IAM2913 – Podcast Host Provides Healthcare to Children With Special Needs

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Transcription:

Dr. Courtney Baker 00:00
There is a quote, I think it's Winston Churchill, but it's, success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It's the courage to continue that counts.

Gresham Harkless 00:42
This is Gresh from the I Am CEO Podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Dr. Courtney Baker of Kids Home Healthcare. Dr. Courtney, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Dr. Courtney Baker 00:50
Hey, it's good to be here.

Gresham Harkless 00:52
Yeah, definitely super excited to have you on. And what I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about Dr. Courtney so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Dr. Courtney is an award-winning entrepreneur, podcast host of Women in Business, researcher, author, TEDx speaker, and a nationally recognized authority on women's leadership. Her experience founding and growing KidsCare, a multimillion-dollar enterprise that has provided healthcare to over 50,000 children with special needs from Texas to Colorado, offers her the unique opportunity to leverage her depth of experience to help women who are in positions similar to the one she was in 15 years ago. In her work, Courtney helps side hustlers to transition to the CEOs of, to become CEOs of their businesses, something many of them find very, very scary. Dr. Courtney, are you ready to speak to the I Am CEO community?

Dr. Courtney Baker 01:38
I am.

Gresham Harkless 01:39
Awesome. Let's do it. So I wanted to kick everything off and just hear a little bit more about your story, your CEO story, what led you to get started with your business.

Dr. Courtney Baker 01:46
So I started my adult journey as a single teenage mom, and I was on Medicaid and food stamps. And fast forward, put myself through college, um, and then got out into the working world and realized pretty quickly at the age of 28 when I knew everything, um, that I did not want to be an undervalued employee for the rest of my life. And so I decided, um, that I was going to do it myself and started a business. And 2003, so it was right after September 11th, you know, when the economy was in the toilet. My newly married husband, my husband and I had just gotten pregnant and he was laid off. I mean, every, all, all the things were stacked against us. And, uh, it was the worst time to start a business, but it just amazingly worked out. 16 years now, and we are all over Texas, Colorado, and we just branched into Idaho. And it has been an amazing, amazing ride. We have about 650 employees. And then in 2012, I transitioned out of the daily operations to go fulfill a lifelong dream that I'd had since being that single teenage mom.

Gresham Harkless 03:11
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Courtney Baker 03:12
And decided to go get my doctorate degree in leadership. And now I work to decrease the gender gap at the highest levels of leadership, uh, for women in, um, by helping women start and scale their own service-based businesses.

Gresham Harkless 03:30
Nice. Well, I definitely, you know, appreciate that. I always love, you know, to hear stories about, you know, how people are able to, to reach a, a level of success and then, you know, not just say I'm comfortable here, but to go back and to kind of reinvest in the community. community and the people, and I'm sure there's best effing people probably that have helped you out as well too. So to also be that person that, you know, the, the women can also look to to say, hey, you know, you're, you're inspiring me, but you're also providing me a lot of tools to be successful, which I think is phenomenal.

Dr. Courtney Baker 03:56
Thank you. Yeah. And honestly, when I started my business, starting a company wasn't something that was like everyone was doing. I mean, it was, gosh, I don't even know if Google was really a big deal. So to be the resource to people that I never had is so key to me because according to research, we are more than 100 years away from gender equality at the C-level. And that's not good enough for me. I've got 2 little girls who are 16 and 12, and I thought, you know, what am I doing to make the future better for them? So that's, that's really my why.

Gresham Harkless 04:42
Yeah, I love that. ‘Cause a lot of it comes back to legacy and sometimes, you know, in the day-to-day of running a business, especially, you know, we can forget the why of why we're doing everything that we're doing. And I think that to, you know, to make the world a better place, you know, for, for everybody, for your daughters, for everybody else is definitely, you know, a phenomenal thing. So, um, I know, I know you touched on it a little bit, but I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper. Could you tell us some of the things that you're doing to kind of help out women in leadership and some of the, the different initiatives and programs you have planned?

Dr. Courtney Baker 05:08
Sure. I have a, um, I, I offer private coaching and I, I also have a course, an online course called From Side Hustle to CEO.

Speaker B 05:19
Okay.

Dr. Courtney Baker 05:20
And it launches in February, um, for the second time it's been out, been available. But it's an online course that tells the basics of starting a business, getting your LLC, Making sure the company name that you are looking at having is not trademarked. You know, just the things that foundationally you need to do before you set up a business. But it also talks about marketing and sales and, um, building a team. I mean, it's, it's pretty robust, but it's not overwhelming. It's only 5 modules.

Gresham Harkless 05:57
Okay. That's awesome. And, and I know that, you know, you mentioned that creating that resource, and that's what I love about entrepreneurship is a lot of times we see like there's a gap or there's something that's not being fulfilled or fulfilled to the level we think it should. And rather than just sit on the sidelines and say, hey, somebody should create it, you actually go, go about and create it yourself. So that, I think that's pretty cool. And, uh, and your podcast also kind of focuses on that as well too. Am I correct?

Dr. Courtney Baker 06:19
Yeah. Yeah. So Women in Business is, um, also inspirational stories for women entrepreneurs is the second part of it. But on Mondays I do interviews and then on Thursdays, There are business tips and advice and strategies for starting and scaling a business.

Gresham Harkless 06:38
Awesome. Yeah, you definitely need all those resources because I know that anytime you're starting a business, especially, I can say that as well too, is that there's, it's just like a fire hose because there's so many things coming at you. You don't know what to do, what not to do, what to use, what not to use. So it's great to kind of have like resources like, you know, podcasts, but also like courses especially. So, you know, like, okay, what is an LLC first of all? And let me figure out how best to incorporate my business? How do I let people know about all the awesome stuff I'm working on? And to get that kind of step-by-step process helps out a ton.

