17. Cari Kenzie’s Journey of Resilience and Empowerment
EPISODE 17
Join Julie as she interviews Cari Kenzie, an entrepreneur and resilience coach, about growing and selling a multi-million dollar business, founding her leadership empowerment company iShft, and her journey of self-discovery after surviving the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. Cari is full of insights about healing, intuition, and empowering others.
Catch the Conversation
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Cari Kenzie, once a multi-million dollar entrepreneur, has reinvented herself as a prominent keynote speaker, resilience coach, and strategic advisor following her survival of the Boston Marathon bombing. She successfully sold her company, Skyline Dynovia, and has recently co-founded iShft (pronounced Shift), a company revolutionizing leadership and personal empowerment. Her speeches and workshops emphasize resilience, transformative leadership, and strategic growth, helping individuals and corporations turn adversities into opportunities for advancement. Cari’s dynamic approach and relatable stories engage all audiences, making her a sought-after speaker for conferences and corporate events.
You can connect with Cari through her website, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and podcast.
Connect with Ripples of Change Foundation here. -
Julie and Tina Sue discuss...
Building the Company (00:01:28)
Cari discusses her journey of growing a multi-million dollar business in three-dimensional and interior design. Cari talks about the challenges she faced as an entrepreneur, including her lack of knowledge in operations and finance. Additionally, Cari shares how her company expanded from a sales office to a full-service business, specializing in trade shows and exhibits.
Identity and Catalytic Event (00:08:31)
Cari discusses how her business became her identity and her initial plans to retire within the company. Cari recounts her experience during the Boston Marathon bombing, the impact it had on her, and the aftermath. Furthermore, Cari reflects on the impact of the Boston Marathon bombing on her health and her journey towards healing and self-discovery.
Clarity and Curiosity (00:19:20)
Cari discusses the pivotal moments that led her to find clarity and embrace curiosity in her journey of personal and professional growth. Cari discusses how her illness led to a different perspective, creativity, insight, and business growth. Moreover, Cari shares the impact of her illness on her decision to sell the business and how she received an unexpected offer.
Trusting inner wisdom and transition after selling the business (00:26:44)
Cari emphasizes the importance of trusting oneself and allowing curiosity to lead to the right decisions. Cari shares her journey after selling the business, navigating self-doubt, and finding confidence.
Empowerment, collaboration, and ROI in entrepreneurship (00:32:09)
Cari discusses the impact of collaboration, empowering others, and the collective journey of entrepreneurship. Cari talks about the importance of considering the return on life alongside the return on investment in business decisions.
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Julie (00:00:04) - Welcome to Figure Eight , where we feature inspiring stories of women entrepreneurs who have grown their businesses to seven and eight figures revenue. If you are in the mix of growing a bigger business, these stories are for you. Join us as we explore where the tough spots are, how to overcome them, and how to prepare yourself for the next portion of the climb. I'm your host, Julie Ellis. I'm an author, entrepreneur, and a growth in leadership coach who co-founded, grew, and exited an eight figure business. This led me to exploring why some women achieve great things. And that led to my book, Big Gorgeous Goals. Let's explore the systems, processes, and people that help us grow our businesses to new heights. If you're interested in growing your business, this podcast will help. Now let's get going. Hello and welcome to this episode of Figure Eight . Today I'm in conversation with Cari, Kenzie and Cari is an entrepreneur who grew a multi-million dollar business and has now reinvented herself. After having a catalyst event in her life, she has reinvented herself as a keynote speaker, a resilience coach and a strategic advisor to other entrepreneurs.
Julie (00:01:28) - She started a company called Skyline Dynovia, and she also recently founded another company called iShft, and they are revolutionizing leadership and personal empowerment. So she's focused in on that resilience and empowerment. And I'm so excited to talk to her today. Welcome, Cari.
Cari (00:01:48) - Hey, thanks so much. I'm excited to have this conversation with you.
Julie (00:01:52) - Oh, I'm so glad and so interested to talk with you because, you know, building big businesses is hard work and scaling up and doing all the things. And, it's always interesting when you reach a crossroad where you take a hard turn in a different direction. So tell me about your business that you founded first.
Cari (00:02:12) - So the company I actually purchased the company when I was 30 years old. I had started in the organization as a satellite office, kind of a Seoul office, as, the sales and marketing executive and the owner of the company came to me, I want to say, within six months to a year of me starting and said, hey, if you stick with me, I will sell you the company in five years.
