October 8, 2024 • 41 mins
Cindy Carrillo, a remarkable leader with a flair for transformation, takes center stage as she shares her journey from corporate CEO to the creator of a soul-nourishing retreat at her Colorado ranch. Her childhood, defined by a delightful absence of expectations, paved the way for her unique success story. Listen as Cindy offers profound insights from her book "Finding Your Next," where she redefines retirement as a thrilling reinvention of purpose. Explore with us the symbolism of cowboy boots over high heels, and how embracing dreams, regardless of age, can lead to personal fulfillment.
Discover the enchanting tale behind the CC Blue ranch, born from a serendipitous moment and transforming into a legacy of family adventures and empowerment. As Cindy guides us through the fears that often hold us back—like fear of the unknown—she reveals practical strategies to overcome personal barriers and seize our aspirations with newfound confidence. Through storytelling and coaching, the ranch becomes a haven for self-discovery, where individuals and partners find clarity in their next life chapters amidst the joy of interacting with animals.
Join us for an inspiring wrap-up with Sydney Carrillo, whose journey as an author and coach adds another layer of excitement and vision. Her upcoming second book and impactful coaching program are a testament to dreaming big and maintaining a visionary mindset. Be ready to share these valuable insights with your network and help others discover our community of uncommon leaders. This episode is an invitation to keep dreaming, evolving, and embracing every phase of life with clarity and joy.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
And I think there are many, many people out in the
world who find themselves in aposition, whether they're in
their 30s, their 40s, their 50s,they're looking at retirement,
whatever it is where they mighthave the opportunity to find
their next, and they don't knowwhere to begin.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Hey, uncommon Leaders , welcome back.
This is the Uncommon LeaderPodcast and I'm your host, john
Gallagher.
Today, I've got anextraordinary guest, cindy
Carrillo, joining us.
Cindy's journey from being theCEO of her own company to
running a transformativeimmersion experience at her
ranch in Colorado is nothingshort of inspiring.
In this episode, we'll diveinto Cindy's unique three-day
(00:43):
immersion experience aimed athelping individuals, couples and
business partners find clarityand alignment in their lives,
and we'll explore her personaldevelopment story from her book
Finding your Next.
Along the way, cindy sharesvaluable insights on redefining
retirement, breaking throughpersonal barriers and embracing
life's next phases with clarityand joy.
And embracing life's nextphases with clarity and joy.
(01:04):
This episode offers a wealth ofinspiration and actionable
insights, and I've already gotseveral people in mind to share
this episode with, and I hopethat you'll share it too.
Let's get started.
Cindy Carrillo, welcome to theUncommon Leader Podcast.
I am so looking forward to ourconversation today.
(01:24):
How are you doing?
Speaker 1 (01:25):
I'm doing great, so happy to be here, thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Good, Well, I know you've got a great view out your
back window there.
We're recording this on aFriday afternoon, so we'll get
through this and you'll be ableto enjoy that view.
But we're going to learn alittle bit more about that view
as well as we go through thejourney of your story today.
But I'll start you off the sameway I start all my first-time
guests with a question that isasking you to share a story from
(01:49):
your childhood that stillimpacts who you are today as a
person or as a leader.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Oh man, you know I had a great childhood, just a
great childhood.
Here's a story.
So it's a little later in mychildhood I was about 16 years
old and I had an older brother,so he was a senior in high
school.
I was a sophomore sittingaround the kitchen table with my
(02:18):
parents and I was never anexceptional student.
I was.
I was always kind of an averagestudent, didn't if I?
If I applied myself, I wouldget straight A's.
But I got to say didn't applymyself all that much.
I had a lot of differentinterests and I remember getting
my report card and sittingaround the table and really
(02:42):
supportive parents by the waytable and really supportive
parents, by the way.
And when my brother gets his, Iget mine and mine's like an A
here, mostly Bs as science, notgreat like a C plus.
And my brother in all earnest,like looks across the table at
me and he says so, cindy, howdoes it, how does it feel to be
(03:04):
average?
And it wasn't like a diss, itwasn't like he wasn't putting me
down, he was really curious.
And I gotta say, you know, I, I, my parents, kind of leaned in
like, yeah, how does it feel?
And it seems so weird to say itnow, but I was like it's fine,
(03:25):
I'm fine, I'm fine living thelife that I'm living right now
as a 16 year old.
But I will tell you, I kind ofgrew up under the radar and I
was the youngest of all thegrandchildren.
I was the youngest in my familyand nobody expected a lot from
(03:48):
me.
They did not expect me to dowell, but there were no real
preconceived notions about who Iwas going to become and what I
was going to do.
And as I look back on that, asI went through my career in my
life and here I am at 67 yearsold, I appreciate that because I
(04:12):
wasn't locked into anything asa kid and I remember my mother
always saying to me oh honey,you just do whatever you choose
to do.
You just do whatever you chooseto do, and when you figure it
out you'll do it well.
And I think that sort of wasthe freeing moment in my
(04:35):
childhood and my early adultyears too to just relax.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
You're fine.
I like that because, again, wetalk about so many, especially
with authors, and the start oftheir story is this great
tragedy that they've overcome orwhatever it is, and I get a
sense, even as I read yourprofile, read your bio and
through your LinkedIn work, thatthere's a lot of success in
your world and there may be somethings that you've had to
(05:04):
overcome along the way, but itsounds like some of that
overcome is just the expectationthat there wasn't an
expectation.
You had to set that foryourself.
So I appreciate that and I cantell right away how that has
impacted your story here thatwe're going to talk about today,
and that's your book Findingyour Next.
Now let's start off with a veryimportant question, because I
need to speak with yourpublisher.
(05:25):
Although I think, you might haveself-published the book,
because I think you spelled theword incorrectly.
I know that you're missing an Einside of that word, so there's
got to be a story behind thetitle to get started.
So tell me that story, let'shear it.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
You know, when I talk about finding your next, I
always have to emphasize thenext.
And people ask the question allthe time and as I've become a
coach in this part of my careerand even when I was running
business, the question wasalways actually what's next?
What's next?
(05:59):
And when we say it, weemphasize that and we kind of
rush through it.
And when we say it, weemphasize that N and we kind of
rush through it.
So when I was going to writethe book about finding your next
, I wanted to really emphasizethe importance of the next and
we just didn't put an E in therebecause it really wasn't
(06:21):
important, because when you sayit it's just NXT, just NXT.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
I got to tell you I was trying to find it.
It's just NXT, just NXT.
I got to tell you I was tryingto find it.
I was trying to find the answerbefore I came to you and I
didn't find it.
I thought I was going to get ananswer like oh, it's the secret
recipe and I can't tell youwhat it is, or I'd have to kill
you.
It's like the thing that's goneback in the family for a long
time.
But I appreciate what you'resaying.
With regards to the emphasis ofon the word next, I don't know
(06:46):
may or may not.
Again, I like to read a lot ofbooks, and one of the most
impactful books that I've readin the last several years was by
Jeff Henderson, called what toDo Next as well, so he spelled
it with E, so you may have totalk to him that he spelled it
incorrectly instead of you,exactly, exactly.
But look, so that is the story,and I make up, after just some
(07:07):
of the brief conversations thatwe had, that it really is about
your next in terms of your story.
So why did you write this bookwhen you wrote it and who did
you write it for?
Speaker 1 (07:18):
You know, I think the reason that I wrote the book
was that it was a pretty bigtransformation I went through.
I ran a company for over 20years founded it was the CEO of
it, grew, it did an amazing jobof building a team and a product
(07:40):
and built something new andexciting and reached a point in
my development where I realized,oh my goodness, I think I'm
done with this and I'm lookingfor what's next, and that
process unto itself of coming tothe decision to move on and to
sell the company.
Look, I was in a great place.
(08:02):
I didn't.
I wasn't in crisis, it wasn't ahorrible situation that I
needed to move from, and Irealized that many of us find
ourselves in a position in lifewhere we're just ready, it's an
opportunistic, next it's I'mgood.
