Ep 385 - Tackle Obstacles Head On With Carol Boston

0:00:02 - Speaker 1
You are an entrepreneur, a professional, a speaker or a coach And although you've come a long way, it's time for you to take it to the next level. We've got you. This is the Author to Authority Podcast. We'll help you use authority and influencer marketing to build your business stronger and faster by publishing a book. You'll hear from guests that are thought leaders in sales, marketing, networking, communication, social media promotion and business leadership. Let's do it. This is the Author to Authority Podcast And now your host, the extraordinary word, ninja Kim Thompson Pinder. 

0:00:54 - Speaker 2
Welcome to the Author to Authority Podcast. I'm your host, kim Thompson Pinder, and I'm so excited to announce that in August we will be having the 400th episode of the Author to Authority Podcast And in celebration of that, i have decided to do the top 25 episodes of the Author to Authority Podcast for the whole summer And we will celebrate the 400th about mid-August. So there'll be a couple of episodes after that, and I chose these episodes because they were the ones that I just personally felt were the ones that gave tremendous amount of value that we're going to help you as an entrepreneur, professional, a speaker, a coach, to move your business forward. These were value packed episodes that are just going to give you action steps that are just going to really propel you to the next level. So I'd love for you to sit back, relax and enjoy this top 25 episode. 

Welcome to the Author to Authority Podcast. And today I am so excited to have on the show Carol Boston, and over about the last six to eight weeks I have been making some incredible connections with some amazing people, and Carol is one of them, and I was so impressed by what she had shared with me that not only did I have her as a trainer on an online network and learn event that I was hosting. But she's going to be on for two episodes And she's going to train on failing courageously. But how do you feel courageously as an entrepreneur And how do you take that and take small steps that become big leaps that just exponentially grow your business? So I am so excited to help Carol on. 

Now she is the CEO of CB Accelerators. She's an ex-collegiate and professional tennis player. She's had 27 successful years in sales for companies like AT&T, sprint and Paychex. She's a business growth strategist and leadership coach. She's award-winning speaker And she's spoken at places like Kaiser University, nova Southeastern University. She's spoken at American Express, the women's executive club and many other places. So welcome to the show, carol, thank you. 

0:03:50 - Speaker 3
I'm happy to be here. 

0:03:52 - Speaker 2
So, carol, why don't you take a few minutes and introduce yourself to the audience and tell a little bit of your story? And don't worry everybody, she's going to get to the really good stuff in just a few minutes, but you've got to hear her story first. 

0:04:08 - Speaker 3
Thank you so much. You know, typically when I'm speaking in front of the audience, i always ask a question first. So I'm going to ask you, who are listening, a question Have you ever been in a situation where you put a lot of work in, you prepare for a meeting, prepare for a meeting, only to have it canceled at the last minute? And you're probably pretty ticked off like I wasted all my time. But then you look back in retrospect and you said, oh, that was a blessing in disguise. Right Yeah, at least the nickel says. Sometimes your greatest blessings come wrapped up in sandpaper. And I didn't know it. But back in 2014, i was about to get roughed up. You see, i thought I had it made. I had been doing sales for almost 27 years, very successfully, walked across the stages, got the awards, made the numbers. I could do this in my sleep. I thought I had it made until the day I didn't. Until day I got that call and they cut my territory by 80% And I'm like 80%. I've been working this territory for five and a half years. 

So you see, i thought they were setting me up to fail. And then a friend whispered in my ear about an opportunity with a small company. Now, i love big companies because I love structure. But I went on the interview and you know what? They hired me, they gave me a director title And they doubled my base pay plus commissions. I could just see the income possibilities, right Yeah. And I negotiated a vacation upfront because I'd already paid for it and it was in my contract. So there I was six weeks into the job on vacation, being a good employee, staying in touch with my boss, the CEO, and I got an email asking me for my opinion and I replied back. Now, normally he replies back right away and he didn't. 

