The real truth is a little scary, isn’t it? Have you noticed that when we’re working towards something we really want, adversity gets in our way? 

The thing about adversity is that it comes in big and small ways to all of us, and we get to decide what to do with it. Adversity gives us the gift of growth. This podcast is for truth-seeking women who are ready to turn that inevitable adversity into their superpower!

A bit about my story: I had never really wanted to get into my original career path of a healthcare executive, but I was stuck in a cycle of obligation. Even though I was climbing the ladder quickly thoughts of “Not good enough” plagued me!  I thought I had it all figured out, but then life happened and everything stopped.  Have you ever felt that when something devastating happens to you, you can’t believe how other people are still smiling? How are they still living?

This podcast is about those defining moments that we can look back on that taught us something about ourselves and changed our perspective. When you have to make difficult decisions, you see what you’re made of. 

Everyone has authority. Your authority matters! www.monetizeyourauthority.com

Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/profitablehappyceo

IG: https://www.instagram.com/carrie_e_koh/

Music credit: Like We Do It by Grace Mesa

A Podcast Launch Bestie production

Welcome.

Welcome to episode one.

Oh my gosh, I am so, so excited that you are here with me inside

of this brand new podcast.

It's personal, real impact requires real truth.

And I'm gonna start out with a little bit of a confession.

This is about the sixth recording of this very first episode because the real

truth is a little bit scary, isn't it?

And you know, things happen when we are going for something we

really want, we really desire.

Stuff gets in our way.

Do you notice how adversity can come in big or small?

When we're trying to do the thing and it's so frustrating, and then

we have a decision, it's like, oh, well we can stop or we can figure

out why this is happening and.

Go do it anyway.

And so that is what we are doing inside this podcast because this

podcast is for true seeking women who are ready to turn that inevitable

adversity into your superpower, even when tech issues come your way.

Like they did me with this podcast.

But we will persevere, right?

Because we are here to build an impact to create this.

New reality for ourselves, for those we love for our world.

And so I'm here to help put wealth in the hands of good people.

And that is you who are going to do good things with it.

And honestly, that's not an easy thing to say because we have

so many stories around money.

What's appropriate to monetize what's not appropriate?

You know, I know this woman who has made it her life's mission to learn, the

truths, her truth, right about religion.

And, you know, religion is a hot topic and, and you know, there are

so many stories about religion and what's appropriate and what's not.

And she really had this desire to help other people who desired to learn

more about, her particular faith.

She wanted to help them.

But when she started talking about that, everyone around her was

like, oh my God, you can't do that.

You cannot do that.

That's like bad.

That's something you should do for free.

And here's the thing, maybe you agree with that, maybe you don't.

But isn't that the truth about our own genius is that when we want to

put something out in the world, when we want to go big, when we want to

serve people using something that we know can really help people, there

are always going to be people who are like, mm, you can't do that.

Nope.

Nope.

That's not right.

Right.

And so, Adversity happens to all of us, big and small.

It can come in those forms of, you know, judgment from other people, from doubting

yourself or the big things, right?

The loss, the grief, all of those things that as humans we encounter.

And so what I'm going to ask you to consider throughout this journey, Is

that, you know, we are talking about building wealth, building our businesses,

building impact, and money has taken on the story that doesn't belong to it.

Money is not bad.

It's not good, it's just neutral, right?

It's literally a currency, it's that story that we apply to it

that makes people think that it's selfish to make a ton of money.

Or it's selfish to do it in a certain way and think about

how that applies to adversity.

Adversity happens to everyone, big or small.

And yes, it can inherently be bad, but we are not bad or good because of

the adversity that we've experienced.

And we all tend to judge ourselves.

We all tend to feel like we're being judged from others.

If we have gone through something, if we maybe have gone through something

and maybe didn't handle it in a way that we know we could have handled

it right, we've all been there too.

So, It is personal Building a business is personal, and the one thing I know about

the real truth about building a business to create a real impact to make the

world a better place is that we are all shared in this, adversity journey, right?

