022 Latara Dragoo - Harnessing "The 7 Habits" for Entrepreneurial Success & Cultivating Win-Win Collaborations

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Ever wondered how a single book can reshape your entire approach to life and business? Our latest episode welcomes the incredible Latara Dragoo, who shares her journey of how Stephen Covey's "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" played a pivotal role in her transition from traditional employment to entrepreneurship during the tumultuous times of the COVID-19 shutdown. By embracing Covey's principle of being proactive, Latara made bold moves that led her to launch her own business amidst uncertainty, showcasing the profound impact of internalized habits and the courage to pivot in challenging times.

We also delve into the transformative philosophy of win-win collaborations. Latara discusses how focusing on mutual benefit and collaboration over competition can lead to more harmonious and thriving environments. She shares invaluable insights on challenging the traditional win-lose mentality, highlighting how adopting a mindset of shared success can positively impact both personal and professional interactions. Join us for an enlightening conversation that promises to inspire and empower your entrepreneurial spirit, while fostering a sense of community and shared success.

Thank you so much for the likes, love, and comments you leave. Not only does it mean the world to us, it helps other women who need to hear it be able to find it.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello everyone and welcome to the Shiro Cafe.
I'm Debbie Pearson, with mypartner and co-host, Deborah
Edwards, where we celebrate theShiro in you, and today we're
going to be talking with LataraDragoo.
Did I say your name correctly,Latara?

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Yes, you did, thank you.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Great, okay, wonderful.
And you have a chapter in thebook called the Book I Read.
So why don't you tell us alittle bit about what you do and
your chapter and why you choseit?

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me
here today.
I'm absolutely tickled andexcited to be a part of this,
and I just I'm actually actuallythis is the second time I've
been in the book I read, uh, andit was just such a fun project
that I had to do it again, sothis is volume two, so you were
in volume one and now you're involume two.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Yes, yes, oh, my god, you got a series going exactly,
exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
So the book is the uh seven habits of highly
effective people by StephenCovey.
And um, what was the other partof that question?

Speaker 1 (01:12):
you know, like what is it that?
Maybe either that you do, andor why did you choose that book?
Like what brought you to that?

Speaker 2 (01:21):
to put it in the book I read oh, okay okay, this a
really good question, all right,so I think that one of the
reasons why I wanted to use thisparticular book even though
there are several books in mymind that have made a huge
impact on my life the reason whyI chose this one was because I

(01:42):
read it at such a young age that, first of all, I had forgotten
I read it and, second of all, Ihad kind of integrated the
principles taught in the book asmy own personal guideline for
being so.
When I recalled that I had readall that, I was like, wow, that
really did shape my life.

(02:04):
Called that I had read all that, I was like, wow, that really
did shape my life and, as far asit pertains to what I'm doing
now, I think that it kind ofgenerated this entrepreneurial
spirit in me that has alwaysbeen kind of in my world, but
only recently have I actuallyjumped in feet first and started

(02:28):
my own business.
But it's always been there,like whenever I was working, you
know, in an office in a nine tofive job, there was always that
you know, the side projectgoing, and it never really
materialized until I just becamemy own boss.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Wow, that is awesome.
There's a lot of women, I hearand maybe men too, but I don't
talk to men about that as muchwhere it's kind of like we live
our lives taking care ofeverything and everybody else,
maybe raising kids, maybeincreasing our level inside of a
particular like a career orwhatever but there's, there

(03:07):
comes a point where it's likewhat about me?
Like I'm not sure that I wantto do that all the time.
What I find really interestingis how you read the book and
then later on went, wow, Iimplemented these principles
without really being thatcognizant about it.

(03:28):
And that kind of reminds me ofwhen I've made vision boards and
put it away, didn't think aboutit anymore, and then later on
go back and go oh my God, I gotthat exact car.
I completely forgot about that,or whatever it is.
You know, just to have thathappen because of that and it

(03:48):
seems like it just impact, yourbrain must have been really,
really ready to accept these,these habits, if you will, and
you just naturally changed yourlife toward living them, toward
living them, and that's prettyawesome because, like, you get
practice.
And then, when it's time toreally implement them, because

(04:09):
now you've stepped away from aum what do we traditional?
traditional, yes yeah, tradeyour time for money.
And you know, like, okay, I'llgive you my eight hours if you
give me this many dollars, kindof thing.
And then here you are with yourown this many dollars, kind of
thing.
And then here you are with yourown entrepreneurial spirit and
your own business so good foryou.

(04:30):
I have a question.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
So you were, you were talking about having, and I I
read this years ago too, and andcame to that same realization.
But what was the event thatmade you re, you know, kind of
recapitulate and come to adifferent point with your
connection with the book, as youmade different choices of

(04:53):
moving your future.
There's often an event thatcauses you to pivot from what
the path is that you're on tothe one that you want to be on,
so kind of.
Can you share that with us?

Speaker 2 (05:08):
Okay.
So if you're, if you're, ifyou're referring to when did I
make that leap from traditionaljob to my own boss?
That was actually because ofthe COVID shutdown.
I, I, I, they told me to workfrom home.
So I, between the beginning ofMarch and the end of March,
that's what I was doing, andthen on March 31st, I got a call

(05:31):
saying don't come back.
So I was like, okay, well, thisis the sign I was waiting for.
Here's your sign, so I did nothesitate.
I think by April 20th I hadstarted my own corporation.
It was just like I'm not goingto sit and wait around and
figure out what's happening,because the whole world was in

(05:53):
flux and I was just, I guess,using this as an opportunity to
be my springboard.

