Visionary's Pursuit

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We were outside on a beautiful day, the girls had squirt guns, we were playing music and my husband was laughing. I sat in our hot tub on this sunny afternoon with everything I’d ever wanted around me and yet, I couldn’t feel happy. Within minutes I was telling myself that as a coach (with all the tools, experience and education) I should know better. So today, we're talking about it. 

In this episode, we look at what happens when pain shows up in a year that hasn’t gone the way we planned, and how to process it out of our bodies. 

Episode Summary:

We open with the pain I’ve seen in my clients these past weeks, from deals that fell apart to founders who climbed one mountain and found another waiting. I tell the story of the hot tub, what my friend Caroline said when I told her about it, and why judging our pain creates suffering we don’t need. From there we walk through the three ways people respond to pain and close with a free guide of tools for moving it through your body.

Key Takeaways:

Judging your pain or resisting it creates suffering 

There are three ways to respond to pain

Pain lives in the body, so that’s where we work with it

Comfort doesn't teach us anything

Connect with Carolina:

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This week we're coming back to one of my favorite episodes. For those moments when you need a pep talk, when you're about to put yourself out there, keep this one in your queue. If you've heard it before, listen again. You'll get something new every time. 

What does it take to fully commit to your biggest vision? We explore lessons from the samurai, who faced their mortality before battle to let go of fear and become fully present in the moment. Drawing from this wisdom, we discuss how letting go of doubts, fears, and limiting beliefs can help you step into your own battles... whether it’s growing a business, pursuing a bold dream, or creating the life you truly want. This episode invites you to think bigger, take risks, and redefine what’s possible for your future.

I once saw Jane Goodall speak, and learned about as much in the way she behaved as in the talk she gave. When she arrived to the stage, she walked to the podium in front of fifteen hundred people who had waited hours to hear her. She didn't greet the audience, rather she asked the crew to turn the lights on the audience, sharing that she didn't like speaking to the dark. Then she stood in silence until they did. No one was scolded and nothing was apologized for. She simply waited patiently.

In this episode, we look at what I call kind assertiveness, a term Andrew gave me more than a decade ago after I watched him handle a problem after his bank account was emptied. We talk about why so many of us believe we have to choose between being warm and being clear, and what it looked like the day I had to let someone on our team go.

Episode Summary:

We open with a lesson I learned back at the University of Chicago, that people would be the hardest part of leadership, and even after twenty years, I believe it now more than ever. We cover kind assertiveness, stating your needs and boundaries directly while caring about the other person's dignity, and explain why it's hard to do. We separates being nice, which aims to keep everyone comfortable and liked, from being kind, which accepts discomfort in order to be honest. Through Andrew's call to the bank, Jane Goodall's two requests on stage, the day we let a team member go and a client she had to tell no, we show that warmth, straightforwardness and clarity belong together.

 "Soft skills" are hard skills

The difference between nice and kind

Discomfort is part of the deal

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If this episode gave you a way to ask for what you need without giving up your warmth, subscribe to the Visionary's Pursuit Podcast and leave a review. It greatly helps us continue spreading the word. 

Episode 102: Is It Safe to Tell You the Truth?

In this episode, we look at why the people around you stop telling you the truth as your influence grows, and I share three tools to make honesty easier. When someone stays quiet or doesn't tell you the whole truth, my take is that you own part of the responsibility, especially in a professional setting.

Not getting candid feedback, the full truth or questions from your teams? 

Make time to hear what people think

Ask specific questions

Your reaction decides whether people speak up again

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If you found value in this podcast or today's episode, it'd mean so much to us that you subscribe to the Visionary's Pursuit Podcast and leave a review so we can keep putting out free content and reach more leaders just like you. THANK YOU!

Episode 101: Are You Too Busy to Feel?

At twenty-five, I had two flat tires and a foot on crutches in the same week. A friend asked, "Caro, what if this is the universe telling you that you're going too fast?" Looking back I find it a bit funny I needed someone to point this out to me given such clear signs. 

In this episode, we look at what slowing down means when your calendar is full and your ambitions are big, and I share a practice that takes about two minutes.

If you think slowing down means doing less, Carolina describes a practice you can use in the middle of a packed day. In practicing this, you'll soon see why leaders who learn to slow down within will create bigger, better ideas. .

 Slowing down takes two minutes

Busyness keeps us numb

Your inner wisdom

Slowing down is a competitive advantage

Connect with Carolina:

Subscribe & Review:

If you found value in this podcast or today's episode, it'd mean so much to us that you subscribe to the Visionary's Pursuit Podcast and leave a review so we can keep putting out free content and reach more leaders just like you. THANK YOU!

In this episode, we celebrate 100 by bringing Andrew (my husband and business partner) to this side of the microphone. I ask him why he left a successful sales career to build this business with me, and what it's like to share a home with a coach. He then turns the tables with questions I hadn't seen before we started recording, and a few of them took me to places I rarely go on this show.

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This couldn't have been possible without YOU! We're working on the next hundred episodes now and to make that possible, we ask that you subscribe/follow the Visionaries Pursuit Podcast and leave a review. It helps more people with a big dream find the support to pursue it.

The 6 Founder Habits Costing You Freedom: How to Reclaim Your Time Without Slowing Your Company's Growth, live masterclass September 16 and 17. If you can't make it live, sign up here to receive the replay: https://www.carozuleta.com/founder-freedom

EPISODE SUMMARY

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" That line closes Mary Oliver's poem The Summer Day, and for years I read it as a call to accomplish more. I now believe she was asking something different. She was asking how we intend to be inside our days, in the ordinary hours, while the life is happening.

