IAM2747 – Productivity and Profit Specialist Empowers People to Achieve Goals

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Transcription:

Cathy Sexton 00:00
I think one of the biggest things I learned is somebody said to me one time, a very good friend, a mentor, she said, you know, if you don't invest in yourself, why should other people invest in you? And that was such an eye opener for me. And at that point is when I started, you know, willing to spend the money on courses and coaches and things like that because I realized that they have knowledge that I need.

Gresham Harkless 00:56
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 Kathy Sexton of the Productivity Experts. Kathy, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Cathy Sexton 01:05
Thank you for having me. It's going to be fun.

Gresham Harkless 01:07
Yes, definitely. It'll definitely be a ball. And what I wanted to do is just read a little bit more about Kathy so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Kathy is a productivity and profit specialist, speaker, author, TV host and coach. She helps individuals and organizations increase productivity and their profits, delivering high impact principles through speaking, coaching, training and special resources. Kathy empowers people to achieve their personal and business goals, make the profit they desire, and still have time for family and friends. Kathy, are you ready to speak to the IM CEO community?

Cathy Sexton 01:38
I'm ready.

Gresham Harkless 01:39
Awesome, awesome, awesome. So to kick everything off, I wanted to hear a little bit more about your CEO story and we'll let you get started with your business.

Cathy Sexton 01:46
Well, really my background is accounting, so I was in accounting for 30 plus years. And I'm also a reforming workaholic. So I don't think I put that in my bio. And in that corporate world I realized that I all of a sudden started having a lot of health issues and a couple few scares. But like anything else, we have it and then we kind of go back to our old normal habits, right? And then I got diagnosed with a life threatening disease basically that is brought on and induced by stress. And the doctor basically after multiple tests and said, there's nothing wrong with your heart at this point, but what's going on in your life? And when I, we started talking, she said, I, you know, I would highly recommend that you change careers and then you Know, at that point in time, you know, I had found myself, you know, working harder and harder. You know, like we all do get on a hamster wheel. I was coming in earlier and earlier, staying later and later, just so I get stuff done before anybody got there. And, you know, when I finally got that, that last big call, I guess it said, okay, wake up, Kathy. You know, I was in the hospital for three days and realizing that my husband, you know, could wind up being a widower and my, you know, my daughter without a mother, that. That was the tipping point. And I decided that I needed to change my direction. So what do I do? I'm an accountant anyway, by trade. So I open a bookkeeping business for small business owners. And, you know, the biggest question I get asked is, but isn't that stressful? And I say, yes, it is, but it's my stress. I create it, I can eliminate it, I have control over it. You know, it's not somebody putting pressure on me, and me fighting a corporate world, basically. And so as I started this bookkeeping business, I realized that small business owners needed so much more help than just bookkeeping. They needed, you know, they have no structure, they have no systems or processes in place. They're, they're good at what they do. They're technicians. You know, they, they know their skill, they know what they love to do. But running business, they just plop themselves in it. So that's when I started going through the role of coaching and started to. So now my business is all coaching around small business owners and also workaholics who want to have a better work life balance. So that's kind of where my passion is and where my gifts are, and that's what I love to do now.

Gresham Harkless 04:29
Nice. Well, I definitely appreciate that. I'm sorry, of course, to hear all the health scares and things that were happening, but, but I'm sure great to hear and I'm sure your family's also happy that you did make that pivot in that change. And, and not only, you know, telling your story just to talk about how you've been able to overcome it, but kind of remind us, because there's probably a lot of type A personalities that are listening to this, including myself, that always do that, keep a reminder of exactly what's important and how we can have control over our days, especially if we have our own kind of organization.

Cathy Sexton 05:01
Correct. It's really about, you know, why are you here and why are you doing what you do?

Gresham Harkless 05:05
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So I know you touched on it a little Bit I wanted to hear a little bit more about, like how exactly you're helping people through coaching and building those systems. Can you talk a little bit more about how you're working with your clients?

Cathy Sexton 05:15
Sure, I do, you know, I do actual individual one on one coaching. I'm in the middle of currently and I almost have my first module done, but I'm currently creating a learning portal for small business owners. Basically we'll look at mines, there'll be a module on Mindset, one on systems and processes, one on expanding our own capacity and then the big one is the miracle money method. So and there's also one that's called ppp, which is your personal productivity plan. Teaching people how to handle all that incoming stuff we have coming in on us every day. You know, the emails, the phone calls, the messages, we have all this stuff coming in and if we don't have a process to handle it, it gets overwhelming at times. So I do that and I do a little bit of group coaching. But my, you know, sweet spot is, you know, is small business owners helping them with their finances, helping them with, you know, the work life balance and trying to get them so that they can start enjoying their business again instead of just running a business. You know, we go into business because it's something we usually are passionate about or we love to do and we lose sight of that a lot times. And so I like to bring that back to them, realize they don't have to work as hard as they're working, they just have to work smarter and they have to work differently.

