Deleting Growth Barriers EP 1 | Growth Beyond Limits Podcast | Dr.Phil & Cotrenia Hood

What’s really stopping you from growing?

In the very first episode of Growth Beyond Limits, Dr. Mercidieu “Phil” Phillips sits down with Cotrenia Hood to break down the hidden barriers that hold people back in business, leadership, and life—and how to eliminate them.

If you’ve been feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or unsure of your next move, this episode will challenge your mindset and give you the clarity needed to move forward with purpose.

Powered by Level Up Coaching Solutions, this podcast is designed for leaders, entrepreneurs, and high-achievers who are ready to grow beyond limitations and step into their next level.

In this episode, you’ll learn:
• How to identify growth barriers in your life and business
• The mindset shifts needed to unlock your next level
• Practical strategies to overcome fear, doubt, and stagnation
• How to lead and grow with clarity and confidence

This is more than a conversation—it’s a reset for your mindset.

👉 Don’t forget to LIKE, COMMENT, and SUBSCRIBE for more episodes.

🎙️ New episodes drop every Monday at 8AM

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Growth Beyond Limits Podcast, a dynamic podcast designed for spying entrepreneurs and early stage business owners aiming to reach their first million. Each episode features high-impact conversations with business leaders, innovators, and personal development experts who share actionable insights to fuel both professional and personal growth. Growth beyond limits. Go where you need to be. And today I'm super excited because we have one of the best industry thought leaders when it comes to leadership development, executive coaching, who is going to join us for a dynamic conversation on how do we break growth barriers. And so I'm going to go ahead and welcome our guest today, Katrina, who is the CEO of Steel Blue. Steel Blue, and she is doing some amazing work. So I'm not going to read your bio. I'm just going to go ahead and let's have a conversation. Tell us a little about who this dynamic industry leader is.

SPEAKER_00 1:20

Ah, well, I am an executive coach. I am a business strategist. I work with companies that are in growth mode. So it's perfect conversation for what we do. Most of the companies that I work with are either transitioning, so they are in the middle of acquisition or they're thinking about franchising or developing another product or service. And so what I do is go in and help them to build strategy process around how they were going to do that and just expand their horizon. I work with leaders in the same space. They're usually either joining an organization where they haven't managed a team of that size or a budget of that size. And so we're really kind of taking their leadership journey to the next level, as well as maybe they're looking for the next step in their leadership journey. And so they want to hop out on faith and travel into some unknown territory. We set a map for that and help them to get there.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

So you kind of serve as a guide to help people get to their next area of significance and next season of growth, right? So before we get into just the business side, so tell us a bit about your leadership journey. Let's talk to the audience about what makes you go, like as a person, as a leader.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

Wow. So my leadership journey started in corporate America. Um I worked in Fortune 500 companies doing business development, pretty much what I do now, except for I did it within organizations. I worked in the greater New Orleans area in Louisiana, which is where I'm from.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Oh, I love, I love New Orleans. I mean, I go there just for the food.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

So uh Yeah, well, you know, we are we are quite fortunate. We're in the middle of Mardi Gras season, so there's a ton of food and a lot of celebration happening uh in the city right now. But I grew up in the area and worked for this for these companies. And during the time of Katrina, my territory was blown away. And the company that I worked for um was looking at moving me to another state. Uh, it was a bigger territory, and um and I was excited about the opportunity, but I knew that I was connected to the community in a way that I just couldn't abandon it during that time. So uh I went to work for the mayor of our town. She was the first female mayor at the time, and um and so I went to work for her, just kind of figuring out how do we communicate to the local businesses and community. As you recall, Katrina was like the first of major hurricanes to that degree and devastation. And so we were basically communicating on radio. All the power lines were down, there was no television, people were homeless. Um, we haven't eaten we hadn't even begun to get FEMA trailers at the time. So we cleared cleared out the city park and started bringing people down on Friday. And we started talking about, you know, where to put your refrigerator and how do you get resources. And so that journey kind of developed into me working with small businesses and bringing them in because you know, in Louisiana, we're gonna have a party.