And now?
(08:23):
Now what and how do I applyeverything that I've learned?
So when I sold the company, Iwas in a unique and fortunate
position of having someresources, having all the time
in the world and being able toreally go out into the world and
say where, what?
(08:44):
How would I thrive next?
And ended up buying a ranch inSouthwest Colorado.
I tell you, I've never lived ona ranch before.
I've always been a nicesuburban girl I don't know
anything about living in ruralAmerica and really went through
a 10-year transformation frombeing a CEO lots of great suits
(09:11):
and high heels and fashion was athing and traveling and amazing
experiences to now living on aranch.
I now have a great cowboy bootcollection and just a different
wardrobe.
But really it was much more ofa deeper transformation of what
(09:32):
was productivity going to looklike, what was important to me
in my life.
How do you go through a processlike this, from becoming from
being a CEO to now being a ranchgirl and that's essentially who
I've become and a coach anddeveloping different kinds of
programs and totally differentthan who I was before and what I
(09:55):
did, and yet totally who I wasbefore and what I did before,
just in a different way and whatI did before, just in a
different way.
And having gone through thatprocess, I thought I'm not that
unique.
I'm actually not that, you know, I'm not that special.
I'm quite ordinary.
And I think there are many,many people out in the world who
(10:18):
find themselves in a position,whether they're in their 30s,
their 40s, their 50s, they'relooking at retirement, whatever
it is where they might have theopportunity to find their next,
and they don't know where tobegin.
I wrote the book, and I wrotethe book using my story as the
(10:39):
illustrations of the process ofgoing through to find your next.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Yeah, because I would imagine, even as you talk about
that and I actually havethere's a person that I've been
coaching that has absolutelycome to my mind that is going to
get a copy of this book intheir mailbox next week as you
tell that story.
First, I love the analogy ofhigh heels to cowboy boots.
I think that is really cool asyou talk about, or whether it's
team members to goats and you'llget a chance to talk about your
(11:07):
goats that you have on yourranch as well.
I think that's a really coolstory that draws.
But my guess is you were in asituation, as you mentioned,
from a resource standpoint, thatyou, frankly, didn't have to do
anything.
You could have retired.
What does that word sound liketo you, even back then or today?
What does the word retiredsound like to you?
Speaker 1 (11:29):
You know, I said I was going to retire and but
every time I said it I put airquotes around it and I would
retire.
So I knew that retirement in amore traditional sense, which I
think most of us think about, iswe're not earning anymore.
We might volunteer, we'respending our time, maybe we're
playing sports, pickleball's, athing I don't know.
I knew that I wasn't doneworking.
(11:53):
I didn't know how I wanted towork, so I used retirement as
the bridge, as a way for othersto understand that I was taking
a break to figure out how Iwanted to work next and how I
needed to design a different wayof living my life, with a
(12:17):
different way of working.
But I still like to earn and Ithink that retirement is a place
and a time most of us thinkabout.
We don't have to work and earna living anymore.
We're living in a different way, and that just wasn't the case
for me.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Perfect.
I mean, I'm close to where youare and I get tired of asking
that question, even of when I'mgoing to retire, because I don't
I just don't sense that word.
Uh, as much as looking forwardto that date, if you will that
you stop, because it has toomuch of you.
Stop, you don't add valueanymore.
There's some other word that,whether it's reinvents or
(12:58):
whatever it is, that you cancontinue to add value, and one
of the ways you've done that iswith your book.
So your book has 16 chapters, I, you and one of the ways you've
done that is with your book, soyour book has 16 chapters.
I don't want to not talk aboutthat.
I could talk stories all daylong, but, uh, you know the book
has 16 chapters.
We clearly don't have time togo through all 16 of those
chapters, but it's importantabout where you start.
So where did your story startand how you wrote this book?
(13:21):
What's the first step?
Speaker 1 (13:22):
You know, the first step was to um identify the
dream.
And I think that as we age, westop dreaming and we think that
we've got to get so rational andso logical and so real.
And I'm not talking aboutdreams that are fantastical, I'm
talking about dreams that canbe based in reality.
(13:45):
But they're aspirations forourself, of what we think we can
do, based on who we are, wherewe can thrive, where our skills
and our strengths are.
And I remembered back, you know, when I moved to Colorado I
think I was 19 years old, and Itook a road trip with my best
friend, nancy, and we came downto Southwest Colorado and we
(14:07):
found this little town of Euray,which is called the Switzerland
of America, and I looked up atthese mountains and I was
awestruck and I thought I thinkI shouted it out in the car One
day, one day I will live here inthese mountains.
And then I went back and lifehappened and I started to work,
(14:30):
I got married, I had kids, Istarted a business and I think I
forgot the dream.
And when I found myself in thispoint in my life, I started to
reimagine life again and whatkept coming back were snippets
of this dream, this magnificentview, this living in the
(14:50):
mountains, this lifestyle changeand, as I kept saying it and as
I would put air quotes around,I'm gonna retire in the
mountains with a beautiful viewand I'm gonna sit on a big porch
and a rocking chair with areally big hat and just sort of
look at that view.
(15:11):
I remembered the dream and sothat became the direction that I
went in.
I'm going to go back to thatarea, I'm going to see what's in
that area, I'm going to see ifit still has meaning to me.
And I did.
I came back down here and I sawthose views again.
And it's the one thing aboutmountains, you know, takes them
a long time to change, and theamount of time between me being
(15:34):
19 and having sold the company,they didn't change all that much
.
They were still absolutelymagnificent in the way that I
remembered them.
So I realized this is where Iwanted to be.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
I love that as a first step and I certainly
appreciate as you talk about.
As we age, we stop dreaming.
I don't know why that is.
I think it's something that isthere.
It leads me into one of yourquestions.
But you end up purchasing thisranch and it's the 30, 35 acres.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
And now, once you want animals and yeah, it's 35
acres with nothing on it.
I mean there's pasture.
So I'm like, oh my goodness,what does this mean?
But you know, I stood on thisland and it was a very sort of
fortuitous coming together oftiming and and everything.
(16:24):
It was 2008, 2009, when I wason the land, right after the
economy had tanked, real estatemarket had tanked, and so I'm
looking at this 35 acre parcelwith three mountain ranges
surrounding it.
Normally I wouldn't have beenable to touch it, but it was
good timing and so I bought it.
(16:46):
I was given the opportunity andI bought it, and my first
inclination was oh my goodness,where do I go from here?
I know nothing about buildingon raw land.
Essentially, there was noservices, but when I stood here
and I looked out there, I couldsee a future.
I couldn't see where the barnwould ultimately be, I couldn't
(17:10):
see where the garden plot wasgoing to be, but I could see my
family coming.
I could see my friends comingand us wanting to share it.
I could actually hear laughterand joy and I thought, oh, now
all I have to do is build it and, to quote the famous movie, and
if I build it, they will come,but I need to build it with a
(17:33):
certain intentionality of whatI'm trying to create.
And that was the second step.
That was trying to figure outwhat's really important, why,
why are you doing this?
And I think we all have to askourselves.
You know, when we all gothrough the process of figuring
out what's next, what's ourfirst human knee-jerk reaction?
(17:56):
It's to get into the weeds.
I want to change my job, okay,well, what does that mean?
Well, I've had this job withthis title.
So, logically, we begin withwhat our title is going to be,
what we need to earn, where weneed to live.
We want two or three weeksvacation.
We get into the nitty grittystuff and I'm interested in wait
(18:21):
, let's back it up.
You're making a major change inyour life.
Why?
What do you want this to do foryou?
What's the life you really want?
Why don't we begin with what'sreally important in the life you
want to live?
Then you can design around that.
But if we don't stop and backup and ask ourselves why, we
(18:45):
miss the point of designing thelife we really want.
And I had this uniqueopportunity with 35 acres in
front of me.
