's dive in.

0:39So what does a counterintuitive method to achieving your goals actually look like?

0:45Jodie Cook:So I think what everyone believes they should do is they should start working, carry on, head towards this future that they might not know straight away, but they're going to take one step at a time and they're going to get there. And I think that way of doing things is actually wrong and it doesn't really get you anywhere other than distracted. And I for sure started off this way. So when I first started my first business, I was 22. to I was fresh out of university in a graduate scheme and I was like I just want to be self-employed because I want to work for my laptop and I want to travel the world and I want to just kind of do that online business thing and figure out a way of making it happen and then as I started getting clients I did not have the end in mind whatsoever I just took step by step it was like we took a client on board because they wanted to work with us I took a team member on board because they seemed all right and then I built this business up to the point where I was three years into it and I had not set out I had not achieved any of the goals I'd set out to achieve because I was trapped in Birmingham UK I hadn't taken a holiday in three years even though I set up the business to travel and everything relied on me and it was like why am I doing this I should have just got a job I would have had more freedom in a job than starting my own business and so I feel like it was that moment when I started thinking there's a different way of doing this and that's when helped actually by Michael Gerber's The E-Myth and Tim Ferriss's 4-Hour Workweek I started planning what my dream life and business looked like and then worked back from there instead.

2:22Yeah amazing all right so there's a few things I want to double click on there one is you remind me of a recent LinkedIn post that I saw which was people should stop building prisons and build businesses instead and I think what you've said will resonate with so many people if depending on where you're at in your business journey you've actually built this prison around you with not being able to take a break not being able to take holidays or even if you can achieve that you're still online you're still thinking about it you're not fully switched off so that that definitely resonates and for context for filling the gaps if people aren't aware already you started a social media agency which you then scaled and exited so we'll talk about that journey as well but let's stick on this theme of this counterintuitive approach to achieving your goals so what stuck with you from those particular books that you read at that time how did you approach things differently

3:14Jodie Cook:I basically visualized my dream life it was partly it was partly the four-hour work week and thinking I just want to travel I know that I want to travel I know that I want to have a business that facilitates my life and not a business that costs me my life and then the first exercise I actually did was I thought okay in practice like I'm a very practical logical step by step structured person so I was like this dream life it sounds really airy fairy but how do I actually turn it into what I do every day every other day every week every month every year and so I've mapped that all out it was like what do I want to do every day what do I want to do like every if every month I want to have a city break if every three months I want to have a month away if every day I want to go and train twice and then I want to eat ice cream and then I want to have steak it's like all the stupid things that seem like really small things I had them all down on paper nice and then after that I then costed it out once I had the entire plan where I looked at it and I thought if I lived this exact life how happy would I feel and I kind of I feel like I really felt it like I stared at that piece of paper and imagined me living that exact life in with everything in that exact cadence.

4:29Jodie Cook:And when I costed it out, I was honestly amazed that it does not cost hardly anything. Yeah. It was like, this is so achievable. You think that you have to be a millionaire to live like a millionaire, but you don't. You just don't because most of the best things are actually free. Yeah. I saw something on that as well. I think there's something I want to kind of extract from what you said there is actually like the permission to stop and think about what you actually want and what your dream life looks like. And I think especially with social media comparisonitis, the kind of the green eyed monster comes out.

5:03It's like what is so cliche, but it is like, what is your version of success? Does that mean monthly city breaks? Does that mean your ice cream? Like what does that mean to you? And then converting that into those practical steps, as you say, a genuine another buzzword, but I genuinely believe it is one of the most empowering exercises because you are genuine taking back that power. What do you want? What do we need to achieve? Break it down. And then exactly as you say to a lot of people's surprise, it turns out sometimes actually doesn't cost as much as you thought it might be because you haven't even dared to go there and give yourself that permission to explore what your dream life would look like anyway.

5:42so absolutely love that do you prescribe to manifesting you're saying about stopping and

5:48Jodie Cook:visualizing kind of yeah yeah I feel like I'm in the early stages of that I don't know all the ins and outs but I know for sure that it's worked when I've done it but I think that it all starts with starting from the end and then working backwards and if I look back at anything I've ever achieved in my whole life it's because I thought what do I actually want I created the stillness and the space to be able to think what do I actually want and then really pictured it in my mind because this is the magical thing about your imagination no one can stop you doing anything if I imagine myself going on stage in a powerlifting competition I'm a powerlifter by the way yeah and lifting up a 200 kilo deadlift no one can stop me doing that it can happen in my mind it's not like You need a permission slip to imagine something.