And I waited and I waited. It was 12 hours later, nine o'clock at night. There goes my phone, ding Carol Boston, you've got mail And here's what it said. It said Carol comma, that's what you really think. And it had five question marks behind it. Ooh, don't bother coming in here on Monday, when your off, when your vacation is over, you're done here. Wow, yeah, i was tired. In an email for having an opinion that I was asked for, what that's crazy. What that's crazy It was, that's exactly what I thought. So I went back home to Florida and the very next day I had an interview and I interviewed all over this country. I was flown, i interviewed over and over and over, to the same result. 

Now I was depleting my 401k because I really wanted to get a job in corporate America, because that's where I was comfortable. And many months into this, as you get to know me, you'll know that faith is my foundation. In my prayer time I said to God God, yeah, i really did yell. I've done that too. I'm like you made me. You know, i'm not cut out to be an entrepreneur. I do not want to own my own business. You have got to help me find a good job Two weeks to the day from that prayer, i opened up my email and, out of the blue, this woman that I met one time for 30 minutes out of state at a conference literally gives me a $3,500 ticket to go to Los Angeles to study at Guerrilla Business School. 

Now, my God has a sense of humor, right? Because Guerrilla Business School is a foundational school for entrepreneurs. So I figured you know what I was doing wasn't working And I don't know what I don't know. So off I went to Los Angeles And the very first thing I learned is you can't read the label when you're inside the jar. That's a writer down there for you. 

0:07:30 - Speaker 2
That's a writer down there for you. You can't read the label when you're inside the jar. 

0:07:35 - Speaker 3
Now, every one of us is in a jar. That's why I believe we all need a coach, right? Somebody who can see what we can't see in us. I mean, oprah Winfrey has four coaches. When asked why, she said because nobody's an expert in all four quadrants of my life. And I want to know, right, yep, i want to live my life at the highest level in all areas, yes, yes. So, as I began learning and began transforming, i studied under some of the best right John Maxwell, michael Strasner, lisa Nichols, on and on I could go And I realized that I had to change my mindset. Yeah, this, this training, and what I was getting in this coaching and learning was that it gave me a different worldview and it gave me a different view on communication. Yes, yep, yep, yeah, different view on on communication. Now, i'm not going to say that I just adopted all this right away, because who would agree with me that sometimes change? 

0:08:36 - Speaker 2
change is hard, right, and sometimes that takes a while to get through the three pounds of gray matter between your ears. 

0:08:44 - Speaker 3
Absolutely. And let me tell you, i was in resistance. I was so comfortable in corporate America, it was so familiar to me that trying to change my mindset from that of an employee to that of an entrepreneur, a leader in leadership, entrepreneur, it took a lot of work And along the way I studied and developed some great tools and actually the first tool I'm going to introduce you to today I actually realized I was using it back in corporate America and didn't have anything. There you go. You see, i was working at Paychex and one year they tripled our quotas, like overnight. I couldn't even look at that number. It was so big, wow. 

So I came to my boss, we have a month, a Monday morning sales meeting, my my eight AM, my time And I said to her I can't look at that number, it's overwhelming. So what I need you to do for me is to take that week's number, just that week, and you would think I could have figured that out by myself. But I couldn't, because the way it worked is you had a different percentage of that annual quota every month, depending on the time of the year. Oh, okay, yep, she knew what those percentages were. So I said on a white piece of paper in big, bold red ink just give me my number for that week. And there I go, eight, 30 Monday morning, and I would tape it on my cubicle and I would look down and I go okay, what three things? what three things can I do to get me closer to my goal today? That's powerful. You want to think about that? Yep, you're not. You're not trying to make your quota in one day, but you want to get closer to your goal. 

Yes, and as as I did that, i would learn to celebrate every attempt, not every, not every thing that I did was perfect, but I learned from it And we're going to learn about the true art of celebration in our next podcast. Right, that's right. And I learned when I was in Los Angeles. One of the things that impressed me so much was hearing about empowering questions and I decided I had to master them. Amazing and powerful. So I have. I have spent these years doing that because, you see, it ties in, because empowering questions guess what they did? They help you get, they help you get out of that jar. 

