Is It Time to Grow Your Team? Here's How to Tell with Jodi Flynn

Courtney Elmer  0:00  

Welcome back, you're listening to the AntiFragile Entrepreneurship™ Podcast. This is episode 152. And I am joined today by a very special guest, who is here to help you figure out whether or not you're ready to put some good team members in place within your business to help you get that support you need to grow, because maybe you've hired before, and maybe it didn't work out so well. So you're hesitant to repeat that process again. Or maybe you have yet to hire, you're worried if you can afford it. You're wondering if you even have the time to train someone, it might be easier to just continue doing it yourself, because it saves time. It's quicker, right? Well, today's guest is here to help you uncover and unpack the beliefs within you. That might be sabotaging your ability to grow. Because there's a very practical side to hiring, which is how do we interview? How do we find someone that's going to be a good fit? How do we train them? How do we onboard them? How do we ensure they are going to be a great fit for the team.

Courtney Elmer 

But there's also the emotional side to hiring. Because in order to grow as a visionary leader, it requires you to grow internally, not just externally, the external growth in your business is a reflection of the inward growth of you the inward growth that you have accomplished. And that is what we're discussing today, here on the show. So if you are looking at your business right now, and you're thinking, oh my goodness, I've got to get some help in place, I don't know where to start, this episode is definitely going to be relevant for you. And if you are someone who's made a few hires, maybe some of those have worked out, maybe some of them haven't. But you know, you want to grow. And you know, you can't continue wearing all the hats that you're wearing right now yourself. Well, this episode will also be relevant for you, that is all coming up next. So stay tuned. 

Courtney Elmer 

Globally ranked among the top shows in business and education, we're known for one thing, helping overworked entrepreneurs like you learn how to run your business like a true visionary leader, because when you get the right systems support, and structure in place, you can spend more time in your zone of genius. So if you're tired of listening to today's business influencers teach this same old worn out marketing strategies that aren't making you any money, it's time to take a look under the hood of your business and fix the engine itself. Because the truth is, you don't have to work as hard as you are right now to scale beyond six figures, and create the greater influence income and impact that you deserve. And a secret to scaling starts on the back end of your business. This is the AntiFragile Entrepreneurship™ Podcast. Now, if you're listening to this at the time that this episode airs, well, the new note that we're about to flip the calendar into a new year.

Courtney Elmer 

 And I don't know about you, but I tend to get really reflective during this season at the end of the year. I like to look back over the year and notice, okay, what went really well, what surprised us? What did we try that worked? And also look at what didn't work? What were some of the things that we expected to work that didn't work out as well as we wanted them to? And start to ask ourselves questions like, what do we need to change or do differently as we move into the year ahead? And also look at the things that are working? And what do we need to double down on and keep doing more of now this year has been a massive year of growth. For us, it has been our best year in revenue to date. And in my own reflection lately, not only have I been feeling so deeply grateful for this, I've also been noticing some areas where I've been slowing down our growth. 

Courtney Elmer 

And I'll be completely honest with you right now one of the biggest beliefs that I have struggled with, during these many years, gosh, almost six years as an online business owner is the fear of growing too quickly. And I can tell you right now, for me what this is linked to, because one of the things that I really value, and that's really important to me, is the experience that our clients have in working with us. I am huge on delivering an exceptional experience. And chances are if you've listened to this show for any length of time, you know this we have talked about deliverability here on the show, it's one of the four key systems that we teach. And so for me delivering world class service is really important. We get frequent feedback from our clients saying that we have totally exceeded their expectations, which we love to hear. And I want to continue being able to provide this experience for every client that we work with. Mainly though, mainly deep down. 

Courtney Elmer 

The reason is, and I know this, it's because my ego is afraid of rejection. Now whether you are listening to the show for the first time, or whether you've been a longtime listener, chances are you've probably heard the phrase limiting beliefs before particularly if you're an online business owner. This is talked about a lot. But what's not often talked about when When it comes to beliefs, the lens through which we see the world, the lens through which we see our businesses, it can often be limited. And the piece of it that is not often spoken about is how we benefit from our limited worldview. Okay, according what what do you mean by that? So every belief that you have, there's a secondary benefit to it, you might currently see the world a certain way. And it doesn't make sense to see it that way. It's like that that's really not logical at all. But on an unconscious level, you're benefiting from it somehow. So you continue to operate based on that belief. And my guest here today is going to unpack this for you. Because this can be something that is a little bit tricky, even for us as visionary leaders, to begin to recognize, to begin to realize within our own self, because the way that beliefs show up is how it is in air quotes, right? It's the way it is.

