What is the Power of Small Steps? w/ Lisa Cork

[00:00:00] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: So who helped you early on?

[00:00:00] Lisa Cork: Well, this is the challenge with being an introvert and not knowing it early on. There’s nothing I can’t handle, but it’s step by step by step.

[00:00:11] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Oh.

[00:00:11] Lisa Cork: So…

[00:00:11] Intro: Every successful person has a moment where they almost walked away. Not because they weren’t capable, because they were exhausted, uncertain, overwhelmed or questioning whether the struggle was worth it. Welcome to the Happy Healthy Hustle with Dr. Christiane, where we have honest conversations about ambition, resilience, purpose and what it really takes to build a meaningful life. In today’s episode with special guest Lisa Cork, we’re talking about the breaking points people don’t post about and what happens when you choose not to quit. If you have been in a season where things feel hard, this episode will hit home. Subscribe to the YouTube channel and join us every week for conversations that challenge, inspire and push you forward.

[00:01:10] Lisa Cork: And so there was very little interaction. And both of them were heavily involved in Fresh Produce and they would have been amazing mentors in my career, but I didn’t know how to use them. And so that whole idea of learning about yourself early, what are your strengths, what are your weaknesses, and then figuring out where your weaknesses are and finding some skillset, like improving a skillset, if it’s impacting it, would have been really powerful. Because I might have been running the world by now.

[00:01:58] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: With broccoli.

[00:01:58] Lisa Cork: With produce. The produce world. I might have been running the produce world. But what became really interesting, and this is how we change over time, is literally over spring break. So I’m old now. And literally over spring break, I reached out for the first time to a mentor and had a mentoring conversation.

[00:02:21] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Who was that?

[00:02:21] Lisa Cork: A produce woman that I’ve known for years. But between my 20s and my late 50s, that’s the first time I’ve ever reached out for help. And it was amazing because I finally recognized I can’t do this, like what I’m trying to achieve for my last five, six, seven, 10 years of my career. I can’t do that alone anymore. And recognizing I needed to build and leverage off a network that I’ve created over time. And everybody knows me, respects me, but I’ve never ever, ever asked for help before. And it paid huge dividends, just huge dividends in ways that I wasn’t even expecting. And so, you know, it’s proof that our life journey, we are constantly growing. We are constantly growing and changing. And it’s never too late, right? It’s never too late to refine, to network, to connect in ways that had made me so uncomfortable before, but pushing through that and going, I’m gonna make the call. I’m gonna make the call. And I was nervous as heck, and I made the call, and she immediately said yes, of course, absolutely. Whereas I’d been afraid for 40 years to make the call.

[00:03:36] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Well, and audience, another takeaway moment is that even though you might think, I don’t really need the help. That is already a good thought, because I sometimes tell my students, it’s like, what would you like to do? And they’re like, I just don’t know, I haven’t really thought about it yet, I haven’t really figured it out. But even just having a conversation with somebody is already the learning moment right there, because you become more confident interacting with others. And through those conversations, you might already feel you’re learning more about yourself, even if you’re just talking about what book did you recently read or anything like that. It’s just like holding a conversation with somebody that then becomes eventually your mentor in this case, right? How beautiful.

[00:04:25] Lisa Cork: Yeah, it was amazing.

[00:04:28] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: So when, you know, you kind of like think, if a student now feels overwhelmed. We all come to those moments, right? Far more frequently than we’d like to admit. What should the focus be? You’re feeling overwhelmed, what should the student do?

[00:04:42] Lisa Cork: So I have, like for me, I have two mantras because, you know, like you never stop feeling overwhelmed at points in your life, right? It’s not something you grow out of necessarily, right? You just grow into different overwhelming things, okay? So for me, I have two kind of mantras. So number one is, especially if it feels like time constraints, is I have time in abundance. So I have time in abundance. I have time in abundance. I have time in abundance.

[00:05:10] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Beautiful.

[00:05:10] Lisa Cork: I have time in abundance. And eventually, I can literally go, I actually have time in abundance.

[00:05:15] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Right.

[00:05:18] Lisa Cork: And it seems to take some of that anxiety around overwhelm away. And I think the second mantra I have is that there’s nothing I can’t handle, but it’s step by step by step.

[00:05:27] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Oh.

[00:05:27] Lisa Cork: It’s big. Sometimes the things we have to do are big. But there’s nothing I can’t handle if it’s step by step by step.

[00:05:39] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Audience, this is the Petite Practice® moment. Because I always say, you know, like, I think sometimes the problem why we are overwhelmed is because our goals are like somewhere in the clouds. And then we don’t know the ladder how to get there. And the ladder is like prongs, and you’re like, oh my gosh, I have to like reach and I have to hold myself up. So the way really is, we all get there, but you could take a staircase with really small steps and you’re going to get closer to it. Just by, you know, just by engineering you will get closer, because you’re going to take steps up, right? So the goal for me is always to think that just doing something every day and staying on it consistently will already get me to my goal right there. So sometimes just shrinking the overwhelm into these small little moments right there. Small little steps.

