In this inspiring episode of One Small Change, host Yvonne McCoy is joined by transformation expert Carolyn Cooper to explore how entrepreneurs can overcome fear, invite support, and step fully into their potential. Carolyn Cooper shares her philosophy of treating business as an experiment, harnessing the power of courage, and thinking “above the line” to drive personal and professional growth. The conversation is packed with actionable advice for solopreneurs and business leaders alike—emphasizing the importance of building a dream team, asking for help, and owning your unique strengths. Whether you’re starting out or seeking to level up, this episode offers the mindset shifts, stories, and strategies you need to create transformational change in your work and life.

Guest Bio:

Carolyn Cooper is a leadership and transformation coach with over three decades of experience guiding entrepreneurs and executives to realize their infinite potential. Through her proprietary Aim High 6-step system and “thinking above the line” approach, she helps clients lead with love, courage, and authenticity. Carolyn Cooper is passionate about moving people from fear into freedom and is the host of the "Love Inspired Leadership" podcast.

Chapters:

00:00 "Small Changes, Big Transformations"

04:51 "Truth, Strengths, Dream Team"

10:11 "Growth, Risk, and Asking Help"

11:02 "Focus on Complementary Strengths"

17:04 Miscommunication and Decision Dynamics

18:32 Authenticity Fuels Entrepreneurial Success

23:40 "Collaboration and Abundance Mindset"

26:55 The Power of Community Connection

29:41 "Define, Declare, Design Vision"

32:03 Spontaneous Life-Changing Decision

35:36 "Embrace Change, Stay Curious"

Quote from the Guest:

"We are never, ever, ever meant to do this alone, ever… Give yourself permission to invite people to connect with you. You be the one that’s proactive. Watch your world change, because we're meant to come together because it's way, way better."

Links:

Ready to step into your next level of purpose, potential and prosperity?

Unlock “Above the Line Living: 21 Days to Ignite Your Purpose, Presence, and Power with Love”—your daily journey to unapologetic self-leadership and authentic joy. Receive Carolyn’s sacred insights, meditation reflections, and empowering prompts right to your inbox. Choose love. Claim your courage. Transform your living legacy—one inspired day at a time.

https://www.theinspiredconnection.ca/21days

✨Purpose to Profits Strategy Call✨

Schedule your Purpose to Profits Strategy Call, where we'll harness the power of the AIM High system to chart your path to success. 

In this visionary session, we will:

✔️ Align: Uncover your authentic purpose and core values, ensuring your business vision resonates with your deepest aspirations.

✔️ Ignite: Craft compelling elements of your vision that will ignite your passion and set the stage for growth.

✔️ Manifest: Develop a concrete next-steps action plan to turn your big dreams into tangible results, bridging the gap between purpose and profits.

Let go of limitations and embrace the power of possibility as we pave the way for your purpose-driven success and results. https://go.oncehub.com/ConnectwithCarolyn 

Welcome to the One Small Change. I am so thrilled as always, that

you are spending time with me this week to embark on this journey

of exploration, transformation. I'm your host, Yvonne McCoy,

and I have almost 30 years of entrepreneurial experience and I

have a particular passion for discovering growth through the power

of seemingly small change. Every week I try

to bring you somebody interesting and who's got insight to help you grow

your business. And they're going to share with you how a

smaller, unexpected or indecis, you know,

insignificant decision sparked remarkable

transformation and growth in either their personal or

professional life. And this week I want you to meet

the dynamic Carolyn Cooper. Carolyn, thank you so

much for spending time with us this week. This woman is

amazing. She is a ball of fire. So Carolyn, tell

us what you do and

what happened to make you do what you do. Well,

well, well, it's, I, I'm in the

arena the same as you, Yvonne, of over three

decades now. I don't go to four, but it's over three, so.

And thank you for bringing me on your podcast. I respect

and admire and appreciate the

opportunity. So what I do

truly is I support eager

entrepreneurs and executives

to realize their own human potential.