I mean, everybody gets to askthe why, but not everybody has
35, you know virgin lake acresin front of them.
So asking why and what I wantedto do with it.
(19:07):
So we wanted to share it.
We wanted friends and family tocome down.
I also live six hours away frommy core group of people, so
nobody's stopping by for dinner.
Somebody's coming by for a fewdays.
So we needed to build theaccommodations that people could
be comfortable here.
We wanted a sustainable life.
So, looking at materials,energy, food, everything about
(19:33):
living a sustainable life whatdid that look like?
What could that look like?
That became the criteria forall the future decisions about
how to build this lifestyle thatwe wanted to live.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
So, so fun.
Field of Dreams you had theRanch of Dreams or the 35 Acres
of Dreams, that movie.
There's another one.
They make movies about thiskind of stuff, right?
I think it was Under the TuscanSun.
It's not a movie that I watch,right?
I mean, I think it's one ofthose movies, right?
Speaker 1 (20:05):
I'm sure, I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
But you didn't like.
You didn't call it the field ofdreams or the ranch of dreams.
You came up with a name for itas well, so let's drive down
that path just a little bit andtalk about the name of your
dream location.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
So you know, we realized that we I keep saying
we it's my partner, matthew andso coming down this area all
this time and driving by all theranches because when you're
doing this you need to go andlike, look at what everybody
else has done before you canmake up what you want to do, you
(20:37):
know, and get inspiration.
So we're doing that and, oh mygoodness, everybody names their
land.
You know, growing up insuburbia, you do not like name
your house Right, but down hereand in every rural area, people
name their properties.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
And if you're right, so you have the gate you know,
and we decided to go down low.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
But yeah you know, and so we're coming up with
horrible names.
You know peaceful acres andvista view and just looking back
on it.
you know Peaceful Acres andVista View and just looking back
on it, you just get reallykitschy and you get silly and we
were sitting, we were startingto build and so we had an RV at
the time and would park the RVon the property for a few days
(21:21):
and meet with the builders.
We're sitting at the kitchentable on the RV and we're coming
up with really stupid, sillynames and then Matthew's phone
starts.
It just sort of lights up, youknow, when you kind of hit it,
and on his screen it says CCBlue.
And I'm like who's CC Blue?
And my name is Cindy Carrillo,so CC, and this is going to
(21:47):
sound really, but I have blueeyes and his nickname for me was
CC blue and I didn't know it.
He just put me in his phone.
He would call me blue every nowand then, but I didn't know.
That's how.
He had me in his phone and Igot all you know who is that.
He looks up at me and he goeswell, that's you silly.
And I was like no, and I got,I'm getting all the comfort now.
(22:11):
You know, it's just sort of ah,it just touched my heart and
he's the one who looked up andsaid that's it, that's the name.
And I said, well, that seemskind of selfish to put my
nickname up there, but it hastaken on a life of its own.
So the ranch is CC Blue andeven my kids talk about coming
(22:33):
to CC Blue and I personally Ilove branding from being in
business for so long, so webrand everything and it's all CC
Blue.
So it's a beautiful, beautifulway to have it take on a life of
its own.
That's even beyond me.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Hey listeners, I want to take a quick moment to share
something special with you.
Many of the topics anddiscussions we have on this
podcast are areas where Iprovide coaching and consulting
services for individuals andorganizations.
If you've been inspired by ourconversation and are seeking a
catalyst for change in your ownlife or within your team, I
invite you to visitcoachjohngallaghercom forward
(23:14):
slash free call to sign up for afree coaching call with me.
It's an opportunity for us toconnect, discuss your unique
challenges and explore howcoaching or consulting can
benefit you and your team.
Okay, let's get back to theshow.
I have seen the branding.
I've seen the coffee mugs withNXT on the bottom.
(23:34):
Next, next on the bottom ofthat coffee mug I've seen a
picture.
So, yeah, you're into thebranding part of it, as you see
that.
Okay, so we took that off rampfor a little while.
I went to that rest area aboutthe name.
That is so cool how it gotnamed on a pocket dial or a butt
dial that you called yourselfand now you name it CC Blue
Perfect.
Back on the on-ramp here.
Look, you've gone through thosefirst two steps and we can't go
(23:57):
through all of them, but I wantto touch on at least two more.
One is you talked about thebreakthrough blockers.
So, there had to be a time whereyou're like, nope, not going to
work.
Tell me what those breakthroughblockers are that not just you,
but keep folks from realizingtheir dream.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
You know, I think we all do it.
I think there are things thatwe come up with ideas, we get
excited about what could be nextand something stops us.
And as I was going through theprocess, I realized that it's
actually just a few things thatstop us.
The first two.
First two have to do with fear.
(24:33):
The first fear is the fear ofthe unknown and oh my goodness,
of course it stops you in yourtracks because you don't have
any idea what's in front of you.
So I looked out at the land, Igot really excited, bought the
property and I got to tell youthe couple of weeks following
that, I was paralyzed, paralyzedby the fear of the unknown.
(24:59):
What do I do?
Where do I go?
What could it be?
It's almost like standing onthe cliff, you know, and you
look down and you can't even seethe bottom.
It's just darkness.
Well, of course we're going tostop, because nobody's going to
be foolish enough to jump intothat without shedding light on
what's below us, what's out infront of us.
(25:22):
So I think, when we experiencethe fear of the unknown, it
stops us with a bunch of oh mygoodness, what if?
Questions.
What if?
What if I fail?
What if this goes wrong?
What if?
And I think if we justunderstand that, that that that
(25:46):
is the flashing light that istelling us we need more, we need
more information.
And it's not a flashing lightto stop us, it's a light that's
telling us move forward, gathermore information and figure out
what the questions are and whatthe answers are, then the fear
(26:08):
starts to dissipate because it'sno longer unknown.
We have steps in front of us.
The other fear that then sort ofcreeps up is when we've got the
voices on either side, andthat's the fear of failure.
Their side, and that's the fearof failure.
(26:29):
You know, that's another.
What if it all goes to hell ina handbasket?
What if it just doesn't work?
And here's my take on failure.
I don't think failure exists.
If you learn, we all need tomake mistakes in order to learn.
We're not just going into ournext with the full blueprint of
(26:51):
how to do it, step by step, andit's going to be perfect.
We need to try and we need tosometimes make mistakes.
Then we need to learn.
If you learn, there is nofailure.
So if we ask ourselves what'sthe worst that can happen,
(27:12):
oftentimes we get to a placewhere we realize it's not that
bad if I mess up here or there.
So for me, you know, if I askmyself what's the worst that can
happen, it's not failure, it'snot making a mistake, because
I'll learn and I'll do betterthe next time.
It's death, that's sort of likeif I could die or maim somebody
(27:38):
, hurt somebody else, then itprobably isn't worth the risk.
But short of that, I couldpretty well figure it out.
So once I get to the placewhere failure is not an issue
I've answered a bunch ofquestions then those blockers
that are trying to get me tostay where I am in the status
(28:00):
quo it's too risky.
I can kick them out of the wayand I can feel the excitement
and I can move forward onto thenext step.
The third blocker that is almostthe most insidious out there is
our willingness to settle forwhat's not great, and the first
(28:21):
two fears are trying to keep usthere.
But I always ask my clients youknow, why are you staying?
You're not happy, your boss isdriving you nuts, you hate your
job, you wake up in the morningdepleted of energy versus moving
into something else, and theanswer I often get is at least I
(28:44):
know what I've got.
What if I don't find somethingbetter?
I'm not sure I have the time orthe energy to find something
better or more, and oftentimeswe feel like the amount of time
and energy it would take and therisk involved isn't worth it.
And my take on that is you areworth it, you're worth it.
(29:12):
There can be more, and the timeand energy you spend staying in
a miserable state or staying ina place where it's just not
good enough, but maybe it's justokay, is actually as much time
and energy as you would spend onfinding something different or
(29:36):
more.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
So we have to take that one away.