[00:06:31] Lisa Cork: Absolutely. Lines perfectly with your message.

[00:06:33] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Absolutely. Yeah. So maybe, you know, if you think you were graduating today, what would your first year look like?

[00:06:42] Lisa Cork: So I think the things that I would have done before I graduated. So if you’re… If you still got a few months before your graduation, some valid tips, right? I think I would have set a networking target. So, you know, we have LinkedIn these days, right? I would have really worked hard to connect with my peers, because as you mature in your careers, your peer network is going to surround you and you’re going to cross paths with them throughout your life. So I would have way more assertively built, gotten over my introvertedness and built my peer network. And I mean, set a target. Like I would say, by the time I graduate, I wanna have 250 of my peers as LinkedIn connections. Or 500 of my peers as LinkedIn connections. Right, then as you’re students and you’re experiencing these amazing things that get offered to you at Cal Poly and at various other places, work really hard to continue to build your network, right? So you’re at a career fair, get on LinkedIn, connect with the people, connect with the other three people at the table, build the network, right? And then that’s kind of where you just go, now I have this network and now I have this ability to contact people, and not necessarily go, I’m looking for a job, like what have you got for me. But just go, you know, I’m graduating, this is what I’ve done, these are my passion points, I’d be open to any advice you have for a new graduate. Now at least you have this network of people that you’ve intentionally created and kept in communication with. And networking is everything. Like I think that’s the lesson I’ve learned late in life, is networking is everything. It’s everything.

[00:08:24] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Yeah, in fact this quarter, I’m using for the first time an online networking tool that I labeled Leadership Lab, and all my students that have my book join the Leadership Lab and they are encouraged to network with each other. So every so often I drop in and I drop little questions like what could be a dream job, a dream internship, but I let them network with each other, and I’m very intentional in letting them know this is probably the only time when I’m actually helping you, like set up little guardrails and building a network. In the future you have to figure this out yourself, but this is like my private community and my class, so there are no other people that come in. And they love it because it’s a competition. There’s leadership boards where you can see who networked the most. They earn points for that. And it is really amazing. And students ask me about it all the time. They’re like, oh, can I stay in it when I’m done with your class? And I’m like, I would love that.

[00:09:26] Lisa Cork: Right. Yeah. Great.

[00:09:29] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: I mean, obviously, this is a lab. So you can stay as long, experimenting around with, as you like, because there’s more students that are going to come in in my next classes. And then we have guest speakers that come in. So your network will only grow bigger. So you’re welcome to stay as long as you like in the lab. Just play around with your network.

[00:09:45] Lisa Cork: Absolutely.

[00:09:48] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: So Lisa, why don’t you finish the sentence for me? You’re going to be okay if you…

[00:09:50] Lisa Cork: Okay, can I read this again? I’m a preparer. So you’re going to be okay if you learn and own your uniqueness, right? And I have three. Is that okay?

[00:10:09] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: You’re going to be okay. Extra credit, extra credit.

[00:10:12] Lisa Cork: If you are curious about who, what, and why others are what they are. So be curious, right? And you are going to be okay if you regularly practice saying yes to opportunity, and saying you’re amazing to the mirror every day.

[00:10:32] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Curiosity, saying yes, being open to opportunities. And lastly, really encouraging yourself with a love for yourself, saying amazing. You could even like go all out and give yourself a high five in the mirror. I mean, go for it. I love it. Because you might be that learner that likes the physical touch. That love language might just be physical touch and not just words of affirmation right there, right? Perfect. Love it. Well, thank you so much. Do you feel there’s anything that the audience should know about you, maybe how to get in touch with you, and maybe like share a little bit more of your wisdom, anything I didn’t ask you that you felt like this is like the absolute takeaway message you have to know?

[00:11:14] Lisa Cork: I mean, I think it’s, you know, with networking, you know, I’m always so open to students coming to see me. But I’m surprised these days how, I guess how little of students I see on a day-to-day basis. And you know, I’m so open to talking. Or, you know, I’ve got a couple of strategies around career, how to figure out what you want to do.

[00:11:36] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Beautiful.

[00:11:36] Lisa Cork: That I, you know, I’m really always open to share, as long as I’m yeah, around. So absolutely.

[00:11:41] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Audience, pop down under the video, like the video, pop down in the comments what is the question for Lisa that you might have, because guess what, somebody else might have the same question. And secondly, Lisa is going to respond, because this will build your network. And she just told us that she even has some nuggets of wisdom she hasn’t even shared here. So I would love for you to connect. And of course, for me, I’m going to say thank you so much. This was an absolutely amazing interview, from campus to CEO. My name is Dr. Christiane. Our guest here today was Lisa Cork. And of course, we’re going to stay in touch. We’re going to build our network, that was a big takeaway message here today, and eat our broccoli all along.

[00:12:25] Lisa Cork: Thank you.

[00:12:25] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Thank you.