2089 – Simplifying Strategies and Cultivating Team Happiness with The KCC’s Kaitlyn Cook

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1:05With us right now, it's Caitlin Cook. Caitlin, you are a business strategy specialist and executive coach, and you are the founder of The KCC. You're found on the web at thekcc.co. Caitlin, it's great to have you. It's lovely to be here. Thank you so much, Josh. Yeah, absolutely. Well, give us a quick intro to the work that you do. And by the way, anytime I have a guest who has a nice assortment of plants in the background, I dig the vibe. So Caitlin, it's great to have you. But yeah, give us an overview of your work. Yes, certainly. So I help CEOs who are fundamentally at the six to seven mark who want to hit eight figures, but they want to hit eight figures with an impact.

1:47They truly care about the vision they want to bring to the world. So I help them merge the strategy with the vision and the purpose and passion. Yeah. Well, what does that look like? That sounds like a lot of high-minded, high-level kind of visionary type things. What does that mean? So from a simplistic standpoint, it's helping people reconnect to the purpose. What's the vision? What's the mission of the company? And then what's the strategic steps to get them there? How do we scale in a really simplistic way that keeps the core of the business at the forefront so it can expand in the way it needs to?

2:24Yeah. Well, okay. Again, let's even get more granular and tactical. What does that mean? so I find a lot of clients a lot of CEOs are really burnt out they're stressed they're overwhelmed it's because they have over complicated things and I've been in the business world for a decade in the finance world for two decades and I find the more simple things are the more easy it is the more scalable it can be so we really simplify what's the exact business why are you here who are you serving what do you do and just continue to simplify it so I do that through one on coaching and consulting, as well as courses and workshops to help people continue to simplify what it is that they do.

3:07Yeah. Well, is there anything that you think is going on systemically right now, or do you think this has always been the case? I think there's a lot of societal pressures as to how you show up as a CEO. And I think a lot of people believe as a CEO, they need to be stressed and they need to be overwhelmed. It needs to be very complicated. But my belief is everyone has their own zone of genius. So it's really finding the zone of genius for everybody, the CEO and their team, and letting everybody stay within their lanes and innovate and expand beyond that. So the business could be in its own zone of genius.

3:45Yeah. Okay. So if you were to give, like, let's say we give, I'm going to give you the floor for maybe a little three minute TED talk on some of these core areas that you find yourself. And so what I'm hoping is, yeah, listen, it's wonderful that you do this individual work with your clients. I want to make sure that we're empowering our friend that's listening to us today. So, you know, in about no pressure, but in about two, three minutes time, what do you think are some of the most impactful messages, including maybe some very tactical calls to action that things can do, things that leaders can do in their lives right now to, you know, maybe relieve some of this pressure that, you know, might be a little, we might be a little unfair with each other, with ourselves, I mean.

4:32And anyway, I'll let you just take the ball and run with it. It's such a good question. Thank you, Josh. I appreciate that. So I think one of the most profound sentences that I've said to clients is you are not responsible for your team members' happiness. You are responsible for paying them, for creating a safe environment, for providing work that they can expand within, but you are not ultimately in charge or responsible for their happiness. And with that insight and awareness, that takes a lot of the pressure off. So what I find before people realise this, they change their entire business model to suit all of their team members, which means it's forever changing.

5:13But what happens is people aren't happy because of external conditions. They're happy because of themselves, because what do they want to do? So it's reinstating the belief that you are in charge of your own happiness and what does that look like. And when the CEO shows up being happy because they're happy, they give others permission to do the same. And if a CEO, if you're finding your team aren't performing from a functionality standpoint, if they're not showing up, if they're not executing the work, if they're not doing the things, you as the CEO, you are the leader. You are leading the team.

5:48so you want to check in with yourself and go how am I actually leading today how am I showing up as an example and that may be you might be showing up because you're there's a lot going on in your personal life but you're not talking about it so it might be enough to you for you to have a conversation with the team and go at the moment there's a lot going off in my personal life just letting you know so I'm not showing up as the way I normally do but I want to be honest and vulnerable because I know life isn't linear we're not always great sunshine and rainbows and what that conversation does, the power of it is it then opens up your team members to then be able to go, yeah, actually at the moment, something's going on right now.

6:26And I need a little bit more support, not just in terms of the work I'm doing, but maybe a bit more emotional support. And that opens up a conversation of leadership, of vulnerability, of growth. And that's how a business can grow. Yeah. Okay. So Caitlin, you know, I'm thinking about the year ahead and, you know, New Year's resolutions, I think, you know, many of us agree is, you know, we should constantly be committed to our goals and, you know, planning. But that said, you know, the end of the year, the beginning of the year does serve as a nice chapter marker, right? And so I think that if we were to plan what 2025 looks like, what might be, like, let's imagine that our friend is kind of sitting down to a table.