6:36Jodie Cook:But when you do it, you then start to really feel the kind of person you have to be to be able to do that thing. Such a powerful driver, isn't it? How we self-identify. It's magic. It is magic. But this has happened with powerlifting competitions where I've visualized it step by step, every single part of it. and then when I've actually turned up on the day it's felt less like I'm going and lifting the weights and more like I'm stepping into a version of myself that's already done it yeah and it's mind-blowing and someone um I talked about this at one point and someone messaged me and said but does this take away from the joy that you feel doing it and I don't think it does I think actually it makes you feel superhuman because you're like if I can do this what else can I do and then you apply it to other things yeah and this is the same with traveling this is the same with selling my agency as well it all followed this same pattern you accomplished what you perceived what you conceived in your mind in the first place reminds me of a really good book from a concentration camp survivor and she basically talks about that as well she's now become this she's now becomes really this amazing like neuroscientist and she's always back she was like the one thing the Nazis couldn't take away from me was my break my imagination what I could So she kind of created these fantasies in her mind as a obviously as a coping mechanism during this horrific event.

7:59But now she's kind of taken that extreme tragedy and use that power of neuroscience to what you're saying. It sounds similar to Man's Search for Meaning, Victor Fremont. I read that one. OK, cool.

8:10Jodie Cook:Same with the concentration camps. And he said, you can have everything taken away from you apart from your power to choose. And it was even though he was going through the most horrific things, it was like, I can still choose. And it was down to there was something like every single day he got this one like really tiny piece of bread that he had that was like his lunch. And he's like, I can choose when I eat that bread. They can't take that away from me. I'm going to put it in my pocket and I'm going to have it when I choose to have it. And it was like this this element of just know there's something here that I can I can do.

8:40And it's that importance of agency, isn't it, as humans, knowing that we have got a choice, that we have got control. And it kind of loops back to what we're saying before about building a business and not a prison. Right. Like you don't want to put yourself in these situations where you're trapped. So you mentioned the powerlifting. So I know that you competed with Team GB. Was it nine times in powerlifting? Yes. Fact check that. Congratulations. So the inevitable connection there, as I'm sure you've been asked many times before, but of course the athleticism and entrepreneurial connection. So how has one helped you become better at the other?

9:11Oh, there's so much crossover. Yeah.

9:13Jodie Cook:I think every single week there is nothing that could happen in business that would be as scary as the weights I'm lifting in the afternoon. So therefore, it's no email. There's no meeting. There's no like suddenly someone said this. It's like, I don't care. It's so it's so pales into insignificance compared to the weight that's on the deadlift on the bar. and then also I think powerlifting or just any sport that I do is a way of switching off to work stuff and I feel like it's when my subconscious mind really takes over and really just sorts stuff out so I'll find you know how it is you never think of your best ideas when you're sat at your laptop never in a million years you think of them in coffee shops and on the beach and when you're walking around and I get them in the gym so it's because I'm away and I've I've handled whatever I've handled in the morning and then I'm training and my mind is totally switched off to work because I don't check my phone while I'm lifting and I don't even think about work subconsciously.

10:15Jodie Cook:But my default mode network I know is working away. It's solving problems. It's doing all that stuff. It's creating patterns. And then the moment I get back at my laptop is like, oh, I have all the answers. And I don't think I would have that otherwise because it's so easy to just never switch off and keep going on that prison in that kind of work conveyor belt that we think is the thing that we should be doing like working all the time putting all the hours in yeah but i don't think that's the way if you never lift your head you never get that perspective um so good recommendation on that i love it that's incredible um i read that you're more likely to become a millionaire than to run a half marathon so apparently the stats on this is the global world population of millionaires is one percent which speaks to our current capitalist society and 0.1 have run a half marathon so i know that you used to run a lot before obviously super fit, super athletic.

11:07As someone who falls into that 0.1 % category and who has done kind of both of these things, had business success, physical success, we need to kind of get deeper into this kind of success mindset. So we touched on obviously the visualization. What else? Quick one. So sorry to interrupt. I'm sure that you are on the edge of your seat listening to this interview. At least I hope so. I'm so aware of all the other podcasts that are already out there. So the fact that you've decided to tune in and listen to this one is not lost on me. If you can just go that one step further and hit that follow or subscribe button, doesn't cost a thing.

11:39It takes two seconds. Now is your chance to do that. It means so much. Really appreciate your support. Thank you so much. Now let's get back to the interview. What else? Like I love, you know, the practical tips and tricks. What else can you talk to on like achieving the goals that you set for yourself?