SPEAKER_02 4:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:28

So we brought in food, we bought in music, we bought in wares, and we just tried to create a space that felt normal to the community. And so they got an escape. Uh, during that time, I started working with the bakery uh that used to bake all our birthday cakes, um, the t-shirt uh shop that made all the shirts for my son's baseball team. And I started to learn about their entrepreneurial journey, about the sacrifices they made to get to where they are, and about how their family and and everyone around them in their community matters to them. And it's why they stepped out on faith. And I knew at that moment that that's what I was gonna do for the rest of my life.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

Wow. Yeah. Wow, having the clarity.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:11

Wow. So tell us about your personal what's what are some of the hobbies? Because I know those of us in leadership, right? We were so like, you know, focused on just what do you do for fun? What is oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

I I would say um what I do as an outlet just actually began during COVID. Um, my grandmother uh was a gardener. My grandparents had a dairy farm. Um, and so when I was younger, I tried to stay away from all that. Okay. I liked the food that came out of the garden, but I really didn't pay. I paid attention, but you know, it was more kind of sidebar. So during the pandemic, I decided I wanted a garden. Okay. We're gonna run out of food because I was everyone was worried about everything at that time. Um, I thought, well, you know what? I'm gonna make a garden. And so I I a friend of ours, a family friend, decided he would help me to put together the garden. And then I became a pandemic gardener. Wow. So I have leafy vegetables uh right now in my garden. I have cabbage, I have uh collards, I have lettuce, I have tomatoes. When do you find time to garden? Early in the morning.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

Yeah, especially living in Florida before the sun gets up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

Exactly. But it is my way of escape. But what I recognized was it also was a space for growth. Right. That I learned so much from my garden about the patience, about the care that it requires, um, that too much of a br too much of the light um could destroy something growing. Just like not enough rainy days could also destroy something that's growing. And so I try to use those strategies as I think through how I'm helping clients.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

So you're repro even when you're doing something fun, you're finding stuff to take to work. Yeah. So so listen, today we're gonna be talking to the person who is probably out there who feels that they want to grow, right? Um, and you know that growth was meant for you. And you're not, it's not that you can't grow, but something keeps holding you back. So today we're gonna talk about the invisible barriers, right, that stop personal growth. Not because you're lazy or because you're broken, but because growth is complicated. So today with Katrina, we're gonna talk about fear. We're gonna talk about comfort zones, we're gonna look at burnout, and we're gonna look at comparison and how do you move past that? Because most people don't avoid growth because they don't care. They avoid growth because they're scared, right? Right. And that person who is listening to this podcast today saying, man, he's talking to me because I am just afraid. So today we're gonna talk about what does it mean to overcome those barriers? And we're gonna talk about different types of barriers because there's internal barriers, right? There's external barriers, there's barriers that we have imagined in our mind, right? I'm sure you've you've dealt with people in your journey that has these invisible barriers. So we're gonna talk about those internal barriers. So, how do we how do we overcome the fear of failure, but also the fear of success? Because a lot of times we talk about the fear of failure, but we don't talk about the fear of success. So, Katrina, talk to us about maybe some uh people that you've coached or that have to deal with some of these barriers.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

Yeah, so um, fear is a big part of the entrepreneurial journey, I think, because it can be fuel for it can be focus, right? Right, but it also can be a hindrance, as you mentioned before. Um I like to to tell people to really think about fear as fuel. You can't allow it to paralyze you. You have to lean into it because somewhere rooted in that fear is a solution. Um if you one of the taglines for for steel blue, or my tagline for steel blue is fueling audacity.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

Wow, I love that. Fueling audacity.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

Fueling audacity. Come on. The audaciouda behavior that comes with entrepreneurship is second to none. Not everybody can do it. Like people love the idea of what they think entrepreneurship looks like. Right, right? Like you can go to work whenever you feel like it, you make your own hours. You will never work as hard for anyone as you do for yourself in your entrepreneurial journey. So it's not um, it's not a job where you're just kind of like laying back and relaxing. Um, you're actually leaning in to every single day that you get up to do this thing. Yeah. And so it's important that it's rooted in your knowing that you're doing the right thing for the right reasons. If you're doing it because you're comparing yourself to someone else, if you're doing it because you think that the other person will make this will make me a million dollars, but I have no purpose behind it. I have no why behind it. Yeah. If you're doing it for any other reason than making an impact either on the world, on the economy, uh, on people's lives, on the people who work for you, on your family, on your legacy, on what leads you forward, then it's going to be filled with days of fear.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

Where you find anchoring is knowing that you're doing the right thing for the right reason for a purpose that's greater than you.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

I I love that because one of the things I've always said is that clarity is the one of the greatest things to remove fear.