Cari (00:02:37) - And that's what happened when I took over the company in 2000, I think it was 2000. I well, shortly thereafter, anyway, when I took over the company, it was just myself and one other individual, and we ended up building. I ended up building that company to having right around 21 employees at its height and being a multi-million dollar organization. So it was quite the journey navigating so many different elements and recessions and, you know, identity crises as you're as you're going through the whole process to get it to a place where it had that, you know, ability to be able to function at the level that it did.
Julie (00:03:20) - Yeah. I think it's interesting to like the different ways we come to entrepreneurship, you know, whether you what, you know, like you're talking about having bought something, which is, you know, an interesting and different entry point because you thankfully, I think, probably had some idea of what you were walking into because you'd been working there. Yeah. and you must have had some idea of what you wanted to do with it.
Cari (00:03:45) - You know. Really? No.
Julie (00:03:47) - Which is interesting. I mean, when I think about.
Cari (00:03:50) - It, the only thing I knew was sales. That's it. And I knew sales, and I knew I could do it better. and that's what I stepped into the organisation with. I literally had no thought processes that told me that it could potentially fail. I did not have an idea around operations. I did not know how to run accounting, how to run books. I didn't know what a profit and loss was. I mean, there were so many things that I had to step into to learn. Okay. But I think this I think the saving grace for me was in the passion of the business in the idea that, like, I can do this better, and having no understanding of what the potential downfall could be.
Julie (00:04:38) - I think in some ways that's actually you almost need to have that viewpoint, because otherwise you can really get trapped in fear and the downfall becomes inevitable.
Cari (00:04:51) - Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Julie (00:04:54) - Yeah. And so I think, I mean, I think the financial piece that you're talking about is one of the most common things I see with entrepreneurs. They don't understand the profit and loss and the financial side, and they're afraid to really dive in. And yet the sort of other side of the coin on that is it's one of the biggest risk points for you if you don't dive in and learn about it.
Cari (00:05:16) - Oh, 1,000%, I mean, and I learned unfortunately, I learned that lesson the hard way. what I will say the the you know, the thing that I did in growing that business that took me a while to get to the point of understanding, was I honed in on my skills, and I understood what I was good at, and I understood what I wasn't good at. Now I can do a lot of things as as entrepreneurs can, right? We have the ability to step in and to be able to do everything, but understanding that it's actually more beneficial to not do that was probably that tipping point for the organization itself that allowed it to go from.
Cari (00:06:01) - There was two full time employees and a temp worker at one point Into launching over the course of a year, like growing exponentially both in staff and in profits. And it's just by understanding, like my gifts and who I am within this, not trying to take on too much and then allowing other people and empowering them to step into their own leadership roles.
Julie (00:06:24) - Yeah. And so tell me about the company. What were you doing? What was the.
Cari (00:06:31) - Yeah, we did three dimensional and interior design. We specialized in tradeshows events and exhibits. When I started, we were solely a sales office and sales and design. And by the time I sold to the company, we had, storage warehouse facilities, full project management. I had a team that traveled around the world with the exhibits, setting up, tearing down. I mean, we really had taken kind of that one little piece and expanded on it and became the source for our clients as it pertain to trade shows and exhibits.
Julie (00:07:07) - Well, and I think there's such a need for that.
Julie (00:07:09) - I mean, as somebody who had a, had a relatively small business and traveled the world doing trade shows, it's a lot of work. Remember, you know, hauling a big. Display off of a luggage carousel and thinking, when am I going to grow up enough that I don't have to be the person who's lifting this 50 pound container?
Cari (00:07:31) - Yes, yes, I know, and it was always so interesting to me, you know, because we'd travel and you'd come back and be like, oh, you got to go to Sao Paulo, Brazil. I'm like, I didn't see any of it. Like I saw the inside of a convention center for seven days. But, you know, it is it's such a necessary and beautiful experience to get to have. But you're right. Like that element, that full service component, we very quickly realized what is exactly what clients wanted.
Julie (00:08:01) - Yeah, yeah. And if and if it, you know, if they're big enough to be able to afford it, then it is a value for sure to, you know, it's one thing when the when you own your own business and you're hauling the display, but like to ask your team to do a lot of that stuff gets hard, right, if you're sending people out.
Julie (00:08:17) - So yeah. Yeah. And so that company then grew over a number of years obviously.
Cari (00:08:24) - Yeah. And it did.
Julie (00:08:26) - And did you ever think you would leave it like when as you were growing it. No.
Cari (00:08:31) - No, actually, I had always said like, this is the retirement. This is the plan for the family. I mean, I had that was really I'd been in that business since I was 25 years old and, you know, then having purchased it when I was 30, I mean, that was like my career. It's what I knew. It's what I loved. It's what I was passionate about that had become my family. I mean, to be quite honest, that had become my identity. And so the thought of leaving actually never crossed my mind.
