PP 030: Establishing Priorities as a Mompreneur with Carrie Wilkerson

Carrie and I discuss why it’s important to establish a schedule, primary focus and also priorities in your life, and why today is the best to get started on the journey to accomplishing all your goals and dreams.

Connect with Carrie Wilkerson

Resources Mentioned

Episode Transcription

KIM: Welcome back to another episode of Positive Productivity! This is your host, Kim Sutton, and today I am thrilled to have Carrie Wilkerson, The Barefoot Executive. Carrie is a speaker, author, and mentor who helps you maximize your profit and productivity while keeping your priorities intact. Welcome, Carrie!

CARRIE WILKERSON: Thanks for having me, Kim.

KIM: Oh, I’m thrilled to have you here. I was introduced to Carrie just in the last couple months on another podcast, and the moment I heard about her and her story, I knew that I wanted to get her on the Positive Productivity Podcast – because listeners, I think you’ll enjoy hearing her story as much as I did. Carrie, would you mind sharing that with listeners?

CARRIE: Well, there’s lots and lots of years of my story, but I’ll just encapsulate it. I was working a normal job and doing what we do normally, and I adopted two kids through the foster care system – I got sibling toddlers – and everything changed.

I decided that they were more important than a paycheck, even though I don’t recommend rash decisions like that, but they were special needs and lots of therapies, lots of bonding, lots of things we needed to be doing. And so I decided that, because I did still need a paycheck, I probably should be doing something from home. But that was 1998, so the climate was a little different then, the Internet was not as user-friendly. There were not a lot of options.

And I’ve spent the last 19 years – added two more kids, have written books, spoken from international stages, and created and sold several businesses, created and closed several business, and now still working in consulting. And that’s the short version, so there’s that! I started my business out of necessity, not out of cash and not out of drive, not out of any big idea I had or any entrepreneurial wiring – but because I needed to bridge the gap between what my check was and needed to be.

KIM: So what was your initial journey of your first business? Because I know working from home – especially in the late 90s – I mean, that was a whole different time.

CARRIE WILKERSON: Yeah, so initially I said, “You know, I’m a smart girl. I have a college degree, I’ve worked in law firms, loan offices. I’ve taught. There’s got to be something I can do. And then there’s this new thing called the Internet – it seems like there’s a way I can connect the dots here.”

But the fact is, I went to the library – which that shows you how long ago that was – I went to the library, checked out tons of books, and there just really was not a clear definitive path. So I went into sales. I joined a party plan, and I went into sales. And I did that for the next several years, loved it, loved the people, loved the training, loved the culture. And that was really my first “business training” business training.

And then I evolved into other businesses – so, service-based business, and you know other experiments along the way.

KIM: How did you find time to do everything at the beginning, with with your four young kids, while you’re trying to build your business?

CARRIE WILKERSON: Yeah, so in the beginning, it was just the two – but they were a full-time job because of their therapies and stuff. And my husband’s job – he travels and is gone quite a bit.

So I really was kind of a single, unsupported mom – “unsupported” meaning, I didn’t have parents to drop the kids off with. All my friends – we were all in the same stage of parenting at the same time, so we were all in survival mode. So even kid-swapping wasn’t just a great idea at that point, especially with my two who were still bonding, and we were figuring out some special needs that they may or may not have at that point.

So it’s the same way that you find time to make dinner, it’s the same way that you find time to take a shower, and brush your teeth. You make time for what’s important to you, and you make time for what’s necessary. And it’s not always pretty, and it’s rarely, if ever, perfect.

But you do what you have to do when you’re at a point that you have to do it. So you find your desperation, and you put in the time when they’re sleeping – you go without sleeping yourself, sometimes. You maybe don’t fold the laundry right away – you know, it takes a few days – but you work it in where you can work it in.

KIM: I’m laughing about not folding the laundry for a couple days. I have to admit, we we live out of the laundry basket a little bit more than we should.