I support them through my aim high

six step system of

transformation. And they become

incredibly conscious of what it is

that they do on a daily basis. And

also they connect with a very, very

powerful truth on what is in their business

and also what can be in reaching that

infinite potential. I also

have a very unique principle and

process I take them through called thinking

above the line. And

it is very transformational for

entrepreneurs as well as executives to

realize that this

leadership role that we are in can

be a love inspired

leadership. As we build our

organizations and build our business, we can

live from this place of meaning and purpose

and also passion to grow,

evolve and expand our business.

All right, Carol, you have said a lot and

I think I got bits and pieces of it, but

a lot of the people that are listening are solopreneurs. And so

leadership is not something that is, you know, high on their list.

Survival, getting clients and that kind of stuff.

So tell me how that, what that looks like for them.

Great, great question. Or how it, how you would. Well, first of all, tell me

how you, what happened that, you know, what was the thing that made you go

into what you do? Let's start with that. Well,

it's been a life mission

to support people, to

look at fear's demise,

to allow freedom to rise, to be successful.

And I have, the way I look at life is it's a

big experiment. So is business. And

I have discovered these specific

protocols and practices that

support us to be more courageous.

I always talk about this key and it

is the key of courage. It is the key

that will open the door of fear, of

holding myself back from being successful in my

business. It's taking this key of courage, putting it into the

lock, turning it all the way in order

to receive this

opportunity of abundance and

expansion in our business. So the main thing that

entrepreneurs do is get in their own way.

We all know it. And the first step

of my aim high system is telling

yourself the truth. So what

is working? What isn't working? Where do

I have my strengths, my gifts, my talents and

my expertise that I can expand

and evolve? And where do I

have my limitations? Where are my weaknesses?

That is where I need to either invest in

hiring someone in that area of expertise,

release that and let it go to lead myself

forward so I can focus directly

on my zone of genius, what I love to

do. And it does take a risk.

And it is courageous to invest in your business.

And you know, for a lot of entrepreneurs,

they're struggling like you said, they're surviving and they want to

thrive. I suggest that you need to create

your own dream team

and that is a group of individuals around you.

And this is what I did when I started my business

well over 30 years ago anyway, I'm not going to say

the exact number. I'm just not, you know, and I thought

to myself, well, I need to surround myself with people

who are wise and dedicated and committed

in those areas that I do not have that expertise

and wisdom. Maybe it's surrounding yourself with people that are great at

sales. Maybe it's marketing, maybe you

know, you know how to bring in the clients. But you, you have

operations that is incredibly weak. You're

disorganized. So it's a matter of

I think being bold, stepping up,

being courageous. To invite these people into your

circle of influence and create their

relationship to be be on your dream team.

I mean when I hired my virtual

assistant five years ago, I

created a love it list.

So I wrote down everything that I was in flow that I enjoyed to do

that I made the biggest difference in right here, right now. I love to

do this Iman. So that was on my list. So.

And I created this intentional specific list

that, that fueled me, that fed me, that inspired me in the

areas of my own expertise. On the right

hand side of the page, so love it list on the left, draw a line.

On the right hand side, I Wrote down everything

that drained me, everything that I'd go down a rabbit

hole. Canva was my rabbit hole. I would spend hours

creatively creating these

graphics, and they were awful. Honestly, I'd spend hours

and I'd waste my time and waste my energy.

So I did that over about a two month period.

The list screw. And then I made a decision.

I became decided, which is the line.

I became decided that I was going to invest in support.

I think the world works in

miraculous, magical ways. One

of the events that we put on there was a little

young woman on there, Marielle. And I said, who are you?

She said, I'm a virtual assistant from the Philippines.

I said, well, I've been waiting for you.

Let's talk. So she's been working with me ever since.

Let me do this. Because you have hit on so many things that I want

to make sure that people take this away. So one

of the things that you said that made a huge difference for me

was the idea that our business is an experiment and

that there's a risk. Right. I

grew up one. I mean, I think, you know, for those of us of a

certain age, we kind of grew up educated to work a

job a 9 to 5. And so we're stepping into something

that's totally different than what we were actually educated to do.