SPEAKER_02 10:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

Once you have clarity on what you're doing, why you're doing it, then the strategy will come, right? So a lot of people operate in fear, not because they don't want to move forward, but they haven't gained that clarity of what it is that I'm designed to do, what is it that I'm called to do. And so I think for me, hearing you talk about when people can find that purpose, it fuels their activity and their behavior. So let's talk real quickly for a minute about some of the internal barriers that people um deal with when it comes to succeed, um pursuing success.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

What are some of the internal barriers?

SPEAKER_00 11:30

Well, I think that one of the larger when it comes to entrepreneurship, one of the larger issues that I find when I'm coaching clients is that there is no one around you that understands what you're doing but you.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

And so it's important to build around you an what I call an iron tribe.

SPEAKER_02 11:53

An iron tribe.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

An iron tribe. People around you who make who challenge you and make you better at what you're doing. Wow. You don't need a group of people who are gonna always agree with you. That sometimes happens in entrepreneurship, right? Like everybody's like, oh my goodness, that's a great idea. Let's jump on board. You need some people who are going to poke holes in that idea to make sure that you can backfill those holes with solutions.

SPEAKER_02 12:20

Right.

SPEAKER_00 12:21

So I think that you need to surround yourself with people who are going to challenge. I think you surround yourself with people who are stronger in areas that you were not.

SPEAKER_01 12:30

That's so good.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

You're good at building a widget. You're good at, you know, solving that particular problem, but you may not be good at finances. And so bringing in people in your life immediately who will help you in those areas. Maybe you don't like social media. Maybe you love social media, but you're not working on your business plan. Right. It's finding the people to surround you that help you to kind of come up against those barriers. Most of the barriers when you're in an entrepreneurial journey is internal.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

Right.

SPEAKER_00 13:02

It's your idea, it's your baby. You're the one who got the why, you're the one who has the answer. The internal issues are often rooted in who we are. And so I think that it's a constant um uh challenge to work on you.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

Right.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

Know what you're good at, right? And then surround yourselves with people who are good at things that you're not.

SPEAKER_01 13:26

Yeah, I I think you hit a very important point there about settling the identity issue.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

Because a lot of people cannot attempt great things because they don't think that they're great.

unknown 13:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

And because I always say activity flows out of identity, right? And so if we can get to the point where we understand who we are and how God has made us, right, and how we're wired, the skill sets, our strengths, and our weaknesses. Because one of the things I always tell leaders is that you don't try to build something that doesn't align with how you were built.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

Um, and so for me, I like to talk about fear being a babysitter, that you have to move out of that fair daycare. One of the things I told uh I was teaching at a seminar in California, and I said, a lot of us we sit in a daycare. It's called fear, and it's just babysitting us, and we never grow up. So let's talk about real quickly a term I like to talk about, the comfort zone addiction. People, people who are, we know people are addicted to all kinds of things, right?

SPEAKER_02 14:33

Of course.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

But some people are addicted to the comfort zone. Yeah. And what I mean by that is they've become so accustomed to being in a particular place that they they're just addicted to it. So how do we go to rehab? How do we go to rehab?

SPEAKER_00 14:48

Well, I think it starts by, you know, in every addiction journey, yeah, it starts by recognizing you got a problem.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

You got a problem. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

And I'm not moving forward is usually a sign. The procrastination, um, the fear of focus, the failure of focus are all signs that you have a problem, that maybe your business is doing good, but you know it was designed to do great.

SPEAKER_02 15:13

Right.

SPEAKER_00 15:14

Right? You know that this$100,000 is more than you've ever made in your entire life. But that's the floor of where God has designed you to be. Wow. And so you have to say to yourself, okay, if I am moving, operating in fear, if I'm procrastinating, if I'm, if I'm stuck in this comfort zone of this is, you know, nobody in my family has ever had this kind of work, you know, ever spoke on this stage, had this kind of opportunity. I'm trailblazing. Like if I stop now, I've done more than anyone else in my family or anyone else in my friend group. But that's not your call.