You have to overcome thosethings.
You're exactly right.
Those barriers can be ones thatthey have kept so many people
from achieving greatness.
They don't even realize thatthere's limiting beliefs that
exist inside of us.
Okay, look, so you talk aboutthose barriers.
You've now got a book and acorresponding workbook that goes
along with it to help people towork through their process.
(30:01):
You also do one-on-one coaching.
I want you to talk a little bitabout your unique immersion
program.
Tell me about that, what you doat CC Blue, and maybe share a
fun story, a success story thatyou've had with a client at CC
Blue with your immersion program.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
You know, I started the immersion after we had been
at the ranch for a number ofyears and we've got a beautiful
guest house and we've got a barnfull of animals and we've got a
beautiful garden with agreenhouse that grows vegetables
all year round.
We've developed a lifestyle.
We want to share the lifestyleand concurrently, earlier in
(30:42):
building through the ranch, Istarted a coaching business
based on all my years inbusiness and came out a number
of years ago looking at a way tocombine the two.
How do I take the coachingbusiness and this amazing place
that we've created and thelifestyle that we live?
(31:03):
How do we share that and blendthose together?
And what we came up with is theidea of an immersion an
immersion here for about threedays.
But the unique part about it isthat I don't actually like to
work with larger groups ofpeople.
I thrive.
My sweet spot is working withindividuals, couples or business
(31:27):
partners.
You know we're talking aboutwhat the alignment needs to be,
whether or not it's your ownalignment as a couple or as
business partners to moveforward, and so we developed a
process behind finding your next.
Where people come to the ranch,they stay in our guest house,
(31:49):
we feed them, we pamper them,make them feel really good
because you know why comeotherwise.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Do we get to pet goats too?
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Oh, you get to pet goats and pig bellies and
miniature horses.
It's an amazing experience but,more importantly, it gets
people out of their currentreality and into an environment
that is very open and very safe,and this is an opportunistic
kind of coaching.
(32:18):
Now, I've had a few people comewhen they've been in crisis.
No two ways around it.
Most people come when they arelooking to find what's next in
their life and they just don'thave the clarity.
They don't know why and theydon't know what the why is
(32:38):
behind what they're looking for.
They're getting mired in thedetails.
So when they come here, we backit up and we go through a
process of figuring out the whyand then we get into the details
and develop the path, and it'sa pleasant experience, it's a
joyous experience.
(32:59):
It's lovely to watch peoplecome with maybe a vague
understanding or preconceivednotion of what they thought they
should do and end up leavingwith a new sense of clarity and
openness to what they could bedoing, not what they should be
(33:23):
doing.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Love that.
Well, I think that's probablygoing to be quite an experience
for many, and I know that justhas to be fun Again.
How your dream has started out35 acres of open land and what
it's turned into sounds reallyphenomenal.
I'm curious throughout yourcareer maybe again another off
ramp here for just a minute andchoosing to write the book were
(33:47):
you a reader in terms of yourpersonal development, career as
a leader, and, if so, who wassomeone that you really enjoyed
reading or who was an influencerfor you from your personal
development?
Speaker 1 (33:57):
You know my own personal development.
I I'm a little irreverent incertain ways.
So there's an author, jenSincero, who I read, who has a
book on you're a badass and um,it was.
You know, her style gave me acertain permission to write a
book with that was just honestand could have humor in it and
(34:23):
be forthright and direct.
I always wanted to write a bookbut I never had a topic that I
thought was worthy of a book.
And let me tell you, the processof writing a book is one big
finding your next unto itselfand that is a concept within the
book and something that I thinkI've lived in my life and coach
(34:45):
about, which is we have theopportunity to have many, many
nexts little next, midsize nextand big next and if we approach
them all the way I approachedthe book as it was a next for me
.
So there was a process to gothrough, there was a learning to
(35:08):
get from it, and it's not whenyou write a book, it isn't just
about what you're going to putout, it's about what you're
going to get from it as well.
And it was a tremendouslearning experience for me and I
had the fear of failure, oh mygoodness and the fear of the
unknown and the willingness tosettle, all sitting around my
(35:28):
head at very different points.
So we still had to really breakthrough those blockers.
Every time you enter into anext, you have to do that.
So sometimes we call it a nextstep in our lives, a next phase,
whatever I happen to call it anext.
So the book for me was sofulfilling because it was about
(35:53):
telling the story of the process, the lessons learned, so
somebody else could learn fromthat process and internalize it
themselves, but also go throughit yet again in the actual
writing of the book.
(36:15):
Gosh, I just hope I can do itand get through it and then get
it out there.
And then what?
And then what?
Then wrote the workbook, theaudio.
I just finished recording theaudio book which is coming out
later this month.
So which was yet another.
Next, because I had a phobia ofreading out loud, believe it or
(36:36):
not, especially in public.
And here I sat in a studio forlike 20 hours reading to an
audience that was not in frontof me, but I knew they'd be out
there.
So another next.
So now I'm thinking I wonder ifthere's another book and you
know what the title?
(36:57):
No, I don't know what the titleis.
Do you know what the topic is?
Speaker 2 (37:00):
What's the topic?
Speaker 1 (37:01):
It's what we were talking about earlier retirement
.
What the heck is this thingcalled retirement?
I struggle with it, youstruggle with the idea of it.
I think there's a boatload ofus out there who are really
trying to reinvent whatretirement looks like, so that
(37:22):
just might be my next.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
I had lunch with someone today.
How much longer are you goingto work, john?
As long as God will let me work?
I'm telling you because I lovewhat I do and that's what you
really find what's going on.
So the book test for you booktest that I've heard before for
me is on the reader side as well.
So they read your book, theyput it up on the shelf, like
those, if you're watching onYouTube, can see behind me and
(37:47):
they're going to look at thatshelf for a while.
But a year later they're goingto see the binding of your book
that's sitting there.
What do you want them to feelwhen they see that binding, when
they look at it a year later?
Speaker 1 (37:58):
I want them to pick it up again because they're
going through their next, nextand say, ah, it's just, what was
that thing?
What was that story?
What was that?
I want the book to be used.
I want the book to be revisitedand I wrote the workbook
(38:30):
because a number of people toldme they would have liked to have
a guide that as they werereading the book, but really
almost after they read the bookand for future years, to be able
to help them work through theprocess yet again, because we're
not done, we're never done.
I hope we're not done.
So if our goal is to have manynexts in our lives, then I hope
(38:51):
that people will use the bookand that there will be lots and
lots of pages turned down orlots of highlights on the ebook
or whatever and use the workbookevery single time they're going
through an X to remind themthat there's a process, to
remind them that there arequestions they need to ask
(39:13):
themselves.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
So cool, Cindy.
How do folks get in touch withyou?
And also, where do you wantthem to go to get your book?
Speaker 1 (39:20):
I want them to go anywhere they want to get the
book, but it's mostly on Amazon.
It's also in a number ofdifferent places where you can
buy books, you know.
Finding your Next we talkedabout branding.
It's my website, so Findingyour Next with an NXT and my
contact information is thereTalks about my coaching service,
(39:43):
where I do one-on-one throughZoom, and it also talks about
the immersion to find your nextat CC Blue Ranch.
So it's just Finding your Next.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Excellent.
I'll put a link to the shownotes so that everybody can get
there.
I encourage everybody to go andget the book as well.
Last question you get the lastword.
I'm going to give you abillboard.
I don't know how many peoplecan see it from your ranch there
, but you can put the billboardanywhere you want to and you can
put any message you want to onthat billboard.
What's the message that you puton there and why do you put
(40:14):
that message?
Speaker 1 (40:18):
Oh, billboard.
Ah, you know, know, it's funny.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Um, I think I'd go back to the first thing that I
said here on the podcast, whichis don't forget to dream hmm,
makes a great hashtag fits wellsydney carillo, I've had a blast
chatting with you on thisinterview today and, uh, I wish
(40:47):
you the best going forward inthe second book, as well as
success with this and yourcoaching program as well thank
you, thank you, thank you forhaving me.