11:57Jodie Cook:I didn't know that about those stats around millionaires and half marathons but when I used to run half marathons I think I really liked that it was so finite it's like there's a distance it's 13.1 miles you know what that looks like because you run one mile so therefore you times by 13.1 and that's what it looks like after that and there's the finish line there's the magic finish line yeah so I think it's very similar I think it's very similar I think if someone is really good at running half marathons they can probably be a millionaire as well by adapting that exact technique they use and and working backwards so when I used to be a runner I would think about the race think about the time I wanted to get visualize the finish line I learned this from Paula Radcliffe's book so when I was running I read read her book it's actually called how to run which is you know useful and um she said when she's got a race in the diary she will visualize the finish line she will visualize the actual time that she wants to see above she will visualize the the faces of her family and friends like cheering her on the weather the sights that she's going to see every single thing she'll have in her mind and then when she's working backwards from there she's planning out okay so if I want to get this time how fast do I need to run one mile how fast do I need to run a 10k how fast do I need to like how much do I need to overreach before I do that half marathon and it's almost like because she has this feeling of knowing that that time is going to happen it's inevitable all this stuff's going to happen because I've seen it in my mind when she works backwards she's not really grafting she's not really kind of like she's just trying really hard it's just taking that aligned action towards that outcome that you believe is true yeah so then if you believe I'm I'm a millionaire I'm gonna be like either I'm gonna be a millionaire I'm a millionaire whichever one feels like you can grasp it the most yeah then it's like okay so if I'm a millionaire what have I done to get here yeah how much revenue have I had and then what did I need to what revenue do I need to have in this year and then this year and then this year and then what kind of service is that what kind of customers are paying that and then I think it all makes sense from working backwards and then not only that but that you then know exactly what you need to do because it it just centers it so it's like find what you want to achieve visualize it feel it and then think who do I have to be to get that and then put the actions in place from there yeah I love it it's no wonder what the business world takes so much inspiration from the world of athleticism there's so many so much overlap as you say yourself and you remind me again how um I actually saw is it Tamara no not Tamara Johnson Thompson Katerina Johnson Thompson yeah yeah yeah yeah she spoke um at an event a while ago and um just yeah she made it sound so simple and it was very much this is what I gotta do this is my training plan this is my nutrition my meal plan all that's left is to execute on it and I do this every day and it's just kind of putting in the reps and following yeah it's that's exactly what she said she was like success then becomes inevitable um okay two things i want to talk to you about so one is operating from that state of future self yeah and two something you said there that got me excited was around normalizing success yes so i have come across some of the most interesting successful people that i've had the pleasure of meeting they really it really is like no big deal to them like the achievements that they've had whether it's business exits whether it's the amount of money that they turn over it's just so normalized it's just genuinely yeah this is just my life this is normal this is how it's supposed to be so I'd love to get your reaction to that before we talk about the future thing sorry there's a lot I want to talk about so the biggest the biggest thing the biggest kind of professional achievement I've had is selling my agency for sure and I had the inkling that I wanted to sell it and then the thing that I did to make it certain in my mind was I talked to other people who had already done that thing that I wanted to do because I think the moment you hang out with people who don't think it's possible yeah they'll tell you that they don't think it's possible and that will infect your mind and then you'll start acting like it's not possible and then you'll never achieve it so as soon as I realized that was what I wanted to do and I set that intention.

16:20Jodie Cook:First of all, the thing I did actually was I wrote myself a pretend check. One social media agency to the perfect buyer. I wrote the amount I wanted to sell for. I wrote the date and I signed it, the perfect buyer and a big swirly signature. How close was the date you wrote to the day you actually sold the agency? Oh, so we sold for the exact amount I wrote on the check. Wow. I met the buyer within two weeks of the date that I wrote on it. Was there any importance to the date that you set or was it just a random date? It was random. It was at some point in the future, maybe about six months in the future.

16:49I love how the Brummie just came out and you there. It's just random. Was it? That's so crazy.

16:55Jodie Cook:But it was like I wrote it. I stared at it. Like I stared at this pretend check for a long, long time and imagined it coming true. And then I was like, imagine it. Like I don't even, we didn't, they didn't buy us with a check. It was just a bank transfer. But it doesn't matter. It's what it signifies. They didn't give you a token like giant check. so then but then i i felt it like i really felt it everywhere so and i kind of i also visualized myself telling other people like oh yeah i've just saw my agency and i actually visualized myself on stage saying like telling the story yeah and then writing the book about it which i then wrote as well about that but so sorry just on that note sorry what would you say to the skeptics because as much as i'm loving it and i'm so here for it and i totally prescribe it's not lost on me that there may be some listeners who are like okay like this is luck coincidence sounds a bit woo woo what would you say to that i think they'll never make it ah good luck because that's the thing yeah kind of because it's like i mean it's almost like what do you want okay oh it's not possible okay great it's not possible you've just proved it's not possible well done right so like i'd rather just believe it was true and then yeah if it doesn't come to pass whatever but I'd rather do that.