SPEAKER_02 15:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

Your call to something greater. And it irritates you usually. You know where there is an issue within yourself or there's a place of growth when you're not content, but you're content. So you're discontent in your contentment, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:06

Wow. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

That you're feeling that I'm not where I belong, even though everybody else is pacifying me in my contentment. Yeah. They're like, you know what? You're so awesome, you're so great, you're the best thing since life bread.

SPEAKER_02 16:23

Right.

SPEAKER_00 16:23

When in reality, you know there's more inside of you. So I think that when you start to feel that yearning for more, when you feel like that you haven't reached the pinnacle, but it's safe to stay out, then I think you have to go back to the root of the problem, right? You have to go back to where you started and reevaluate. I just made 10 years in business. Umgratulations, yeah. Thank you. And that's the journey that I'm on personally. I know what it looked like, and this is more than I had imagined, but I also know that there's more in store. That I'm not here still doing this thing, still making this impact. If God didn't have greater. And if I could imagine this, then I haven't lived out his purpose because his purpose is greater than I could ever imagine, right? That's so good. So I think the the contentment to the root of your question, um, how do we get into a state of rehab? It's to challenge ourselves when we start to feel like we we have more in it inside of us than we're actually producing.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

Wow. That's so good. Listen, I um one of the things I always tell um business owners or people who are looking to start business that comfort zones keep you safe, but it's also where dreams go to take a nap forever. So so so think about your dream that's been taking a nap for the five past five years or 10 years, and you keep saying, I'm going to get this done. Um, so Katrina, if you could, if you could uh talk to someone who's listening to this podcast right now, give us three stepping stones to get out of your comfort zone. Look at the camera down. Three stepping stones.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

Three stepping stones to get out of your comfort zone.

SPEAKER_01 18:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

First and foremost, it's write it down, right? Like the vision. Part of the challenge in leadership is that you've been talking about it, you've been praying about it, you've been leaning into it with friends and family, but you have not written it down. You have not mapped it out. You have not sat down and really planned out how am I going to execute this idea? It sounds great in conversation at dinner, but it's still not written out. So write the vision. It's a business plan in layman's terms, but you have to sit down and really write it out. The next step to it is lean into the resources that are around you. I believe that as you are walking out your vision, the resources will come. But the resources won't come as you're sitting on top of it. That's not how it works.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

Oh, that's so good.

SPEAKER_00 19:15

So you have to start walking it out each day, right? Taking it to the confidant, maybe someone who's in finance that can tell you, well, you know what, this is how much money you're going to need. Taking it to someone who's in construction and saying, this is how big the building needs to be. Maybe you're doing something in technology and you need to lean into someone who's an expert in that area. Maybe you don't have anyone in your life who's an expert at all. So that means you have to find the book or the podcast or the conversations that will help you to better understand where you're going, right? And that you're headed in the right direction with the right resources. And then finally, you have to have crazy faith. You have to be audacious. Every day you wake up, it's not going to be easy. It's not going to be uh clear. Some days you're going to run up against opposition. You're going to have people who tell you, that's crazy. Why would you quit your job? Why would you move to that city? Why would you take that great leap? Why in the world would you leave this comfortable job where you're able to take care of your family and do all of these things and one day get the gold watch to step out on faith and be an entrepreneur? It's because you are called to something greater. And there won't be people audience clapping. There won't always be likes on social media. Some of that will be done all by yourself with you and the person who gave you that vision, the faith in your God that you serve.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

That's awesome. So so I want to transition with this thought, right? So I want the person who's listened to this to ask themselves, what's the what's the thing that you've outgrown, but you keep returning to it? Um, because a lot of times we we outgrow certain things, but we keep going back to it, whether it be a relationship, whether it be uh, you know, a position that we feel comfortable. I've I met someone one time who was working at a grocery store and they were there for 27 years. And I'm like, did you ever move up the manager? I said, no, I didn't want the responsibility, but they train the manager who now is their boss. And so they kept coming back to the same cash register because it felt safe and they knew how to scan those groceries. The thing that you know how to do well could sometimes be your greatest impediment to go into the thing that you should be doing, right? And so I want to um transition a little bit. Go ahead, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

So I love that you're saying that because I think that sometimes the thing, the thing that we do well is superficial, right? Yes. So you're at the cash register and you think that the thing Is being a cashier, but it actually is your leadership, right? It's your communication style, it's your ability to sell.