CARRIE WILKERSON: There you go. It’s a stage, and it happens, and you have to let some of your perfectionism go in other areas. People that say, “Oh, I have to get all that done and get all that done perfectly” – the truth is, we use perfectionism as a procrastination technique.

KIM: Oh, absolutely. What is one thing in your day-to-day life that you are okay letting go so that you can get other things done? Or maybe I’ll expand this question and ask: Are all of the dishes in your kitchen clean right now?

CARRIE WILKERSON: Yes, they absolutely are. And they haven’t always been, but they are right now. But my younger two are now nine and 12, and so when my kids hit seven, they get chores.

And typically the youngest gets dishes, so she cleans the kitchen after dinner. If they’re big pans and stuff, I help of course, but she does the dishes after dinner, wipes down the cabinets, unloads the dishwasher, puts the dishes away, and we don’t go to bed until the dishwasher is started. I mean, that’s just kind of a thing. So if there ever are any dishes, it’s like my own breakfast dishes that are just waiting for nighttime for them to get home, and unload the dishwasher, and start the cycle again.

One of them, the preteen, does the kids’ laundry – it’s not folded the way I want, it’s not put away that I want, but it’s clean and they smell okay, and they’re learning some responsibility.

We don’t get mopped and swept as much as I like, there’s more dust than I like, but – and the clutter builds up every few days before we do a sweep of the house. But when they were toddlers and babies, I mean there was a lot that I let go, and so you either have to decide to let it go, hire some help, or make time for it. I mean, there’s really no “supermom”. There really is no, “I can do it all, plus cook all these times per week, plus all those things.”

I don’t grocery shop any more, so we have a grocery delivery service that costs six dollars.

KIM: Six dollars, that’s fantastic.

CARRIE WILKERSON: Isn’t that insane? I save more than that in spontaneous purchases – and it stores my history, so I literally… Most people buy the same stuff every week, right? So I literally can go into my history and check “select all” and order my groceries. I mean, it’s crazy how simple it can be.

I’ve also done the grocery pickup service – I wasn’t as happy with that – and I’ve also grocery shopped and had the kids help me, or grocery shopped when they were in bed.

I mean, guys, I’ve been through every single stage and phase. My kids now range from 9 to 21, and I’ve owned a business since – you know, for 19 years. So I’ve done it all, but one of the things I let go is like wandering around the grocery store putting my hands on things.

Yes, I can deal with the produce that they pick out for me. I’m going to have to let perfectionism in produce go, for the fact that I can have it delivered while I’m on an interview, or while I’m writing a chapter of my next book. So those are some things that I let go.

We entertain quite a bit, because it’s my hobby, it’s what feeds me. So I have a dinner party or an open house at least once a month, and something I let go is I don’t always do all the cooking for that. We either have everybody bring something, or I’ll have it catered in, or it’ll just be super simple. The point is just to be together.

I don’t usually have a housekeeper come before – I just maybe wipe down the piano and the table and run a vacuum, and it’s good enough. I don’t have a staff like a housekeeper, and errands, and all those kind of things.

So yeah, there’s a lot of things that could be more perfect – and at some point, when my house is empty and the kids are gone, it’ll stay clean longer – but it’s going to be awfully quiet, for sure.

KIM: What does your team look like, Carrie? Who helps you behind the scenes to keep everything flowing in your business?

CARRIE WILKERSON: I have one person, on my team since 2008 – her name is Karen. She works with me 10 to 12 hours a month – not a week – a month. She’s a virtual assistant, she lives in Florida and I’m in Texas – and sometimes during extraordinarily busy times, I’ll bump her up to 15 hours for the month. But most of the time, she’s right around 10 hours for the month.

If I need graphics, if I need something out of the ordinary done, I outsource it either through word of mouth – or I go to Fiver.com (F-I-V-E-R-R) and look through recommended providers there. But my team is very lean – it’s Karen and I.

