In this celebratory 100th episode of the One Small Change Podcast, Yvonne McCoy reflects on insights gained from two years of interviews and personal entrepreneurial growth. She shares powerful lessons learned from over 100 conversations with inspiring guests, including the importance of consistency, the hidden value of our natural strengths, embracing authenticity, and how collaboration accelerates progress. Yvonne McCoy discusses the transformative capacity of curiosity, learning from failure, and the impact of being visible and clear about your offerings as an entrepreneur. The episode wraps up with encouragement to leverage your uniqueness rather than strive for perfection and a reminder that lasting change often begins with one small, courageous step.

Chapters:

00:00 Reflecting on 100 podcast episodes

04:18 Finding your entrepreneurial sweet spot

07:18 The value of authenticity

09:46 Finding consistency with vegetables

14:52 Convincing businesses to accept grants

17:14 Embracing curiosity and failure

22:11 Importance of collaboration and strengths

23:08 Celebrating 100 podcast episodes

26:49 Finding clarity for the right direction

Quote from the Guest:

"You don't need to be fixed. You just need to be found."

Link:

www.bookacallwithyvonne.com

www.yvonnemccoy.com/workshop

www.yvonnemccoy.com/summit

www.yvonnemccoy.com/panel

Welcome to the One Small Change. I'm thrilled to embark on this journey

of explanation, exploration, and transformation with you.

I'm your host, Yvonne McCoy, and I bring almost 30 years of

entrepreneurial experience. And I have a passion for

discovering growth through the power of seemingly small change.

I want to thank you for spending your time here, because I know there's lots

of places you could be. So I want to make sure that this is

worth your time and your effort. And this week is a little bit different.

And this is our 100th

episode, so we've got a little celebrating to do.

And the first thing is I am totally amazed by

the fact of how fast it went. So a hundred

conversations later, I want to share some things

that I learned from this. And so I thought

that the podcast would be a really small business

change, that it would be, you know, it wouldn't become that much

bigger, that it was just a way for me to have some

continuity, to be curious about other people, to

connect with other people. Right. Maybe get a little

recognition, a little visibility as well. But like I said,

we. This is our 100th episode. I actually went and looked at the

date. It's been almost two years. I can't believe that.

And I know that as entrepreneurs, it is hard for us to

do anything consistently. So the fact that I've

actually put out a hundred episodes, I think

reinforces the idea that if you're doing

something that you like to do, it's so much easier to be

consistent. And one of the things that I

had hoped was that, you know,

during this, that I would bring you people

and ideas that would change you as well.

So there's a lot of reflecting to do. And, you know, one

of the things that. That happened during the course of this, because lots of things

happen, I changed the name of my workshop several times.

I changed platforms for my business and

my newsletters. You know,

I started speaking, I think more.

There were just a lot of things that happened, but I thought

I was just interviewing guests, but really I

was connecting patterns. I was seeing about all the things that happen to

people who are successful. So

over the hundred episodes, there were a couple of

things that. That came out that I

think are worth sharing. It taught me to

stop over complicating things. It taught

me to, you know, not to try to fix myself

or, you know, that nobody else needs to be fixed either

to streamline and not

chase every squirrel that I saw. Probably one of the

biggest things was that I realized that

I wasn't really tracking results. I wasn't really doing the numbers because I was

having so much fun that I wasn't looking at the results.

And that's. That's a bad mistake to make, I gotta tell you.

You know, and. And part of that comes from the, you know, the shiny

object syndrome, because you don't stay with anything long enough

to really get to see what the results are.

I think the other thing was over preparing the things that

we're good at, the things that we talk about. We know we got our

content down. And so you don't need to over prepare. You do need to

prepare someone. And probably like every other

human, I don't follow my own advice. And so,

you know, I had a concussion this year. And one of the things that it

definitely taught me was to streamline my business

and get some help and put some systems in place.

And it's something I should have done a long time ago,

but I didn't. Right.

Some of the funny things that happened is, you know, how many times during the

course of this 100 episodes, I, you know, I said to

myself, I should have known better. Right?

There were some awkward interviews, there were some tech moments,

there were some weird things that happened, but we kept pushing

through. And so I think that's one of the things that makes it fun, is

that it's really authentic. It's not really

polished and very professional. So

the overall takeaway, I think, is that

most entrepreneurs don't need more information. They just need

be much clearer about what's already working and what their strengths are.

So one of the ways I like to describe that is,

you know, as entrepreneurs, we have a tendency to keep, you know,

changing directions and doing all kinds of things. Right. And

so what I want you to say, one of the things that I've seen from

people that I've interviewed is that once they found

their sweet spot, they stuck with it.

And all of us have this thing about, this is going to be boring. I

can't doing this. But here's the thing.

