809: Transformation through shifting BELIEFS w/ Roberta Cocco

Speaker 1:
0:00

Hey, what is up? Welcome to this episode of the Wontropner to entrepreneur podcast. As always, I'm your host, brian LoFromento, and today's guest is one that I've been so excited about. Her and I have actually exchanged emails about how long we've been waiting for this interview and this episode. So I'm so excited to bring it to you here today, because she not only has an amazing story herself, but she's someone who really goes way beyond hustle culture to do the meaningful and deep work that actually matters when it comes to us living not only to the best of our abilities, but the best life that we possibly can. So let me tell you about her. Her name is Roberta Coco.

Speaker 1:
0:37

In 2018, roberta left a successful career as an international videographer to learn the powerful principles of transformation and performance. Her first priority was to break through her own stories and create a life that she loved, mastering these principles. She now lives a transformed life and has built a highly sought after coaching practice. As an executive coach, she works with elite professionals anomalies I love that she uses that adjective in there and high performers, providing a distinct advantage that elevates their confidence and unlocks how to excel. For all of us, as entrepreneurs, as growth minded humans, this is incredibly important to us, so I'm not gonna say anything else. Let's dive straight into my interview with Roberta Coco.

Speaker 1:
1:27

Roberta, I am so excited that you're here with us today. Welcome to the show.

Speaker 2:
1:32

Hi thanks, brian. Thanks for having me. I'm really excited to be here too.

Speaker 1:
1:35

Heck yeah, so I told you off air before we hit record. It's a rare that I enter an interview with notes already, because there's no pre-planned questions, but with you, I'm so excited about the things we're gonna get into. Before we do that, though, take us beyond the bio. Give us that short version of your amazing story of how the heck did you get here?

Speaker 2:
1:53

Yeah well, thank you, brian, it's. It's an interesting story. As an international videographer, I loved working with leaders and teams, helping them unpack their stories to communicate and build support and awareness and things of that nature. I started to plateau in that career and actually saw a coach of my own and once I understood the principles behind coaching, it was really something that intrigued me and I decided to pivot into that as a career as well. So it's been an interesting journey, kind of by accident, but I've gotten to take the skills that I've had as a video director unpacking people stories and being curious and pivot into helping leaders and teams now develop a new story to live into.

Speaker 1:
2:43

Yeah, I love the way you blend the two of those career paths together and I always joke on air that for so many podcast listeners, when we tune into these episodes we think, oh gosh, that's such a linear story. It makes sense, but of course it's never linear in those moments. It only makes sense when we look at it in the rear view mirror. So, roberta, I want to ask you here up front, obviously understanding where you come from, and I'm so envious of your skills. I think people who are videographers are so talented in so many different ways. But with that in mind, what led you to? I love the two words that are right there in your bio transformation and performance. Those are kind of ethereal topics that we all say those words, but we don't go deep into that work. What led you there?

Speaker 2:
3:24

Yeah, that's. That's a great question too. I think I've always been a high performer and there's a lot of people that resonate with that. We like to sometimes figure out how to be the best or like really just get things done, and I love to mark off the list, check off the boxes. But I think when it comes to really understanding performance and what we're capable of, there's a next level, beyond high performance, and it really is. Instead of figuring out what, what makes me the best, it's what am I capable of? And when we start to poke around there, our performance can get really exciting. We can create and recreate ourselves, and so that's one of the things that really excites me about the performance aspect.

Speaker 2:
4:13

Transformation is one of my favorite things to talk about. It's different than change. So change happens like in an instant, but when it comes to transformation, that takes place over time, in small, intentional ways, and oftentimes we look back six months later and we wonder, like how did we get here? Because everything's changed. And that's one of the exciting things about the work that I do as a coach, because often my clients they'll just be a moment when they say, like how did this happen? How did we get here and it really happened over time, in small, intentional ways, with a clear target, and that is that that's the uniqueness in transformation, as opposed to just change.