Gresham Harkless 06:30
Yeah, that makes sense. And I think a lot of times, and you know, definitely correct me if I'm wrong, I feel like sometimes when, because we've been running our business and we're so close to it and sometimes you get in the, I guess the method of doing things a certain way, it's really hard to kind of detach yourself from that and see that there is a better way to do like some of the processes or systems or just look at things in a different light. So sometimes, you know, talking to, you know, an expert like yourself, it allows you to get that new perspective. Perspective, but also implement those changes as well.

Cathy Sexton 06:57
Oh, definitely. Because you know, really we all only know what we know. We only know from our past histories or what we've been taught or you know, along our way. So when that's why it's so great to, you know, have a mastermind group work with a coach because they're going to bring their experiences in and you know, so often. Oh, I never thought about that. I even do that when I'm, you know, in my mastermind group. It's because we only know what we know. And until we are willing to be open and listen, that's when we broaden that knowledge and we broaden that and then we can then choose what is a better way of maybe doing something.

Gresham Harkless 07:35
Exactly, exactly. And we definitely all have that choice and that opportunity to do that. So I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And it could be for you or your organization. But what do you feel kind of set you apart and make sure you.

Cathy Sexton 07:47
Well, I think what's what sets me apart is that generally coaches are coach, what life coaches or business coaches, or you might have an accounting person to help you. But because of my accounting background, I come in coaching and I already have that information. So it just is a whole. It just works so well. It's really interesting because when I really realized I loved coaching so much and I was helping so many people and I was trying to fight that accounting stuff, I don't want to do that anymore. But then when I embraced it and realized a lot of small business owners need that because they don't even know that part of it. You know, the nitty gritty are they. Even if they know how to read a balance sheet, whatever, or profit loss, they don't know, okay, how do I change it? So, you know, so that's why I think Stan, you know, keeps me apart. And I also teach them how to pay themselves first, which is what we were taught when we were younger is always pay yourself first. And that some good. But it never seemed to work right. But I now have a systematic way that I teach them how to make sure they're getting paid first. They're having taxes is put away so that tax time comes, they have a reserve fund and they learn to be very savvy with their money.

Gresham Harkless 09:02
Yeah, I definitely appreciate that because I think a lot of times when, you know, I think that is definitely the elephant in the room is the finances. A lot of times people don't want to talk about it, don't want to look at them. But I think a lot of times if you're maybe working with the coach and the coach, you know, you say, I don't necessarily have the money to do that or I don't know how to make the money to do that, then maybe that coach doesn't necessarily have that expertise to be able to direct them or even look at their finances. And see, see? So I appreciate it because it's not like you're, you're kind of separating the two. It makes you who you are because you have that expertise that you can say, hey, we should probably consider implementing this and this is how you can set up your finances to do that. So to kind of separate the two is. Makes it a little bit more difficult than being able to have that expertise.

Cathy Sexton 09:44
Yes, definitely. Yeah. I have found that it's really, really helped a lot. Yeah.

Gresham Harkless 09:47
Nice, nice, nice. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be an Apple book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Cathy Sexton 09:58
I think, you know what, what makes me more effective and efficient is basically that I, and it's kind of what I teach my clients is that I'm very focused on what I'm doing every day. So I don't wake up the morning saying, okay, well what am I doing? What did I do yesterday? What do I need to do today? You know, at the end of the day I'm saying, okay, what are those first couple things that I need to do tomorrow? You know, what's important. And it's not always what needs to be done. It's what is most important for me to get done. And I, you know, I really Recommend Only knowing 1, 2, 3 of those at most. And don't worry about anything else, you know, because when we know what's really important for us today, then the interruptions start coming. We can then decide what to do. But if we haven't decided on that focus for today, then the, the distractions start taking over because other urgencies start popping up when we haven't really defined. Then, you know, we have something to weigh. Not necessarily that other might be more important, but until we have something to weigh, that's how we get caught up into the craziness of the life and every day to day stuff.

