Carter Welch - Start where you are!

Carter Welch shares his greatest struggle on the path to success.

Listen to the full episode here:

https://rss.com/podcasts/proteaconversations/1523309/

Connect with Carter:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carterwelch/

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Sometimes you just have to stalk, right?

(00:01):
To find out what's the answer is gonna be.
That's great.
Well, I'll tell you today.
So I do, about three years ago,
I decided I was kind of fed up of being very much overweight.
So I went through Kaiser Medical Weight Management Program,
lost a boatload of weight,
and decided I needed something to keep my attention.

(00:24):
So I decided to do short distance triathlons.
And it's funny, I tell people all the time,
I said, well, it's just short distance.
It's like a half mile swim, a 13 mile bike,
and a three mile run.
It's not really long stuff.
They said, dude, that's more than I'm doing in triathlons.
I'm not doing anything.

(00:45):
And so I have to remind myself,
well, it is good, it keeps my attention.
But like, most mornings I will do something.
Today I get up in the rain and swim outdoors
for about 45 minutes doing that.
I try to start my day doing that.
In the last few months,
I've learned the power of yoga and stretching
and just how keeping, you know, sharpening the saw

(01:06):
and keeping some of those things right
that we don't always pay attention to really help us.
And there were great lessons there for business.
It's the basic stuff of keeping your business in shape
that really helps it.
So I do that.
I do a little bit of yoga I do running.
And then I get back and I will,
I meet with clients generally two, three times a month

(01:28):
on a hybrid consulting coaching basis.
And so I will spend mornings either in some meetings
or preparing for other meetings,
trying to figure out how to simplify and focus,
help my clients focus.
I mean, for me, since I'm working with business owners,
one of the biggest challenges is try to help them
simplify as much as possible,

(01:50):
make it easy for them to implement and make change.
I mean, most of what I'm doing is helping them
change habits and habit change isn't easy.
So I'm constantly spending time during the day
figuring out how can we change this habit?
How can we change that habit?
Think bigger, think a little bit bigger,
focusing it forward.
So my day, like I had a coaching session with someone today

(02:16):
and we're spending time going back to Stephen Covey's
four quadrants of urgent and important.
And this person knows what they want and need to do,
but they're spending, by their estimate,
they spend 85% of the time in the urgent
and important quadrant.
And almost no time in any other quadrant.

(02:37):
So it's not like they're sitting there saying,
oh, I'm spending all my day on the internet.
They're not doing that.
But as we kind of get into it,
if all your time is being spent working on the urgent,
you're not being able to work on the important.
So I spend time with him going through
and saying, how can we change that habit?
How can we help you implement a little bit of change here?

(02:57):
Just take baby steps.
There's one of my all-time favorite movies
is what about Bob, Bill Murray movie
with Richard Dreyfus, you look puzzled.
It was great.
Bill Murray, it was one of Bill Murray's great comedies,
I thought.
And he was a, what's the right phrase?
He worked with lots of therapists
and had difficulty like he had phobias

(03:18):
and couldn't get out of his apartment.
And his therapist went on vacation.
And so he had to take baby steps.
And he had to take his fish with him.
And he had a little jar as he put around his neck.
But he'd get out of the apartment.
Everything was baby steps.
And he'd say, baby steps, baby steps,
baby steps, baby steps.

(03:38):
And I was talking to a client about it today.
And he said, oh, that's one of my favorite movies.
But finding ways to take baby steps
and let people know, one of the terms
that I'm just in love with right now is start where you are,
not where you think you should be.
That we all feel like, oh, we're too far behind.
We're not where we, I should be here.

(04:00):
If I was more disciplined, I'd be here.
I should be here.
I should be in more control.
Can we spend so much time worrying about where we should be?
As opposed to just saying, okay, let me start where I am.
Not where I think I should be.
Let me take baby steps and make progress always.