Speaker 1:
4:56

Yeah, I want to go a little bit deeper into transformation, especially because I always use the fitness analogy of going to the gym. And, Roberta, if you and I go to the gym today and we pump as much iron as we possibly can and we wake up tomorrow and we look in the mirror, we're going to look the exact same and that's so discouraging for so many people. But I always argue is that we quit too often in any endeavor because we're zoomed way too close to our current situation, Whereas if we zoom out, if we go to the gym nonstop or every day for six months, that's where we're going to see that transformation. What makes it so hard? Obviously, time is one of those ingredients when it comes to transformation. But time is not enough, Because if we're not intentional with that time, we're not going to transform. What are some of those key ingredients behind transformation?

Speaker 2:
5:43

Yeah, I think a lot of people miss the first step, which is getting really clear about why it matters. We can start off thinking that this might be an interesting like going to the gym, right, so I want to get healthier, but why does that actually matter? I was talking with one of my clients and he wanted to be able to walk his daughter down the aisle when she got married and she was eight. He knew that he had a lot of time to get ready for that and to make sure that he was healthy enough to be there. His father actually had passed away before he was married, and so for him this was a really important thing to look forward to and to forecast out for, but also get committed about being healthy and why it mattered.

Speaker 2:
6:31

So, first off, we really need to make sure we understand why it matters for us, what the transformation really means Well, and secondly, once we understand why it matters, then we need to get clear and measurable, because, again, one of the things that can throw us all off track is when we can't really celebrate or mark any milestones, and so, like you said, zooming way back, we can see it in the long term, but in the short term, it can get a little fuzzy and so many times as humans, we give up the long term goal for short term satisfaction, for short term comfort, for short term rewards, and that will block our transformation. So, again, getting really clear about why it matters to us and then making it measurable so that we can create little moments of celebration that keep us going, that help us to build momentum and that make the work it takes worth it yes, gosh, do.

Speaker 1:
7:25

I love that, especially because that that second piece that you just highlighted for us Roberta celebration I think we are all so hard on ourselves especially it's fun for us to be talking in front of a huge audience of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs is that we have these huge standards. We have these lofty, ambitious goals and we hold ourselves to that standard, not the steps along the way that get us there. So I think that's so important. The other aspect of this road to transformation that I love about your work the more I looked into your work, it's just these words kept coming back, which is limiting beliefs, and what I love about your approach to coaching and breaking through those is you don't use the verb of eliminating limiting beliefs. You talk about reframing limiting beliefs and I love that verbiage from you. Talk to us about that approach and what limiting beliefs are, why they show up and how the heck do we even begin to reframe those.

Speaker 2:
8:17

Yeah, that's. You know, it's interesting. A lot of times again, people, when they want to create change or take new ground, they think that they need to come up with a strategy and just move into action. But oftentimes again, that can trip us up because we haven't taken the time to understand again, first of all, what matters to us, but then what do we believe around that? And when it comes to the beliefs about ourselves, the beliefs about this world, they really can help us to unearth the things that do matter most.

Speaker 2:
8:50

Most of well, a lot of the work that I do focuses around our language, because it's so powerful. Our language is a key into what the thoughts are that run in the background, and so when I talk about reframing, what we really want to do is pay attention to our language. I was just talking with a client earlier this morning and I was reminding her to watch her language. I said you can drop the F-bomb as much as you want, but you're not allowed to say things like I'm trying, or I think we want to be determined, we want to be committed right, we want to be sure of the steps and the actions that are necessary, and so reframing really takes control of our language and brings a new intentionality to our thought life and to our belief system.

Speaker 1:
9:40

Yeah, gosh, Roberta, here on a Mindset and Motivation Monday episode. We have to go deeper into that language piece because this is something I'm a big proponent for, but you are far more qualified than I am to talk about this, because a lot of entrepreneurs they'll say things like ah, this is never going to work. And I always turn to that Henry Ford quote of whether you think you can or you can't, you're right, I've always loved that very basic premise. But talk to us more about that language, because we all talk to ourselves in ways that either we've learned it from our parents or from those people who are close to us, or we've got decades ourselves of talking to ourselves that nobody's ever monitored and helped us work on. How do you even begin to identify that language? Because we all are talking to ourselves all day long that that's just quote, unquote, normal to us. How do we even recognize what that language is? What's enabling us, what's limiting us? Where do we even begin?