I save all my receipts, I email my accountant with all my stuff – I do have my taxes professionally done. That’s just smart, and it helps you maximize your deductions and stay out of jail.

But that’s it. I mean, my full time team really is just me and Karen, and she’s 10 hours a month.

KIM: I’m amazed, because I even have my people doing more than that. But maybe I just need to get better systems in place!

CARRIE WILKERSON: There you go!

KIM: Do you have a daily routine, or a weekly routine that you like to follow?

CARRIE WILKERSON: I do, and it’s kind of a loose framework because of the ages of my kids – and the fact that one’s in college, and one is a working adult, and then two very much in school – one that cheers on a junior high squad, and a very active church and extended family life. Every day is a little different.

What I try to do is a “framework”, meaning: Tuesdays and Thursdays tend to be my recording days, my interview days, my coaching or consulting days. They tend to be the days I need to make noise, or have appointments, or whatever. And that’s not because those days are magical – that’s because I have had preschoolers and young children since 1998. And those used to be like Mom’s Day Out or preschool, or when my kids were in a homeschool cooperative – those were on Tuesdays and Thursdays, too. So I just am kind of conditioned to have really busy Tuesdays and Thursdays, so that’s part of my framework.

Monday tends to be administrative. Wednesday tends to be kind of “fill-in-the-gaps”: What deadlines am I on? What needs to be done? But also, Wednesday tends to be an appointment day – if I need a doctor’s appointment, a dentist appointment, if the kids need to go have something done – that tends to fall on Wednesdays.

And Fridays is what I call “Follow-Up Friday”. I’d like to be off at least half a day on Friday, when I can swing it. My husband is off every other Friday, and we just like to have kind of an easy day. So Follow-Up Friday means, I finish something outstanding that’s on my desk, I clean out my inbox, I send thank you notes, I send gifts, I do outreach – those kind of things. I kind of “put a bow” on outstanding things on Friday, so that I can go into the weekend with kind of a clear head.

So that’s kind of a loose framework. My daily routine is: I get up before everybody else. Yes I know, moms need sleep – but for years, and years, and years, I’d get up before the kids so I can dress, so that I can take care of my own grooming. I am not the mom hanging out in pajamas, or yoga pants, or dropping them off at school looking like that. I feel like when we look like we’re in business, we act more like we’re in business.

So I get up and dress, and start the coffee. I do some reading, I do my daily devotional, and I just have some “me minutes” to kind of gather my thoughts around the day before I get them up, and start dealing with breakfast, and all those things.

Part of their nighttime routine is getting out their clothes for the next day, packing their own lunch for the next day, organizing their backpacks, all those things – because that makes the morning flow a little better. And we all end up a lot happier, a lot calmer, and a lot more organized – less rush, less hurry.

KIM: That’s fabulous. And I love how you said getting their clothes ready the night before – that’s a big struggle in our house. And it’s not just the kids, I think the parents need to get their clothes ready the night before, too.

CARRIE WILKERSON: Absolutely, absolutely.

KIM: Do you have a mantra, or a motto, or a quote that you live by everyday?

CARRIE WILKERSON: So many, so many, so many. You know, the number one reason I see people not doing more – either in relationships, or in their business, or in their life – is because of fear. And especially with business, I say, “You know, you can be scared and broke, or you can be afraid and well-paid.” I mean if we’re going to be scared anyway, we might as well get paid for it. We might as well be scared and take action, and get paid for being scared, than let it paralyze us into doing nothing, and just be scared and broke. So that’s one thing.

The other thing is: Time matters. Days matter. Anybody that’s had kids knows how fast it goes. I know the days are long, but the time is short. I know that, I get it. But the fact is, don’t ever not approach a goal because of how much time it’s going to take. The time is going to pass anyway, with or without you. You might as well hitch your wagon to time and be making progress.