Julie (00:08:59) - Yeah. It's interesting. Right? and I think it is also interesting when, like you saying it becomes became your identity. I can very much relate to that. And I think it's one of those, one of those things where there's different ways.
Julie (00:09:16) - I mean, I think it's why, for me, when I left my business, it was so hard for me. And I sat on that plateau for quite a long time trying to figure out where I was going to go next. Yeah. but, you know, you kind of landed on you had an event that happened to you. And so you were in Boston in 2013. And were you running the marathon?
Cari (00:09:38) - Yeah. I had yeah, I had run the marathon that year. Yeah. So the first time. So excited I remember thinking it was like the perfect marathon day.
Julie (00:09:49) - It was. It was a beautiful day.
Cari (00:09:51) - Yes. It was absolutely gorgeous. And, had finished that race, unfortunately found myself in the medical tent upon completion. I just completely drained my body. and so was in the medical tent, being attended to. And I was actually sitting, waiting for, I believe they were, you know, water, nutrients, IVs, whatever it is that they were going to do when the event occurred.
Julie (00:10:15) - Yeah. And so you were pretty close to the finish line.
Cari (00:10:18) - I was very I was at the medical in the medical tent at the finish line. And when the first blast happened, I actually thought it was like, oh, I didn't know that. This is how they celebrated Patriot's Day. You know, it's a holiday in Boston. it's like, I don't know, they let off cannons. And then that second blast happened. And when that second blast occurred, it literally felt like the ground was going to come out from underneath me, like the core of the universe had shaken. The tent shook and I shook. And I remember looking up and I caught a volunteer in the eyes and with unspoken words, we knew immediately what had happened. We knew that bombs had just gone off. And so I very quickly stood up. looked around to the tent. It feels like everything happens just in a flash. It is so fascinating to me how that time warp things happens, but all of a sudden they're starting to bring in what I call like the casualty of limb and those who had been, you know, directly impacted.
Cari (00:11:18) - and I immediately stepped out. I did not know where my family was at this time. And so I'm looking up and down the street. I look down Finishers Alley. There's nobody there. I look back towards the finish line, and there is a line of volunteers that start screaming at me and they're like, run as fast as you can, and they start chasing and I start running and I don't remember how far, how fast, how long, or when I ever stopped, but I would eventually find my family. Now, what made this a catalytic moment and just kind of want to lay this out? Because yes, it was an incredible experience. Like, not a lot of people find themselves in the midst of an attack like that. but but the shift it was this and this I find is just way too common. The next day, standing at the end of Boylston Street and I'm overlooking the devastation. I'm wearing my finishers jacket and a reporter comes up behind me, taps me on the shoulder, and he says, can I ask you a few questions? Can you tell me where you were? Can you tell me about your experience? And in that moment, there was a voice in my head.
Cari (00:12:23) - You know how we have those thoughts and those conversations, and this one pulled forward with such authority. It said it is not your story to tell. And I turned and I walked away, and it did I understand now. It did it in a show of resilience. Because this is what we feel resilience is you get up, you brush it off, you move on. You weren't hurt. Your family is fine, right? And so I check every emotion, every feeling. First it was it was shock. And so it was easy right. It kind of overshadowed. But I took every emotion after that and I packed it away.
Julie (00:13:00) - Yes. It's like going from the beginning of the process, the shock to the end. And you're like, I'm perfectly fine, I'm back. Nothing happened. I was very fortunate. But now we move on.
Cari (00:13:14) - Yes. And that happened so instantaneously that I literally came home from that experience, went back to work the next day. I watched the unfolding of the events as the manhunt continued over the course of that week.
Cari (00:13:27) - Watched it with my staff. They catch the second brother, we turn off the TV, and it went right back into my life. It worked for a hot minute and it and it and it. This is what we do as entrepreneurs. This is what we do as overachievers. This is what we do when we have organizations. I don't care if it's big or small is we take ourselves and we duct tape ourselves together. Because if anybody sees vulnerability, if anybody sees weakness, right, that ground that shook from underneath me, it's going to come out and I will lose everything. This is the fear. And so we tend to grab a hold and take control of everything around us and outside of us. And then we hide. I became so ill by the fall of that year, really end of summer, that I could not walk up a flight of stairs unassisted. I could no longer sign checks in my own organization. I had to delegate that out, but nobody knew. And this would go on for a number of years.