Speaker 2:
10:31

Yeah, well, one of the powerful things of working with a coach really allows someone to stand with you in real time and start to notice and pick up on some of the different cues that people use in their language, and we love to let ourselves off the hook. So when I'm talking with a client and I stop them and repeat back what I heard them say, oftentimes it's startling and they they're like but that's not what I meant, but it is what they said and what we say people tend to believe, including ourselves, and so really getting a handle on and being willing to recognize that the way that you're showing up in the words that you're using have a deep impact into your performance and into how the world sees you and how you see yourself. And so I go ahead.

Speaker 1:
11:19

No, go ahead. I'm digging this. I already have so many follow-up questions, but keep going.

Speaker 2:
11:24

Why I love one of the things that people Believe is that they're behaving based on how the world is, and really they're behaving based on how the world occurs to them. And we can tell how the world occurs to us when we listen to our language. We can tell how we're relating to people and how we think people are relating to us by the words that we use, and it's really fascinating when you get people to to Begin taking ownership over their language, to begin intentionally framing and reframing how they see themselves and how they see the world. And really that's the first, one of the first steps to transformation into a committed life of intentional belief and intentional performance.

Speaker 1:
12:09

Yeah, it's interesting for me because the work that you do, obviously you have a huge positive impact on so many of your clients, and what I'm thinking, as an outsider having this amazing chance to talk to you here today, is how do you get the real stuff out of them? Because you're right, I love the fact that you you've phrased that, that excuse for us here on the air of oh well, that's not what I meant. We always want to tie a pretty little bow on things, especially when we're working with others, but you raise that very powerful concept of we don't see things as they are. We see things as we are, and it takes me back. I'm gonna give this example, robert is that in 2020, when the, the pandemic, obviously hit the world, a lot of people just stayed at home. A lot of people were furloughed from their jobs and they were saying hey, this is gonna be a rough ride.

Speaker 1:
12:53

We don't know for how long, and I'll never forget as a Core part of my identity is I'm the son of an immigrant mom, so I see opportunity everywhere, and when the pandemic hit, I was like where are the opportunities? There's opportunities here. So I started a business called the launch coalition, which brought entrepreneurs together virtually that I went on to sell at the end of 2022. So I saw that opportunity, but I that comes from part of my identity of being the son of an immigrant mom, for example. That's one core part of my identity. How do we even unearth these Identities that are shaping us, whether we realize it or not, without putting those pretty bows on it?

Speaker 2:
13:32

Yeah, that's. That's another great, great question, brian. There's nothing that I like more than making a real difference in people's lives Right then, standing with them, helping them to fear less in order to live more and to believe in themselves so much that they're willing to take the action that's necessary to change everything. When it comes to unearthing, as you said, we really want to take a look at who they are, and we've been trained since since childhood, to concentrate on what we do. Again, it's that strategy piece and we love to jump into strategy, but before we look at what we need to do to get whatever we want, I like to invite my clients into considering who they're committed to being. It's a question that I think we throw around. It's a little bit cliche.

Speaker 2:
14:23

Every once in a while, you'll see a good meme on the internet about your state of being, but when I ask people like, who are you committed to be, often it stops them in their tracks, and this can be powerful, accomplished, ambitious Professionals who lead teams of people and they're very comfortable with doing. They know how to pivot, they know how to move into action. But when we ask like, who are you committed to be, that can stop them in their tracks, and I think that we again get off on or let ourselves off the hook with some big answers like I'm committed to being strong. What does that even mean? And so the power in my coaching, I think, is my ability to be courageous, to ask people to slow down, to challenge some of these thoughts that they've just been believing in a been on autopilot, and To really just create a space where they can, inconfidence, start to explore some of these beliefs that have held them back or shaped them in ways that really aren't fulfilling.