Speaker 1 (05:59):
Wow, that's amazing.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:01):
And so how has that the principles in the, in the
book, how has that kind ofinformed you as you move forward
?

Speaker 2 (06:10):
Oh, my goodness, so many ways.
First of all, being proactive.
That's like one of the firstprinciples of the seven habits,
and that's what I did.
I took a proactive standbecause I realized that
everybody was like duck andhuddle mode.
Nobody wanted to take anyaction during the COVID shutdown
.
They were all just sitting andwaiting.
And you know, they were justlike, you know, just hold out

(06:32):
another day, and we don't knowwhen this is going to go back to
normal, and I don't think itever did come back to normal.
I think we're now in adifferent shift.
We did, we all went throughthis paradigm shift and and
we're all experiencing now andwe're all newbies.
So you know, that was just mymoment to take action.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
I see that's pretty amazing.
Like you're right, a lot ofpeople did shut down.
I heard a lot of like I'm anintrovert.
I heard a lot of my introvertfriends going, oh, thank God, oh
yeah, this is wonderful.
For about a month or two andthen it was like oh my gosh,
what's gonna happen now?
Because we were all struggling.

(07:14):
So, so that book, um, that'sincredible that it do you
remember?
Like some of the chapters, likeyou said, take action, that's
like a chapter yeah, yeah, beproactive, um, um, begin with
the end in mind.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
Think when, when, synergize, these are all so many
uh things that, like I said,like I, it's just second nature
to me.
Like when I'm strategizing, I'mthinking about how can I make
this a win-win situation?
You know, how can I make thisthis awesome for everybody
involved?
So there's, you know, there's,you know, in a game you're

(07:51):
taught there's a winner and aloser.
So I'm like, how can we createa game where everybody wins?
And that's just kind of been myphilosophy, um, throughout my
life.

Speaker 3 (08:01):
And then when I talk about, when I'm hearing about
what you do for authors andcoaches and creating that
environment where they canexpand their ripple, and how
does that show up there?
That win-win I definitely seethat in what you do.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
Oh well, thank you, thank you so much for saying
that that means a lot.
Thank you, thank you so muchfor saying that that means a lot
.
But, yeah, there's so manyprinciples there that kind of
lend to that because, first ofall, synergy Synergy is one of
the most powerful things on theplanet and you create this third

(08:42):
mind.
When you come together, youhave two people coming together
and then there's this third mindand and with that, your, your,
your projects, yourimplementations just amplify
exponentially because of thatsynergy.
So I I truly believe that youknow, when you come together and

(09:03):
and collaborate on things, thatyou just can create magic.
I totally like the book I read.

Speaker 3 (09:11):
There are so many inspiring authors and just the
synergy of that positive energygoing out into the world.
I just am just so grateful forthe opportunity to be a part of
that.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
Such a good point and that's another reason that I
jumped in is because thecommunity that each of these
books creates, and it'sbeautiful, yeah, and I get to
meet amazing women like yourself.
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
So what we often ask people that we interview is to
share a thought or a conceptabout something that they feel
anybody listening to this couldbenefit from.
So what's something that youfeel that any audience member
that hears this they might belike, wow, I didn't even think

(10:00):
of that, or that's really thanksfor the reminder, or you know
anything like that.
What?
What words might you want toshare with the audience?

Speaker 2 (10:09):
oh it's.
It's tough to pin it down tojust one thing.
I'm thinking of two things thathave really helped me in my
life, if that's okay.
Sure, the first thing is beginwith the end in mind, because I
feel like you can become apowerful creator in your own
life if you have that vision ofwhere you're going.

(10:32):
Otherwise, you're just stumblingthrough the woods in the dark
and you can't get anywherebecause you don't have any
direction.
But if you have that end goalthat you're working towards and
you can reverse engineer back toyou, it's a very powerful way
to reach that dream life.
And so the second thing that Iwanted to share was is that that

(10:55):
win-win part of things is justalways look at your situation as
, instead of saying, oh, how canI get one over on this person,
think about how you can impacttheir life beautifully, and they
can impact your lifebeautifully Like how can this be
a?
A mutually beneficial situation?
So I think I feel like ifeverybody took on that

(11:18):
philosophy, then we would.
We there would be no wars, itwould be a totally different
world.

Speaker 1 (11:24):
Yes, I think we have always I don't want to say I've
always.
It seems like so many peoplehave been taught the win-lose
aspect.
Somebody has to be a loser forme to win, and we have spent
many, many years like that.

(11:45):
So now this, this new conceptof well, how can we both win?
I love that's likecollaboration over competition
and I absolutely love that.
Yes like collaboration overcompetition and I, yes,
absolutely love that.
Yes, oh, latara, we want tothank you so much for coming on
here and being interviewed.
We know how busy you are,especially late and super
excited you took time out to bewith us oh my gosh, the pleasure

(12:08):
is all mine.

Speaker 2 (12:09):
Thank you so much for having me.
I truly appreciate it it.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
So we want to thank Action Takers Publishing for
letting us in and being part ofthe book I read and this is
Debbie Pearson and DeborahEdwards with the Shiro Cafe
podcast, and we just want to saybye, thanks.

Speaker 3 (12:29):
Bye.