And, you know, the idea was that you didn't want to fail. You know,

I mean, there. I realize now that there were

things that I didn't even attempt to do because I thought I might

fail. I mean, and the story that I tell all the time is when I

was running in junior high school for president of the student council, my mom was

like, I don't want you to do this. And I'm like, why? And she said,

because you might lose. I said, mom, there are five of

us. There's an 80% chance I'm gonna lose. You

know, I did win, but, you know, but I think that

mentality is so much better than kind of like the binary

like you succeed or you fail. It's like you do it,

you see what works. You make a little tweak, you do a little something, you

know, and you, you get better as you go along, right? And

I think that mindset is so freeing

that you can. You can take on a certain amount of risk. The other

one has to do with,

I think this is like a woman's thing. I don't know about guys

or men. And that is, you know, being brought up

during that time of I am woman, hear me roar. I can do everything

all the time, which has got to be the worst

miss Ever, ever, ever, ever.

And the whole concept of asking for help is like, what is wrong with

me that I can't? You know. And so I would say to you

it is a sign of wisdom if you can ask for help.

Absolutely. Because you are great at everything. I mean

that's just a reality. I think the other

thing is when I was coaching executives is they would always

say to the say to me, I want to clone myself. And

I would be like, no, because what that means is

you have, everything is extra strong and extra weak. You want

somebody who complements you so that when you, when

you're weaving together the different skills, you actually get

a good foundation. And I think that's something that

we're not really taught to do. And I can't

tell you how many women I have heard say I'm not going to do

anymore until I learn to do this. And I'm like, why

exactly? You have to have a general understanding of, you know, like somebody told

me they were going to go back to school for accounting and I'm like, why?

You do need to understand some accounting principles, but hire a

bookkeeper, hire an accountant, right? And

that, that money that you're spending is going to

multiply your time and the money that you can make

because you're spending it on what only you can do. So I just,

those three things that I just think are so

incredibly important. I agree that

people miss and if you talk about

leadership a little bit, that would be great as well.

Okay, so a part of

making the decision that you are a love

inspired leader, whether you're an eager entrepreneur or

other roles and responsibilities in the corporate world,

it is the same. And you know, our

responsibility, I believe is to be

accountable for everything. That's every

single result that we create in our life

and our business. So taking on that level

of responsibility, accountability

means that there are going to be things

that when we take that deep look in the mirror that we need to change.

It is taking on that ownership. And

you know, it, it branches out into what you just said, asking

for help in those areas that you know, you have

limitations. There's also another level of

accountability in our ability to

communicate. So

I spent decades teaching communication

corporately. And if there's one thing that people

don't always understand is their ability

to make an impact on those people that they

are leading, whether it be clients or whether

it be teams that you are guiding

on that journey of success.

And you know, there's this Self reflection

that we need to look at within our own

communication on our effectiveness

and to be open to receive

feedback and truth in that

arena is a really powerful decision

to make and to ask those

meaningful open ended questions that

need to be asked to discover

the perception of how

your information is coming across and landing

and whether it truly is making a difference.

As a leader. The thing that to me

is interesting is that I went

through a long period of time where

I really felt that a good leader treated everybody the same,

which is not true.

I think the best you can do is be

honest. And so I find that the One Minute

Manager to me was like one of the best classic

books. When you do it right, I'm going to tell you what I expect. When

you do it right, I'm going to tell you. And when you do it wrong,

I'm going to tell you. And you set that, you tell people that

ahead of time so that you've set the, you know, and,

and that way you can, you know, and you can still do that

from a place of leadership but also

open ended questions and discovery. It's like if

you're doing something wrong and I, you know, I go, this is not what

I expected. Tell me what you thought was, you know, and you have a

discussion, then you can, then you can like massage it

and come up with the right way. And you know, the other thing for me

was I would never, my thing was I

never felt like I would. I will never ask you to do

anything that I'm not willing to do myself. So if

I'm asking you to, you know, spend some extra time or put in some

extra effort, I should be there as well.