Speaker 1:
15:25

Yeah, it's really interesting because when you answer these questions, roberta, you always come back to it. Really is that delicate balance of action and intention? Obviously, the two work hand-in-hand. If you're more intentional, you'll take better actions. I'm super curious, knowing that you work with these high performers, these executives and amazing companies in different industries of when does that balance come from and what does it actually look like in our weekly, monthly, quarterly, whatever that workflow may look like for us? I'm so much of a weekly and a quarterly planner like I want to know what's going on this week. I want to know where I'm going in the next 90 days and really be able to zoom in and out between the two. How do we bake this into those workflows? Does it look like carving out an afternoon for executive time? Does it look like having for me it's a Sunday coffee day, or I just go to a coffee shop with a pen in a notebook and I ask myself the same seven questions every week? What are some of your tips to actually embed this into our lives?

Speaker 2:
16:21

Yeah, I love that Consistency that you're talking about in your life and I do believe that creating new habits is essential.

Speaker 2:
16:30

We live most of our life on autopilot and and that's effective, it's efficient, but oftentimes the autopilots that we've developed aren't really giving us the results that we want any longer, and so really disrupting some of those patterns and it's it's different and it's nuanced for each of my clients, the power in really hiring a coach and having someone walk alongside you creates Some of that awareness and intentionality.

Speaker 2:
16:57

And so for me and the work that I do I meet with people three times a month. The science tells us, in order to recreate Autopilots and develop deep transformational habits, we do need to deal in real time with real issues every seven to ten days, and that kind of Consistency and coming back to it will help us to remap some of the neuro plasticities in our mind. And then for you, like you said, coffee in the seven same seven questions works. For some people it is just taking the time to figure out what makes them committed to something, how they can put themselves on of the hook, figuratively and literally, and so, as far as tips, I I love to invite people into Some kind of practice, of awareness, some kind of intentional Reflection where you're not just remembering or recounting things, but you're intentionally Looking for the value, looking for the lesson or looking for the next natural step.

Speaker 1:
18:01

Yeah, I love that perspective, Roberta, especially because part of my job I think I have the coolest job on earth is I just get to think about what the listeners are thinking as they're listening to this conversation and they're probably sitting there. I know that there's a segment of naysayers who are just saying, oh, you guys, this is so woo woo. Roberta, brian, it's easy for you guys to say these things when you run successful businesses, but what happens when things aren't going my way? And, roberta, I love your website.

Speaker 1:
18:27

We're going to talk about your website at the end of today's episode. Right there on your who I am page, at the top, it says I am intentional and you go over so much of your story, which includes, for example, being diagnosed with cancer in 2017. A lot of people, roberta, it's easy to say these things when things are going right, but take us back to those low moments. Take us back to the moments where you're thinking, gosh, things are bad, things are not going my way. How do we, in those moments, the more difficult moments, bring all of these things to light and remember all these good things that you're teaching us today?

Speaker 2:
19:01

Yeah, I appreciate that and you know that's a reality. Everyone, all of us, at different times and different seasons, we face uncertainty, and it is those uncertain moments, I think, that create emotions like fear, instability, second guessing ourselves. And when I had cancer, it's interesting because I found coaching right around the same time and it was such a gift for me to understand that my emotions and feelings didn't have to be in charge. I think that honoring our emotions and being able to sit with them, being able to notice them without suppressing them or judging them, is necessary, but also recognizing that feelings aren't facts. It's not always true, right, it may be true in the moment, and I like to tell my husband that sometimes, when I'm emotional, right, I know that this isn't true, but it's true right now, in the moment, and I just want to be able to sit with it and honor it and then move through it.