If I had waited until my youngest was in school, or if I had waited until my marriage was perfect, or I had lost weight, or until we were totally out of debt – if I had waited until any of all those things to start my business, I still wouldn’t be started, because the youngest is only 9. And instead, I started a business when she was 10 weeks old. I started The Barefoot Executive when my youngest of four was 10 weeks old, and I had another full-time business already.

So I think we have to stop waiting until the circumstance is perfect. We’re lying to ourselves that there is a better time – the time is now. And we can make small steps, we can make imperfect steps, but it’s really important that we role model this way. It’s really important that we prove to ourselves in this way. And so I think my mantra is: “Now is the best time.” Now is the best time to start, or to start learning about, or to start taking action on.

KIM: That’s so fabulous, and I completely agree. If Carrie can do it with two to four, and I can do it with five, then there’s no excuse for any of you listeners- so go for it.

Carrie, I love all the accomplishments that you’ve had – even besides your business – like losing the weight and getting out of debt. And something that I’ve seen a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with is money, and they continually put money, and more money, and more money into their business, hoping that there’s going to be great results. Do you have any thoughts about that, or suggestions, on how people can avoid going into debt for their business?

CARRIE WILKERSON: Yeah, I think that – I started The Barefoot Executive in August of 1997. I already had a multiple six-figure business. We were out of debt, we were doing really well. There really wasn’t a need for another business, except I was – I felt like a recession was coming. It’s hard to explain now, looking back – but I really felt compelled to start a second stream of income, and I felt like “now” was the time.

So as a result, though, it was a radically different business model than I had normally done. I had not had a website, I had not done any information, publishing, or that kind of thing. So I wanted to get a couple of courses on it, and I also needed to invest in a software at that time.

And so I created a rule for myself at that time – which a lot of people looking back will say, “Well, Carrie, you had a lot of fluid income. Why didn’t you just buy what you wanted to buy?” Well, because I had been in six figures of debt before – and so I’m very cautious with what I spend my money on. I’m very generous when I’m gifting, or helping, or contributing, or spoiling other people – but I’m very cautious in “solution purchases”, if that makes sense.

So I created a rule at that time, and I said, “This is not going to affect the family budget or the other business. I’m going to use a credit card to – even I could have paid cash – I’m going to use a credit card for this purchase of this course and this software. And before the bill comes in, I will have taken enough action that I can pay the bill off.”

So my rule is still, “I will not invest in a course, or a software, or a subscription, or anything else unless I can see ROI (return on investment) and pay it off within a credit card cycle.”

KIM: Wow.

CARRIE WILKERSON: So that helps me not buy everybody’s new shiny course. “Oh, but they said they’re going to close the doors and never offer it again!” Guess what. I’m guessing you can probably still get in later. If not, I bet you can learn another way. We have to be smart with our money. We cannot keep handing the keys over to other people to decide when we need stuff.

My secondary rule is: I focus on one skill, one technique, one expert per year with a real motive. So maybe my motive for this year is “incoming leads for my business”. So I’m going to study that. So the one course, or the one conference, or the one expert I study will have to do with that one thing.

Otherwise, I’m looking at that, and then I’m looking at membership sites, then I’m looking at content creation – and, “Oh, shiny! Look over here, this is going to do automatic posting.” And then you’re all over the map, and you’re making no progress in anything, but you’ve just spent five grand.

So instead, I have a specific focus, a specific expert, a specific skill set that I want to focus on for that year. And that’s the only thing I will allow myself to spend on, or read blogs on, or subscribe to a list.

I’m also not on a lot of mailing lists. It’s amazing how much less you spend when you’re not getting solicitations in the mail or e-mail.

KIM: Oh, that’s so true. I’ve been unsubscribing from so much lately. Except for yours!

CARRIE WILKERSON: Good girl!

KIM: So you are a speaker, and an author, and a mentor. But I would love to hear how you fit speaking and writing into your schedule – especially with your family commitments and without distraction.