If you had 10 hours back every week, and nothing in the business suffered for it, what would you do with them? I examine the beliefs underneath our discomfort with empty space, the equation of busy with responsible and productive with valuable, and how those beliefs lead us to refill any open hour with tasks or scrolling.

Key Takeaways:

Empty space is uncomfortable, so we refill it without noticing

The structural causes of busyness are only one layer

Your best thinking may happen when you stop thinking

Walking is the most accessible creativity tool you own

Leaders have optimized their calendars for reactivity

Doing nothing loses its value the moment you assign it a purpose

Memorable Quotes:

"Most people tell me they want more time, but I'm not sure we've spent enough time asking ourselves what we would do with it."

"Being busy means we're being responsible. Being productive means we're being valuable, and that empty space means wasted time."

"He hadn't been at a desk thinking. He hadn't been trying to solve the problem. He was doing the most common thing, getting on his transportation, and all of a sudden, idea came, and it felt like magic, but it wasn't magic. He had done his work first."

"We expect ourselves to be visionaries, but we've designed our days to have no room to create our visions."

"What if you go for a walk and nothing useful comes out of it? There's no breakthrough or no strategy or no innovative way of solving the problem you have. Is that walk still worthwhile?"

Resources Mentioned:

Connect with Carolina:

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If you're enjoying this podcast, it'd go a long way if you follow and leave a quick review. Spreading the words helps immensely. 

Go here to register for my latest masterclass, The 6 Founder Habits Costing Your Freedom: How to Reclaim Your Time Without Slowing Your Company's Growth: https://www.carozuleta.com/founder-freedom

Episode Summary:

I live between two worlds. In the coaching world, the three day week is the trophy. In the rooms full of executives and business owners I spend time in, they wear an eighty hour week badge of honor. "I'm SO busy." This episode asks you to consider which story you have been telling yourself about rest and whether you chose it on purpose. Using the Self Coaching Model, Simon Sinek's distinction between finite and infinite games and the "who, not how" question from Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy, we walk through what an entrepreneur must believe in order to grow a company that does not depend on their hours. I also share where I am in this myself, since so much of my self esteem has come from being productive and I am questioning that right now alongside my clients.

Key Takeaways:

The Belief Comes First:

Finite Games and Infinite Games:

Ultra-Delayed Gratification:

Your Value: 

What It Takes:

Memorable Quotes:

"We don't act rationally. We are emotional beings, and then we use our reason to justify our actions."

"Nobody's going to win the best lived life award."

"If we start with the belief that it's impossible to grow a successful business while having a lot of free time, we are not going to take the actions and make the hard calls that lead to freedom."

"By the time we achieve that goal, we already are thinking about the other goal."

"Because we started the business doesn't mean that we have all the right answers."

"The business can grow while we're reading another book, while we're playing with our children, or when we're simply sitting and looking at a sunset."

"It is not automatic. It will require self-awareness, difficult conversations and having fewer priorities."

Resources Mentioned:

About This Episode:

This episode challenges the assumption that a successful business has to be paid for in hours. Carolina walks through the beliefs that keep entrepreneurs trapped in a cycle of postponed rest, the difference between building a company to sell and building one that lasts, and the questions that reveal where your time is going. If you are exhausted, in survival mode or quietly proud of how tired you are, this conversation is an invitation to design it differently.

Connect with Carolina:

Subscribe & Review:

If this episode helped you question how many hours your business needs from you, please subscribe to Visionary's Pursuit and leave a review. Your support helps other entrepreneurs discover the show and enables us to keep creating this free content every week.

I'm hosting a FREE live masterclass on September 16th and 17th called The 6 Founder Habits Costing You Freedom: How to Reclaim Your Time Without Slowing Your Company’s Growth

Register here: https://www.carozuleta.com/founder-freedom

Episode Summary

Ask yourself when you last took two full weeks away from your business. Two weeks with no email at breakfast and no call that could not wait, while your company kept moving well the entire time you were gone.

In this episode I walk through the two-week absence test and what it reveals about the company you have created. Every founder I coach started their business for two reasons, because they love the challenge and because freedom sits at the top of their values, and the habits that make them excellent operators are the same habits that keep that freedom out of reach. I get into what has to be in place before a company can pass this test, which comes down to whether your people can make good decisions while you are gone and whether those decisions carry the business where you want it to go. I share the story of a client of mine who stepped up and moved her company forward during her founder's absence, only to have the direction reversed the week her boss came back.

I also talk about the story so many of us tell ourselves about next month being easier, and why I have come to see it as procrastination disguised as optimism. Jim Collins learned something related from Admiral James Stockdale, and I share that here too. I close with the two jobs I believe belong to every founder, along with what Richard Branson and J.J. Abrams understand about surrounding yourself with extraordinary people and then letting them behave that way. If you have been postponing the hard conversations while you wait for an easier season, this episode gives you a place to start.

Key Takeaways

Memorable Quotes

Resources Mentioned

Connect with Carolina

Subscribe & Review

If this episode resonated, please leave a rating and follow the show. It helps other founders find the podcast and allows us to keep creating this content for free.

I have a favor to ask of you... if you've gotten value from this podcast, it'd mean the world to me if you could rate and follow. It goes a very long way in helping others like you find us. Thank you!

There's a question I love asking founders: What do you say to yourself when you're working hard and the results still aren't showing up? The answer tells me pretty quickly whether in pursuit of their goal they're going to burnout. 

In this episode I unpack some common misconceptions in Angela Duckworth's research of Grit. We discuss the nature of tense moments. how to surrender your results and how to know if you're on your way to burnout.