And sometimes it stops us in our tracks.

Sometimes those things happen, right?

Like the tech issues I had recording this first episode could have

stopped me in my tracks, right?

But there's bigger adversity that you think might have

to stop you in your tracks.

And when we think that we can't overcome adversity, when we think that because

of the, the chaos, the things that life is throwing at us, the obligation,

we just sometimes choose a lifetime.

Of suffering instead of choosing a lifetime of wealth, of serving

people in their genius, of showing people who we really are.

So imagine, what if you did show people who you really are, like

really, how much of that do you actually hide from people right now?

How much of that do you feel maybe is not appropriate or is not good?

I mean, I spent my entire career hiding who I really was until.

Adversity came at me and tripped me down to just show like, oh my gosh,

I have nothing left to pretend.

And my story starts like a lot of women, right?

A lot of women who are on the career path and have a plan, right?

We're on a career path.

We're gonna climb the ladder, we're gonna get married, we're gonna have

kids, we're gonna do the thing and.

a common thread in my story is that throughout building my career, I was a

healthcare administrator, turned into a healthcare executive, and I had this

underlying theme of not being good enough.

I wasn't, I wasn't the one who was capable of the big ideas, the big things, right?

I was smart, but like not in the way that other people would.

As smart, right?

Like it was my sisters who were valedictorians, not me,

but I did have this genius.

I did have this way with people, um, that I didn't know hard how to articulate,

but throughout my career I moved the ladder really swiftly and I was an

amazing leader and I brought in millions and millions of dollars for, for the

organizations that, that I worked for.

But it was something that didn't show up on standardized tests, right?

So I didn't know what that genius was.

And when I was starting out, I actually started out as a ski bomb.

it was probably the best years of my life.

Kidding.

The twenties were, are probably no one's best years of their life.

But before I started all of this, this massive climbing the ladder,

because that is something that I never actually thought was me.

I was more of a free spirit, right?

I moved to Aspen, Colorado after undergrad and I was a ski bomb and,

I worked and I played and I skied, and it was an amazing few years.

And then I realized, oh wait, I can't be the 40 year old at the end of the bar.

That is not a good look, right?

And so I went to grad school and I remember, Not knowing what

I wanted to do and, and my, I was always around healthcare.

My, I had a family of physicians and nurses and, and I loved healthcare.

I, loved learning about the body.

I I loved it all.

And I thought I wanted to go to med school.

Well, not really.

my college roommates.

We're going to med school.

I'm like, oh, that sounds good.

I'll do that.

That is not the way that you want to start out a massive career.

Right.

so of course I did not get into med school, because I did

not want to go to med school.

But what I did do is I was sitting in Aspen, I got the phone call from my dad

saying, Gary, what are you gonna do?

You cannot live your life in Aspen.

So I went back home and I shadowed a C e O of a hospital, and I remember

thinking, Wow, this sounds really boring.

And he was showing me these spreadsheets and he was, you

know, talking about his job.

And I was like, wow, this is not me.

But I didn't know what I wanted to do.

knew I like, loved healthcare, but I didn't know what my role was within it.

And so, Out of obligation, out of like, mm, allowing someone

else to make my decisions for me.

I'm like, I don't know what I wanna do, but maybe I can be the

c e O of a mountain hospital.

That sounds good.

I'll move back to Aspen and I'll run Aspen Valley Hospital.

And so I went on to grad school, and I got these amazing fellowships out of

grad school, and my program director in grad school was like, Carrie, how

are you getting these fellowships?

And I was like, uh, I don't know.

I'm like interviewing.

I'm, he's like, I, I mean like, I just can't believe it.

And of course the story I'm telling myself is like, Oh my God, I'm not good enough.

Like why is he so shocked that I'm getting all of these prestigious fellowships?

And the fact of the matter is he's like, you were a ski bomb and now you are like

doing all the things that these people who have been grinding away trying

to get where you are, have wanted.

And that's where it dawned on me.

