In this episode of the I AM CEO Podcast, host Gresham Harkless interviews Rebecca Brown, a Certified Money Coach, Certified Professional Coach, and Laughter Yoga Teacher. Rebecca is based in Reno, Nevada, and serves clients globally. Her mission is to help professionals and entrepreneurs redefine abundance by bringing together the worlds of play, purpose, and prosperity.
During the discussion, Rebecca shares her insights and strategies on how individuals can redefine abundance in their lives and businesses. She highlights the importance of time management, including chunking time, highlighting priorities, and creating a joy list. Rebecca also encourages listeners to give themselves permission to be playful and make choices aligned with their desires.
Throughout the episode, Rebecca discusses her coaching services and shares her websites, including rebeccabrowncoaching.com and laughter-life.com. She can also be found on LinkedIn and Facebook.
Overall, this episode provides valuable guidance for professionals and entrepreneurs looking to redefine abundance in their lives and businesses. Rebecca's expertise in money coaching, professional coaching, and laughter yoga make her insights unique and valuable for anyone looking to bring more joy and purpose into their entrepreneurial journey.
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Transcription:
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Rebecca Brown Teaser 00:00
Sure. I help my clients really gain clarity on where they want to go and what their values are. Because as I said, my clients are those who are waking up, so to speak. So it's gaining clarity and it's developing confidence to say, I can go after that and then acting with courage.
Intro 00:17
Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview?
If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of.
This is the I AM CEO podcast.
Gresham Harkless 00:42
Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I appreciate you listening to this episode. If you've been listening this year, you know that we've hit 1600 episodes at the beginning of this year. We're doing something a little bit different where we're repurposing our favorite episodes around certain categories, topics, or as I like to call them, business pillars that we think are going to be extremely impactful for CEOs, entrepreneurs, and business owners, just like you, or what I like to call the CB nation architects who are looking to level up their organizations.
This month, we are focusing on CEO Hacks and CEO Nuggets. This is by far one of my favorite questions I asked on the show. In other words, I asked, what are the apps, books, and habits that make you more effective and efficient? Those were the CEO Hacks. Then I asked for a word of wisdom or a piece of advice or something that you might tell your younger business self, if you were to hop into a time machine and those were the CEO Nuggets. That's what we'll focus on this month and some of the top ones that can instantly impact your business.
I love all the questions, but with every episode, I felt I would walk away with something I could look at and implement right there to save the precious resources, time and money. Or I would also learn about the advice, tips, and tidbits or tools of the trade on how to level up our organization. So you'll hear some of these this month. So sit back and enjoy this special episode of the I AM CEO podcast.
Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Rebecca Brown of Rebecca Brown Coaching. Rebecca it's awesome to have you on the show.
Rebecca Brown 02:17
So excited to be here, Gresh.
Gresham Harkless 02:19
What I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about Rebecca so you can learn a little bit more about all the awesome things that she's doing.
Rebecca Brown is a certified money coach, a certified professional coach, and laughter yoga teacher based in Reno, Nevada, serving clients globally. She is on a mission to help professionals and entrepreneurs redefine abundance by bridging the worlds of play, purpose, and prosperity.
Rebecca, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?
Rebecca Brown 02:46
I am. I am. I'm excited.
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Gresham Harkless 02:47
Now, the first question I have is just like to build a little bit more upon your bio that I read and if you could tell us a little bit more about your CEO story and what led you to start your business.
Rebecca Brown 02:55
Absolutely. I have always lived my life outside of the proverbial box, so to speak, and freedom has been my guiding principle. So I've said, don't box me in. I don't want to be in the nine-to-five box. And so for many years, I was the round peg who refused to fit in the square hole. So I created my major in college. I taught environmental education and directed summer camps and was really living a life that was on purpose and was fulfilling for where I was and what I was doing. But I found that brand of freedom came at a cost, in not allowing myself to look in the traditional box and maybe some practical matters, I was really creating my own box.
So what I found as I moved on from Camp directing and environmental education, was I found myself consulting and working in the book marketing field and it still allowed me freedom. It allowed me to market books at 10 p. m. if I wanted to and go up and paddle on Lake Tahoe during the day, or it allowed me that really good flexibility, but it wasn't tapping into my purpose. So I was feeling super unfulfilled as a consultant in my business. So a few years ago, I found myself really staring into the face of a new decade and feeling like life was pretty tepid and I wasn't feeling like I was having an impact. So I was putting on a good face because I felt the glass is always half full, in my mind. I felt like I was trapped by these golden handcuffs as I started to call them of consulting work.