Courtney Elmer 

So our ego likes to push back on us and say, Oh, no, no, no, it has to be this way. That's the way it is, it has to be this way. And so it's difficult for us to sometimes remove ourselves from the beliefs that are currently running, I'm driving our behavior, in order for us to really see how that belief is hurting us, not helping us. So let me give you an example to make this more concrete. So for me, the secondary benefit, for me continuing to choose to operate by the belief that I want to grow too fast, is deeply rooted to a fear of rejection that I have had my entire life, this is something that pops up again, and again, usually, if there's a belief that I come to notice, it is tied to that fear somehow on a deep, deep level. And once I recognize that I can work through it. And that has largely been the reason why we've been able to grow as quickly as we have, because of my willingness to look my beliefs in the eye, look them in the eye and say, You are not serving me. So this belief here that I have had this fear about growing too fast, that's linked to this fear of rejection. 

Courtney Elmer 

For me, the secondary benefit, to growing slowly, to not hiring as quickly, to not getting as much help in place in my business to the years as I could have or maybe should have is linked to safety. Because on an unconscious level, my mind believes that if I grow too fast, then I won't be able to provide a high quality experience for my clients. And if I don't provide that experience for them, well, then they're not going to be happy, they're going to be upset with me. And therefore, I will be rejected, I will be laughed at. And there'll be whispers don't go work with Courtney, oh my gosh, they do a terrible job of serving their clients, I had the worst experience, right. And that is my fear, that is what I don't want to happen. So the secondary benefit for me of not growing quickly of kinda like pumping the brakes, and not letting our business grow as fast is because to me, in my mind, in this limited perspective, it believes that people will be happy, they won't be upset with us, because they'll have a good experience, and therefore I won't be rejected. 

Courtney Elmer 

So as long as I continue to operate by this belief, my ego is safe. And this is often how beliefs work. All beliefs on an unconscious level are there to keep you safe. But they're not always logical. Is it really logical that I can continue to serve my clients well, and expect my business to grow? If I'm doing it all myself? No, it's not logical at all, in order to grow to the level that we want to and to be able to serve the number of people that we want to serve in the way that we want to serve them to continue delivering this high quality experience, I have to get myself out of the way, I have to get other people in place to be able to help me achieve this vision. And I have to allow myself to accept that help for the good of my clients. So at the same time that this belief has been in the background, running my business for many years, preventing us from growing maybe as quickly as we could have. I'm also fully aware now and this was a huge realization for me this year and in my reflection have been thinking a lot about this. That continuing to operate by this belief. I'm holding our company back. I am bottlenecking us. How many seven figure business owners have you ever seen running a seven figure business by themselves?

Courtney Elmer  9:39  

I can't name a single one. Can you? Probably not right. And this is because deep down you already know that if you want to grow, you have to get others on board to help you toward the vision. This is how successful companies are built. They're built on the backs of teams, not individuals. And this is what we're going to unpack on this episode today. Because right now there might be several beliefs preventing you from getting the support you need. And until you know what they are, and how to work through them, those beliefs will continue to hold you back. And so for this belief that I recognize this year within myself, I honor it, I acknowledge it. And I bless and release it. I know that it was my mind's way of keeping me safe, and it served me for a time in my business. It's also really important to me to have quality time with my family. And a big part of that, in addition to the client service aspect, was I thought that if we were to grow too fast, it would be more than I could handle. But that's where the limitation was. 

Courtney Elmer 

Because in growth, and in business, you do not have to be the only one to handle it all. Nor should you be. And I also know that what got you here won't get you there. And so for this example, that I'm giving you today, this is a belief that I am choosing not to let be the thing that gets in the way of our growth, I'm going to continue working through it on my own time as it resurfaces in many forms through the years because it's all tied deeply to that fear of rejection, something that my ego has struggled with my entire life. But in the meantime, I'm also going to continue taking the steps, we need to put the support in place that's necessary to continue growing, which if you've ever been in a similar place in your own business, you know, that is a really exciting and a really rewarding place to be. So this episode is not as much about the practical steps of the hiring process, as it is about the beliefs that are preventing you from getting the right support in place in your business. 