Maybe I do have something a little bit different.

Maybe there's something inside of me that looks different

from what everyone else has.

And now, listen, this was after years of thinking that I was second best.

This was after years of like allowing comments like that, like

you, you got that fellowship to like drive me into the ground to

think, oh, see, I'm not good enough.

Right?

And so, When I allowed myself to see that my authority was leaving

breadcrumbs and it's just time for me to pick it up, right?

But I refused to pick up those breadcrumbs of authority for years, for years.

And instead I was stuck in the cycle of obligation.

You know, I had, I had no desire to be in healthcare at the time, but, Along

the way, it was such a beautiful gift.

I met the most amazing people.

I created the most amazing programs.

I changed lives.

It was, it was a wonderful, wonderful career, and it was one I thought I'd

be in forever until, Had life, right?

I had life happen.

And sometimes life has to happen for you to see that maybe you weren't

all that fulfilled in your past.

Right?

Because the truth is, in my career, I had a ton of sleepless nights.

I had a ton of fear.

I had a ton of.

Judgment.

I was over preparing.

I was being the perfectionist.

I was living two lives.

I was like, you know, professional, Carrie during the week.

And then on the weekends I'd go up skiing with my friends and we'd

party and we'd do the things right.

And then I'd come right back Monday morning and I would be the professional.

And it's like, who really was I, I had no idea.

Well, the truth is I did know, but I was scared to show people and.

Then life, right?

Then I found myself wandering a freezing cold hallway in a large level four

nicu, which is where they serve the sickest and most acute of newborns.

I had just given birth a few days earlier to my first son, and I was

planning like most professional women to, you know, take three months off of

maternity leave and then head on back.

And my life changed.

Everything changed and everything became a blur.

And when my son was born, he couldn't breathe.

He couldn't move.

And I will never forget the one statement that was made to me.

I.

We were sitting in a little tiny hospital room and we were on day three of my son's

life, and the neonatologist came in and sat down with my husband and I, and she

said, I'm concerned for your little boy.

And those six words changed my life.

All of the hope went out the window and we transferred him to this level

four nicu, the most, acute nicu.

And she just said, we have to get him someplace where they can really help him.

And here's the thing I remember.

Driving in that ambulance across town to one of the best NICU's in the country.

And I remember seeing all these cars and these people and the sun was shining.

It was a beautiful summer day.

And I remember thinking, what are these people doing?

Don't they know my life is ending?

Don't they know nothing is the same and they're going off to work?

Have you guys ever had that?

When something happens to you and you're like, how are people living?

How are people smiling?

How is their joy in the world?

This podcast is not about grief.

This podcast is not even about my story, but it's about those moments that we can

look back on as those defining moments that taught us something about ourselves.

That one conversation, that one person who changed our perspective, the one story

that everyone has, your story is unique.

We all have adversity.

And for me, this journey with the life and, and the death of my son before

his first birthday was something that I really had a lot of healing from When

I created a TEDx talk around it and I told those lessons of adversity and

the choices that we made that allowed laughter and joy and in the, and presence

in the most devastating of times.

But what I didn't know is that.

That TEDx talk was just the beginning.

That was just the beginning.

I had gone on to create a profitable coaching business for women

to build their own businesses.

I had created a profitable business helping physicians have

more fulfillment and leadership.

I had gone back to that hospital to serve the people who had

served us in our most dire time.

It was the most rewarding thing I'd ever done in my life.

I help organizations build group leadership.

Coaching programs so that their cultures can shift from

problem focus to solution focus.

All of this was done because I had this moment in my life where

I thought I lost everything.

I thought that I would never be the same.

I thought that I was worth nothing.

I didn't know who I was.

And here's what I want you to know, is that everyone has a

story and your story matters.

Adversity.

We'll always be there.

It's life.

Good and bad things happen, but when we can come together and when

we can talk about the truth about what it really takes to build a

successful, profitable business.

We get to create that impact together.

We can normalize it so that more women go after their desire because women,

we're the decision makers in the family.