18:10Jodie Cook:I'd rather live that way around. Love it. Sure. Mic drop. Perfect. Sorry. Get back to what you're saying. Sorry. So, yeah. So I knew in my mind that it was slightly possible because I'd seen it in my imagination. But then the thing I had to do after that was find people who had actually done it in real life. So I met up with someone who, she hadn't sold her agency, but she'd bought an agency. So she's in that world. Then I met up with someone else who I knew had sold their agency, who I was kind of vaguely connected to from some network thing a long time ago. Yeah. And then the, those people, there was like those two, one other, they put me in touch with a consultant who prepared agencies for sale.

18:49Jodie Cook:And then he put me in touch with a broker who actually sold agencies. And when I saw this guy, he walked me through the process. That's kind of like the Katerina Johnson Thompson process where it's in the half marathon process where it's like, okay, this is what we do. It's going to take about six months. in the first month we're going to write a one pager about your agency to sell it to kind of um like position it for sale then you're going to meet potential buyers you're going to have chemistry meetings then you're going to have second meetings then we're going to have negotiations then we'll do the final heads of terms then we'll then we'll we'll process it and it'll be legal and then it'll be all be done so step by step what's going to happen and just the the whole idea that he knew what he was doing he'd seen it before they did about six deals every single year it was like this is routine similar to the powerlifting competition it was like all I now have to do is just just follow along with this process because I know I know it's possible I've seen it in my mind this guy's got the the way and therefore it's going to happen incredible and there is so much confidence that's instilled when there is like the tried and tested recipe for it like this is what you have to do I think following a recipe yeah it was like that but I feel like the most important thing was that because I had that unwavering belief that it was going to happen it then dictated my actions yeah so during that period I was so just heads down it was like do you want to come to the park no I'm selling my agency do you want to do this no and it's so amazing it just it gives you such tunnel vision so perfect segue you've handed on a plate for me there because one of the things I really wanted to talk to you about as well was the importance of focus especially with my entrepreneurial listeners where especially if it's your first time in business and like me perhaps if you had a career beforehand and suddenly you've been sort of like unleashed you've got this newfound freedom suddenly there's all this abundant opportunity and all these things you can do and because maybe you don't quite know the way and what works you say yes to everything you hustle and knew this I'm sure you kind of did similar in the early days for you as well the art of strategy is not what you say yes to it's what you say no to so I'd love to get your your take on the importance of focus but also again like practical tips methodologies as to how can you give us maybe like some decision making frameworks on like how do we know like what to pick and choose and say no to without feeling that FOMO and then dealing with that inner guilt as well because we don't want to let people down so yeah i want to come to that with you first of all i think you should let down as many people as possible i'm here to make friends i'm here to make enemies yeah because i think the people who really matter actually don't that's not how they see it they want you to do your best they want you to be your best so yeah i don't think i really worry about letting people down anymore but i probably once did but i feel like people pleasing how did you overcome if we go back to that time however long like okay last few months probably i feel like i'm a recovering people pleaser yeah and it's it comes with a sense of focus but it also comes with i think it comes with a sense of knowing which phase you're in so i think that every piece of business advice is either really good or really bad and it but it can't be both at once but it's it matters what stage you're in so if someone said say yes to everything, knock on doors, see what's possible.

22:10Jodie Cook:There is a time and a place for that. I feel like I started my career doing that, experimenting. But then once you've got that plan, that thing that you know that is going to work for you or that thing that is going to get you in the direction of that vision that you've got, then it's when you say no. And I feel like everyone can do anything they want, but they can't do everything they want. And because you and me probably both have this, we feel like we can get behind so many missions. It's like you hear about some problem to be solved and you're like let me at it and before we know we've bought a domain name we've registered the company we've got a business partner we've started all this stuff it's like no stop like we have to stop and then I feel like I just will never underestimate the intensity required to do something well and therefore I just don't want to do all these random things is that another lesson so is that another lesson from the world of athleticism the sports the training or something you already sort of naturally had potentially i just if i had a billboard in front of me if i had a post-it note in front of me it's like do less focus ignore everyone you know the plan stick to it keep going trust and it's everything that just narrows it yeah i just don't want to hear that a friend like i've got loads of friends with youtube channels and really big youtube channels and so if i hang out with them it's so natural that you're going to suddenly want to have a YouTube channel and you're going to want to do their thing.