Speaker 2:
20:07

And so I understand that a lot of people think that the mindset can be kind of, as you said, woo-woo-wee, but when you lean in and you start to practice and develop a practice around intentional reflection, around determined and committed vision and goals for your life, there's power there. That is just, it is transformative, and it allowed me, when I had cancer, to not see myself as a victim. But I began to ask, like, where's the value in this? What is this teaching me? What can this bring to my family? And I started to develop a lot of stronger relationships. I started to recognize things that were more important to me than I realized, and so, if we want to, when we encounter challenge and struggle, we can choose to create value and beauty from it. But it is a practice, you know, in order for it to be real, it is something that you have to be committed to.

Speaker 1:
21:13

Yeah, I love that disclaimer because these things don't happen by mistake and they don't happen automatically. So I love that real life insight. Roberta I'm going to call that out for listeners because I think it's such a brilliant piece of insight from the way that you in real life operate. And I love the fact that your husband's involved in this, where he listens to it, he hears it and he's there with you. Is that, hey, this may not be true permanently, but it's true for me right here, right now, in this moment.

Speaker 1:
21:39

It takes me back to so many things, especially when I first started my very first business. There were so many times where I was like, gosh, this sucks. But in my head I was like this sucks right now. That's not always going to suck, like I'm going to do these things that most other people would quit in and I'm going to ride this until it doesn't suck. And also, the power of and thinking of this can both suck and be something that I power through and I beast through and I accomplish because of it. So there's so many ways for us to navigate those, but I want to go here next because, as I was doing the research for today's episode, one giant word that I wrote on my post and note was expectations.

Speaker 1:
22:16

So one of my best friends in the world shout out to Nate Bagley. He is a love coach, so he specializes in what makes successful marriages, and he always tells me so I'm not married, I've never been married, but I always love this perspective where he talks about the reason why most marriages fail is not because of money, it's not because of in-laws, it's not because of these things, it's just because of mismanaged expectations. And he says if you expect money to be like this and it's not, that's where the issues arise. Now I, as a non-married person, I extrapolate all of these lessons into just me and my solo life as a person, but also as an entrepreneur, and I think about how we do that to ourselves. Constantly reverted those mismanaged expectations. We expect things to be here. They end up here and we have an issue with it, not because what's down here is bad, but just because it's not what we expected. Walk us through how we even begin to deal with expectations, or some expectations healthy. We have some expectations as high performers. How do we navigate it?

Speaker 2:
23:18

Yeah Well, expectations are kind of tricky and I think that there's even on a subconscious level. Expectations can make us feel obligated or disempowered. Right, if I come home from work and the dishes are full in the sink, I expected that someone else, maybe, was going to wash them. However, I didn't have an agreement on that and so I put my expectation and obligated someone else. We do this for ourselves as well, with these expectations, and really the thing that I like to invite my clients into is creating agreements.

Speaker 2:
23:54

When we expect something, often it's in the unsaid. Like I said, it's obligated. It might be planted there from our mom or aunt Susie, right, things that should be. And instead of operating in that kind of obligated space, we can really understand the things that we're committed to, the things that matter, and we can create agreements around it. We can begin to negotiate and workshop what our responsibilities are going to be based on those commitments and based on those goals. Just to kind of echo back to the feelings part of things as well, as a coach, I like to invite my clients into what they're committed to versus what they feel like, and when it comes to expectations, I like to invite people to make a powerful agreement with themselves, or a promise as opposed to an expectation.

Speaker 1:
24:49

Yeah, gosh, so replace expectations with agreements. I love that. It makes me think of I mean, it's a very simplistic view of it but really those contracts of if something's laid out in a contract, it's so easy. We all get this as service providers or consultants where we're just like no, this is the scope that we had initially agreed to. It's way easier to remain intentional in those agreements when we have them very clearly laid out.

Speaker 1:
25:13

Roberta, I've got to have a disclaimer to you here right now. I'm going to hate this question that I'm going to ask you, but I know that listeners are always thinking that and that is obviously time. A lot of people want the results, but they underestimate speaking of expectations. They underestimate the time that's involved in that and a lot of these topics that we're talking about today.