When you do something, one thing, you

have to get it out there. Somebody has to see it at least 12 times.

So if you do two things, then you have to get it out there 24.

And if you do five things and you have to get it out there 60.

And by that time, your clients don't have a clue what you're

doing, right? So for me, it's like having a mobile

story. You set up shop on Monday on a corner, somebody

walks by, they see what you're selling, they go, oh, that's. I want that

I'm going to come back later this week, right? But on Tuesday, you

move to another place, you're selling something else. Wednesday, you move someplace else,

and by the time the person comes back on Thursday, you're not there anymore,

and they have no idea where you are or what you're selling. So

the problem isn't that people don't need what you do, it's just

that they can't find you consistently, right?

So visibility compounds when people

repeatedly recognize you.

So, again, this is live. I don't know if you heard my dog.

So I want you to think about that, right?

People need. Already need what you

do. The problem is that they can't

find you, right? And we all have

this problem. Sometimes we all have this problem of visibility. I mean, we're taught

not to toot our own horns. And so, you know,

it's funny, because I'm as guilty of some of the things

as everybody else. I mean, there was a point when I wrote a

post about authenticity and was looking for a photo to put up, and I'm

like, this is about authenticity. You need to put up your own photo,

right? And so learning to take, you know, to be our

own best client can be one of the best things that happens.

And so for me, the podcast is one of those things. One of my strengths

is apparently I like to talk.

And so, you know, it's easy for me to have

somebody on a podcast, and I find people interesting, and I find

what they do in the. You know, you can have so many things in common

and do it in such a different way. Right.

That it's not a surprise that

there can be a bunch of people in the same area that you're in.

And yet you're all different, right? And

so that's one of the things that I want you to take away

is the things that come easily to you

are the things that you will be able to constantly project.

And that's one of the things that I got from interviewing people

on the podcast. You know, authenticity is not about

Polish. Authenticity is giving yourself the permission to be

yourself and not, you know, and just say, those that

like me, like me, and those that don't, won't. And here's

a weird story. When I was an exchange student, I.

I used to bike 100, 100 miles a week. And, you

know, I put my hair up in rollers, and then, you know, I would bike

to school and it would be all fuzzy, right? And so the

family I was living with decided that they were going to take me to the

beauty parlor. And let me get some kind of a, you know, straightening thing.

And it was pretty new. It was a chemical thing. And

after two or three days, my hair started falling out and I had a

huge bald spot. Right. And I made the decision.

It was like, from now on, you're gonna like me regardless what my hair

looks like, because I'm not going through this again. Right.

So authenticity is not about polish. It's about being who you really

are and, and, and being. Having some grace with yourself.

I think to be vulnerable and to go out and talk about

the things that you do well and the things that you don't.

So for me, there are

lots of things that you probably don't know about me that I never shared.

But if you've been to my workshop, you, you've done the three word exercise.

And that started because

I weighed 440 pounds

and I knew I didn't want to live my life like that. And with anything,

it is, it isn't knowing how to do it, how to lose weight.

I mean, it's a pretty simple formula. You know, you take in less

calories than you burn. Right. So it wasn't about knowing how

to do it. It was about knowing why I really

wanted to do it and being able to do it in a way

that I liked and that I could, you know, I could

make it go continuously. So a really simple

thing was, you know, eating vegetables is really easy in the

summer because you have salads and all that kind of stuff. But I don't really

like salads in the winter that much. Right. And so one of

the things that I learned was I didn't mind a salad if it was

kale because iceberg lets seems

cold and kind of slimy to me in the winter. But another way to get

my vegetables was in soups. And so learning

the concepts and learning how you can use them

personally will get you consistency

as you go along. The you will have your dead reckoning. Right? You

have your purpose, your reckoning and your clarity.

And so you can have consistent growth. It may not be a

straight line, but it will be consistent. You will keep going in

the direction that you need to go. And that's one of the things that you

see in these interviews is people talk about something that happened

to them and they pick themselves up and they learn

something from it. And that's when they actually started to grow.

So I referenced the fact that, that, you know, I used to

be £440.

One of the things that made me change was because My first grandchild was

coming, and I didn't. I wanted to be an active grandmother. But

here's some other things that you might not know. I am

now 77 years old. I'm a wife, I'm a mother, I'm an

entrepreneur, I'm a podcaster, and I'm somebody

who just started doing Pilates. So you may have seen my post

about the baby elephant. That was very awkward. You

know, when you learn something new, you're awkward and it's okay. You're going to

feel uncomfortable. And it's. It's like if a baby's starting

to walk and it falls down, you don't say, oh, you fell

down once. Don't. Don't get up and try it again. It's a n. We expect

that. It's a natural part of the process. And so that's

what we see with the one small change. You fall down, and then

you get back up again. You know, growth

doesn't stop. Right. And what

I've learned is, as I've gotten older is I've gotten even more

curious and a whole lot less judgmental, which is a

good thing. And I'm evolving. I am doing

more and seeing more and seeing more opportunities than

I ever had. So I'm hoping

that the podcast has changed you as much as

it's changed me. And, and. And here are some of the things

that it changed for me.