That to me was, was really important and, and, and

you know, understanding that people come from totally different

communication styles and stuff. I remember one time I was really

angry with somebody and after I calmed down

I went back and I said, I want to apologize to you that

I was so abrupt, I was so angry, I

was so rude. And they looked at me and she went, what?

That was your angry?

I love it, I love it because, because what we

think it isn't necessarily their person. I mean,

and somebody else, somebody else could have been totally crushed.

Yes. You know, I mean, but I was like,

I, I was like so embarrassed because I thought I had been really awful. And

she goes, that's what you call, you know, that's what you call

angry. But I think, you know, the other thing is that people

when they communicate sometimes

communicate the wrong thing unexpectedly.

And an example of that is you

want to do something. But, you know, you pretty much are

already what, you already know what you're going to do, but you still say to

people, tell me what you think. That's

really, that's really demoralizing

because if you just go off and do what you're going to do anyway. So,

you know, the way I used to do it would be this is the way

this is going to work. If something comes down from corporate and we have

to do it this way, I let you complain and vent for

five minutes and then we figure out how to do it. You know, like if

corporate came back down and said you have to cut

labor costs in this category and I don't get a choice,

then you don't get a choice. You know, it is what it is.

But if they say you just have to cut it, you know, 10%

overall, I don't care how you do it. I can, you know, as

long as I get the results. You know, one person would do it here, somebody

else would do it there. And that to me is being honest and

giving you agency when it's available.

Well, it's so true and it's being authentic

and it's just being genuinely real with

the truth of the situation. I mean,

how we get the most productivity out

of ourselves and other people is

just functioning from that place

of authenticity, presence and just being real.

Because there's so much, I think as I'm going to go

back to the entrepreneur's position here, right?

So is so much within our mind and within our

thoughts that we get in our own way

that we take our ourselves off the track

of being disciplined, of following through, of contacting

that person, with following up, with inviting the business,

with showing up in a way that

is going to grow our business and expand our business.

We get lost in distracting ourselves

with things that don't matter.

It's like you said, well, I gotta learn accounting. And

you're saying, well, why would you do that?

I mean, there's this place where within entrepreneurs, this is my dream

of all entrepreneurs, if you want to know, is to be

all in, to be 100%

committed and know that this is your

opportunity to experience freedom in your life and

your business. That you know, there

is this opportunity to personally grow,

professionally grow and surround yourself with

fabulous people that you can learn from,

be guided by and grow.

Or you can stay in self doubt,

holding yourself back, denying what's most important

and what I call thinking and living

below the line. And that is a dangerous place to be.

I mean, if your mortgage, if

You've mortgaged your, you know, your house for your business.

If your significant other is nagging you, when are

you going to make money? When is this actually going to make money?

I mean, that, you know, that is a state of

fear that does manifest anything.

You are blocking the flow of success by

staying in that victim position of fear,

doubt, judgment, criticism. It's

only when we become decided and get courageous

and take those risks and really

expand out of this place of being comfortable

that we have to get comfortable

with being uncomfortable as an

entrepreneur. We just do. And, you know,

if you've got big dreams, go after it,

you know, I mean, when you do, this is what's happening in

my business right now. You get given these gifts and these incredible

opportunities to be in that lane of

exactly where you want to be. I think

the. The other thing that, to me is really amazing

is

when you are. When you are afraid, it's like you're.

You're tight, tightly wound, and you're,

you know, and it reminds me of. This sounds terrible. If

you've ever been in the city and you see stray dogs and you go towards

them, they. They're like, well, they cower. They're

skittish, right? But if you're relaxed

and someone comes towards you,

you're in a position that you can accept. And that was really

hard for me because I started out in

my life kind of from the perspective of, oh, God, please don't talk to

me. What do you want from me? What do I have to do? Do you

know? And so when I got into a place where people were

being incredibly generous to me,

it was like something so different than I've ever experienced.

And it just really, you know, it was like, unconditional,

you know, And I had never really experienced that before.