Courtney Elmer 

Now, if you want the practical steps to hiring, go back to episodes 125 through 127, where I walk you through the exact process that we teach our top level clients to help them find and hire good help. But I want you to know this. Until you address the beliefs and the mindsets that are currently preventing you from accepting help in your business, you're going to continue to struggle with the hiring process. So with that in mind, you might want to listen to this episode first, and then go back and get the practical steps. Because my guest today, Jodie Flynn is the CEO and founder of women taking the lead, where she spends her time working with organizations to attract and promote more women into senior levels of leadership and thus close the performance gap. 

Courtney Elmer 

Now Jody is an Amazon Best Selling Author. She's been featured in those amazing publications we all know and love, like Forbes and entrepreneur. And she's also the top host of the women taking the lead podcast. And she's here with me today to give you some very practical advice on why you've been able to achieve some goals in your business. But others continue to remain out of reach. As well as the biggest thing that is keeping you from getting the support putting the team in place right now that you need in your business. Jody is also going to give you five key questions to ask yourself to identify if you're self sabotaging. If you're holding the growth of your own business back without even realizing it, and what to do about it when you do realize it. Plus, she's going to help you ensure that every goal you set whether it's at the time that you're listening to this and you're setting goals for the new year ahead, or any goal that you set for yourself personally or within your business is aligned with your unique skills and your unique strengths so that you can achieve the goals you set more easily.

Courtney Elmer  14:07  

Jody, welcome to the systems made simple podcast. We were just chatting before I hit record. And I am literally delighted to have you here. I know that what you are going to share with our listeners today is going to be powerful, especially because at the time that we're recording this. We're about to move into a new year. And I know for many of our listeners, they've got those goals on their mind, right? They're kind of reflecting on their business this year. What went well, what didn't go so well. What goals have they hit? What goals did they miss, and really hitting the reset button for the year ahead and hoping that maybe next year will be the year right. So I'm excited to dig into our topic today and what we have to talk about and just want to say welcome. Thank you for being here.

Jodi Flynn  14:52  

Courtney Elmer. I'm so excited to be here. I'm thrilled that you asked me to have this conversation with you and I'm delighted did with this topic? I love talking about goals? And what's possible. And I love how you said that, like, yes, we can hit the reset button on next year. But what are we going to do differently? You know, because if we want something different than what we have, we have to do something differently. So a real to be that, Oh,

Courtney Elmer  15:18  

I love it. So you know, one of the things that you are known for is leadership, helping people and especially women get promoted into senior levels of leadership. And this is one of the reasons why I was very excited to bring you on, because one of the topics that we talk about a lot here on the show is this idea of visionary leadership. Because you know, whether you're working in corporate or whether you're running your own business, we're called to be leaders. And whether that's at the C suite level, or whether that's just you know, you as a solopreneur, currently wearing all of the hats, we're called to lead. And I believe that so deeply. And I think one of the things that I see so many entrepreneurs, and particularly online business owners, coaches, consultants, course creators struggling with is growth. And I mean that on a couple of levels, so revenue growth, right, they're setting these revenue goals, and they're not hitting them.

Courtney Elmer 

 And then they're starting to doubt themselves and questioning why did that happen? Right? So then we start to throw money at shiny objects to try to fix the problem. And that's one problem I see. And on the other side of that coin, if you will, because of a lack of hitting those revenue goals, we're also running into issues where, you know, someone, let's say that they are, they've been successful in business, right, they might be at the high five figure, maybe low six figure mark. And they are realizing that they can no longer continue wearing the hats themselves. If they want to grow their business, they've got to start hiring people. But this can be a big hang up for so many people. And, you know, you wrote a book. And in your book, you talk about this idea of the reasons behind why we've been able to achieve some goals in our business and and why we have failed to hit others and maybe continually fail. So Jodie, that's really where I'd love to start with you today. Before we get into the team building and leadership stuff. Let's first talk about what are some of the reasons why some goals feel really easy to hit, and others feel so out of reach?

Jodi Flynn  17:23  

Yeah, this is a great question. I love how you brought it down to basics. So I'll start with the goals, we've been able to accomplish, the reason why we were able to accomplish them, even if they felt like a lot, you know, in something we'd never done before. And you know, and it's so exciting when we can hit a really big goal. It's because that goal was aligned with our skills, our strengths, our experiences, our resources. And they were in alignment with our beliefs and our mindset, as well. So even though they were hard, we believed that we could achieve the goal, or we believed we could do all of the things that it took to achieve the goal. So on the flip side of that, when we can't hit a call, oftentimes, it's because the goal does not align with what we believe about ourselves, we will self sabotage our actions in pursuit of a goal if we don't believe that we can achieve it. 