We are the healthcare buyers.

We are, we are the ones who are leading our families, our communities,

and our world, and so many women are not stepping into that leadership

authority that you all have.

What if we as a collective owned our authority, our gifts, and gave up that

obligation, gave up that choice to suffer, gave up on giving up on our own dreams

because we're obligated to other people.

I've had client after client come into my client attraction programs

because they wanna build wealth and they wanna do it their way.

And I see their bravery as they press that buy button and.

They say yes, and they're so excited.

And then I see that fear when it really gets real and they have to take

action and those obligations coming in and then the suffering in tiny ways.

And when we work through that, when we reframe that so that the

action they take, Actually works.

There is nothing more fulfilling than seeing a woman step into

her authority, make money for her authority, and change her life, and

change the lives of those around her.

And so if you're still listening, this podcast is for you because you are ready.

You might be scared to go after that impact that you know you are put.

On this earth to make to, to really go after that business.

That, that you think, well, I'm not an entrepreneur.

I'm, I'm not someone who can do this.

Listen, I used to call myself a reluctant entrepreneur.

I had no idea that my path was going to be entrepreneurship.

I thought I was a career, uh, healthcare executive like that.

I didn't know a thing about building my own business.

Yes, I had an mba.

I had, I had two master's degrees and I still didn't know how to build a business.

So, Be open, right?

Be open to the fact that maybe it is you who's going to do that thing that

you are put on this earth to do and to change so many lives, even if you don't

know how to set up a silly L l C, right?

Like none of that matters because what matters for you right now, if

you want to change the world, if you wanna have an impact, if you want

to go big in your mission, in your passion, is that suffering is a choice.

And I made that choice for years after my son passed away.

It impacted my marriage.

It impacted everything around me.

And when you have to make difficult decisions, you

can see what you're made of.

And through my journey with my son, we had to make.

It felt like we were playing God.

We had to make decisions around life, extending interventions with no guarantee

that his suffering would be alleviated or do we choose palliative care where

we're able to have that focus on quality over quantity and just allow, right,

allow him to be loved and, and, and create experiences with this little soul.

And it's a, it's a decision that no family should make, and it's a decision that

is, is mired in judgment from all sides.

And so when you could see that there's no right decision,

it's just our decision, right?

When you can see that the families that chose one way or

another, everybody was judged.

And it's heartbreaking because everyone has a story and so, When we

allowed ourselves to make decisions based on our truth, saying the thing

that was so scary to say, we allowed a life and experience with Elliot

in his short time on Earth and.

One of the things that I did in the moment that he passed away, when

he was released from that suffering in his body was that I took on that

suffering because so often we think that suffering, Proves something proves

our love, proves that we are worthy.

And in my case, suffering meant like, okay, he's relieved from his

suffering, but I have to take it on to show that I did love him.

That, that I will never forget that love.

And this suffering showed up in tiny ways, big ways, tiny ways

throughout my business, my marriage, my health, until I saw it as a choice.

And when I gave myself permission to not choose suffering, but to choose myself

instead, to choose joy and happiness, to choose going after something that

others will, will judge to choose.

Showing up as my real self.

It's when I lost some weight.

It's when I closed a hundred K, $100,000 in one month.

Now, one year, one month, it's when I created a deeper connection

with my husband when we were on the brink of divorce after suffering

what most marriages can't survive.

This change can happen for you overnight because creating a business of wealth

and impact and choosing to end your own suffering, it doesn't take time.

It takes desire, it takes focused intention.

And my mission here is to really see women in their brilliance for women to

see themselves and to feel their own authority so that they understand what

makes them unique and brilliant and fierce and bold, and strong and independent

while they go after their desires.

So, Really imagine yourself and every woman that you know, what

if we all went after our desires?

What if we all knew exactly what our strengths were, what our authority is,

what we are put on this earth to do, and feel that energy of fulfillment?

What would change?

We get to change that narrative around guilt, around money, guilt around going

after what we desire, guilt around doing something for ourselves instead of others.