0:10:51 - Speaker 2
Yes. 

0:10:53 - Speaker 3
We're going to learn. We're going to learn tomorrow on how to get out of that jar. And you know, one of the key things I've learned through that process that I actually also teach and talk on is that there's a huge difference in being committed and being convicted. You see, people commit every day, don't they? I am committed to this marriage until the day they're not committed to losing this 20 pounds. Well, maybe next Monday or next month, and that becomes next year. But when you're convicted, you don't rest until you get it done. You see, your comfort and your convenience and your conviction don't live on the same block. They're not even in the same zip code. That's right, right. So I had to learn to get convicted and get out of my comfort zone of familiarity, and I learned that the only way I grew was outside of my comfort zone. 

0:11:48 - Speaker 2
Well, it's funny you say that between committed and convicted, because next February my husband and I will be celebrating 30 years of marriage Congratulations. And you know we made more than a commitment. It was almost like a covenant with each other that divorce was not going to be an option in our marriage. Now, don't get me wrong. I think you know there are certain situations, you know, i think, in cases of abuse and different things. But I tend to think that people generally divorce way too quickly And one of these days. we've already come up with the title of our book. we just haven't had a chance to write it yet, but I'll share the title with you because I think you'll love it. So the title's going to be how we survive 29 plus years of marriage when divorce is not an option and murder is illegal. That's good. 

That's good Right. But we made that covenant you know that conviction right that we would make this marriage work. And you know the first 10 years were not good. You know neither one of us were really all that happy. But you know, after that first 10 years we started to deal with a lot of stuff and you know we were as opposite as opposite could be and we've had to learn to come to the middle ground in marriage. You know his world was black and white, mine was every color except black and white. 

0:13:20 - Speaker 3
That's good, because then the two of you covered the whole rainbow, and what I teach people is, especially when they're having issues in whether it's a business relationship or a personal relationship is is it if both of you are exactly the same? Yes, one of you is not necessary. Yeah, that's true, because him rubbing up against you in certain areas and you rubbing up against him, that's how you wear down the coal, if you will, to get to the diamond that's on the inside. 

0:13:47 - Speaker 2
Yep. 

0:13:48 - Speaker 3
Right, i mean, it's even biblical. I mean that God says, sometimes he uses a file, he's gonna file us down right. 

0:13:54 - Speaker 2
Well, it also says his iron sharpens iron does one man sharpen another, and I think that you know that applies in marriage too. So all right, well, i want to transition. I only have one more question for you before we transition into your expertise. Okay, where do people in Florida, the most private vacation state in the US, go for a vacation? 

0:14:17 - Speaker 3
I go where there's a change of seasons. I love to especially travel in the late fall I call it shoulder season before the all the heavy snow comes, but all the summer crowds are gone and it's cold and I have to have a wood burning fireplace. Upper North Carolina, at Tuxbury, outside of Boston. Up in that area Vermont, new Hampshire you can see the change of seasons and the leaves. I vacationed in Vale, colorado. Actually, the one time I was in Vale, i remember walking out of my little condo I was staying in. I went to the Vale Athletic Club And I work. I made my shorts and my t-shirt. It's a beautiful day. I come out and I'm talking to a friend on my cell phone and I'm like I'm getting pelted with sleet and snow. It wasn't like this 30 minutes ago when I went in, so I'm trying to jog and talk, trying to get back to my condo. I had my firewood, though, and my little bottle of wine, and I enjoyed my vacation. 

0:15:09 - Speaker 2
Oh, well, you're gonna have to come up to Canada in the fall. I think you would really enjoy that. 

0:15:14 - Speaker 3
I bet I would. I've only been to Vancouver one time. 