CARRIE WILKERSON: Well, I don’t do anything without distraction. That’s not even possible. How do we do anything without distractions? Not possible – we just live a distracted life, and we funnel it or choose to work around it. It just is what it is.

But speaking is just an offshoot of what I do, and so its like anything else: You have to schedule it. I decide how many events I’m willing to speak out per year, how many per month. My husband travels a lot on his business, very heavily in the fall and the spring, but never on holidays, never on weekends, and never in the summer. So I try to accept my speaking gigs on weekends, summer, or in and around holidays, so that we’re not gone at the same time. We have been gone at the same time twice, but only maybe for an overlap of ten or twelve hours – so thats when you have to find great help, and have a discussion with the family, and see if its worth going.

I try not to be gone more than twice a month. And when I say “gone”, I mean, I usually am gone for less than 36 hours. I do a lot of brutal flights so that I am away from the family as little as possible. The red-eye flight is not fun, going back and forth to California in the same day is not fun. But if it impacts my family less, then I’m willing to take the ibuprofen and rest up, get over it.

So you schedule it in. You say how many – you create the boundaries around what you’re willing to do. So if my ideal is “one time a month”, then that’s what I do, even if I have to turn down some other things. That’s how you schedule speaking in.

Writing, you just have to put it on the schedule and get it done. Some people are good daily writers, some people are good binge writers – so they’ll schedule a weekend, or a few hours, a couple of days in a row to do it that way. That just depends on your own writing style. Or if you’re a blogger, then write your blog in such a way that you’re actually building your book at the same time, and then that’s a way to kind of “sneak it in”.

So anytime people say, “How do you manage to get that done?” My answer is always going to be the same: We do what’s important to us. We do what’s on the schedule. How do I manage to take a half a day and go do a Veteran’s Day assembly at my kid’s school? Well, it’s because it was a priority, and I put it on the schedule. You’re writing, you’re speaking, you’re everything – it’s all the same way.

The problem with moms is, we tend to make our stuff less important than everybody else’s. And when you’re doing something that benefits the family, that benefits the finances, that benefits their choices, sometimes you can say, “I’m going to be gone for two days. This is an investment into our business. This benefits us in these ways.”

And we cannot carry around that “mom guilt” – it doesn’t benefit anybody. And my kids cannot name two things in their lives that I’ve missed. I can name two things in their lives that I’ve missed, but they can’t, because they see me at the most important things, and they see me there for the critical times, and for the “sitting next to each other, snuggling times”. They don’t focus on those negatives like we “martyr moms” tend to do.

So we’ve got to schedule it, and then we’ve got to kind of let that guilt go and realize that, if it’s important to the family and it’s important to us, then it matters.

KIM: Carrie, you just helped me so much mom guilt.

CARRIE WILKERSON: Let it go.

KIM: Yeah, seriously – a whole big weight just came off my chest, so I really appreciate that. You are working on a book series right now – would you like to share details about that?

CARRIE WILKERSON: Yeah, so since I was little, I’ve always wanted to have like a book set – a box set, kind of like the Narnia series. And it’s just always been in the back of my head, and that may seem weird to some people, but I’ve just always wanted that. So I’m creating that now, and it’s going to be a leadership and growth series.

And the first one comes out very, very soon. It’s called Move the Needle: the small, almost imperceptible changes that can cause radical transformation in your body, business, and life. So the Move the Needle series will come out – and our goal is to release them all within six months total. So I’m hoping that series will be completed by spring.

KIM: Oh, that’s so fabulous. And were there any obstacles holding you back that you needed to step over just to get started on your series?

CARRIE WILKERSON: I had to decide if I wanted to go through a publisher, or if I wanted to self-publish. And then when you self-publish, your own biggest obstacle is yourself, and your time, and the fact that nobody else is imposing deadlines on you. And then your fear about putting a workout, and “Will it matter?”, and “Will it resonate?”, and “Will it be good enough?”, and all those things. So I think it’s the same thing when we create anything – those are the biggest obstacles.