23:32Jodie Cook:And then it's like, no, let me do my thing. Let's just stick to my thing because I know this is going to work. Let them do their thing. I'm going to support them. I'm going to be so happy for them, but it doesn't mean that I need to have their life because I know what I want. Yeah, I think that resonates with, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that is resonating with 100 % of my listeners on this, for sure, for sure. I think all of us need that post-it note in front of our face saying, focus, do less. Easier said than done. so how have you kind of been able to actually focus so I try really hard to notice in my body when something is coming up that means I'm in some way feeling impatient or anxious or scrappy or something and you know you probably know the physical signs of this happening it might be like in your heart you feel a bit flustered it might be you notice your heart rate's gone up it might be that you kind of feel a bit like you get a headache or your head gets a bit fuzzy and my head will get so fuzzy when I'm not clear on something so then for me it's noticing when I'm on my laptop and I'm in those loops of oh check this check that check that like fighting going for the next dopamine hit and there's always a dopamine hit to have because there's always some social media platform with some notification for you so when I see that happening I'm like shut my freaking laptop no put it as far away from me as possible and then I would literally just sit there and breathe and meditate and be like get back like kind of come back to my breath come back to my body and then think this is like what do I actually want and who do I actually want to be and then reconnect to that higher purpose higher vision that then makes everything else will make sense I think that again it relates to 100 % of what everyone goes through in the world of work at the moment another book actually I didn't expect to be like citing so many different books during this conversation but 4 000 weeks by oliver berkman wow like life changing and there was this one particular line that stuck with me which was you need to break the addiction to taking things off your to-do list yeah and i think if you are like high achieving that addicted to busyness and like i've not hands up like i haven't overcome this myself right that that feeling that you is almost like that that really jittery unsatisfying feeling it's just that kind of the busyness but not actually being productive I'm sure all of us I've been in that situation many many many times you get to the end of your day and you're like I feel like I've done lots of stuff but like how have I actually moved the needle so two things you could do is if you feel like your inbox is getting on top of you select all delete and then anything that's important will come back that's brave that's a bold move is it though is it because if it's if it's controlling your mind and it's not giving you the blank space you don't need to respond to everyone if someone really needs you they will find another way of getting to you or they will follow you up and then if you're to do if you're looking at your to-do list and it's controlling you freaking rip it up it can't it can't get rid of it it can't dictate how you spend your time and then i feel like the real stuff will bubble up to the surface but sometimes we need the space the blank space to be able to realise what's important.

26:39Yeah, super important. On that note, shameless self-plug, check out my interview with Hector Hughes of Unplugged because we've actually got an exclusive podcast discount code on that as well. So head to that episode, even just to copy the code, you get£50 off your next Unplugged retreat so you can switch off and tune in to what's important to you. Smooth, I like that. Two headlines from, I know that you're also such a prolific writer, of course. you've like authored a million books power lifted sold your business so definitely on track to world domination but I read two particular headlines that really stood out to me which was stop waiting to be saved and stop over complicating success so I would love for you to expand on both of those

27:24Jodie Cook:I think how I started out trying to get people to notice me was I knocked on doors and asked them to and kind of asked to be picked and asked to be chosen. And one specific thing I did this with was book publishers. And I think before I had a book published, I probably emailed like 100 different people about getting a book published. And then the first time I actually got a book published, so all of that led nowhere. The first time I actually got a book published, the book publisher emailed me and asked me if I would write this book that she could then publish under this huge publishing house.

28:03Jodie Cook:Wow. And the reason that the power flipped, the reason that that whole relationship flipped was because I had just thought, forget this whole knocking on doors. I'm just going to write my own book. I don't need anyone else. And so my first six books, they were kind of more like, they were small books. They were called the 50 Great Ideas series. It was 50 Great Ideas for LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, digital PR and SEO. Nice. and it was those oh maybe I didn't say Facebook anyway there were six books but it was all to do with promoting my agency so I wrote them we had them printed and we would hand them out to potential clients and they would get in touch and that would be how we get got a lot of clients so they were on Amazon and the one that was 50 great ideas for Instagram a book publisher had been researching books about Instagram because she wanted someone to be her author for this Instagram book she'd found mine and then she'd got in touch to say hey we've got this book idea instagram rules it's called do you want to write it and i'm like yeah so the the publishing contract came without me even trying but it was because it was like you can't you can't create things from here you're trying to get here but you're here it's almost like you have to put yourself here and then you're on the same energetic frequency as all the things you want to attract it and then you attract them in it's like it doesn't work the other way around yeah and it took me so long to learn that lesson Wow.