And so, you know, one of my. One of my first people that.

Who was a fairly big name, who was an affiliate that I asked to be

an affiliate, I had had a bad business experience with somebody,

and I said something to him like, well, if we do something

together, how will we know who

the client is? I don't want you to feel like, you know, I'm stepping on

your toes or whatever. You know, I'm like, really? And he. He was

really quiet, and I was like, oh, my God, I just put my

foot in my mouth. He's gonna, like, not want to work with me, you know,

because I'm this terrible person or, you know, and he said,

this is what I know. It is never

our decision where the client wants to go, because

we Want the best for the client, the client makes that

decision. And the other thing I will say is

that the more secure and the more abundant the person you're working

with, the less they just get bent out of shape about

little things. And I was like, oh, my God, this

is, you know, and I went. When I, when my

business was absolutely at the bottom, I had

the most amazing people who generously gave

me opportunities and helped me, and, and it

was totally different than I would. I had grown up

beautiful. And so I think that's the other part, is

that when you are not trying to do everything and

pretend that you can do everything well, and you are basically honest

and say, I need help, you do this really well. Can you give me some

ideas? Can you give me, you know, can, you know, whatever it

happens to be right? And

it's not necessarily, it's not necessarily, you give me something, I'll

give you something else, you know, and, you know,

I, I look at it more as, you know, play it forward.

Somebody does something nice for me, and I try to play it forward when

the situation comes up again. So

you, you said one other thing that I think is funny is

you said my secret goal or the, the thing,

right? Yeah, I have been saying this too

lately. And, and my secret goal

is that the people, women that I work with step into their CEO

mojo and I'm like, why do I keep this a secret? We

shouldn't keep this a secret. We should say it, you know,

stand. On the rooftops and give her absolutely agree.

And, you know, here's the other piece I want to weave into what you said.

I love what every word that you said there, it's this. We

are never, ever, ever meant to do this

alone, ever. We are not yet.

There's so many entrepreneurs suffering, feeling

that they are all alone on this

journey to success. And I, I just want the audience to

realize, give yourself permission

to invite people

to connect with you. You be the one.

You be the one that follows up. You be the

one that sets up that zoom chat.

You be the one that's proactive. Watch

your world change, because we're

meant to come together because it's way,

way better. And, you know,

I just think that the invitation for your audience.

There's many messages of truth happening here in this

conversation. And community is so important

too. I mean, you know, not just the one on

one connections, but, you know, I, I felt like I had to

be ready to join a community. And in reality,

that's one of the first things that you can do. It will save you so

much time and energy. It will grow your business and

grow you just by connection and listening to other

people. And, and the funny part is when you're new,

you see things differently than people who've been doing the same thing for a long

time and you actually have something to add. You know, you

don't have to go in and say, I'm new, I have nothing. You do. You

have your perspective and it is an amazing situation to

be in. Anyway, we're gonna run

out of time, so tell us just real

fast three things that you think people could use right away. And tell us about

your gift. Okay. Well, my gift is

a gift that I created. I do

a journal in the morning and it starts with dearest God, and then

it's my download of wisdom that comes from my

internal voice. Then I got challenged by one of my

clients to do selfie videos

of those wise principles

to get over those places that we get stuck.

So what I've created is the 21 day

above the line living. And it's your

opportunity to get this dropped into your email box.

It's a audio recording. You don't get to see me wearing my

dad's housecoat in my pajamas when I recorded at

5:30am in the morning after I have my

toast and Nespresso. But it's. It's

a very powerful journey to go on of

clarity, truth. And I weave in

my six step aim High system

principles in each recording

as well as the reflection piece in there you can think

through as well as some journal prompts. I'm very

purposeful and passionate, inviting people to write

down their own truth and to build a track with that so

you'll receive that. And my only request in

contributing that gift is to, you know,

communicate with me in an email or on LinkedIn. I love

receiving these messages from people for the

transformation that they've been through and what a difference that's made in

their lives and their business. So. So that's my only request with

that. And I think the best

way to grow your business is to

define, declare and design

your vision, your big dream.