So I started to explore the world of coaching because friends who have been in the coaching world for several years had recommended that field. I got trained as a personal and professional development coach and opened my coaching practice and found that clients were coming in with a lot of money issues and money ties into all aspects of our lives. I wanted an extra tool in my toolkit, so then got my money coaching certification. What I've really found is that coaching has really been a way for me to tap back into my own purpose and to feel fulfilled and to spread this.
So my clients are those that are waking up, that are feeling like, okay, I've been in a career and I've sold my life to my career, but I really want to create a family or I've given my life to my family. Now, who am I anymore? And really, it's those folks who are waking up and tapping back into their big why. In terms of how I say I'm on a mission to redefine abundance, it's because for me, that taps into this idea of joy and playfulness and wonder and brings that into the conversation beyond just the practical prosperity that we think of when we think of abundance. But it's an abundant life beyond that.
That's really what my coaching practice is about helping folks tap into that, whether it's through money coaching or through this personal professional development coaching or through laughter yoga, because that's my thing, I love to help people laugh and smile. I am now the CEO of Rebecca Brown Coaching and the laughter life because I found that is a much better fit for me than the world of consulting. It really is much more fulfilling and allows me to serve my higher purpose.
Gresham Harkless 06:25
Awesome. Yeah, I love that. I love your story, obviously, and get an opportunity to tap into your purpose so that you can help people tap into their purpose and experience abundance in entirely different ways. Sometimes we define it or give it credit so I think that's awesome what you're doing.
I wanted to drill a little bit deeper to hear a little bit more about exactly like how do you help out and what are your products and services that you help out your clients with?
Rebecca Brown 06:45
Sure. I help my clients really gain clarity on where they want to go and what their values are, because like I said, my clients are those who are waking up, so to speak. So it's gaining clarity and it's developing confidence to say, I can go after that, and then acting with courage. Because as we start to launch into our big, bold, beautiful dreams, oftentimes fears come up or old beliefs or challenges roadblocks. So really helping them to have the courage, to really act with confidence and overcome those things.
It starts with really helping my clients define their box, define what it is that's keeping them safe. Oftentimes our box keeps us cozy, it's comfy in there, right? So we've created this comfy little world in staying in that box. We aren't really tapping into our true potential and all that's possible. So really it's about unpacking that box and looking into the stories that my clients have woven all around it and the beliefs that are there, so that they can gain clarity on where they want to go and really redefine freedom and abundance on their terms and start to show up in a bigger, bolder way and share their gifts with the world.
So oftentimes in coaching, a big part of it is holding up the mirror and helping clients to realize wow, this is really the way that I am presenting myself to the world, but I want to be presenting in this way and what needs to shift and what can I do? So, in terms of the money coaching piece, it's adding in the human element of the money conversation. Oftentimes when we talk about money, if we talk about money, it's the practical side and the debts, the assets and that side of money, and it's missing the human element, which is that emotional behavioral kind of belief system tied into money.
So it's diving into that aspect and looking at the beliefs and the behaviors and the challenging patterns from their past sourcing, where those are coming from. Really working to transform that relationship with money on a behavioral level versus just looking at debts and assets. So that's a bigger picture of what I provide with my coaching practice.
Gresham Harkless 08:58
I wanted to ask you a little bit more about your organization, and your company what do you feel makes you unique or what's your kind of quote and quote secret sauce?
Rebecca Brown 09:04
I would say that my secret sauce is really focusing on joy. That comes from my laughter yoga side of things and my mission to really help one person smile every day. So I have found for me that adding this element of laughter and joy has really opened doors for me both and for my clients. For myself, it's open doors in terms of leading workshops for professional organizations, nonprofits, government organizations, and having those speaking engagements to get in there and really help folks add levity to the workplace and to their company.
Then I have found with clients, it's really once they start tapping into laughter and start tapping into joy. It really helps tap into your creativity and your emotional resilience and the challenges that come up, right? If you approach it from this place of laughter and levity, it helps you to really shift your perspective on what is coming up. And for the money coaching, really that secret sauce is adding in the human element to money.
Gresham Harkless 10:15
Makes perfect sense. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. This might be a book, it might be an app, or it might just be a habit that you have, lean on a regular everyday basis that makes you more effective and efficient as a business owner.