Speaker 1:
25:31

These are big things, roberta, I would imagine that you, being in this work with clients, you see how long it takes, but also how much of a commitment it takes to people out there saying, gosh, well, I am guilty of having negative self-talk. I am guilty of these negative or limiting beliefs. How long does it take to start overcoming these? Because one analogy that I think of is on a tennis court when I try to fix my tennis forehand, my tennis coaches always say when I get frustrated, they say think about how many thousands of times you've done it wrong. You need to do it thousands of times to get it right, for it to stick. What's your answer when it comes to that timing?

Speaker 2:
26:09

Yeah Well, I think that there's things that we need to be careful about, how it occurs to us, and so every day we are living in this present moment, and oftentimes the frustration or the expectation or the disappointment comes from living too much in the past, where we're thinking about regrets and wishing that it could have been done differently, or we're getting too far out into the future, where we're wondering right, and we're kind of trying to navigate the uncertainty as if we have a crystal ball. And so, rather than living in the past with regret or living in the future with some kind of fear or obligation, I want to invite people really to maintain a state of presence for themselves. Right now is what matters, and if you're committed to doing the things that are necessary, then just stay in that moment. We can really decrease overwhelm, anxiety and we can increase our level of satisfaction, celebration and the overall feeling of accomplishment. So it's not so much about how much time it's going to take to accomplish a said goal, but it's if you're committed in doing what's necessary right now.

Speaker 1:
27:20

Gosh, roberta, I hate when I ask that question, but I ask it because so many people it's what they're always thinking whether it's transformational stuff that we're talking about here today. Social media how long is it going to take me to get to X number of followers? Fitness how long is it going to take me to get into shape? But I think you just had the best answer ever to that question, which is what I heard is it actually doesn't matter at all. Let's just perform the best we can today, because that's all that matters. And if we can rack up enough of those today's in a row, we're going to be transformed before we even realize it. And that comes all the way back full circle to your concept of transformation versus change. Is that it's just something that happens, given us practicing, as you say, and being committed to doing that work? So I absolutely love that.

Speaker 1:
28:04

I want to ask you this I'm so fascinated by your clientele and the deep, meaningful work that you do. What are some of those triggers, what are some of those moments? Because a lot of people well, I'm going to say all people we all experienced these things that we're talking about here today. For these high performers and executives that you work with? What is it that gets them to that point where they say you know what. It's time for me to go deeper here. It's time for me to invest in myself, in overcoming or reframing these limiting beliefs. What's that trigger that gets them there?

Speaker 2:
28:36

Yeah well, and I think for everyone it's a little different. One of my clients very successful. He was not at the end of the career but his family had grown. He had three children. They were all through high school and into college and he started to realize that he'd spent most of his life doing what he was good at but not really doing what filled them up.

Speaker 2:
29:00

And so a lot of high performers they know how to get it done and again, they've been doing everything that they needed to do to get everything that they thought they wanted. But they come to a point usually where they start to wonder who they are and if in fact they've honored their heart in the journey. Many of them have provided unbelievably well for their families. They do have strong relationships, but again, who they are has kind of been on the back burner in lieu of their performance. And so I love when people come to me and they really want to start to go deeper and honor themselves and appreciate some of those secret dreams and goals that they've had since they were children. Maybe they stopped thinking about them or maybe they're even embarrassed to tell people what it is that they really want.

Speaker 2:
29:57

I have a client right now she's an attorney and she has an art degree and she's built an extremely successful law practice, but what she really wants to do is take pictures and she wonders, like, what will people think? And so we get the opportunity to step away from again that obligation and expectation of what the world might put on us and we get to honor the desires and the imprints of our heart. And so I think that a lot of successful, ambitious leaders really want to be able to find a space where they just get to be and get to celebrate that.

Speaker 1:
30:39

Yeah, gosh, it's funny, the more we talk about this, I kind of had this like weighted view of your work when we first started, of a weighted blanket, where it's like this might be uncomfortable for a little bit and this might be something that takes some work for us to actually lift off of ourselves.