Jodi Flynn

So let me take a step back and throw out some definitions. So just so everyone understands where that where that statement is coming from. So a belief is an idea that you're certain is true, right? It's, it's not true or false, but you believe, you know, you hold that it is true. Your mindset is the collection of beliefs that you hold that influence your thoughts, and then your behavior. And so the actions you will take with conviction result from your mindset. And I really want to underscore that you take with conviction. Because if you don't believe you can do something at but you know, you need to take that action, because all of the experts and the people who know have said this is the action you need to take in order to achieve this goal. You might take the action but there will be a part of you that holds back that doesn't give it your best. And because of that you don't get the result that you're looking for. 

Jodi Flynn

So let me think of an example that would that would be really good for your community. So it might be a case of you know, that if you are you know, do Being freelance work, and you're told, you know you wrote speaking would be really good for your business, you will get more clients if if you do more speaking. But you have a belief that you are not a good communicator, you're not good at public speaking, you're not good at answering questions on the spot, you will probably not put a lot of effort into lining up speaking engagements or podcast interviews, right, you'll find other things to do that keep you really busy. And if someone checks in on you and says, How's it going getting speaking engagements, you will probably say, I've just been so busy. With all of these other things, I haven't been able to get it done, when in reality, if you've dedicated maybe a half an hour to an hour, you probably could have started getting some speaking engagements lined up. Does that make sense? Courtney,

Courtney Elmer  21:00  

God, it makes total sense. I'm thinking we could have a whole nother episode here on procrastination and why we procrastinate. And it all ties back to this. And, you know, I'm thinking of examples as an online business owner as well, where for the first in the early years, especially, I put so much value on other people's opinions of me. And because of that, because I was valuing that so deeply and believed that those opinions equated to, you know, my worth and my expertise. And it was all tied to how I saw myself in the world. And therefore how I showed up in the world. It was very limiting, you know, recording a video, I'm putting that on Instagram, right?

Courtney Elmer 

I would edit it. And you know, even this podcast in the beginning, oh, my goodness, if you have just started listening, you need to go back and listen to the early episodes. These episodes were all so scripted, because I was so worried about saying the wrong thing. Or that if I didn't say it just so just the right way that someone wouldn't receive it the way that I intended it. So I was very caught up in this and in in presenting myself a certain way that I thought I needed to present myself in order to be seen as a trusted expert or as in, quote unquote, influencer. And that wasn't the case at all. What really needed to happen was I needed to let go of all of that, like remove the bulletproof glass and just let people in.

Jodi Flynn  22:23  

Yes, one of the first question. So I have like a list of questions we can even talk about where there are questions that help you examine your beliefs. And what you are pointing to right now is the question, Who am I? Right? And if your identity is, I'm a person who shows up perfectly, so that nobody questions, anything that I'm saying, I do everything right, and I'm polished and excellent, then you're gonna put tremendous pressure on you, because that's who you believe that you need to be. But if you're somebody who has expertise has knowledge, you know, you're going to kind of play with learning and expanding, and sometimes you're going to get it right. And sometimes, maybe not, but you'll learn from your mistakes, if that's who you are. And that's who you believe you are, you'll have a lot more space for those types of activities, where it's like, ah, you know, it wasn't perfect, but I did my best,

Courtney Elmer  23:24  

right? Oh, God, I'm gonna have to ask you to share these questions with us. Because now I'm curious. I'm dying to know what they are.

Jodi Flynn  23:30  

Right? Okay. So, the quick list is, who am I? Right? What is my identity? And so oftentimes, you know, when I'm speaking to entrepreneurs, I will encourage them to really take on that I am the CEO / online business owner, right? I am, I am in complete control of this online  business owner. And I get to decide, right, because sometimes we give our power away, because we don't really own that we are online business owners, right? We think like, ah, and like, especially when I hear like people who are doing freelance work, say things like, I'm just a freelancer, it's like, Well, you do freelance work, but you're an online business owner, right? And we all we each get to decide who we are and what our identity is, but that's one I recommend, especially for online business owners, like really, really own right, that you're an online business owner, you are established, you are making waves in the world, because that will empower you to take action. So then the next one is what am I capable of? Right Courtney Elmer? 