This was a gas and that wraps upanother episode of the Uncommon
Leader Podcast.
Thanks for tuning in today.
If you found value in thisepisode, I encourage you to
share it with your friends,colleagues or anyone else who
(41:08):
could benefit from the insightsand inspiration we've shared.
Also, if you have a moment, I'dgreatly appreciate if you could
leave a rating and review onyour favorite podcast platform.
Your feedback not only helps usto improve, but it also helps
others discover the podcast andjoin our growing community of
uncommon leaders.
Until next time, go and growchampions.
And I think there are many, many people out in the
world who find themselves in aposition, whether they're in
their 30s, their 40s, their 50s,they're looking at retirement,
whatever it is where they mighthave the opportunity to find
their next, and they don't knowwhere to begin.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Hey, uncommon Leaders , welcome back.
This is the Uncommon LeaderPodcast and I'm your host, john
Gallagher.
Today, I've got anextraordinary guest, cindy
Carrillo, joining us.
Cindy's journey from being theCEO of her own company to
running a transformativeimmersion experience at her
ranch in Colorado is nothingshort of inspiring.
In this episode, we'll diveinto Cindy's unique three-day
(00:43):
immersion experience aimed athelping individuals, couples and
business partners find clarityand alignment in their lives,
and we'll explore her personaldevelopment story from her book
Finding your Next.
Along the way, cindy sharesvaluable insights on redefining
retirement, breaking throughpersonal barriers and embracing
life's next phases with clarityand joy.
And embracing life's nextphases with clarity and joy.
(01:04):
This episode offers a wealth ofinspiration and actionable
insights, and I've already gotseveral people in mind to share
this episode with, and I hopethat you'll share it too.
Let's get started.
Cindy Carrillo, welcome to theUncommon Leader Podcast.
I am so looking forward to ourconversation today.
(01:24):
How are you doing?
Speaker 1 (01:25):
I'm doing great, so happy to be here, thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Good, Well, I know you've got a great view out your
back window there.
We're recording this on aFriday afternoon, so we'll get
through this and you'll be ableto enjoy that view.
But we're going to learn alittle bit more about that view
as well as we go through thejourney of your story today.
But I'll start you off the sameway I start all my first-time
guests with a question that isasking you to share a story from
(01:49):
your childhood that stillimpacts who you are today as a
person or as a leader.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Oh man, you know I had a great childhood, just a
great childhood.
Here's a story.
So it's a little later in mychildhood I was about 16 years
old and I had an older brother,so he was a senior in high
school.
I was a sophomore sittingaround the kitchen table with my
(02:18):
parents and I was never anexceptional student.
I was.
I was always kind of an averagestudent, didn't if I?
If I applied myself, I wouldget straight A's.
But I got to say didn't applymyself all that much.
I had a lot of differentinterests and I remember getting
my report card and sittingaround the table and really
(02:42):
supportive parents by the waytable and really supportive
parents, by the way.
And when my brother gets his, Iget mine and mine's like an A
here, mostly Bs as science, notgreat like a C plus.
And my brother in all earnest,like looks across the table at
me and he says so, cindy, howdoes it, how does it feel to be
(03:04):
average?
And it wasn't like a diss, itwasn't like he wasn't putting me
down, he was really curious.
And I gotta say, you know, I, I, my parents, kind of leaned in
like, yeah, how does it feel?
And it seems so weird to say itnow, but I was like it's fine,
(03:25):
I'm fine, I'm fine living thelife that I'm living right now
as a 16 year old.
But I will tell you, I kind ofgrew up under the radar and I
was the youngest of all thegrandchildren.
I was the youngest in my familyand nobody expected a lot from
(03:48):
me.
They did not expect me to dowell, but there were no real
preconceived notions about who Iwas going to become and what I
was going to do.
And as I look back on that, asI went through my career in my
life and here I am at 67 yearsold, I appreciate that because I
(04:12):
wasn't locked into anything asa kid and I remember my mother
always saying to me oh honey,you just do whatever you choose
to do.
You just do whatever you chooseto do, and when you figure it
out you'll do it well.
And I think that sort of wasthe freeing moment in my
(04:35):
childhood and my early adultyears too to just relax.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
You're fine.
I like that because, again, wetalk about so many, especially
with authors, and the start oftheir story is this great
tragedy that they've overcome orwhatever it is, and I get a
sense, even as I read yourprofile, read your bio and
through your LinkedIn work, thatthere's a lot of success in
your world and there may be somethings that you've had to
(05:04):
overcome along the way, but itsounds like some of that
overcome is just the expectationthat there wasn't an
expectation.
You had to set that foryourself.
So I appreciate that and I cantell right away how that has
impacted your story here thatwe're going to talk about today,
and that's your book Findingyour Next.
Now let's start off with a veryimportant question, because I
need to speak with yourpublisher.
(05:25):
Although I think, you might haveself-published the book,
because I think you spelled theword incorrectly.
I know that you're missing an Einside of that word, so there's
got to be a story behind thetitle to get started.
So tell me that story, let'shear it.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
You know, when I talk about finding your next, I
always have to emphasize thenext.
And people ask the question allthe time and as I've become a
coach in this part of my careerand even when I was running
business, the question wasalways actually what's next?
What's next?
(05:59):
And when we say it, weemphasize that and we kind of
rush through it.
And when we say it, weemphasize that N and we kind of
rush through it.
So when I was going to writethe book about finding your next
, I wanted to really emphasizethe importance of the next and
we just didn't put an E in therebecause it really wasn't
(06:21):
important, because when you sayit it's just NXT, just NXT.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
I got to tell you I was trying to find it.
It's just NXT, just NXT.
I got to tell you I was tryingto find it.
I was trying to find the answerbefore I came to you and I
didn't find it.
I thought I was going to get ananswer like oh, it's the secret
recipe and I can't tell youwhat it is, or I'd have to kill
you.
It's like the thing that's goneback in the family for a long
time.
But I appreciate what you'resaying.
With regards to the emphasis ofon the word next, I don't know
(06:46):
may or may not.
Again, I like to read a lot ofbooks, and one of the most
impactful books that I've readin the last several years was by
Jeff Henderson, called what toDo Next as well, so he spelled
it with E, so you may have totalk to him that he spelled it
incorrectly instead of you,exactly, exactly.
But look, so that is the story,and I make up, after just some
(07:07):
of the brief conversations thatwe had, that it really is about
your next in terms of your story.
So why did you write this bookwhen you wrote it and who did
you write it for?
Speaker 1 (07:18):
You know, I think the reason that I wrote the book
was that it was a pretty bigtransformation I went through.
I ran a company for over 20years founded it was the CEO of
it, grew, it did an amazing jobof building a team and a product
(07:40):
and built something new andexciting and reached a point in
my development where I realized,oh my goodness, I think I'm
done with this and I'm lookingfor what's next, and that
process unto itself of coming tothe decision to move on and to
sell the company.
Look, I was in a great place.
(08:02):
I didn't.
I wasn't in crisis, it wasn't ahorrible situation that I
needed to move from, and Irealized that many of us find
ourselves in a position in lifewhere we're just ready, it's an
opportunistic, next it's I'mgood.
And now?
(08:23):
Now what and how do I applyeverything that I've learned?
So when I sold the company, Iwas in a unique and fortunate
position of having someresources, having all the time
in the world and being able toreally go out into the world and
say where, what?
(08:44):
How would I thrive next?
And ended up buying a ranch inSouthwest Colorado.
I tell you, I've never lived ona ranch before.
I've always been a nicesuburban girl I don't know
anything about living in ruralAmerica and really went through
a 10-year transformation frombeing a CEO lots of great suits
(09:11):
and high heels and fashion was athing and traveling and amazing
experiences to now living on aranch.