KIM: Out of curiosity, which route did you end up going? Are you self-publishing, or did you as a publisher?

CARRIE WILKERSON: Yes, I’m self-publishing. I chose not to shop it to publishers, because then it becomes six months to a year for each title – and I didn’t want to wait three to five years for the series to be done. I wanted to create it myself, and have it done more quickly, and be able to use it as an income stream, and have creative authority over it for my own business.

KIM: And there’s no saying – for all the listeners who would love to write – there’s no saying that you can’t go back to a publishing house later, or that one might contact you. But I’m actually in the same – how scary – I’m working on my first book right now, and I’m going the self publishing route myself.

CARRIE WILKERSON: Oh, awesome. Yeah, well, I’ve been published by a mainstream publisher – I have a contract with them for The Barefoot Executive. But for my own – that’s when it’s important to know your motive. If it’s really just about vanity and being picked up by somebody, sure – go to mainstream if you want to. But it’s a hard route, and you don’t make a dime, and you have no creative control.

I cannot update The Barefoot Executive, and it’s now five years old. I do not have the license to go update it until they decide that it’s worth their time and their money to update it. So that’s frustrating to me. I don’t get any of the royalties off the audio or e-book. I get some, supposedly – but, you know, once they minus out this and that and the other, it’s just really not an income stream. I don’t even get a good discount on the book for myself.

So I just would rather create my own, rather than go convince somebody else that a box series is a good idea, rather than argue with them over the format and all those things. I just really want to handle it myself. Because a book doesn’t really add to your bottom line – a book, ideally, adds to your business. It adds to your client base, it adds to your speaking engagements, it gives you credibility for media. There are so many other things a book does. So the fastest route is self-publishing.

KIM: What is your writing style? Do you schedule that into your calendar, or do you write when more ideas come to you?

CARRIE WILKERSON: At the moment – and this is the reason my book is not turned in yet – right now, I’m working on so many big projects with clients and speaking, that I’m writing when I get time. And that’s why my book is not done. So I do not have an ideal schedule for writing right now.

KIM: I’m right there with you, which is why it’s being written either on Google Drive or Evernote.

CARRIE WILKERSON: There you go.

KIM: When I come up with an idea, I have it. seeing as we’re both moms – and I know you’ve got lots of children activity as well – if you are out on the road, and you come up with an idea, how do you document it?

CARRIE WILKERSON: I have a notepad inside of my phone I can use if I want to, but the truth is, you’ll never see me without a spiral notebook of some kind. And I am constantly doodling or writing. I’m very kinesthetic, so I like the connection of pen to paper.

KIM: What color pen is your favorite?

CARRIE WILKERSON: Purple.

KIM: Purple! Okay, I wasn’t – that’s the first time I’ve gotten “purple”. I love it.

CARRIE WILKERSON: And my favorite notebooks are all orange or giraffe print.

KIM: I don’t think I’ve seen a giraffe print notebook before. That’s awesome.

What would be your biggest piece of advice, besides “Now is the right time, and don’t wait”? What would be your biggest piece of advice for somebody who’s listening who would really like to get started on their business?

CARRIE WILKERSON: Stop trying to do what everybody else is doing. Do what you’re good at. Do what you have skills in or expertise in. Quit thinking you have to have a podcast because Kim has a podcast, or that you have to be a speaker because Carrie is a speaker, or whatever that looks like.

Yours may be childcare, and you need to look at ways to leverage that, expand on that, and do that like a rockstar. Yours might be a lawn design service. Yours might be – you might be a really good decorator, and so you may go into interior design and and rock your local area the way that Joanna Gaines does hers.

I mean, I think we need to quit looking externally and start looking internally. And then second to that is: Stop comparing your journey to everybody else’s journey on Facebook, or on Twitter, or on Instagram, or whatever it is. We’re all at different places, and spaces, and ages, and weights, and incomes, and we’ve got to quit acting like we’re comparing apples to apples.