Jodi Flynn

If we want to start, you know, dipping our toe into the water of team, you know, we want to think about like, you know, am I or am I not a good manager, a good leader, you know, am I you know, am I capable of fiscal responsibility or, uh, you know, increasing my revenue, you know, that sort of thing? And what could I do with a team? You know, what, what am I capable of? And what am I capable of with a team. And then next is how valuable is what I provide. And this normally points to our money stories and our beliefs around money. Because if we, if we question our value, you know, in our worth, and in, we will never be able to ask other people to compensate us for our true values. So we really have to be clear and examine the beliefs we have around our value and the value that we provide. And the next question is also very related to team, who can I trust, including myself, like, Can I trust myself, and I'll even I'll even say this, trust starts with yourself. 

Jodi Flynn

Typically, what I find when someone has a hard time trusting other people, it's because they don't trust themselves, right, or they don't trust themselves to know whether or not they can trust other people, right. And there are some like sub beliefs under that can, like creep up under this that can undermine us. And it's around, like, the belief that no one can do this as good as I can do it. Right? I can't trust other people with my online business owner, or I need to take care of everyone, right? What you know, they, they wouldn't be able to get by without me, you know, all of those things, can make it very difficult for us to then operate with, or have a highly successful team. And then lastly, I'll throw out there as a general question as well. And it's, but it's really important when we think about the future, what kind of a world do I live in? You know, what do I believe about the world? Is there abundance? Or are there a lack? Is there opportunity? Or is there just obstacles? You know, what, what do I believe about the resources that the world provides? So I'll I'll leave it there, you let me know what your thoughts are, Courtney,

Courtney Elmer  27:16  

this is so valuable. Thank you. Because I feel like I mean, I'm over here nodding my head, you know, I'm imagining our listeners are doing the same, right, especially as you get started giving some examples of some of the beliefs that are tied, you know, to some of these questions, and what we might unearth or uncover about ourselves, when we get quiet enough and honest enough with ourselves, to answer these to answer these truthfully. And speaking to the team piece of this. Those were many of the beliefs that kept me from growing initially, both when it came to hiring people for day to day operations within the online business owner and hiring coaches to help me coach because my identity was so tied to being a coach to being a consultant to being the only one with the answers, right. 

Courtney Elmer 

And so once we started adding coaches, to our team, and we are in the process of expanding that now, and I'm in the process of delegating more responsibility, so that I'm less accessible, which sounds crazy, right? Because it's, it's my online business owner, it's my programs, I'm the consultant. But at the same time, I know that in order to really support our clients and our students at the level that we want to support them, I can't be the only one supporting them. And so this was a big thing that I had to wrestle with myself. And so to really pivot into this topic of team building, right, so we kind of talked about like, Okay, if we're not making the revenue we want to make and not hitting those goals. Well, that could pose a potential problem when it comes to building our team. And I've heard this from many people. And this was something I struggled with too, as I thought I couldn't afford it. 

Courtney Elmer 

I thought, because I wasn't making the revenue I wanted to make yet that I couldn't afford to hire anyone, right? That's just one of many beliefs that could prevent you from really getting the support you need in your online business owner. But to me, I'm curious to know from you, based on your expertise, and in your work with other people, what are some of the most common beliefs that hold us back? When it comes to team building? And what are some of the practical steps that we can take? Let's say we've done this exercise, we've answered these questions, we're a little bit more aware of some of the beliefs getting in our way. What then are some practical steps that we can take to moving through and beyond those beliefs so that they don't hold us back anymore?

Jodi Flynn  29:39  

Yeah. And I'll go back to the example you gave, like, initially, like, you know, because sometimes you when we're reaching that point where team is needed, it might be a case where Yeah, money is tight, or we're really worried that you know, we have money now but then we won't have money. If we hire a team because they It can be one of the biggest expenses as an online business owner is, you know, salary and compensation. So, I would say with beliefs, you have to be willing to challenge that, right. And this takes some openness, right? Because one of the hardest things, our egos have a really hard time accepting that we were wrong. I mean, any of us who has been in in an argument, it's really hard, you know, to, to, you know, not just realize that we were wrong, but then to admit it and acknowledge it like, Okay, I was wrong.

Jodi Flynn

I, you know, so this is not an easy exercise. And I just want to say that upfront, now, here's the thing, and I'm gonna kind of like, just put it put a wrench in everything. It might be true, right? Like, you might not have the funds to hire somebody right now. But you have to take an honest look, because it might be true. And it might also be something that you're using to sabotage yourself this belief. So take a look like how like, Who are you looking to hire? Like? What are the tasks and responsibilities that they're going to have? How much would it cost to hire that person? Right? And you know, we can to start with dabble a little bit, maybe you hire somebody for a few hours a week. See how that goes? Right? Maybe Maybe you are starting with someone who does freelance work. But then I will also enter challenge. This is like, I want you to really think about what could you do? If you didn't have to do everything? What could you Where could your online business owner go? If your time and energy was freed up, especially from those tasks that may not be in your zone of genius, or even in your zone of excellence? You're just doing them? Because they have to get done? What if you gave those tasks away to someone who could get them done in half the time that it takes you to do those tasks? 