I now have a great cowboy bootcollection and just a different
wardrobe.
But really it was much more ofa deeper transformation of what
(09:32):
was productivity going to looklike, what was important to me
in my life.
How do you go through a processlike this, from becoming from
being a CEO to now being a ranchgirl and that's essentially who
I've become and a coach anddeveloping different kinds of
programs and totally differentthan who I was before and what I
(09:55):
did, and yet totally who I wasbefore and what I did before,
just in a different way and whatI did before, just in a
different way.
And having gone through thatprocess, I thought I'm not that
unique.
I'm actually not that, you know, I'm not that special.
I'm quite ordinary.
And I think there are many,many people out in the world who
(10:18):
find themselves in a position,whether they're in their 30s,
their 40s, their 50s, they'relooking at retirement, whatever
it is where they might have theopportunity to find their next,
and they don't know where tobegin.
I wrote the book, and I wrotethe book using my story as the
(10:39):
illustrations of the process ofgoing through to find your next.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Yeah, because I would imagine, even as you talk about
that and I actually havethere's a person that I've been
coaching that has absolutelycome to my mind that is going to
get a copy of this book intheir mailbox next week as you
tell that story.
First, I love the analogy ofhigh heels to cowboy boots.
I think that is really cool asyou talk about, or whether it's
team members to goats and you'llget a chance to talk about your
(11:07):
goats that you have on yourranch as well.
I think that's a really coolstory that draws.
But my guess is you were in asituation, as you mentioned,
from a resource standpoint, thatyou, frankly, didn't have to do
anything.
You could have retired.
What does that word sound liketo you, even back then or today?
What does the word retiredsound like to you?
Speaker 1 (11:29):
You know, I said I was going to retire and but
every time I said it I put airquotes around it and I would
retire.
So I knew that retirement in amore traditional sense, which I
think most of us think about, iswe're not earning anymore.
We might volunteer, we'respending our time, maybe we're
playing sports, pickleball's, athing I don't know.
I knew that I wasn't doneworking.
(11:53):
I didn't know how I wanted towork, so I used retirement as
the bridge, as a way for othersto understand that I was taking
a break to figure out how Iwanted to work next and how I
needed to design a different wayof living my life, with a
(12:17):
different way of working.
But I still like to earn and Ithink that retirement is a place
and a time most of us thinkabout.
We don't have to work and earna living anymore.
We're living in a different way, and that just wasn't the case
for me.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Perfect.
I mean, I'm close to where youare and I get tired of asking
that question, even of when I'mgoing to retire, because I don't
I just don't sense that word.
Uh, as much as looking forwardto that date, if you will that
you stop, because it has toomuch of you.
Stop, you don't add valueanymore.
There's some other word that,whether it's reinvents or
(12:58):
whatever it is, that you cancontinue to add value, and one
of the ways you've done that iswith your book.
So your book has 16 chapters, I, you and one of the ways you've
done that is with your book, soyour book has 16 chapters.
I don't want to not talk aboutthat.
I could talk stories all daylong, but, uh, you know the book
has 16 chapters.
We clearly don't have time togo through all 16 of those
chapters, but it's importantabout where you start.
So where did your story startand how you wrote this book?
(13:21):
What's the first step?
Speaker 1 (13:22):
You know, the first step was to um identify the
dream.
And I think that as we age, westop dreaming and we think that
we've got to get so rational andso logical and so real.
And I'm not talking aboutdreams that are fantastical, I'm
talking about dreams that canbe based in reality.
(13:45):
But they're aspirations forourself, of what we think we can
do, based on who we are, wherewe can thrive, where our skills
and our strengths are.
And I remembered back, you know, when I moved to Colorado I
think I was 19 years old, and Itook a road trip with my best
friend, nancy, and we came downto Southwest Colorado and we
(14:07):
found this little town of Euray,which is called the Switzerland
of America, and I looked up atthese mountains and I was
awestruck and I thought I thinkI shouted it out in the car One
day, one day I will live here inthese mountains.
And then I went back and lifehappened and I started to work,
(14:30):
I got married, I had kids, Istarted a business and I think I
forgot the dream.
And when I found myself in thispoint in my life, I started to
reimagine life again and whatkept coming back were snippets
of this dream, this magnificentview, this living in the
(14:50):
mountains, this lifestyle changeand, as I kept saying it and as
I would put air quotes around,I'm gonna retire in the
mountains with a beautiful viewand I'm gonna sit on a big porch
and a rocking chair with areally big hat and just sort of
look at that view.
(15:11):
I remembered the dream and sothat became the direction that I
went in.
I'm going to go back to thatarea, I'm going to see what's in
that area, I'm going to see ifit still has meaning to me.
And I did.
I came back down here and I sawthose views again.
And it's the one thing aboutmountains, you know, takes them
a long time to change, and theamount of time between me being
(15:34):
19 and having sold the company,they didn't change all that much
.
They were still absolutelymagnificent in the way that I
remembered them.
So I realized this is where Iwanted to be.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
I love that as a first step and I certainly
appreciate as you talk about.
As we age, we stop dreaming.
I don't know why that is.
I think it's something that isthere.
It leads me into one of yourquestions.
But you end up purchasing thisranch and it's the 30, 35 acres.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
And now, once you want animals and yeah, it's 35
acres with nothing on it.
I mean there's pasture.
So I'm like, oh my goodness,what does this mean?
But you know, I stood on thisland and it was a very sort of
fortuitous coming together oftiming and and everything.
(16:24):
It was 2008, 2009, when I wason the land, right after the
economy had tanked, real estatemarket had tanked, and so I'm
looking at this 35 acre parcelwith three mountain ranges
surrounding it.
Normally I wouldn't have beenable to touch it, but it was
good timing and so I bought it.
(16:46):
I was given the opportunity andI bought it, and my first
inclination was oh my goodness,where do I go from here?
I know nothing about buildingon raw land.
Essentially, there was noservices, but when I stood here
and I looked out there, I couldsee a future.
I couldn't see where the barnwould ultimately be, I couldn't
(17:10):
see where the garden plot wasgoing to be, but I could see my
family coming.
I could see my friends comingand us wanting to share it.
I could actually hear laughterand joy and I thought, oh, now
all I have to do is build it and, to quote the famous movie, and
if I build it, they will come,but I need to build it with a
(17:33):
certain intentionality of whatI'm trying to create.
And that was the second step.
That was trying to figure outwhat's really important, why,
why are you doing this?
And I think we all have to askourselves.
You know, when we all gothrough the process of figuring
out what's next, what's ourfirst human knee-jerk reaction?
(17:56):
It's to get into the weeds.
I want to change my job, okay,well, what does that mean?
Well, I've had this job withthis title.
So, logically, we begin withwhat our title is going to be,
what we need to earn, where weneed to live.
We want two or three weeksvacation.
We get into the nitty grittystuff and I'm interested in wait
(18:21):
, let's back it up.
You're making a major change inyour life.
Why?
What do you want this to do foryou?
What's the life you really want?
Why don't we begin with what'sreally important in the life you
want to live?
Then you can design around that.
But if we don't stop and backup and ask ourselves why, we
(18:45):
miss the point of designing thelife we really want.
And I had this uniqueopportunity with 35 acres in
front of me.
I mean, everybody gets to askthe why, but not everybody has
35, you know virgin lake acresin front of them.
So asking why and what I wantedto do with it.
(19:07):
So we wanted to share it.
We wanted friends and family tocome down.
I also live six hours away frommy core group of people, so
nobody's stopping by for dinner.
Somebody's coming by for a fewdays.
So we needed to build theaccommodations that people could
be comfortable here.
We wanted a sustainable life.
So, looking at materials,energy, food, everything about
(19:33):
living a sustainable life whatdid that look like?
What could that look like?
That became the criteria forall the future decisions about
how to build this lifestyle thatwe wanted to live.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
So, so fun.