7:18They've got a notepad ready. They've got a pen ready. Maybe they've got ChatGPT ready. They've got all the tools available to them. And what they want to do is just do some mind mapping, do, you know, kind of really start with the deep work and kind of build upon that, but what elements would you expect would go into, you know, just like, look, I hear this kind of thing and I'm visualizing this. I know, and I think a lot of people know that usually the fruits of being disciplined enough to take that time to do that deep work usually results in a lot of, you know, just, I mean, confidence and, you know, a direction.

8:04And ultimately, that just makes decision making so much easier. I'm sorry, Caitlin, I've rattled on enough. Your turn. I love this conversation, Josh. So I want to simplify it. So So from a 2025 roadmap, what you're trying to do, there's two elements of it. You're trying to get a visual representation of what the external growth is going to look like. So you have a tangible vision of where you're trying to go. And the second component of that is the internal shifts. Because for you to achieve something different next year means you have to show up differently. So what I would do on those two bases is when we're talking external growth and external change, get crystal clear on what you want to achieve next year.

8:49I've been, as I said, I've been in the finance world for 20 years. And for me, it's the tangible metrics of the financial goals. Where is it you're trying to go? What does that look like? And then from the internal element, who do you have to show up with to actually achieve what it is you want? So if you want to hit eight figures, what type of person are you going to be at eight figures? And then start making those changes today because when you make those changes today tomorrow will be slightly different and then all of a sudden you create a compounding effect because the decisions you make will be different society as a whole and AI and the the evolution of tech is creating us is is really pushing CEOs to innovate in a way that they never have before and innovation comes with creativity and creativity comes with being able to hold a space of I don't know how this outcome is going to go, but I'm going to make it work anyway, because I'm self-reliant.

9:43And this is how I'm going to do it. Yeah. Okay. So thinking about to our friend that's listening, what types of folks do you work with? Who's maybe a little too early for you? Who's maybe a little bit too far down the road for you? What's your sweet spot for like, let's say that you're having a conversation with someone and in the back of your mind, you're like, oh boy, we could probably do some really good work together. Describe that person for me. Yeah. So that person is somebody who has been in business at least three years, three years plus. The age doesn't matter, but they've done some personal development work because they realize there's a correlation between external growth and internal growth.

10:31And their revenue figure ranges around the 500k to a million mark and they're wanting to get to that next level of growth and they have a team of around three plus um who are full-time as well as contractors they're my like sweet type of person um and it tends to be in the service space because for me i've found that service-based industries we can have direct feedback where product can sometimes have a bit more of a lag in terms of the response and ROI. So service base is really where I focus my time and energy. Yeah. Okay. And then like, where do you start? Like, how do you begin working together?

11:12And I know, by the way, I want to talk about this too, because someone may not be ready for a conversation, but you do other work. You have courses, you've got free tool strategies. Do you mind sharing a little about the free resources that you give? Yeah, definitely. So there's a free resource called the business blueprint, and it helps you set up the next quarter in the next year's worth of growth. So this is a very simple Google sheet that I've created. And I've been using it for years with people. And I've just gotten a client from 300 ,000 pounds to a million pounds in four months using this tool.

11:45So it literally helps you categorize your financial goals and then prioritize. So it's about simplification, how do you get to where you are? So it's a full, and there's a 25 minute video on how to use it and the benefits of it. So it's a free resource called the Business Blueprint and it's on my website. So that is a place that you would start because that maps out where you are now and where you want to be. And the power of my work is helping fill in the gap from where you are to where you want to be, both the actionable steps, the infrastructure improvements, So what your team needs to be, how we need to improve your structure, but also the mindset, how we shift you into being the leader of this next level of growth.

12:30To my American friends who are still wondering how much 300 ,000 to$1 million pounds is in U.S. dollars, 300 ,000 pounds is equivalent to about$387 ,000. Up to a million pounds would be 1.273 million pounds or dollars. So even though I fumbled the explanation, I hope you understand that's still a lot of money for most small business owners. So Caitlin, and for someone that says, oh, boy, I've enjoyed this conversation. I need to chat with Caitlin. What do they do? Where do they go? Yeah. So come over to my website or you can find me on Upwork. I'm the top 1 % expert on Upwork. So on my website, you'll see a book with me.

13:18So it's a free conversation. we'll chat for 30 minutes and talk about the strategy again where you are and where you want to be if you prefer to do more um self-paced work my course on the success formula would be the best place to go and it's three steps of how to clarify where you are how to create the roadmap and how to take the action steps so it's a condensed version of what i take people through yeah all right Caitlin Cook. Again, your website is thekcc.co. And of course, Caitlin, you're a strategic business consultant and executive coach. Caitlin, it's been a great conversation. Thank you so much for joining us.

13:59Thank you so much, Josh. I appreciate you.

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