Jodi Flynn

Where would you align that time? And how much money could you make? With what you do with that time? Sometimes that gives us a little bit of wiggle room, right? And then maybe you also think about like, maybe you save up, you know, what would it cost to pay that person for three months, maybe you give yourself a little bit of runway, where you give yourself three months to test this out. And also make sure you're hiring, you know, the right person for the job. And I'm not going to say find the perfect person, you're not looking for purple unicorns. But you know, kind of think about, like, what does this person need to do? How would they work? 

Jodi Flynn

Well, with you, I think the more we get into almost putting ourselves into the mindset of okay, I'm gonna do this, we then you know, the path becomes clear, you know, so it almost takes and I talk about this in my book, like, the moment you commit to something, all of a sudden, like a whole new world opens up when we talk about things in the hypothetical, like, oh, you know, what would it look like, if I did that? Our brain doesn't put too much energy into that it'll play around with the idea. But when we say out loud, you know, to ourselves and to other people, I'm gonna do X, all of our, all of a sudden, our brain gets really invested in that conversation and starts really thinking about, what will it take to make that happen? So I would say, you know, additionally, in this conversation, commit to it, like if you know, you need to hire a team member, commit to it, and then figure out what it's going to

Courtney Elmer  33:58  

take? Yes, you know, this brings to mind something that a mentor of mine always used to say, and it was the transformation begins with the transaction. And he was always referring to this in terms of someone buying your own programs, or products or courses or services, or whatever that might be. But I think the other way around, it works as well, right? When we think of ourselves and the actions that we take, how many times have you been like, Okay, I'm gonna maybe do this, maybe do that. But it wasn't until maybe you invested in a program, you know, and for me, one of the things we teach is podcasting. And we see this all the time, people have dreamed of launching a podcast for years. Yeah. But it wasn't until they drew their line in the sand and said, Okay, I'm gonna hire help to get this done. 

Courtney Elmer 

And to learn how to do this to save myself time, if I'm gonna figure it out on my own, that they make it happen. And I wanted to circle back to something because initially, you said something about, you know, how much looking at how much would it cost to actually make this happen? And I think that's such practical advice. You know, in my mind, I was like, yeah, the first thing you should probably do is hire a bookkeeper, even if numbers aren't your thing, right? Like, you can add more One who could look at your numbers for you and show you like, Hey, you actually do have some wiggle room here, right? Yeah, like the best decision I ever made in my own online  business owner. And, you know, a question that I learned to ask myself to along the way is, how much does it cost me? Or how much is it costing me not to hire someone. And looking at it from the other way, as well, because for me, in the early days, in my online business owner, when my son was at home with me full time, and I was working in the nooks and crannies of the day, it was taking away time from my son, taking my time for my family. It was costing me my sanity, because I was always trying to juggle between working and being home and working and being home and, and juggling, that was a huge mental load. Right? Yeah. Young baby at home. Yeah, the first time mother.

Jodi Flynn  35:45  

So there was a lot going on there. And I quickly recognized I was like, I just I can't continue like this. at my own expense, it was more expensive to me. And in that on that level, to not hire someone 100% Courtney Elmer, I was like chomping at the bit to dive in here, because I just did a keynote presentation last week, all around busyness and I had two slides that address the costs of being overly busy. And there are physical, mental, and emotional costs to being busy. But then there's also the opportunity costs and the costs of connecting with the people around us. So yeah, you can do a lot of damage to yourself, if you're too busy, if you're not hiring, and you're too busy. But also, and I love how you said this, like, you could also be hurting the potential as an online business owner, if you're not hiring, like your online business owner is probably capable of making more money if you hired but you want to get your mindset in the right place. So you can so that hiring this person, and I think this is part of the fear is that that will be one more responsibility. 