Field of Dreams you had theRanch of Dreams or the 35 Acres
of Dreams, that movie.
There's another one.
They make movies about thiskind of stuff, right?
I think it was Under the TuscanSun.
It's not a movie that I watch,right?
I mean, I think it's one ofthose movies, right?
Speaker 1 (20:05):
I'm sure, I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
But you didn't like.
You didn't call it the field ofdreams or the ranch of dreams.
You came up with a name for itas well, so let's drive down
that path just a little bit andtalk about the name of your
dream location.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
So you know, we realized that we I keep saying
we it's my partner, matthew andso coming down this area all
this time and driving by all theranches because when you're
doing this you need to go andlike, look at what everybody
else has done before you canmake up what you want to do, you
(20:37):
know, and get inspiration.
So we're doing that and, oh mygoodness, everybody names their
land.
You know, growing up insuburbia, you do not like name
your house Right, but down hereand in every rural area, people
name their properties.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
And if you're right, so you have the gate you know,
and we decided to go down low.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
But yeah you know, and so we're coming up with
horrible names.
You know peaceful acres andvista view and just looking back
on it.
you know Peaceful Acres andVista View and just looking back
on it, you just get reallykitschy and you get silly and we
were sitting, we were startingto build and so we had an RV at
the time and would park the RVon the property for a few days
(21:21):
and meet with the builders.
We're sitting at the kitchentable on the RV and we're coming
up with really stupid, sillynames and then Matthew's phone
starts.
It just sort of lights up, youknow, when you kind of hit it,
and on his screen it says CCBlue.
And I'm like who's CC Blue?
And my name is Cindy Carrillo,so CC, and this is going to
(21:47):
sound really, but I have blueeyes and his nickname for me was
CC blue and I didn't know it.
He just put me in his phone.
He would call me blue every nowand then, but I didn't know.
That's how.
He had me in his phone and Igot all you know who is that.
He looks up at me and he goeswell, that's you silly.
And I was like no, and I got,I'm getting all the comfort now.
(22:11):
You know, it's just sort of ah,it just touched my heart and
he's the one who looked up andsaid that's it, that's the name.
And I said, well, that seemskind of selfish to put my
nickname up there, but it hastaken on a life of its own.
So the ranch is CC Blue andeven my kids talk about coming
(22:33):
to CC Blue and I personally Ilove branding from being in
business for so long, so webrand everything and it's all CC
Blue.
So it's a beautiful, beautifulway to have it take on a life of
its own.
That's even beyond me.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Hey listeners, I want to take a quick moment to share
something special with you.
Many of the topics anddiscussions we have on this
podcast are areas where Iprovide coaching and consulting
services for individuals andorganizations.
If you've been inspired by ourconversation and are seeking a
catalyst for change in your ownlife or within your team, I
invite you to visitcoachjohngallaghercom forward
(23:14):
slash free call to sign up for afree coaching call with me.
It's an opportunity for us toconnect, discuss your unique
challenges and explore howcoaching or consulting can
benefit you and your team.
Okay, let's get back to theshow.
I have seen the branding.
I've seen the coffee mugs withNXT on the bottom.
(23:34):
Next, next on the bottom ofthat coffee mug I've seen a
picture.
So, yeah, you're into thebranding part of it, as you see
that.
Okay, so we took that off rampfor a little while.
I went to that rest area aboutthe name.
That is so cool how it gotnamed on a pocket dial or a butt
dial that you called yourselfand now you name it CC Blue
Perfect.
Back on the on-ramp here.
Look, you've gone through thosefirst two steps and we can't go
(23:57):
through all of them, but I wantto touch on at least two more.
One is you talked about thebreakthrough blockers.
So, there had to be a time whereyou're like, nope, not going to
work.
Tell me what those breakthroughblockers are that not just you,
but keep folks from realizingtheir dream.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
You know, I think we all do it.
I think there are things thatwe come up with ideas, we get
excited about what could be nextand something stops us.
And as I was going through theprocess, I realized that it's
actually just a few things thatstop us.
The first two.
First two have to do with fear.
(24:33):
The first fear is the fear ofthe unknown and oh my goodness,
of course it stops you in yourtracks because you don't have
any idea what's in front of you.
So I looked out at the land, Igot really excited, bought the
property and I got to tell youthe couple of weeks following
that, I was paralyzed, paralyzedby the fear of the unknown.
(24:59):
What do I do?
Where do I go?
What could it be?
It's almost like standing onthe cliff, you know, and you
look down and you can't even seethe bottom.
It's just darkness.
Well, of course we're going tostop, because nobody's going to
be foolish enough to jump intothat without shedding light on
what's below us, what's out infront of us.
(25:22):
So I think, when we experiencethe fear of the unknown, it
stops us with a bunch of oh mygoodness, what if?
Questions.
What if?
What if I fail?
What if this goes wrong?
What if?
And I think if we justunderstand that, that that that
(25:46):
is the flashing light that istelling us we need more, we need
more information.
And it's not a flashing lightto stop us, it's a light that's
telling us move forward, gathermore information and figure out
what the questions are and whatthe answers are, then the fear
(26:08):
starts to dissipate because it'sno longer unknown.
We have steps in front of us.
The other fear that then sort ofcreeps up is when we've got the
voices on either side, andthat's the fear of failure.
Their side, and that's the fearof failure.
(26:29):
You know, that's another.
What if it all goes to hell ina handbasket?
What if it just doesn't work?
And here's my take on failure.
I don't think failure exists.
If you learn, we all need tomake mistakes in order to learn.
We're not just going into ournext with the full blueprint of
(26:51):
how to do it, step by step, andit's going to be perfect.
We need to try and we need tosometimes make mistakes.
Then we need to learn.
If you learn, there is nofailure.
So if we ask ourselves what'sthe worst that can happen,
(27:12):
oftentimes we get to a placewhere we realize it's not that
bad if I mess up here or there.
So for me, you know, if I askmyself what's the worst that can
happen, it's not failure, it'snot making a mistake, because
I'll learn and I'll do betterthe next time.
It's death, that's sort of likeif I could die or maim somebody
(27:38):
, hurt somebody else, then itprobably isn't worth the risk.
But short of that, I couldpretty well figure it out.
So once I get to the placewhere failure is not an issue
I've answered a bunch ofquestions then those blockers
that are trying to get me tostay where I am in the status
(28:00):
quo it's too risky.
I can kick them out of the wayand I can feel the excitement
and I can move forward onto thenext step.
The third blocker that is almostthe most insidious out there is
our willingness to settle forwhat's not great, and the first
(28:21):
two fears are trying to keep usthere.
But I always ask my clients youknow, why are you staying?
You're not happy, your boss isdriving you nuts, you hate your
job, you wake up in the morningdepleted of energy versus moving
into something else, and theanswer I often get is at least I
(28:44):
know what I've got.
What if I don't find somethingbetter?
I'm not sure I have the time orthe energy to find something
better or more, and oftentimeswe feel like the amount of time
and energy it would take and therisk involved isn't worth it.
And my take on that is you areworth it, you're worth it.
(29:12):
There can be more, and the timeand energy you spend staying in
a miserable state or staying ina place where it's just not
good enough, but maybe it's justokay, is actually as much time
and energy as you would spend onfinding something different or
(29:36):
more.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
So we have to take that one away.
You have to overcome thosethings.
You're exactly right.
Those barriers can be ones thatthey have kept so many people
from achieving greatness.
They don't even realize thatthere's limiting beliefs that
exist inside of us.
Okay, look, so you talk aboutthose barriers.
You've now got a book and acorresponding workbook that goes
along with it to help people towork through their process.
(30:01):
You also do one-on-one coaching.
I want you to talk a little bitabout your unique immersion
program.
Tell me about that, what you doat CC Blue, and maybe share a
fun story, a success story thatyou've had with a client at CC
Blue with your immersion program.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
You know, I started the immersion after we had been
at the ranch for a number ofyears and we've got a beautiful
guest house and we've got a barnfull of animals and we've got a
beautiful garden with agreenhouse that grows vegetables
all year round.