0:15:17 - Speaker 2
Yeah, come up into Ontario. You want to see fall. That's easy, fall in Ontario. I do Awesome, okay, so today. So the three things that we're gonna cover over the next these two episodes, is tacking, artist celebration and empowering questions, and you're probably thinking to yourself well, first of all, what's tacking? Well, carol's gonna explain that on this episode, but she's also gonna share how the three of them work together to exponentially grow your business. So I'm gonna let you lose Carol to talk about tacking. 

0:15:55 - Speaker 3
Awesome And I know you'll keep me in line on the time because I get excited. You know that right. 

0:15:59 - Speaker 2
Yeah, I got about 10-ish minutes. 

0:16:02 - Speaker 3
Okay. So I mentioned when I was at paychecks that I would go back to my desk and I would write down three easily bite-sized, digestible they're called micros. I had my macro at the end of the week and then I had my micros right. But it didn't mean that what I was doing always worked and I had to learn kind of how to pivot. And that's really where tacking comes in. 

When I'm in front of a live audience, often I will read the definition of tacking and then I'll say raise your hand if you understood that and nobody does, and neither did I when it gets a voting term and it's about sailing and boats and I don't understand it. So I'm gonna give you a layman's definition of tacking. You don't even need a captain's license to understand it. But tacking allows you to see success more quickly, celebrate it more often and pivot mid-course and make corrections on a dime when something isn't working. Oh, think about it. Whether you're listening and you're an entrepreneur, you're listening and you're in corporate America and you're trying to grow what you're doing in that piece of the business. This can absolutely help you, because so often what we do because we've all been taught right The fastest path between point A and point B is a straight line. Come on. 

Yep, that isn't always the case In my talks and teaching, as Kim can attest, as I taught them that is, it's rarely the case, because often what happens is we get our idea and our mind and we're bullheaded and we're going to go straight for that target no matter what, and we miss all of the elements. So I took that term tacking from a boating, because out on the open sea there's a lot of elements. Right, if you're in a sailboat, there's the wind, there's no wind. That's a big problem, right? Yes, there's cruise ships, there's hurricanes. So if I'm only looking at that dot on the horizon, if I only see that year they tripled my quota. 

Remember, folks write it down what I focus on expands. That's why I told my boss it was too big. I had to be able to take some little steps. And let me tell you, when you put this into practice, i made that annual quota, that triple annual quota, 10 months into the year Nice, 10 months into the year. And honestly, there were times when my boss would go oh, you hit your quarterly quota and I didn't even know it because I was just so focused on these little steps that were gaining me massive action. Does that make sense? 

0:18:20 - Speaker 2
Well, even think of it in terms of cruise ships. Cruise ships lot times, especially in some different countries, have to come into a very narrow area to be able to dock And when they're coming from the big ocean down into these smaller areas, there's markers of areas they can't go. They have extensive maps. There's usually a very narrow channel that they can actually come down And that channel might not be straight, but they have to follow that channel to ensure that they're not hitting rocks. Like probably about a month or so ago, i just happened to be watching this television show about cruise ships that crash And this one cruise ship didn't have the updated maps and they got off course by about one degree and they actually capsized the cruise ship because it went over rocks And it put hold like the Titanic. It put holes right across the bottom of the ship and it capsized. 

0:19:23 - Speaker 3
Oh, my God. 

0:19:24 - Speaker 2
Now, thankfully, i don't think anybody died. There were some injuries or maybe one person died, I'm not sure. But I mean, that's the thing. It was a one degree difference and they didn't have the map, the right map, and all these people were traumatized, some people were injured. Like I said, i can't remember if somebody died. If it did, it was like a small number of people, but that's still huge It is, and think about that. 

0:19:49 - Speaker 3
That's only one degree, exactly Right, and Kim had the benefit of seeing it. But I usually show a PowerPoint that has three different types of tacking on it. One is for the sailboat. Now the sailboat has the ability to tack more often right, because it's turning its sail into the wind, and the wind changes when you're out in the open sea. Another example, if you will, is a sail excuse me, a speedboat. 