29:26And that does speak to both of those headlines, right? Like stop waiting to be saved and stop overcomplicating success is actually like take action. No one's going to come and save you. And don't overcomplicate it. That's what you want to do, which speaks into that clarity of the goals. So if you've created that space to know what you want in the first place, you don't need to overcomplicate it. You don't need to fall into that victim mentality. Take action, be proactive. And then what you're saying about the energetic frequencies, that kind of links back into the manifesting, right? so you say movie you're just getting into but i think we've got a queen well i think i feel like

29:58Jodie Cook:you don't you don't get what you want you get what you are so it's like if you i want to be a writer okay well you're going to keep wanting to be a writer if you don't do anything about it but if you're like i'm a writer what does a writer do they write so then you write your book and then all of a sudden you are a writer and now you have a publisher as well incredible this is similar with relationships as well so um a really good friend wants to meet his like future wife and i I was like describe her to me like let's manifest her just describe her to me he sent me probably the longest whatsapp message I've ever received of all her like qualities and what she's like as a person like he's he had really thought about and so I looked at that message and I was like this is all possible but what's on her list what's the kind of guy that you have to be to manifest a woman like that because she's she sounds great but are you are you on that energetic frequency and then he's like oh yeah and so the if you want if you want to attract a high value man be a high value woman if you want to attract like it's it's the same it's you you attract what you already are and then that maybe changed how we thought about it a little bit because you can't just have a list without being it yourself yeah yeah super powerful that makes total sense as I'm listening to you and hearing about all your incredible successes I can't help but wonder how you know hindsight is a wonderful thing and how again sort of I guess it's almost like the normalizing success thing with you as well right how people like you do make it look easy because to you it is it's it's again that normalizing it's like yep this is what I want to do I went and did it yeah but of course the reality isn't like that so I'm curious to get into a little bit of the nitty-gritty around have there been any challenges or moments of self-doubt where it wasn't as easy and straightforward as it maybe seems on the surface like a turn yeah and it's reassuring yeah always like i'm i figure i think i'm just figuring out as i go along and then because i write a lot because i process a lot i look back and i'm like oh that led to that it's like the steve jobs quote about you can only join the dots looking backwards exactly going forward nothing makes sense at the time at all yeah but then i think one of my favorite books is oprah winfrey what i know for sure this is just like a massive book recommendations so I love this it's so amazing and so that book is awesome and that line just that what I know for sure is something I go back to time and time again and every time I journal that is the line at the top what do I know for sure so when something is going wrong in business or training or anything else it's like what do I know for sure and I try and find the truth and so when I was trying to sell my agency thinking is this possible like what what's going on and then it's like what do I know for sure people have done this someone in the world has figured this out and there was a time when my um husband and I co-wrote this series of kids books because because why not we came up with the idea on an airplane and then we were like yeah let's write them and we wanted to find someone who could sponsor the books into every primary school in the UK because we had this big vision of giving every kid an entrepreneur a role model because that's what the books are about amazing and the what i know for sure was there was one person who could just say yes to this and all we have to do is find that one person and everyone else in the world who says it's not possible doesn't matter and everyone else in the world who we're going to meet who's going to say no eventually doesn't matter all that matters is that we keep going until we get to that one person and i think that question really helps me because you can then find the thing that's true and then that helps you ignore everything else the evidence to back up your idea and it can reassurance that it's possible yeah and especially motivating especially if you get someone else saying to you like i avoid naysayers at all costs and i don't really hang out with people who would try and kind of put a lid on me yeah of course but if you do get that and if someone's like oh you can't do it then really it's like no you can't do it don't project your feelings of um of like not being able to make it happen on me because i can do it and i'm gonna get away from this as far as possible yeah it's a technique actually that a friend taught me that her dad taught her when she was really young and it's this bell jar technique so you imagine that you've got this bell jar on you and all the like kind of the nose all the negativity all the stuff it's like just bouncing off you and you're there untouchable because you've got your bell jar and nothing can reach you and I've done that so many times nice nice I feel like visualization and using your brain is such a powerful skill that you have as well it sounds like such a natural kind of like superpower power of yours you mentioned obviously we've mentioned we've covered so many amazing book recommendations already but are there any other other shows podcasts other individuals any other external influences that have also helped when you just mentioned there like your friend's dad right any other kind of positive influences that have helped you on your path to success so many yes so the friend whose dad taught her lots of stuff he actually taught he sent her to like a mindset camp or something when she was like five oh my god amazing and that's when she learned a bunch of that stuff and she's called carrie green she runs a female entrepreneur association and we've been friends since 2012 and she's for all that time produced a podcast episode every single tuesday so this is what 13 years now it hasn't missed one at all and has she really taught me the power of like consistency just showing up because you've got this overriding mission which is to support women building their businesses and then she's just been doing that again and again and again and she's got one of the most successful long-term businesses of anyone I know and then I've recently started co-hosting a podcast called the future with Chris Doe who was in the personal branding space way before it was called and he's just awesome and he's got this amazingly awesome just way of thinking in such a clear way to the point where because I feel like inside he's just a really good person and because he knows his stuff and because he practices what he preaches whatever he recommends that I do I'm just like okay trust you implicitly let's do it yeah and I think at first I had the resistance to it but now I'm like no I think he's probably right and this can be really trivial stuff like I used to have a private Instagram I just made it private because I was like I'm not updating it um I'm not updating it I don't want to feel like I have to update it and therefore it's private and when he first said I'll watch your Instagram I was like oh it's private he's like why is it private he's like and i told him that and he was like you don't have to do anything just because your instagram's public it doesn't mean that you have to update it so it's just the people who really inspire me are the people who can go ah i see what you're saying but what you're saying is this means that and actually this doesn't mean that so they uncouple it and then you can be like oh yeah i'm free and then you you go forward and you feel like it's on your terms in a way that makes sense yeah these rules that we make up for ourselves right wrong that we don't even stop to even think like where that comes from even to question it like there's these things that we sort of accept I mean the way as as a mentor to MBA students in entrepreneurship that I mentioned to you before I mean that role super satisfying and eye-opening has shown me more than anything how how much we can get in our own way how much whether it is just our beliefs narratives, how we self-identify and then once like anything, once you notice it you then see it everywhere so even in the way, you know, I've had other guests as well for example, the way that they phrase certain things I'm not the sort of person one of the most powerful phrases I'm not the sort of person that gets up early and goes for a run which I'm not but somehow I made it to a run club this morning so I love that one of the other things I read, sticking again with this really cool theme, I read that You said your superpower is helping others find theirs.