Because the truth is Beyonce was right.

Women, girls do world.

The world women are here.

In this strength, in this power, and when we can own that in the most beautiful

ways, oh my gosh, the world that we are creating is going to look very different

than the one we live in right now.

But what about the men?

I have a lot of male clients on the healthcare side of my business, so

I have two sides of my business.

I'm a business coach for women helping them build their businesses,

and I work with healthcare leaders and physicians helping them.

Create more fulfillment and faster and better results

in their leadership journey.

And most of my clients on the healthcare side happen to be men, and I love working.

With you know, everyone, right?

It's, it's not about, I only work with women, but here's the truth of it.

The reason I work with women on the coaching side is because I saw in the

entrepreneurial world, this world of risk, this world of courage, and I saw

women thinking that it took so much time to get there, that they had to wait.

But I saw the men going out there and getting after it.

Nothing wrong with the men, but.

We have to take our place in the entrepreneurial leadership world as well.

And so I saw that as a passion.

I saw that as something that I had done and I can help other women do.

And listen, the patriarchy sucks for all of us, right?

Like I'm all about down with a patriarchy.

But like I, in my language, what that really means is like, it's

not about men or women, right?

It's about like, All of us suffer when, there's not this

ability to be who we really are.

When there's not this ability to talk and feel about our emotions,

they're suffering on all sides.

And so When we can understand that our purpose is to really end our own

suffering, end our own obligation, so that we can create the change that we

are meant to create, so that women can step into their leadership roles in life.

When we do this, we create the strong like energy, you know, like that saying,

happy wife, happy life, or whatever.

It's, whatever.

when you think about what that saying really means, this is not

the intention of this saying, but what I interpret that as is.

Our energy is so strong, our leadership abilities are so strong.

And when we own that, everybody follows.

Everybody rises up to that level of frequency that is about

choosing possibility over problems.

It's about creating a new way to be.

So when you listen to this podcast, When you share it with friends, when you,

create a review, apparently I'm supposed to ask everyone to create a review.

That's what you're supposed to do in the podcast world, so please do that

because I want this podcast to reach more and more women who want to choose

themselves over obligation and suffering.

Want to choose themselves so that they can create a mission that's bigger than

them, so that we can put the wealth in the hands of good people to do good things.

And so, Let's do that together.

Let's end this choice to suffer.

Let's end this obligation.

Let's create more happiness and freedom that we all say that we want.

And so your deeper truth isn't about what you do Your purpose

isn't about what you do.

It's about how you feel about your place in the world.

It's about how safe you feel speaking your truth.

It's about how you feel about the contribution you are making in this world.

So let's remove guilt from our vocabulary.

Like please, like, let's just stop the guilt thing.

Okay.

Because guilt is a choice and it's protecting us, and we get

to choose something instead.

And so when we give up guilt.

We are raising the next generation to have these strong female role models.

We're, we're not gonna work harder, we refuse.

Listen, if you're listening to this podcast, let's just collectively

refuse to work harder and longer to get the thing that we want.

There is a better way.

I teach it every single day to my clients inside my client attraction

program because pushing, obligation, suffering, working harder, has never

created the result that you want.

Why?

Because when we create something out of suffering and obligation, it

creates more suffering and obligation.

So the coaching industry makes us think that we aren't good enough, that

we need another strategy and makes us think we need this overcomplicated

funnel and, all of the things.

And none of that is true.

So yes, business is personal.

To make a real impact, it requires the real truth.

The real truth will set your revenue streams free.

The real truth will unleash fulfillment.

The real truth will present you with real decisions, and you, my friend, are

more than equipped to make real hard decisions because your story matters.

And right now someone is looking to you for inspiration.

And we get to make the choices that elevate us instead of hold us back.

So I'm so glad you're here on this podcast journey.

Share it with friends, write a review.

Help us grow this mission because together we can build wealth, we

can create impact, and really make this world a better place,

and it gets to start with you.