SPEAKER_02 22:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:10

And so the reason why you're a great cashier is because you're great with people. Yeah. It's because they go back and pick up the thing that you said was on sale. Did you catch that that the they had this on sale?

SPEAKER_01 22:21

Come on, talk about that. Oh, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

They go back and they get more. Yeah. So you think it's superficial this thing that you do well. You're a great cook, right? You you're you do this volunteer, right? You bake cakes all the time. Everybody loves your cakes. They think you're amazing at it. And you think because I do it at church or in this volunteer group or for my family, that that's my calling.

SPEAKER_02 22:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:46

But it could be that you are maybe someone who can put together things and you do that without reading recipe. Come on. So you're a strategist and you're a builder. So maybe it's not the cakes that the skill is in, it's in your strategy and in your building. So I think that part of our challenge is that we look at the thing that the manifestation of that or how people have assigned that particular, and it's usually the world, right? Someone else assigned you that task. And then you just kind of rise in it. It's not something that you actually owned. Wow. You've just kind of gotten content with it, right? And so I think going back to the thing that you do well and really breaking that down and figuring out what are the strategies, what are the skills that are underneath that task that someone's assigned you to. That really is the gift. The gift is not that you can work at the cash register. The gift is you're a great salesperson. So now figuring out where I take that talent and really utilize it for the greater good.

SPEAKER_01 23:53

That's so good. Um, we're gonna talk a little bit about the idea of uh, you know, procrastination, yeah, uh, perfectionism that's that's you know, but I want to say something real quickly. I I was talking to a couple of uh leaders in the mastermind uh a few months ago, and I said, we have to watch the compliments that lead to complacency. Yes, um, and the promotions that lead to complacency. What I mean by that is someone says you're so good at this, and you take that as a poison pill, and now you you start to operate in that and you become complacent.

SPEAKER_02 24:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

Oh, you're a great cook. Well, maybe I'm a restaurant owner. Yes, and I just sell to just being the cook. Or your boss says you're a great cashier, I'm gonna make you the lead cashier. So it's a promotion now that locks you into that thing. So, what are your thoughts about that? I mean, you probably never never heard someone talk about the commonity complacency, but go ahead. Yeah, real quick.

SPEAKER_00 24:51

I think that it it's interesting. First of all, I'm I'm enjoying this conversation. Thank you for for just inviting me to this space. Um, I believe that often when we get into a state of complacency, um, we minimize the gift that we have. And I still believe it irritates you. You don't recognize that it's irritating you, but it does irritate you. When someone tells you a limiting statement uh that you're just good at and you know that you're destined for more, it will irritate you. Now, some people not everyone is going to be an entrepreneur.

SPEAKER_01 25:31

Right.

SPEAKER_00 25:32

It's not, you know, you can be entrepreneurial where you are, right? But not everyone will step out and actually work for themselves to the degree that we're talking about, to getting to that first million. Um, those people who have that are irritated in some way in their spirit. Like they know that they are destined for more.

SPEAKER_02 25:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:55

And those are the people we're talking to. I mean, I think that if if you go to the job and you do the job well and you do it with respect and with excellence, but you still feel a sense that, you know what, this is this is not all. I I'm supposed to do more, lean into that. Yeah, lean into that. I think contentment is easy to fall into and be okay with.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

Right.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

Um, but I think that if you feel an irritation, lean into it.

SPEAKER_01 26:22

Yeah, when you have that creative tension.