37:49I'd love to maybe try like a live exercise or a way that you help other people to find their superpower. So is there anything that we could do for fun here now? Anything you can share? Anything you want to do on me? Yes. Cool. Sure. So if you're not watching and only listening, Jodie's face just lit up.

38:08Jodie Cook:So I think a lot about this concept of ace cards. You have ace cards. I have ace cards. we all have ace cards and running life and business on the struggle bus means not using our ace cards and this is so common because we just believe that something's not worth it unless we've struggled to get it yeah like good things something if something's too good to be true it probably is or some like not true phrase that's told time and time again yeah idea of tempting fate all this stuff that steers us away from just really leaning into what actually is working for us and will continue to work for us. So, struggle bus, not using ace cards.

38:45Jodie Cook:Easy street, finding ace cards and using them. And this is another thing I want on a post-it note because I wanted to, I have, I actually have an ace card ring. Oh, wait, let's see. So, I got this made from it because I was like, I just want to see it all the time. I want to be reminded. Use your ace cards, use your ace cards. Because we have them. Yeah. This jeweler in Cape Town, she's amazing. Yeah. Wow. Her Instagram is resonatebyamie and she'll just create whatever you want and then send it to you nice is there any relevance importance you wearing it on your on that finger or just to keep it visible no it's just the other hand to my wedding ring and then no that's it wow no relevance but the idea is that not everyone knows what their ace cards are and so ace cards just to kind of put them into a concrete definition is those characteristics those skills those kind of networks those things around you that you have that you could just use at any point and one way of finding your ace cards one kind of counterintuitive way of finding your is looking at the insults that people have given you in the past because when someone gives you an insult it's not really about you it's about them it's about them feeling threatened for something that you are showing them that they can't see in themselves so when I used to have a job in a pizza a restaurant there was a guy called kieran and kieran was a bit of a knobhead and he used to tell me that i had really massive arms and they were really really horrible and he'd be like team gb powerlifter right here do you work out i'd be like no i don't work out and then because i really didn't at the time and he's like they're really big for a girl and he used to kind of like go like this to me and be like oh they're really big what a douche and i really i really thought like oh this is like what do i do like i i probably tried to cover them up maybe i tried to lose weight maybe I didn't wear like tank tops because I was just like oh I need to hide my hideous arms and then as soon as I realized no this is my ace card like yeah I do have huge arms but this is this is a good thing and as soon as I started bench pressing that's when I realized that insult was actually an ace card and you will have some of those things the things that people have said to you like oh she's intense she's weird she's like obsessed like all these things that we probably all heard people say it's like yeah I'm intense I'm gonna use that to become an entrepreneur yeah I'm weird I'm gonna use that to find my tribe have you got any coming to mind oh 100 this is this is why you make me laugh but before I share mine this interview is dedicated to Kieran

41:17Kieran wherever you are this is team GB powerlifter right here and we forgive you move on um it's interesting you ready so you already kind of had obviously like that sort of natural quality anyway that set you up for success in that field so before you were even power lifting you already had yeah like a

41:37Jodie Cook:strong upper body and then I recently found out that my dad's nickname at college was arms so it's like a genetic thing that you've inherited yeah but I wouldn't have leaned into it really unless I'd accidentally started bench pressing that's amazing but I feel like I could have done this sooner if I'd have thought hang on insult equals ace card cool and then found it I'm sure you've prompted all our listeners to think as well about the times that they've been insulted and how that's actually been a projection of the other person um and I love also I love love love obviously so much how you've turned that into such a literal and metaphorical strength of yours because I think especially as women anything to do with our physical appearance especially if it's coming from a knob like it would be so easy to live with that to internalize it and to like you know to this day I still cover up parts of my body I'm still like self-conscious about certain things So I love that you've overcome it.