One is that

I guess the first part was just visibility. You know, visibility

became more trusted visibility, because I showed up every week, and

hopefully you download it. Maybe not every week, but you download it,

you know, a couple episodes a month. The other thing that

happened was, you know, collaboration started

growing. You know, it's a great way to collaborate with people,

and those collaborations keep growing. The people that are on my podcast

are then on my summit, and we're now doing kind of like the,

you know, the. The experts. Experts panel, right?

And relationships grow. You get to know things about people that you

normally would not know, especially just in a networking setting.

And so I have to say, the collaboration

accelerated my growth faster than anything

else when I spent all my time by

myself trying to figure out how to do it right and

getting ready to be ready to be ready to be ready.

Hardly anything happened when I started networking. I started

getting affiliates. I started collaborating in all kinds of different

ways. My business took off. And I have

to tell you, I did a post in April that was

the April, the Aligned

Accelerated Action Month. And I did talks.

I did, you know, the four podcasts I had My

own summit, you know, it was just like, amazing. I was in a

magazine, so I worked with, you know, three or four

different people in addition to the people in the podcast.

So collaboration, if you take away nothing else,

collaboration will accelerate your growth.

The other thing is, I

want you to know that you have a superpower, and that

superpower is something that you undervalue.

Right. And, you know, one of the strengths that I have

is I consider myself kind of a translator. Right. I

think in Venn diagrams, you know, if you take this and this

and this, and then, you know, they don't seem like they connect. Where's the

sweet spot in the middle? I mean, I was always very good at this. That.

You know, when I was in the adult education space and we had

grants for businesses, nobody else could get them to take these

grants because they would come in and say, we're going to raise your reading level.

And they're like, you want me to. You know, this is going to cost me

money because I have to take the guys off the line and stuff like that.

But I could go in because I had business background and say,

if you, you know, if we come in and we teach your guys to

read better, you will have less rework and

less mistakes, and it's going to save you money. And so I had no

problems getting businesses to take the grants. I

mean, I had one business that actually saved a half a million

dollars because of our other problem solving class that I taught

at the factory. So I think

it's important for me

to recognize patterns. And, you know, the more people I interview, the

more patterns I see in the way people operate

to simplify complexity, right? And

connect those unrelated things and translate ideas.

And that's what I do for my clients. So I want you

to know that the thing that comes naturally to you is usually the thing that

you undervalue. And yet,

ironically, that's often the thing that most clients value the

most, right? Clients don't pay

for a seven step process. They pay

for simplifying complex ideas and how to use them.

Right? And I think that that's one of the things

that with all the gifts and the

ideas and the stories that you can get out of this,

all the get. All the guests that have come have had

amazing gifts that they've given you. And even if you don't

listen to the episode, you really need to go in

and say, oh, I want to know about this, I want to know about this.

I want to know. And download the gifts. I mean, there is a gold

mine there Right. And I think

that one of the things that does is that gives you a chance. You know,

the. The podcast gives you a chance. It's like an appetizer. You

get to sample the guests, and you get to sample me a little bit more.

And so you can pick the people that you're aligned with and the people that

you trust. The

other thing that I think is really important that we see is

entrepreneurship is an experiment. You

know, can you change judgment and get out of your own way

and say, you know, I not we always

do it this way, or I'm never going to do this and say, tell me

more. Just the sentence of saying

tell me more and being

somewhat curious will open an

incredible amount of information and implementation

to you. And taking a look at why did it work and why

did it work well, why did it fail and why did it

fail miserably? I mean, there are some things that are just

amazing when, you know, I used to think that

failure was, like, just the worst thing possible. I now know that failure is

part of success and growth. And so it's really easy

for us to say, this

succeeded. I'm going to use this again every single time. But if

you don't stop and take a look at why it succeeded,

it's probably not going to work every single time, because the

circumstances are going to be different. So

we tend to forget that. And then when we try it again, it doesn't work.

We're like, you know, totally

flabbergasted. Why did it fail

again? If you take a look at it, you can go, oh,

this is why this failed. You know, And. And I will say, this is how

I came up with this stupid phrase. What's your refrigerator question?

When I gave people gifts and they didn't, a gift that I really loved

and they didn't use it, I had to take a step back and say,

ask. How would you know? How did your circumstance differ from

my circumstances that I love this so much? So

curiosity creates growth so much

faster than criticism or judgment.

And then I think the last thing

is asking for help.