SPEAKER_00 26:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 26:25

So this is such a great conversation. I know the person who's probably uh watching this episode or listening to this episode is probably going, so how do I get past this thing? We're gonna tell you a little bit how you can get in touch with uh Katrina or myself to help you on your journey. So um the last thing I want to talk about is the idea of perfectionism that is masked as procrastination. Um, so perfectionism sounds productive, right? But it's often fear in disguise. And so if you're waiting to be perfect and you're wanting to feel safe, you're probably never going to grow. Right. Because there's never a perfect time to take the leap. And somebody goes, Well, I'll take the leap in three months, or I'll take it, you know, I'm just waiting for these things to line up. I can tell you, most people who succeed, timing was never a factor. They just did it. And because there's no such thing. Because timing is a trap, actually. When you're waiting for the perfect timing, it's a trap to hold you back. So talk to that person or to me about how do we get past the temptation to want to wait for perfection.

SPEAKER_00 27:34

Wow. So I I'm I'm also preaching to the choir because I do have um a level of perfectionism.

SPEAKER_01 27:41

I do too. I'm addicted to perfection.

SPEAKER_00 27:43

I yes. Okay, well, we're in the same boat. We are rowing down the same river. So so this is part preaching to the choir and also just sharing my journey with leaders who struggle with perfection. Um, it is rooted in fear, right? It I want it to be perfect as though you have control to make it perfect. Um, you don't. There is no perfect, right? You fail fast, fail often, and keep moving, right? That's the best way to reach at least some.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

Can you say it again? Fail fast.

SPEAKER_00 28:18

Fail often and keep moving.

SPEAKER_01 28:20

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 28:21

As long as you can get comfortable in fast failure, right? Wow. Which means you can't procrastinate. You got to make a decision and then own that decision and then move into it, right? And we execute and it fails. Okay, it failed. Failing fast means that I'm not gonna hang on to it and try and make it work.

SPEAKER_01 28:40

Right.

SPEAKER_00 28:40

I'm not gonna push it through a square peg and a round hole. Sometimes we get stuck in that, right? We're like, well, if I shave it off here and I shave it off here, and it takes longer to get to the destination because we didn't fail fast. Failing often is important as well. If you get used to failure, if you get okay with the idea that I'm not gonna always get it right, that it may not always work, that doors closing are okay. People saying no builds character.

SPEAKER_02 29:12

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 29:12

And so if you can kind of lean into that, failing often, like it's a part of growth. You're going to figure it out, you're gonna test some things, it won't work. You're gonna try some things, they may not look like you thought they would. But as you continue to tweak, it's a science. Wow. As you continue to tweak, growth happens in increments.

SPEAKER_01 29:33

But what's don't forget your train of thought. You just said something. Are you saying failure is a science and growth is a science? It is. Absolutely. Okay, so let's go in the lab.

SPEAKER_00 29:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:45

And let's talk about what does that look like as a science?

SPEAKER_00 29:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:50

Wow, I love that.

SPEAKER_00 29:51

Yeah. Well, I think that growth as a science means that there is strategy behind it, right? That growing is not something that you just toss a seed in the ground and you hope that it works. There's a strategy.

SPEAKER_02 30:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:08

And so when you're building your business, the same thing applies. You have to build process around the thing that you're doing. You can't just show up every day and do the thing. You have to build process around it. Process is proven over time.

SPEAKER_02 30:24

That's good.

SPEAKER_00 30:25

If it's working, then it'll continue to produce fruit. But if it's not working, then you'll see that you'll have limitations. So if you're doing something like selling this particular product and you see that selling that particular product in the morning time, let's say coffee and after three is more successful than selling it at lunch. Then you're going to tweak how you sell that particular product. Right. You're going to build out time to do that thing. You're going to make sure that your software, your CRM, is telling your cashier, you know what, they got a muffin. You should offer them the coffee that complements the muffin. It's afternoon. Um, you're they're they're gonna get a quick little bite to eat in the afternoon. A coffee to kind of peak them up may go well with that.

SPEAKER_02 31:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

So, how do you build into your systems processes that will help you grow? Wow. You see, it's not working, nobody's drinking coffee at eight o'clock at night, unless you're me, because I can drink coffee all day, but nobody's drinking coffee at eight o'clock at night. Hence, we don't get offered it at restaurants. Yeah, building out process when you see what's working moves you forward. When you see it's not working, withdraw and adjust. Wow. And I think that so if you understand the system, the strategies, and the process, you can build on it. Um nothing is built high or grows fast on a weak foundation.