How many of you have ever watched a speedboat race And they gun that thing and they take off and all of a sudden they hit that first wave, right, and what happens? They go up in the air and they hit really hard. Now that I'm even thinking they just wasted all this time in the air. Because what are they doing? They are hell bent on going in a straight line. Yes, then they hit the next wave and it's even higher and they waste more time. But if they would go even just a little slower like you said, kim, one degree maybe even and tack a little bit around those big waves, they would actually get to their destination sooner. 

0:20:40 - Speaker 2
Yeah, because when they're in the air, they're not moving forward. 

0:20:43 - Speaker 3
Exactly. And then when they hit, they actually have a pause moment before it takes off again. Yes, so there's three different pieces where they're actually losing time. Now one other tacking I'm going to give you today. It really involves the human element. It does involve the sea, being out to sea, but it's the human element. And I told Kim the other day. I said now if you could see me in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, you would know why they call me Casper. I'm not your ocean girl, right, i'm the white girl, but at least I'm the friendly ghost. There you go. Here's the thing. Here's the thing, even for those of us who don't go to the ocean. We hear on the news whether it's the regular news, the weather channel, whatever it is about riptides and rip currents. Yes, and there's warnings all the time. And if you get caught in a rip current and you decide I am swimming straight to shore, 99% of the time you will die. 

0:21:33 - Speaker 2
Yeah, you will die. You have to follow the current until it brings you back up again. 

0:21:37 - Speaker 3
Exactly, and that's a form of tacking. You swim parallel to the current, then you can go back to shore in a straight line. So that's just another example. Even in our human element, where we still believe that the fastest path between two points is always a straight line, we just showed you that sometimes it's the deadliest. 

0:21:53 - Speaker 2
Yes, yes, out where I am, georgia Bay, they have some pretty strong undercurrents. So when the kids were little I never swam with them. I life guarded, okay So now that they went out that far, but you just never knew where those currents were, sure, and so what I did was I just, you know, i was out in the water but I just stood guard Because there was some undercurrents in different things and you just know where they were. 

And I was like, yep, you know what, i'm not swimming with you guys, i'm gonna stand here and I'm gonna watch you. You know, go out in the water, have your fun, but you know, mom's, mom's guarding. 

0:22:33 - Speaker 3
And that's that's so key, because what you were doing is really a part of what's involved in tacking. You're looking for the elements, right? Yes, you're looking for the elements before they happen, and so often when I work with entrepreneurs not aware of that and they feel like they've been beaten down by the waves, if you will, sometimes I don't know if you've ever experienced this, kim, but they just want to quit. They're like, oh yeah, right. 

0:22:54 - Speaker 2
Well, it's like they're walking along, they're trying to do it on a straight line and they hit the first wall and Instead of going to the left or right and going around the wall, they're standing there looking at the wall, thinking I can't get through. 

0:23:06 - Speaker 3
Bang in their head on it. 

0:23:07 - Speaker 2
Yeah, and it's like, okay, you know you can go under it, maybe over it, around it, right. So yeah, it's never a straight line. 

0:23:16 - Speaker 3
And and the beauty of learning tacking. Think about this. Richard Branson, everybody knows Richard Branson, right? Virgin Airlines. He said don't confuse needing a nap with needing to quit. Sometimes all we need is a nap, and if you will learn how to tack, tacking allows you to rest, yeah, and get back on course. Yep, right. 

0:23:38 - Speaker 2
Yeah, sometimes your brain and your body just need to stop for a little bit. It's funny. I'll share something with you. I Wrote a book This is my fun book, okay, it's called 31 productivity hacks for the busy entrepreneur. 