I am 19 years into working at home – 19 years. When people say, “I want to do what you do, and how do I do what you do?” Well, you know what? Come back to me in 19 years after you’ve got some scabs, and scars, and tears, and dial-up Internet or no Internet, and have moved nine times, or whatever that looks like. The fact is, we’re never going to have the same exact journey, so stop comparing.

Number one is “Look internally, not externally,” and number two is to “Stop comparing.”

KIM: That’s a really interesting point, Carrie. I mean, considering you’ve been in business for 19 years, I know there were still ways that you could compare yourself to others 19 years ago. I mean, networking groups and different organizations, and even within the organization that you were in. But was this something that you had to get over yourself?

CARRIE WILKERSON: Yeah. You know, I was a military officer’s kid, always moving into a new area – and then I was a preacher’s kid, always being watched and compared. And so I think I just had enough of a rebel spirit in me not to compare.

But even when I started that business, I had two adopted kids – adoption through foster care wasn’t really mainstream at that time in 1998. And if it was, you weren’t connected with anybody, because there was no online support groups and those kind of things, so you were kind of a loner in that.

So I guess I was okay, but I was also 266 pounds. I mean, if you’re going to compare yourself to other people in sales companies, you’re going to automatically look at the cute ones, and the skinny ones, and the ones that are in worse shape – and I just decided to rock me regardless. Comparison would have been suicide.

And so if I did compare myself, I think I used it to fuel my competition instead of my fear. So I’m not saying I didn’t. I’m saying I didn’t let it paralyze me. And I’ve always been very good – ever since online and social media – I really do block some people from my stream. I do not follow some of the big names in the industry. I do not get on their email list just to see what they’re doing. If I feel like that might get in my head or in my spirit, I just really have to not do that.

So I think I’m pretty good about being protective. I have this weird – I know I have an addictive personality. And so for instance, if somebody says, “Oh, you absolutely have to watch this show, it’s so addictive,” I’m the person that says, “Well, that means I will never, ever turn it on, because I cannot stand another addiction.”

I’m just – you know, so I have these weird disciplines like that, that I just avoid looking at all of that, because I cannot compare. I cannot compare my kids to your kids. My son is 21. All my friends that have kids the same age, their sons are getting engaged, or really getting into these great relationships, or getting first apartments, or whatever – and my son has brain damage and will never be independent. And so if I start all that comparing with that, it defeats me, it breaks my heart for my son – there’s a resentment or a grief that I just really can’t climb out of, because it’s circumstantial and there is no fixing that.

So I try not to do that in my business, or in my speaking career, or anything else, either.

KIM: I love every bit of that, and you’re so right. This is something that I had to get over myself this past – actually, just this past summer – was “Stop being jealous, stop comparing, and focus on being me instead of being somebody that I’m not.”

CARRIE WILKERSON: Yeah.

KIM: So thank you so much for sharing that.

Carrie, it has been an absolute blast having you on the Positive Productivity Podcast. Where can listeners find you online, and find out more, and connect with you?

CARRIE WILKERSON: Well, I’m pretty active in social media. So if they go to “The Barefoot Executive” page in Facebook, I’m pretty engaged there. I’m also on Instagram under “Carrie Wilkerson”. But the best place is probably CarrieWilkerson.com – and that is spelled like Stephen King’s prom queen “Carrie”, the old fashioned way. There’s a seven-day free video coaching series that will come automatically to your inbox. There are no strings attached, and that’s also where you can get on my email list for when I send out articles or those kind of things.

KIM: Great. And listeners, all the URLs and resources, and everything that was mentioned on the podcast, will be in the show notes – which you can find at TheKimSutton.com/PP030.

Thank you so much again, Carrie, for being here. It’s been an absolute pleasure.

CARRIE WILKERSON: Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.