42:30Jodie Cook:You ask if that's ever happened to me. And this is hilarious. One of the insults I had, which was just the immediate thing that came to mind when you said that, was that I asked too many questions. Oh my goodness, yes. How funny is that? And I'm now here. And you are owning it. Top 20 business host. Yep, yep, yep. This is huge. Like accomplished host, public speak presenter, interviewer. so that is hilarious you can see the linkedin post already yes hilarious listeners if this has prompted anything for you leave us a comment we'd love to hear from you what is an insult that you is actually your ace card definitely let us know um i have at least one more question on this amazing theme around sort of success mindset and and and being our best selves i recently came across an amazing quote that i just want to get your reaction to but also I really want to just share this quote with my listeners as well which is let's see if I can get this right kept from our goals not by obstacles but by a clearer path to a lesser goal and I know this sort of links back a little bit to what we were saying around distractions and focus and also the visualizing as well right so just to repeat that we're kept from our goals not by obstacles but by a clearer path to a lesser goal i've heard it before i'm trying to remember how cool is that 100 that's it i think that we are surrounded by so much media we're surrounded by so many influences we're surrounded by so many people with their top of funnel content trying to get us down their funnels and i know this because i create funnels yeah this is how it works it's like you tell someone that they have a problem and then you tell them how to solve it to the point where your solution is the only one that they possibly need so it's no surprise that if we're scrolling social media we're just consuming other people's type of funnel content and all the type of funnel content is telling you you've got a problem you need to change tack yeah so so much of it is about ignoring that and coming back to what's my goal what do i want putting your own needs forward and then ignoring everything else yeah and i think that is why it's so important to do that i think is because if you're a marketer especially because we all want to get better at online writing knowing how to sell using like taking inspiration but we don't want to fall into the funnels ourselves we just want to study it but i feel like you're not going to be able to take a step back and study it unless you know what you want it's like if you don't if you don't take control of your life someone else will do it for you yeah it's like if you don't and we have that knowledge as marketeers we know the game we know how it works we know there's tips and tricks and there's hacks and those systems that we have a bit more of that awareness as to like oh okay this is how you're directing me those nudges those manipulations so we do have more of an awareness on that but I think it kind of really just speaks to also again creating that space to really get clear on what it is that you want and again giving yourself permission to create that space to then be able to start developing that clarity for that goal to then be able to kind of siphon out all those distractions I think a really good way to notice if you're living your business goals and business dreams or if you're not clear on them is how often you get talked to about like joint ventures or collaborations because I think that someone who is so clear what they want and they're going in that direction they don't really get they don't really get that someone doesn't want to kind of someone is so clear what they're doing that they don't want to move them off track yeah because they're like yeah they're doing their thing i know what they're doing i want to support them i want to do stuff that aligns but i'm not going to try and say to them hey i've got this business idea join me in it yeah whereas someone who is getting constantly like come and join my venture come and set this up it's like you're they're clearly not clear enough in their own yeah i think i did this quite a bit in the first few years of my agency because how i had it then would be so different to how I do one now.

46:38Jodie Cook:So right now, if I was going to start an agency from scratch, I would build brand first, put content out. Like I've had a Forbes column for seven years. I had an agency for a couple of those years and I never once wrote about social media on my Forbes column. And now I write a post about LinkedIn on Forbes every single day. It's like I didn't see the ace cards that were right in front of me. and I was too focused on kind of like prospecting and writing proposals and doing stuff for people that took me in all these different directions around what kind of clients we had rather than going no I'm going to build my brand I'm going to put my work out there and I'm going to attract in the type of clients I want and then I'm going to pick and choose which ones I want to work with they are two such different strategies yeah but because I wasn't so clear on what the end goal was yeah then it meant I was just like everywhere or also even just clear on again those ace cards that you've got in front of you that you can use and I really think there's everything you said has resonated so much but in particular that feeling of kind of being worthy and deserving of success because you've struggled to get it yeah and it's kind of that I'm drawing that connection as well there with the Forbes column overlapping with having the agency where it was almost like it's just too easy right I don't know if that was subconsciously but like oh no that's That's right here.

47:57That's right. Why would I do that?