I give these away at my courses and stuff. It's not even available on Amazon and One of the Suggestions is take longer showers or not. Okay, so if you were a creative person or in a creative industry, you know Where you have to think through solve problems, create things, anything like that. I suggest you take longer showers Because when you're in that shower your body relaxes, your brain relaxes. Half of my books were written in either showering or driving. Because why my brain kind of just goes into Relax mode, right Makes sense. 

I live out the country, so when I'm driving the back roads I know them like the back of my hand. I've been driving them for almost 30 years. You know I am watching for wildlife, but my brains just kind of in maintenance mode and all of a sudden all these ideas pop in my head. Sometimes I've had to pull over and write them down, the same in the shower. So you know a lot of times Unless I'm on, like these types of calls and recordings and that I won't shower until the afternoon Because I'm up at five o'clock in the morning, by one, two o'clock I've already gone eight hours. I'm tired, so I go. 

I have that shower where refreshes me, gets my creative brain going again, makes. Now if you're not in a creative or problem-solving or whatever like let's say you had a freelance job doing data entry You don't have to really think to data entry. Taking longer showers is a waste of time because if you add 10 minutes on to your shower every day, that's an hour less work time in a week and 52 hours in a year. But again, it depends on your situation. For me that shower Rejuvenates and revives me so I can continue working. But if you're not in an industry where that's needed, then that longer shower is a waste of time. That's that's Eating up your income. 

0:25:50 - Speaker 3
Yep, I Agree. that's a great example. 

0:25:54 - Speaker 2
Yeah, well, we. I think we've had an amazing time here today, carol, what do you think? 

0:26:02 - Speaker 3
Absolutely. I've enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to next time and tying all this together me too. 

0:26:08 - Speaker 2
So what I want you to do, carol. And then there to we have left. How can people connect with you if they've heard what you've said today and they're like, oh, i've really got to learn more from Carol. How can people find you? 

0:26:21 - Speaker 3
The best way right now is to email me at Carol at carolbostoncom. That's the easiest way. I am in the process of in between old website and new website. The best way is to send me an email and we'll set up a quick call and take it from there. I'm happy to get on the phone and just see if we're a good fit. if there's something I can do for you, reach out to me, but right now, or you can call me. I'm happy to chat. 954-616-9024. I live in Florida. I'm on the Eastern time zone, so if you call me at eight or nine o'clock at night I'm not gonna answer, but if you called me at six o'clock in the morning I would answer. I'm a morning girl. 

0:27:04 - Speaker 2
So that's Carol K-A-R-C-A-R, sorry, c-a-r-o-l-b-o-s-t-o-n. So, carol, at carolbostoncom, you can also give her a call. Now, i know when you did our training, you had a free gift, wasn't it? There was a guide that you were giving away. 

0:27:22 - Speaker 3
I did and soon I'll be able to send you straight to my website to get it. But yes, be happy to send me an email and say I want those five tips for crafting and empowering questions. We're gonna talk a little bit about that tomorrow so that you understand it, but there is a freebie. If you only hear today and you wanna hear how empowering questions can help you in your tacking, then definitely reach out to me for that as well. Five tips towards crafting and empowering questions Awesome. 

0:27:49 - Speaker 2
Now. the episode won't be tomorrow because our episodes are Monday, wednesdays and Fridays, so, depending where it lands, it will be the very next episode, though, that we will continue this conversation. So, carol, thank you so much for being on the show. This has been Carol Boston and Kim Thompson Pinder on the Author to Authority podcast. Thank you for joining us and we will see you on the very next episode. Bye now. 

0:28:16 - Speaker 1
You've been listening to the Author to Authority podcast, the extraordinary word. Ninja Kim Thompson Pinder has helped over 200 entrepreneurs, professionals, speakers and coaches write and publish their books that have become incredible marketing tools for their business, and many of those have gone on to become Amazon bestselling authors and have used their books to land high level clients and get on big stages. We hope you've enjoyed the show. Make sure to like, rate and review and we'll be back soon, but in the meantime, hit the website at www.authortoauthoritypodcast.com. See you next time.