Jodi Flynn

You know, it'll feel burdensome to have somebody here, especially if we're the kind of people and you mentioned this earlier as well, Courtney, where we just do it all ourselves, we get it all done, it's completely in our control. And when we hire people, and we have team we have to give up control. And that can you know, if if control is like one of our things, one of our saboteurs, then, you know, hiring, the team member is going to feel stressful, until we can manage that and get that under control. And when I when I say until we can manage it and get into control. Like it can happen quickly. If you want to this isn't something like you, you have to go to a therapist, or it takes years to get over that it takes, again committing having the intention of nipping this tendency in the bud

Courtney Elmer  38:00  

100% 100%. Tony, I'm really curious to hear what would you say to someone listening right now, who maybe has said, Okay, I have hired and it hasn't worked out or every time I hire, it never seems to be, you know, the right fit. And then I'm back at square one. And it is quicker for me to do it myself. Because it takes me so much time to train anyone only to find out. They're not the right fit. And I'm going to be back at square one. Anyway. I'm curious, I have a feeling as to what you're gonna say to this, but I'm really curious to hear your thoughts.

Jodi Flynn  38:29  

Well, this is the thing, sometimes it is trial and error. There are people within organizations, it is their full time job to hire people. That's all they do. That is their job. And they make mistakes sometimes, right? There is no perfect science to hiring. But each time you've hired, you've probably learned a lot in the experience around what you don't want and what you do want. That experience will help you with the next hire, you know, and there's also courses out there that help you determine who exactly am I hiring, what what fit would it be there are assessment tools, right, you could have potential candidates take that will give you a wealth of information on their skill set their abilities, their preferences, all of that to make the hiring process easier.

Courtney Elmer  39:31  

Yes, I'm wondering too, if, you know, a lot of our beliefs are developed from past experience, whether we realize it or not right in that moment, but that in these experiences, let's say that you're listening and you had one of these experiences where you hired someone and it was a disaster, maybe you lost money. Maybe you hired someone you thought it was going to be great and then you've come to find out they weren't doing any of the work that you would ask them to do and you had to go back and clean up the mess right and to your point God, yes, you've learned so much in those situations where, you know, you kinda have to step up to the plate and really take ownership of what happened there. 

Courtney Elmer 

And you know what, maybe you allow it to happen on some level, and really taking ownership of that. And that can be really difficult because you mentioned this earlier, you know, our ego likes to push back. And our ego doesn't like to admit that we're wrong. And so I know, in my experience, I have sometimes taken those those beliefs, right, that I develop in these, let's say, negative experiences, and then carried those with me, and that has prevented me from repeating the same behavior. And what I mean by that is not not from like the learning a lesson kind of away, but like, I'm not going to hire again. Right, right. Or anytime soon, because that was a mess. Right? I don't have time for that. And I'm just curious to know, you know, since we're talking a lot about beliefs here today, you know, how is that really preventing us from fully stepping into our role as a visionary leader in our online business owner?

Jodi Flynn  40:59  

Oh, 100%, I will, I will say this, our brains, like the way they're wired, they want us to be safe. They're not our brains are not overly concerned about whether or not we're happy. And we're fulfilling our greatest potential, like our evolutionary brain, when that we go into in these moments where we are in doubt, and were concerned, would love us to just sit in the closet all day? Because that's where it's safe. But that's not where you'll find greatness. That's not where you'll make your your greatest contribution. So yes, while our brains do want us to play it safe, we can also come at it from a place of okay. I don't want what happened in the past to happen again, what like you said, those questions of what set that situation up to happen? And how can I do this differently? Right, and we have to put ourselves back out there, right? If you do, and there are some people who, whatever, you know, income they have, right now, they're like, I'm good. You know, like, I'm, I'm all good. I don't need to grow any anymore. 

Jodi Flynn

But I doubt that they're the people who are listening to this podcast, chances are, if you are listening to this podcast, it's because you do want to grow, and you do want more, you want to make a bigger impact. Might you want more financial freedom, all sorts of things. And so in order to you have to recognize that in order to do that, you have to give up a little bit of control, you have to let it be a little messy, you know, to make it happen. And I would say similar things happened when you were thinking about starting your online business owner. I don't know many people who started as an online  business owner and they're like, it was flawless. Perfect, I did everything perfectly. Right out of the gate. You know, I think we've all had enough scary customers that if or you know, are just like not great customers that if we put too much stock in that experience we'd be done. We would have to close up shop and go do something else. So we need to really focus on from the bad experiences, what's the goal there? What can I take with me that will help me moving forward? And then think about the potential of your online business owner if you had more support? I think that's the key.