Speaker 1:
30:54

But the way that you talk about it, roberto, what I'm actually hearing is that this is freeing work, work that if we don't leave that room in our lives, everything just gets squashed. And really what we're doing is we're picking those pieces off of ourselves to say, hey, what is this actually all about? And it really leads me to one thing we've not talked about just yet is that balance between personal and professional, because I would imagine, especially based on those examples you gave us, this work really touches every facet of our lives our personal lives, our professional lives, our family lives, our relationships, all of it. Talk to us about where you even start there, because for a lot of entrepreneurs who are so focused on building their business, they forget about how much of their personal life factors into that. So what's your approach there?

Speaker 2:
31:39

Yeah, well, and again, I think it's important to understand the things that motivate us, the things that matter most, and those are different for everyone, although there's a couple top ones. Some people, really, some people like connection is very important to them. Some people finance right making money is a huge motivator. Some people want to make an impact. They don't care so much about going deep in those relational aspects, they want to go wide with the kind of impact that they create in the world. Some people are independent and they really want to be able to call their own shots.

Speaker 2:
32:15

When you understand the things that matter most to you, the things that really connect with who you are, I think those help us to stay on track. They help people to really get focused on what it is that they want to create, and I love what you said about the work being freeing. It really is such an exciting journey to be able to discover who we are, the things that matter most to us, and to honor that, and part of the work that I get to do with people is to really focus in on that, and success gets to be how we define it. And so, whether you're an entrepreneur and just starting out, or whether you're an accomplished professional at the end of your career. I believe that we can all decide what success means, what it means to us individually, and that we can achieve that in remarkable ways with that clarity and intentionality.

Speaker 1:
33:11

Yes, I love that. Listeners, roberta is challenging every single one of us here today. Hearing you list some of those examples, roberta, of connection or money, or impact or legacy All of those examples really make me look inward and say, yeah, what am I doing this for? And I want to throw this disclaimer out there for all of you listeners, that your answer doesn't have to be permanent. There have been times in my own entrepreneurial journey where I've said, hey, right now I'm operating from a place of, I'm going to chase those dollars because, for one reason or another, when I had $80,000 in student loan debt, it was a lot easier to free myself of those shackles first before I could start chasing impact and legacy. And so all of these things are a constant exploration, which is why to toot your horn a little bit, roberta it's so helpful to have that that external consultant, advisor, coach in your corner who cares about your progress and your success in the ways that you measure it by your side. So I love that, roberta. I knew we'd be running out of time so quickly today.

Speaker 1:
34:08

I want to squeeze two final questions in with you, though. The first is entrepreneur to entrepreneur. So we've talked about all these different things that your clients face, that we all face on a daily basis, but with you taking your service provider hat off and talking to us as a fellow entrepreneur, what are some of those things that you've experienced in your own entrepreneurial journey that you've said, holy cow, people, unless you start your own business? You may not realize that these are the thoughts that come to your head, whether it's imposter syndrome or other things. I'm curious to get inside the head of Roberta the entrepreneur.

Speaker 2:
34:40

Yeah well, great question. Let me think. I think the most important thing that I've realized is it's not supposed to be easy. Sometimes I'll catch myself complaining about things that maybe are hard or things that didn't happen the way that I thought that they should. Again, it goes back to that expectation and, at the end of the day, it's not supposed to be easy. When I think about the things that I'm most proud of, the things that I've really accomplished, they weren't easy. There were all kinds of challenges and failures and missteps and learning opportunities, and so, for me, as I continue to build this business and as I continue to be an entrepreneur, I continue to remind myself I can do hard things.

Speaker 1:
35:34

Yeah, gosh, I want to echo that it's not supposed to be easy. You all All of us want it to be easy, but if it was easy, everybody would have a seven-figure business. So amen to that advice. I'm so grateful that you called that out for our listeners. I think we need to say these things Out loud even more, in public, as entrepreneurs on podcasts, youtube videos, books, all the places because this is the reality of building a business. Heck, it's the reality of anything in life. So I love those words of wisdom from you, roberta. And speaking of not being easy, my final question to you I love asking guess this is with all of these different things that we talked about here today, what's the one takeaway for listeners? If listeners walk away from our conversation today with one action or one insight or one thing that they want to reframe in their minds, what do you hope that it is?