Dr. Courtney Baker 07:10
Yeah. Yeah. And to have the guidance from someone who's been there and, and also tell you kind of in the no fluff, no BS, like, here's what it is. Cut to the chase. Let's giddy up. You know? And that's what I'm all about.

Gresham Harkless 07:26
Absolutely. Yeah. And I, I think a lot of times, you know, I'm glad you talked about somebody that had been there before because I think sometimes we don't realize something is possible until we see somebody do it or hear that somebody's done it. So that kind of empowers us and gives us permission to kind of, you know, be bold to kind of go and do the things that everybody else might not want us to do, but that we are kind of sometimes called to do.

Dr. Courtney Baker 07:48
Yeah, absolutely. And that's the thing. Like when I, uh, like I said, when I started my business, it wasn't super popular or sexy to be an entrepreneur. Everybody was like, What are you thinking? You're pregnant. You're newly married. Like all these things. But I just knew that I was not going to job hop for the rest of my life until I hopefully found somewhere that treated me right. And I thought if I can create a business in this niche, because I feel like I knew I had a niche providing home health to kids, then I knew if I could be the employer that I wanted to be, the success would follow.

Gresham Harkless 08:29
Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And it's kind of important to kind of, you know, remind ourselves of like, you know, a lot of times we have to create the world we wanna see just, you know, sometimes within our homes. And once we were able to do that, then it starts to kind of, um, create that energy where it starts to magnify not just our homes, but also everybody else's homes. And, you know, it, it just starts to create that, that, uh, effect from there. And, um, so I wanted to ask you for, um, something I call your secret sauce, and it could be for you, uh, personally, or it could also be for KinderCare or different initiatives that you have, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

Dr. Courtney Baker 09:01
Well, for KidsCare, I have made sure that I have supported the team that we've built because it still operates. I'm still CEO and chairman of the board, but I'm not in the daily operations. So KidsCare is actually set up to run without me. And then my secret sauce for, uh, my my From Side Hustle to CEO is I make sure that I call it like it is and have a strategy to help the women that I'm helping that is really going to focus on profits and not if people are popular. You know, I mean, a lot of the coaches now talk about, you know, build your following and I think that's a vanity metric. That is That is fluff. I want, if it's not growing your bank account, we don't need to focus on it.

Gresham Harkless 09:55
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. 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 like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Dr. Courtney Baker 10:08
My CEO hack is to, for a book or attraction, Traction is an, it's an entrepreneur operating system, is EOS, and it helps you determine who operates in what setting in your business, but also helps you capitalize on their strengths and really create that team and move forward.

Gresham Harkless 10:42
Awesome. And so now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget, and this could be around women leadership, but what's like a word of wisdom or a piece of advice you would give for our listeners and readers, or something you might even tell your younger business self?

Dr. Courtney Baker 10:54
There is a quote, and I'm trying to remember who said it. I think it's Winston Churchill, but it's, success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It's the courage to continue that counts.

Gresham Harkless 11:07
Mm-hmm. Yeah, absolutely. 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 this show. So, Dr. Courtney, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Dr. Courtney Baker 11:20
I think being a CEO is being able to own and operate a business by setting up a team to make it happen. Yeah. Because you're, you're, but anyone can be a CEO. It doesn't mean that you have to have like this massive team, but I think also having all the different pieces of what it takes, you know, the finance, the marketing, the sales, the, all the different pieces of operating a business, being able to do them well through other people.

Gresham Harkless 11:59
I love that. And I love that perspective. And, you know, even, you know, related to your courses, as we talked about, is that a lot of times you don't, we, when you first get started, you don't see all those different pieces, but once you're able to see those pieces and see how the puzzle can go together, as you said, you know, you can have a big team, you can have a small team, but just understanding that you still have pieces and how they need to go together in order to create that, that vision and that mission and that goal that you wanna hit.

Dr. Courtney Baker 12:21
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Gresham Harkless 12:22
Awesome.

Speaker B 12:23
Awesome.

Gresham Harkless 12:23
Awesome. So, Dr. Cora, I truly appreciate that definition. I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and listeners know. And then of course, how best they can get ahold of you and find out about all the awesome things you're working on.

Dr. Courtney Baker 12:37
Yeah. I mean, your journey is in your own hands. Um, and, and you really can achieve anything that you want. If I can go from a struggling single teenage mom to Texas Businesswoman of the Year and have my doctorate and have a team of 650 people, anybody can do it. I wasn't special. It wasn't like I was unique or had this, I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Anybody can do it. And it's having the grit and the belief in yourself that you can do it and be committed when times get hard. And you can find me at courtney@courtneybaker.com. My name doesn't have a U in it. So just Courtney at courtneybaker.com and you can look up fromsidehustletoceo.com, or if you're more interested in the kids care, um, route, then kidscarehomehealth.com.

Gresham Harkless 13:33
Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. We will make sure to have those links in the show notes so that everybody can follow up with you as well and see all the awesome things you're working on. And of course, subscribe to the podcast. Uh, but thank you so much again. And thank you especially for the reminder that, you know, that we do have it within us. And a lot of times we just have to remind ourselves that it will be difficult. But as your husband said as well too, if it, if it was easy, everybody would be doing it. So that's what we need to have and remind ourselves of.

Dr. Courtney Baker 13:57
Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 13:59
Awesome. And have a phenomenal rest of the day.