SPEAKER_01 31:56

Wow. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 31:58

So if you don't have a strong foundation for how you grow and how you develop, just because you open the business and it's doing well and everybody is exciting, excited about it, and you pack it out, you pack out the restaurant the first six months, and somebody comes up to you and they say, you know what? I think you should open a second location. But you aren't getting orders out on time, but they're excited because it's new, right? Right. Your staff is still kind of fractional, you don't have all the people in place. Um, your CRM, your system for payments isn't always working. You haven't figured out how I can actually get the credit card machine to work when it should. Um, we haven't figured out how to take online orders, but we're about to move to a second location. Yeah, we have a weak foundation. And then we grow and we wonder why. Not only does the second foundation look like it's about to fail, but our funders for both foundations are moving out. Exactly. It's because we don't have a firm foundation because our process, our strategy is weak.

SPEAKER_02 32:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:56

And so whenever you're looking to go to the next level, think about your process. Think about where there are holes in your process and how do you fill those holes so that you can move to the next level without hurting yourself or the people that are connected to you.

SPEAKER_01 33:10

Yeah, I think I think a lot of times entrepreneurs make the mistake of excitement and false, um, false growth, right? Which, because you're growing fast and it seems like you're doing well. But then, like you said, if you don't build that structure and that foundation, then if you if you put too much layers on top of it, it's going to collapse. So I have a friend of mine who's in the engineering business. He says, when they're going to build a building, you know, higher, they dig deeper because you need to be able to support what you're putting on top of it. So for the business person listening, you you need to build deep before you go up.

SPEAKER_00 33:46

Yes. Right.

SPEAKER_01 33:46

And so I think a lot of times we make that mistake.

SPEAKER_00 33:49

So deep and not wide.

SPEAKER_01 33:51

Ah.

SPEAKER_00 33:52

Because deep means that you're digging into the thing, the foundation of what you already have.

SPEAKER_01 33:57

Right.

SPEAKER_00 33:57

And sometimes in business, we we think wide, right? We're like, more.

SPEAKER_01 34:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:03

I already have six products that are doing well. I have developed these hair care products and they're doing really well. People love them, they're growing hair, they're making people feel the best of themselves, right? These six products are doing so well. Instead of digging deep, like, how do I bundle those products? How do I get those products in more locations? Instead, I'm gonna add seven more products. I'm gonna take the revenue that I got from the existing products, and instead of digging deep to assure the foundation of it, I'm gonna add more. And sometimes going wide and not deep does not help a foundation. It's disastrous. So I think to your point and in the construction analogy, digging deep in order to go high is way better than digging wide and then figuring out how do I get anywhere from here.

SPEAKER_01 34:57

Listen, we're gonna have to have you come back for another episode because I think this whole idea of growth is so um so profound that one episode is not gonna be enough. So I'm definitely gonna have to have you come back. Um, I just want to thank those of you who had a chance to watch this podcast or listen to this podcast, that I want as you think about those growth barriers, as you think about those things that have been holding you back, I hope you got some valuable insight and nuggets. And for more information, click on the show notes and you can also follow us on levelupoutcomes.com where you can get some more information on how to grow. And Katrina, if you people need to get in touch with you, would you give me your information on how to how to connect with you?

SPEAKER_00 35:42

Thank you. So Steel Blue is uh S-T-E-E-L B-L-E-U in French because of my New Orleans roots. Um, and so you can go on to my website and there's multiple ways to connect there.

SPEAKER_01 35:55

Okay, good. So if you've been feeling stuck, maybe it's not because you're failing, it's probably because you're facing one of these growth barriers. And so I want you to pick one barrier that hit home with you today and ask yourself what's one small step I can take this week to get out of it. So remember, growth isn't loud, it's usually quiet, messy, and brave. So if this episode helped you, share it with someone who's feeling stuck. And we hope to see you on another episode of Growth Beyond Limits. Thank you for tuning into the Growth Beyond Limits podcast. To follow us for more episodes, please subscribe to our YouTube channel, follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and all social media platforms. Also, to get downloadable PDFs, visit us at levelupoutcomes.com. Levelupoutcomes.com. Growth Beyond Limits. Go where you need to be.