Gresham Harkless 11:13
Yeah. Then it makes so much sense. It's almost like, you know, if you don't set your high priorities, everything becomes high priority because everything's an emerg and you kind of have to be, I guess, on offensive when it comes to that, to set in the daily. Just like as you spoke to where, you know, the day before. These are the things I'm trying to, to accomplish. This is what success looks like. So that when those other things happen, it's not that they're not high priority. You just understand that you can figure out exactly where that, that stands on that totem bowl. Now, I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice or if you can hop into a time machine, what would you tell your own the business?

Cathy Sexton 11:45
So, oh, what would I tell my youngest? I think I would tell my youngest business self to be more open to be. Not to be a little bit more of a risk taker. I, you know, I'm an introvert for my, you know, myself, but. So I'm not a risk taker. But, you know, when I, I think one of the biggest things I learned is somebody said to me one time, a very good friend, a mentor, she said, you know, if you don't invest in yourself, why should other people invest in you? And that was such an eye opener for me. And at that point is when I started, you know, willing to spend the money on, you know, courses and coaches and things like that because I realized, you know, that they have knowledge that I need. And trying to struggle along is not the way to go. You know, and to say I can't afford it, I is always not the way to go because you have to look at what, what's the outcome going to be? What's that roi? So I think those are kind of the best nuggets I can give you.

Gresham Harkless 12:50
Yeah, I think that makes so much sense, you know, to, to understand like, you know, when you're running a business, you're hoping somebody will invest in you and invest in, you know, all the expertise that you have. But we also have to continue to kind of sharpen that saw, so to speak, by, you know, investing in courses or going to seminars or reading books, audiobook, whatever that might be. But as always, we continue to do that. That also gives people more, I guess, reason to invest in our products and services.

Cathy Sexton 13:14
Correct? Yeah, I think it's really important because, you know, when you're trying to figure out, okay, how can I, you know, raise my prices, whatever. Well, you know, I can't do that unless I'm increasing my knowledge, unless I'm bringing something new to the table. And also, you know, if I'm not willing to do that, why should I expect people to buy my services and not, you know, and pay me if I'm not willing to pay other people?

Gresham Harkless 13:37
Exactly, exactly. Yeah. A lot of times it's a little bit easier to increase your prices than to increase your value. That actually takes the time and energy of putting and investing in yourself and investing in Your business and your organization. So I appreciate that nugget. And so now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote unquote CEOs on the show. So, Kathy, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Cathy Sexton 14:00
Being a CEO is really life changing for me, you know, because of my story and knowing that now I get to change lives, you know, I'm not just going through the motions of what somebody else wants me to do. I get to actually change lives, make their life for the better, do what I'm passionate about and what I love to do. And if I could afford to do it for free, I would. And that's kind of where my passion is. So it really is about extending what I can out to the community and growing, helping other people grow in a positive way.

Gresham Harkless 14:40
Nice. I appreciate that and I definitely appreciate that perspective and appreciate your time because I think a lot of times you want to try to provide that value as much as possible and I think we have an opportunity to definitely do that. Like you said in your case in time, you mentioned the word kind of control. You're able to kind of take control of your life, but you also take control of the impact that you can have on yourself, but on others as well. So I definitely appreciate you, I appreciate that definition. And what I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know and then how best people can get a hold of you. Find out about all the awesome things you're working on.

Cathy Sexton 15:12
Okay, great. Yeah, people can find me atthe productivity experts.com. email me at Kathy with a C atthe productivity experts.com. currently I have a quiz, a work style quiz on my website that people can take for free and kind of see where they land in that workaholic life. And then soon, as I said, my learning portal will be up hopefully by the end of the year. And that'll be going forward. Got a couple live events coming up this next year. The last thing that I would just say, especially for newer CEOs, you know, is to believe in yourself. You know, believe in yourself and, and look outside yourself. You know, it's, it's, it's always bigger and better and if I would have ever thought I'd be where I am right now today, that it wasn't even imaginable 10 years ago, not even imaginable. So don't, don't box yourself in. Don't, you know, leave your, your wings open a little bit, not too far, but a little bit and enjoy the ride?

Gresham Harkless 16:20
Absolutely. No, that's a, that's a great reminder. A lot of times if you look back, you know, five years, sometimes even a year at where you were versus where you are now, you'll be astonished. So that's more than enough reason to continue to take those steps, to continue to take those risks, even bigger, small risk and, you know, just continue to keep doing what you're doing. If you have a vision, then go for it. So, Kathy, I appreciate you so much again and we will have those links and information in the show notes as well for anybody that's listening and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.