When it comes to “Thinking Like a Boss,” both in business and in life, there is no better person to learn from than Kate Crocco. After all, she literally wrote the book on it.
On top of being an author, Crocco is an entrepreneur, psychotherapist, mindset coach, mother, wife, and Christian, to name a few. In short, she helps people. She’s lived the ups, weathered the downs, and manifested her experiences into two successful businesses and a loving family. So, what’s her secret?
Recently, Kate Crocco shared her story on the Why Me Project podcast and joined Hollie Taylor as a special guest correspondent on Good Company, Faith Strong Today’s daily talk radio program streaming live or on-demand as a podcast every weekday.
Both conversations are well worth a listen, but we wanted to share some of the highlights with you. These are some of the best things we learned from Kate Crocco:
Strict Parenting Has Merit
Growing up, Crocco’s parents were strict. Her father was a Pastor who took an active role in her life and faith. “He had to watch every movie before I could watch it,” she said, “even if it was PG!”
As a child she took issue with her parent’s style, feeling stifled and smothered. Today, Crocco praises their hard-lined guidance, now that she’s mature enough to understand it.
“Looking back I think, ‘Mom and Dad, you were right! You taught me the right things!’ I will now be just as strict, or more strict, with my children as you guys were,” Crocco said.
In the end, the strictness of her parents instilled a value system, or a safety net, that she held tightly when times got tough.
We Learn Through Struggle
Enduring personal struggle isn’t fun, but surviving it teaches us so much about the way the world works and, more importantly, the way we as individuals work. Kate Crocco speaks this truth from experience.
While pursuing her masters, she learned about the intricacies of eating disorders. She also learned that she was struggling with one herself, the severity of which came crashing down all around her. “It was at that point where I surrendered,” she said. “I heard God saying that you can’t do this alone. You can find healing in therapy, but in order to fully recover, you need my help.”
The path to recovery led her to discover her new church, her new best friend, and dramatically increased her effectiveness as a therapist.
Self-Development is Key
Everybody’s self-development plan looks different and Crocco shined a light on what hers looked like. Overcoming an eating disorder led her to God, but the path to self-realization didn’t end there.
“The more that we do self-development, the more we become aware of ourselves, the more we learn about what it is that we want.”
– Kate Crocco
She explored different career fields, including foster care, teaching and more. None of which satisfied her soul. But, every one of those failed attempts brought her closer to her true calling, helping people in a one-on-one scenario.
Now, Crocco is more secure and focussed than she ever has been. She knows which opportunities to pursue, and which opportunities to push aside because she knows exactly what she wants. And she only got there by prioritizing self-discovery.
Find More Time
If successful entrepreneurs are good at anything, it’s finding creative ways to create more time in their day. Crocco suggested opting for dry shampoo for the majority of the week, limiting actual hair washing to weekends. It may seem trivial, but the hour that’s not spent blow drying hair can be funnelled into accomplishing business goals. Minor adjustments like that can add up over the course of the week. So, think creatively and find more time!
Stop Lying to Yourself
Most people end their entrepreneurial dreams long before they register their website domain. Why? They tell themselves that they don’t have time, that their friends and family won’t support them, or that they couldn’t possibly juggle the responsibility of starting a business and with their familial obligations at home.
The truth, as Kate Crocco sees it, is much more hopeful. Anyone can start a business. Anyone can find time. The secret is to start small and work your way up. But, you can’t even start small until you recognize the lies for what they are, and eliminate them from your internal dialogue entirely.
“The Future Version of You is Really Who You Already Are.”
Everybody’s path to self-discovery brings them closer to the person that they always have been. Crocco says it helps for people to view that future person, the one unburdened by indecision and insecurity, as who they truly are and always have been.
Thinking this way, and truly believing it, can help make self-improvement much more accessible. Crocco uses an example from her own life to establish that point. Before she became the person that she is today, she used to pretend that she was already there. Walking around the house using power poses, or feigning confidence, helped her familiarize herself with the feeling of confidence, and helped condition her spirit to ask for and achieve more.
If you act in a certain way for long enough, over time, you’ll step in to that person that you always were meant to be.
Stop Comparing Yourself to Other People
It’s a common axiom, but it’s one that bears repeating. When it comes to social media, and comparison in general, Kate Crocco had this to say:
“When we are looking around at what everyone else is doing we aren’t paying attention to our mission, to our goal, to the impact that we want to make in the world. You’re going to waste a lot of time, and it’s going to cause a lot of unnecessary frustration.”
Crocco used a real-life example to nail the point home. On a recent trip to the airport, she and her friend were occupied soaking up the scenery and catching up on each other’s lives. The conversation was so involved that the two missed their off-ramp. Worse still, the next exit wasn’t for another 20 miles. The moral of the story: turn off the noise and focus on the task at hand, lest you lose your way.
Embracing The Twists and Turns
If you would have told a young Kate Crocco that her future was one of entrepreneurship, she would have laughed you out of the room. But, because she rolled with God’s plan, and accepted unfamiliar opportunities, she became the person that God always wanted her to become.
She wanted to be a teacher. She wanted to work with kids. She only started her own practice as a hobby, until it grew large enough to sustain her and her family. She didn’t feel ready to have a family, but relished the opportunity and now credits it as her greatest achievement.
The point is, your plan is not God’s plan, and keeping yourself open and flexible to the twists and turns of that road can pay off in ways that you would never expect or dream.
Need More?
Johnny Rocket and Hollie Taylor dive deep on the Why Me Project, a podcast exploring life’s unscripted moments. Kate Crocco shares her personal testimony and expands on the ideas we tried to summarize in this article.
Check that out below and make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts or your favourite service for new episodes each week.