Rebecca Brown 10:28
Yeah, I would say for myself that my hack is that I'm still a paper calendar gal so I write out my week. I chunk out my time. I find that chunking time into say a two-hour time block to work on social media posts or a chunk of time for client calls and a chunk of time for new connections and coffee connections virtually or in person. Then I find that highlighting those in the colors and in their categories really helps me to look back on that paper calendar and say, Whoa, okay, I spent most of my time on admin this week, or wow. The majority of my time was spent with clients. Or, wow, I spent a lot of time on social media this week.
But it really puts a perspective in terms of, wow, this is where my time is going. And let's redirect that time so that, the majority of the time is spent on income producing, right? Then the next one down is marketing. So probably like 60% on income producing. 20% on marketing, 10% on new connections, and all that. I have found that the paper calendar is huge.
The other hack for me has really been creating a joy list. That's really a list of things that bring me joy. So having that list that I can tap into and do one of them a day. So if I only have 15 minutes maybe, it's okay, I'm going to read a chapter of a book. If I have an hour, it's okay, I'm going to go take a walk and spend some time in the forest. If I have 5 minutes maybe, I'm going to do five minutes of laughter. But really tapping into one thing and being really consciously committing to tapping into one thing that brings me joy has allowed me to stay in that positive mindset as a CEO as well.
Gresham Harkless 12:22
I love both of those. Now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. This might just be like a word of wisdom or a piece of advice you might have for entrepreneurs and business owners.
Rebecca Brown 12:30
Sure. My golden nugget to share would be my favorite coaching question to ask. So when a client comes and they are facing a challenge, typically I will say, what if you gave yourself permission to be playful with this? The thing that I love about that question is when we give ourselves permission, I call it the art of allowing, right?
So when we give ourselves permission, we open the doorway to possibility thinking, because when we allow ourselves to be playful, it takes off the pressure of, oh my gosh, I have to do this right the first time. Or is this the best decision? Or, okay, it's not perfect, I can't do it yet, right?
But if we say, what if we get ourselves permission to be playful? Then it really opens that doorway to what the potential could be.
So typically when I've asked that, folks are like, oh my gosh, I could do this. I would do this. I would do that. And so I would say that's my nugget is when you find yourself with a challenge, really ask yourself, what if I gave myself permission to be playful with this? What will change?
Gresham Harkless 13:38
I love it. I love it. Now one of my favorite questions, of course, is to get a definition of what exactly a CEO means to you. I will have different CEOs on the podcast, but I wanted to ask you specifically, what does being a CEO mean to you?
Rebecca Brown 13:47
So for me, this is an interesting question to consider because I sometimes think I'm an entrepreneur. I'm not really a CEO. But for me, being a CEO really means having the freedom and the ability to choose and create a business that really is in alignment with who I am, with my purpose and what I have to share with the world. So being a CEO, to me, it feels like a gift, right? Because it's allowing that freedom of choice. It's allowing me to tap into that because we all have that power of choice. It's allowing me to be a creator and create what I want, but it's also allowing me to have an impact and really support my clients in having an impact.
I also feel like being a CEO brings its own sense of responsibility and leadership as we lead our clients or if it's a bigger company employees. But for me personally, it has that sense of responsibility and leadership. It means being supportive. Also asking for support when needed, it means growth. It means the ability to pivot like I pivoted from consulting to coaching. So really having that flexibility, but it really boils down to this idea of the freedom to choose and create a business that is fully in alignment with who I am, my values, and the message I have for the world.
Gresham Harkless 15:07
Rebecca, I appreciate you so much for taking some time out of your schedule to speak with us. I wanted to pass you the mic so to speak one more time, to see if there was anything additional you want to let our readers and our listeners know and also how people can best get a hold of you.
Rebecca Brown 15:18
Sure. Choose how we act and react and all of that, but just really remember that you are always at choice in terms of how you're showing up, even in the conversations you're having with prospective clients, employees, interactions, and with what you're creating.
Then in terms of where I can be found online, my website is rebeccabrowncoaching.com. I can also be found in my new Facebook group. It's The Abundance Playground. That's really where we are bridging these worlds of play, purpose, and prosperity. And having fun, really exploring and redefining what abundance is beyond the paycheck.
So feel free to reach out and join the Abundance Playground on Facebook, or you can find me at rebeccabrowncoaching.com.
Gresham Harkless 16:04
Awesome. Rebecca, thank you so much again. We'll have all those links in the show notes so anybody can follow up with you and join the Facebook group, but I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.
Rebecca Brown 16:13
You too Gresh and thanks for having me on the show.
Outro 16:16
Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO podcast, powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community.
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