And to spend time daily can

even just be five minutes in your imagination,

inside your mind to see it and feel it

within your mind, your heart and your spirit.

Because I believe the universe, you can call it God,

you can call it divine, I call it love is waiting for

us to create that clarity. And it's up to us

to be specific and declare that and claim it.

So that's the second thing you can do. The third

is to make a commitment right

now, in this very moment, in the next few weeks

in your networking. Maybe you're meeting on zoom, maybe you're meeting in person.

Design your dream team. Choose the people that will be

in your circle of influence that are separate than you

in their strengths so you can evolve and

grow, but also contribute. Because what we

give is truly the

only thing that we have the opportunity of receiving.

I absolutely agree. And for those of you who are not used to

journaling, I had someone

who said, which was really wonderful, I

wanted to journal, so it was for

analysis and that's not really the purpose of it. And

so I would challenge you to try to do this for 21 days and see

a change and do it differently. Thank you so much. I am going

to do this because I don't tend to journal about anything

anymore. And. But I definitely believe

21 days is not just because it's the time frame for a

habit, but also because if you think of 21 days as a

month, you get 15, 21 day months of the year

and you can faster. All right, so

here's the question. When was the last time you did something new for the first

time? Well, I,

what I did was I looked at something on LinkedIn

and I said, I'm going to go to that event. So then I asked

the woman who was putting it on, which was an 18 hour

flight to get there,

if, if I could speak on that stage.

So it was a spur of the moment decision and

it was life changing for me to fly to that city,

speak on that stage and meet the

people that I met, who I am still connected with and receive.

They're part of my dream team now. So

it was, you know, just a thought, an action.

I'm going. So, you know, I think that it's

just another example for me in listening to that internal voice on what

calls me forward. You know, it's. It's taken a

risk. The rewards I receive from that are still

priceless. I think sometimes we.

You have to listen to your gut and just whatever.

All right. Before we run out of time, I hate to do this, but I

want to say to you, to everybody, as a first step pre,

please subscribe and share and engage on social media about the

podcast. Share it with your friends. And the reason I do this is

I want to give you ways to supercharge your business through this community

and connection. And it's my way of giving back and

sharing some of the wonderful people that I've met and help you to fuel

your growth and impact. So I hope you'll continue to join me for the

one small change on a regular basis. And in addition to

these great interviews and time, people are giving us a

couple times a year, I always do a quarterly

clarity call, you know, chat where I talk about things

that I think are coming up, are important in the quarter and

trends that can help you build your business. And so take a look

at that and see what you can get. Carolyn,

what are your last words of wisdom you want to leave us with?

I want to let you know that

love is really all there is and that

thinking, living, and leading above the line

is the key to our freedom, to our

prosperity, to our reaching,

our infinite potential, joy and experience

of fulfillment and freedom in life. So, you know,

just dedicate yourself, make a decision,

be decided to live this incredible life that

you have the opportunity to do. And one thing I didn't

mention, I'd love people to come to my podcast, which

is love inspired leadership. So I

invite you to go check out my podcast, too.

We love it. We love the, the give and take.

Absolutely. And, and I think

the other piece, I probably shouldn't put this in, but the other piece that

I think is important is the world keeps changing, and so it's

important to be relevant. I mean, if you never change, you will

be so far behind. But that's part of the my, my thing.

So just remember that change is simple, but it's not always easy.

And it does require courage and resilience and a willingness to step

outside your comfort zone. If you don't change, if you aren't aware of

what's going on, the rest of the world is moving. And if you aren't moving

with it, you're going to be left behind, you're going to stagnate.

And if you have something to give to the world, then you, you owe it

to the people that you can help to, to make sure that

you're out there and showing them what can be done. So I hope

you'll continue to join me on the one small change as we embark on

this journey and, you know, we look for innovative possibilities.

Until the next time, please stay very, very curious.

Carolyn, thank you so much. My

pleasure, my dear. Thanks. Bye.