The stronger you are, the harder it is to ask for help. And so, like

I said, when I got my concussion, I really had to slow down

and I got a va. And I have to tell you,

people that were on my podcast that were on my summit,

you know, I said to them, I'm not a hundred percent, you know, and they

were like, we've got you. We're going to help you. And. And that's when you

know, you've got the right people around you that they're going to support you

when you're down. Right. And so

sometimes slowing down is not a bad thing. You know, I've learned some

very valuable lessons. I've learned that I really need

to, to listen to my body and, and what I need,

I need to realize what's not working. And I'm. When I'm working too much,

I need to ask for help. And believe it or not, I might

be growing faster. Because

part of slowing down is prioritizing. It doesn't mean that you're

not giving a hundred percent to the things that you want to do. It

simply means that you're not doing a hundred things. So

strength is not about having to do everything alone.

It's about how do you do what's important the best.

So if you've been around me at all, you know, I have this thing,

make your learning last. And so I would be remiss if I

didn't talk about this. What did I learn,

and why is the podcast working? One of the

reasons it works is because, like I said, I like to talk.

And apparently talking comes naturally to me. So that would be one question

that you probably need to ask yourself. What's already working

naturally for me? Right.

The other thing is, how would I like it to be?

Well, I think if I were to do it over again,

I now know that in order for people to be, that this is

part of a collaboration. And so I have certain

criteria now for people to be on my

podcast. So that's interesting.

The other thing that happened is, you know, when I got a

va, I realized from the Sunday scoop, if you've seen that,

that I was actually promoting people and they didn't know it.

And so now that responsibility, they have to submit a form.

And I have put that responsibility on them, which is good

because it means that it's important enough for them that they want

to participate, not for me to go chasing. And that,

that's a, that's an important lesson because

collaboration requires that, you know

that there's a give and take and that we're equally willing to

put. Put into the, the situation. So

what's working naturally for you? Podcast works for me because I like to

talk. I love the fact that it comes out every week. It gives me content,

you know, consistency, which I love.

The other thing that you may want to think about is what is it that

people are repeatedly coming to you for? Because

that's one of your hidden values, right?

What is it? What are the strengths that you're undervaluing. I think

that is really important because the things

that you do well, you figure everybody else does,

and that's not true. So

those are just some things to think about. The

other part to that is

I want to thank all of you who have listened to one,

some, or all 100 episodes. Right.

I want to continue to bring

you value. I want to continue to connect

with you. I want to continue giving you ways

that you can connect with me and that we can support each other.

Because entrepreneurs, they that are growing the fastest are not always

the loudest, but they are the people that are the

clearest on what they're doing and the value that they bring.

That was a lot. So

to bring this back, there are just a couple of

key things. I realized that

once you start moving, the momentum keeps going.

Curiosity makes the momentum go faster.

When you're visible, your momentum is

faster. And the thing that I learned this year is you

don't need to be fixed. If you've already got some clients,

you know, paid clients, and you're good at what you do and your

clients love the results, you don't need to be fixed. You do not have a

client service delivery issue.

You have a recognition issue. You just need to be found. You

need more people to see what it is that you do. And

so that has to do with recognition and the fact

that you can clearly say what it is that you do

so people can recognize you. And the people that need you

already know that they need what you have. They

just, you know, just can't put the pieces together. So after a

hundred conversations, here's what I know for sure. You

don't need to be somebody else. That who you are is absolutely

perfect for the time where you are. You're going

to evolve and get be somewhat different. And so that person may

not be the person that the client that you have

right now needs, but your clients will also grow with you as well,

which is a wonderful thing. You don't need to be somebody

else. You just need leverage. And you need

more of who you already are to come out so people can

recognize who you are and what it is that you do.

You don't need to be fixed. You just need to be

found. And with that, I want to

thank you again for being part of this. I

would love to have any suggestions and feedback to help

make this better for the next 100 episodes. But

before that, it's commercial time. So

I hope you will subscribe and share and engage on social media

about the podcast, because I do it so I can help you supercharge

your. Your business through connection. And it's my way of

giving back to this vibrant community and fueling your quest for growth

and impact. And, you know, one of the things that.

That I try to help people with is to have a bold vision

and see the innovative possibilities that are there.

If I had any last words, I think I. What I would say. And

it's gonna. You've heard it before. It's not new, is it doesn't matter

how fast you're going if you're going in the wrong direction. And

so clarity is the thing that keeps

you going in the right direction, at least for

me. So remember that change

can be simple, but it's not always easy. It requires

comfort. Sorry. It requires courage, resilience,

and a willingness to step outside your comfort zone. It's the.

It's the concussion kicking in. So join me on the one small

change as we embark on this journey of. Of innovative possibilities.

And until then, I hope you will stay very,

very curious. Here's

to you. And here's to me on the 100th episode.

Bye.