Courtney Elmer  43:39  

So practical. Thank you for that, Jody. And you know, as we wrap up this conversation today, I'm curious if if there were an action step that you could give our listeners, you know, after everything we've just talked about? What would that action step be for them to be able to walk away from this episode, and really integrate everything that they're learning today?

Jodi Flynn  43:58  

I would go back to the questions that we asked and you know, coordinate I can I can send these to you so that you can put them in the show notes. So they're easy to please, yes, yes, do that. And either pull up but document or pull out a piece of paper. If you're a writer, you know, if you prefer pen and paper, there's something really powerful about putting pen to paper and really reflect on don't answer those questions quickly, really ruminate on those questions and write it down and start identifying what are the beliefs that I have? And which ones Empower Me and which ones hold me back. And this is the thing, we can shift our beliefs. It's all about reframing and taking on a new perspective, right. So it might be just for example, you know, I'm not good at hiring. 

Jodi Flynn

Well, you can reframe that by saying I'm not good at rehire at how Hiring yet. And that opens up a whole new world. So I would, I would say definitely answer those questions. And if you need more support, hire a coach, like a coach who will help you examine like, what what obstacles are holding you back, you know, especially around mindset and beliefs. Because it's super powerful. Once we determine like a belief is holding us up back and we shift it, all of a sudden, we get into massive action, all of the things we were procrastinating on, like that snap of a finger, we start doing it.

Courtney Elmer  45:36  

It's amazing the feeling of energy and the burst of energy and the feeling of excitement and zeal for what you're doing that comes with that process, too. Yeah. And it's like, if you were feeling burned out before, just weary and just tired, or like you're going through the motions, and all of a sudden, you kind of get to the root in the heart of what's been undergirding all of this emotion and feeling that you've been feeling. And then you shift that, and you shift out of that, and it's cleared, it's like, the floodgates open, and it's just, I get tingly thinking about it, because it's such a good feeling. And, you know, I can think of no better time to really do an exercise like this. And like right now, at the time of this recording, we're moving into a new year. So we're already naturally starting to get the itch to kind of do this deeper reflective type of work. But of course, it's valuable anytime, please don't wait.

Courtney Elmer 

You know, if you're listening to this in June, please don't wait till the next year to start doing this exercise. But this work is so so valuable. And this is the stuff that I've always, always have told our clients is that, you know, this is this is the real work. You know, it's the marketing, the sales skills that you're developing the coaching skills that if you're a coach or developing right, or learning how to create a course, or writing email sequence, or write high converting, copy, all those things are great skills. But this is the real work, the transformative work the work on you. That's going to get you where you want to go. So Jody, thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for all that you have shared today. It's been a delight to have you here. And before I let you go, we've mentioned your book a couple of times here on the show, too. So I would love if you would tell us where our listeners can find a copy of that, which of course, we'll link to this in the show notes as well.

Jodi Flynn  47:12  

Yes, my book is called accomplished how to go from dreaming to doing, and you can find it on

Courtney Elmer  47:19  

Amazon. Awesome. Jody, thank you again for sharing your time and talent with us today.

Jodi Flynn  47:24  

Coordinate, I am, again, thrilled to be here. And I hope this was so valuable for everyone who's listening. And you know, good luck taking on new mindsets in the new year.

Courtney Elmer  47:35  

Yes, I know. Cheers to that. All right, my friend. So if this episode was valuable for you in any way, we would love to hear about it, check out the show notes where we have linked to Jodi's info, you can find her online, I know she would love it if you take a moment to reach out and let her know your biggest takeaway from this episode. And of course, if you're not already following me on Instagram, that is the number one platform where I hang out. And I would love to see you take a screenshot of his episode, share it to your stories, and tag me that way, I can see who out there is listening to this show. And so that I know that you're getting value from it. 

Courtney Elmer 

Now coming up next week, we're going to be talking about the four systems, you need to take your online business owner to six figures and beyond to crack the code on actually hitting six figures. Because again, at the time that we're recording this, we're about to flip the calendar. And so maybe that is your goal for the new year. Or maybe maybe you hit six figures this year, and you're really excited. But what's next, how do we take it to that next level. So these four systems that we're going to be talking about next week are the systems that every single online business owner needs. I don't care what industry you're in, I don't care what niche you serve, you will struggle to grow your online business owner without these systems. These are the exact systems that we have leveraged within my own company to generate multiple and consecutive five figure months and to run a six figure online business owner. And next week I'm going to reveal what they are to you. So I will see you back here next Tuesday. And until then, go live your EffortLESS Life®.