We've developed a lifestyle.
We want to share the lifestyleand concurrently, earlier in
(30:42):
building through the ranch, Istarted a coaching business
based on all my years inbusiness and came out a number
of years ago looking at a way tocombine the two.
How do I take the coachingbusiness and this amazing place
that we've created and thelifestyle that we live?
(31:03):
How do we share that and blendthose together?
And what we came up with is theidea of an immersion an
immersion here for about threedays.
But the unique part about it isthat I don't actually like to
work with larger groups ofpeople.
I thrive.
My sweet spot is working withindividuals, couples or business
(31:27):
partners.
You know we're talking aboutwhat the alignment needs to be,
whether or not it's your ownalignment as a couple or as
business partners to moveforward, and so we developed a
process behind finding your next.
Where people come to the ranch,they stay in our guest house,
(31:49):
we feed them, we pamper them,make them feel really good
because you know why comeotherwise.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Do we get to pet goats too?
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Oh, you get to pet goats and pig bellies and
miniature horses.
It's an amazing experience but,more importantly, it gets
people out of their currentreality and into an environment
that is very open and very safe,and this is an opportunistic
kind of coaching.
(32:18):
Now, I've had a few people comewhen they've been in crisis.
No two ways around it.
Most people come when they arelooking to find what's next in
their life and they just don'thave the clarity.
They don't know why and theydon't know what the why is
(32:38):
behind what they're looking for.
They're getting mired in thedetails.
So when they come here, we backit up and we go through a
process of figuring out the whyand then we get into the details
and develop the path, and it'sa pleasant experience, it's a
joyous experience.
(32:59):
It's lovely to watch peoplecome with maybe a vague
understanding or preconceivednotion of what they thought they
should do and end up leavingwith a new sense of clarity and
openness to what they could bedoing, not what they should be
(33:23):
doing.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Love that.
Well, I think that's probablygoing to be quite an experience
for many, and I know that justhas to be fun Again.
How your dream has started out35 acres of open land and what
it's turned into sounds reallyphenomenal.
I'm curious throughout yourcareer maybe again another off
ramp here for just a minute andchoosing to write the book were
(33:47):
you a reader in terms of yourpersonal development, career as
a leader, and, if so, who wassomeone that you really enjoyed
reading or who was an influencerfor you from your personal
development?
Speaker 1 (33:57):
You know my own personal development.
I I'm a little irreverent incertain ways.
So there's an author, jenSincero, who I read, who has a
book on you're a badass and um,it was.
You know, her style gave me acertain permission to write a
book with that was just honestand could have humor in it and
(34:23):
be forthright and direct.
I always wanted to write a bookbut I never had a topic that I
thought was worthy of a book.
And let me tell you, the processof writing a book is one big
finding your next unto itselfand that is a concept within the
book and something that I thinkI've lived in my life and coach
(34:45):
about, which is we have theopportunity to have many, many
nexts little next, midsize nextand big next and if we approach
them all the way I approachedthe book as it was a next for me
.
So there was a process to gothrough, there was a learning to
(35:08):
get from it, and it's not whenyou write a book, it isn't just
about what you're going to putout, it's about what you're
going to get from it as well.
And it was a tremendouslearning experience for me and I
had the fear of failure, oh mygoodness and the fear of the
unknown and the willingness tosettle, all sitting around my
(35:28):
head at very different points.
So we still had to really breakthrough those blockers.
Every time you enter into anext, you have to do that.
So sometimes we call it a nextstep in our lives, a next phase,
whatever I happen to call it anext.
So the book for me was sofulfilling because it was about
(35:53):
telling the story of the process, the lessons learned, so
somebody else could learn fromthat process and internalize it
themselves, but also go throughit yet again in the actual
writing of the book.
(36:15):
Gosh, I just hope I can do itand get through it and then get
it out there.
And then what?
And then what?
Then wrote the workbook, theaudio.
I just finished recording theaudio book which is coming out
later this month.
So which was yet another.
Next, because I had a phobia ofreading out loud, believe it or
(36:36):
not, especially in public.
And here I sat in a studio forlike 20 hours reading to an
audience that was not in frontof me, but I knew they'd be out
there.
So another next.
So now I'm thinking I wonder ifthere's another book and you
know what the title?
(36:57):
No, I don't know what the titleis.
Do you know what the topic is?
Speaker 2 (37:00):
What's the topic?
Speaker 1 (37:01):
It's what we were talking about earlier retirement
.
What the heck is this thingcalled retirement?
I struggle with it, youstruggle with the idea of it.
I think there's a boatload ofus out there who are really
trying to reinvent whatretirement looks like, so that
(37:22):
just might be my next.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
I had lunch with someone today.
How much longer are you goingto work, john?
As long as God will let me work?
I'm telling you because I lovewhat I do and that's what you
really find what's going on.
So the book test for you booktest that I've heard before for
me is on the reader side as well.
So they read your book, theyput it up on the shelf, like
those, if you're watching onYouTube, can see behind me and
(37:47):
they're going to look at thatshelf for a while.
But a year later they're goingto see the binding of your book
that's sitting there.
What do you want them to feelwhen they see that binding, when
they look at it a year later?
Speaker 1 (37:58):
I want them to pick it up again because they're
going through their next, nextand say, ah, it's just, what was
that thing?
What was that story?
What was that?
I want the book to be used.
I want the book to be revisitedand I wrote the workbook
(38:30):
because a number of people toldme they would have liked to have
a guide that as they werereading the book, but really
almost after they read the bookand for future years, to be able
to help them work through theprocess yet again, because we're
not done, we're never done.
I hope we're not done.
So if our goal is to have manynexts in our lives, then I hope
(38:51):
that people will use the bookand that there will be lots and
lots of pages turned down orlots of highlights on the ebook
or whatever and use the workbookevery single time they're going
through an X to remind themthat there's a process, to
remind them that there arequestions they need to ask
(39:13):
themselves.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
So cool, Cindy.
How do folks get in touch withyou?
And also, where do you wantthem to go to get your book?
Speaker 1 (39:20):
I want them to go anywhere they want to get the
book, but it's mostly on Amazon.
It's also in a number ofdifferent places where you can
buy books, you know.
Finding your Next we talkedabout branding.
It's my website, so Findingyour Next with an NXT and my
contact information is thereTalks about my coaching service,
(39:43):
where I do one-on-one throughZoom, and it also talks about
the immersion to find your nextat CC Blue Ranch.
So it's just Finding your Next.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Excellent.
I'll put a link to the shownotes so that everybody can get
there.
I encourage everybody to go andget the book as well.
Last question you get the lastword.
I'm going to give you abillboard.
I don't know how many peoplecan see it from your ranch there
, but you can put the billboardanywhere you want to and you can
put any message you want to onthat billboard.
What's the message that you puton there and why do you put
(40:14):
that message?
Speaker 1 (40:18):
Oh, billboard.
Ah, you know, know, it's funny.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
Um, I think I'd go back to the first thing that I
said here on the podcast, whichis don't forget to dream hmm,
makes a great hashtag fits wellsydney carillo, I've had a blast
chatting with you on thisinterview today and, uh, I wish
(40:47):
you the best going forward inthe second book, as well as
success with this and yourcoaching program as well thank
you, thank you, thank you forhaving me.
This was a gas and that wraps upanother episode of the Uncommon
Leader Podcast.
Thanks for tuning in today.
If you found value in thisepisode, I encourage you to
share it with your friends,colleagues or anyone else who
(41:08):
could benefit from the insightsand inspiration we've shared.
Also, if you have a moment, I'dgreatly appreciate if you could
leave a rating and review onyour favorite podcast platform.
Your feedback not only helps usto improve, but it also helps
others discover the podcast andjoin our growing community of
uncommon leaders.
Until next time, go and growchampions.
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