Speaker 2:
36:23

Well, I guess I would invite everyone to really start to listen to themselves. Awareness is one of our most powerful tools that we can carry around, so slow down intentionally, decide to listen and to ask yourself for value. So what am I learning today? What did I understand through that challenge? What is it that I truly want? If people can slow down and again listen to themselves, instead of all of the outside voices that are telling us what we should do or what we're supposed to be, we can create a lot more fulfillment and meaning in our own lives.

Speaker 1:
37:01

Yes, amen to that, Roberta. Along those lines, I know that listeners are going to be keen to check out more about you, your work, the way that you work your company, all of those things. I'm going to toot your horn just a little bit more is that on your website, listeners will see so many useful things, not only your story, which I love, how transparently and generously you share your own story, but you've got a page specifically about who you serve, with examples of real life clients that you've helped break through their obstacles, who you are. You have one of the best about me pages that I've seen from any entrepreneur. You've got testimonials, so if people want to see themselves inside of this transformational work, they can see real life stories of how clients have broken through those things, as well as your blog where you're actually putting out coaching versus consulting. I think that's an interesting topic. So, along those lines, roberta, you drop those links. I could talk about your work excitedly for days, but where should listeners go from here?

Speaker 2:
37:55

Well, you can absolutely find me on my website, rebertacococom. That's Robert, with an A for Roberta, and then Coco, co, double cocom. I love to invite people into what I call a strategy session, and so there is a opportunity if you'd like to book a 30 minute call with me, absolutely free. We'll take some time to get clear on what matters most to you, figure out how and what might motivate you into the next step or season. I also have a pretty active LinkedIn page where I love to share different interesting questions that challenge people, as well as tips and tools, and so that's again on LinkedIn Roberta, coco, someone who wants to just open up a dialogue as well. I'm always up for an email and, again, I keep it pretty simple I'm Roberta at rebertacococom, and so I'd love to reach out or to have any of your listeners reach out and start some dialogue and see what value we can create together.

Speaker 1:
39:00

Yes, listeners, you've seen how amazing Roberta is here today in our conversation. If you want to go deeper into her work, her business website is just her name Roberta Cococom. You can see the spelling of her name in the title of this episode, or check the show notes down below, where we're linking to her website as well as her personal LinkedIn, if you want to reach out to her and even just connect and say thank you or take her up on that strategy session. You've heard how amazing she is. Imagine how incredible she could be given your unique circumstances. So check those show notes down below and, roberta, on behalf of myself and listeners all over the world, thank you so much for coming and joining us on the show today.

Speaker 2:
39:37

Well, thank you so much for having me. It's been great and I just really appreciate this opportunity, Brian.

Speaker 1:
39:43

Hey, it's Brian here, and thanks for tuning in to yet another episode of the Wontropner to Entrepreneur podcast. If you haven't checked us out online, there's so much good stuff there. Check out the show's website and all the show notes that we talked about in today's episode at thewontropnershowcom, and I just want to give a shout out to our amazing guests. There's a reason why we are ad free and have produced so many incredible episodes five days a week for you, and it's because our guests step up to the plate.

Speaker 1:
40:11

These are not sponsored episodes. These are not infomercials. Our guests help us cover the costs of our productions. They so deeply believe in the power of getting their message out in front of you, awesome Wontropreneurs and entrepreneurs, that they contribute to help us make these productions possible. So thank you to not only today's guests, but all of our guests in general, and I just want to invite you check out our website because you can send us a voicemail there. We also have live chat. If you want to interact directly with me, go to thewontropnershowcom. Initiate a live chat. It's for real me and I'm excited because I'll see you, as always every Monday, wednesday, friday, saturday and Sunday here on the Wontropner to entrepreneur podcast.