Cari (00:14:28) - I would hide all of this right? And I would continue going about my business and my health would continue to deteriorate. And it's because I had placed so much of who I was in that business, so much of my identity and my value, right. And how people saw me in what everybody else experienced of me. And I lost myself in the process. And this is what I found. Like I say, over the course of years, you guys, this was not like an instantaneous, oh, hey, maybe we should figure this out. It took a long time to unpack, but when I did, I came to this realization that, you know what? I have to understand me. And I need to understand who I am outside of this business, outside of the staff, outside of my family. And when I do that, it completely shifts my perspective and allows me to see things from a different view. Right. With with clarity, I can have a compassion and empathy for other people because I now have the ability to be vulnerable and I allow that within them.
Cari (00:15:38) - It made me a better leader.
Julie (00:15:41) - Yes. Yeah. Once you were able to sort of peel back those layers, it.
Cari (00:15:47) - Was peeling back the layers. It was understanding. And again, I chased the the medical side of things for a long period of time because my body completely shut down. I mean, the list of ailments and debilitating illnesses just kind of racked up over the course of years. And it wasn't until I had a conversation with a woman that it really started to invite me back to myself and to who I was, and to the experiences that I had right into those moments where my confidence had been shaken. And yeah, Boston was a huge one. But I also was in the organization and ran my company between 2008 and 2009 of the recession. I was in the organization when 9/11 happened. And you know what happens to marketing during those time periods, right? So I had done I had been through so much and just kept charging forward. Well, your body eventually will begin to shut down because you can only contain so much and it needs to be expressed.
Cari (00:16:45) - And when I started to pull away those layers and when I started to understand, like, oh my goodness, this is what's been happening with me, right then I was able to, like I say, come back home to an understanding who who I was, which then just allowed me the experience of myself and allowed others the experience within them. I was no longer holding control outside. I let go and allowed other people to step in to their greatness. Yeah.
Julie (00:17:16) - And how did you then on that part of the journey, the sort of, you know, in the few months post Boston Marathon to the time you decided to sell the business, how did that unfold for you?
Cari (00:17:32) - You know it. Oh my goodness. It was a journey. It really was. like I said, I, I really had to navigate through a, a lot of that Western medical, holistic type of side of healing that went on until 2016. Really kind of those moments, what I would say, you know, the things that became very clear to me as far as like, you know, how I was able to navigate through was one I became very present, meaning that I, I had to allow myself moments to be in stillness, to have an understanding of what was happening not just around me, but in me.
Cari (00:18:12) - And when I was able to do that, then you know that that little nudge of intuition that we have as women. I mean, I think men have it too, but women, it just is very powerful. We just tend to shut it down. That intuition, that wisdom was able to start speaking and coming forward. And I would catch signs. Right. We're always looking for signs. What's the next thing? What should I do? And it would catch these little snippets of, oh, you know what? I've seen that three times. I wonder if maybe I should ask that question. And I would ask that question. It would open a door, and then it would kind of move me on to the next thing. And I continued to follow those curiosity. I had no attachment to the outcome. Typically, what happens is like the only time we truly make change or we tend to like, become and come back to reconnected to ourselves is when we're brought down right? Is when these kind of moments happen, or when life changes abruptly and all of a sudden, right, kids leave from home, relationship falls apart or something happens in the business and all of a sudden we have to take that look.
Cari (00:19:20) - That's that invitation by chaos, right? That's at invitation, by confusion. If we can allow ourselves to become present enough in that moment to allow that confusion to happen and begin to unfold, we can get curious. And that's what I had to do. I'd have followed this curiosity. It took me to a conference in 2016 where an email comes across my, you know, across my screen, and that just immediate reaction was, I have to be there. I don't I don't know why. I'm just I'm signing up for it. I don't care the cost. I don't care a lot. Like I need to be there. And I signed up. And that happened to be one of the major pivotal moments. Just in a conversation, I had a conversation with the woman. It's kind of like she slid a napkin across the table. She goes, call this gal up. I think she might be able to help you, right? Because at this moment, I haven't slept in five years and or three years.
Cari (00:20:12) - And the, chronic Lyme disease had had kind of come forward. And it's one of the things that I was dealing with. So I call this gal up, and I always joke when I'm speaking like she goes, yeah, so tell me about your childhood. Like, no, you don't understand. Not why.
Julie (00:20:27) - I'm here. You don't understand. I have chronic Lyme disease. I need to call me now.
Cari (00:20:32) - Like, right. This this is what it is right here. And again as high achievers. That's where this is the problem. Fix the problem. Right. Can we just fix this? But what she caused me to do is she made me be vulnerable. She made me start to look at things more deeply than I had before. She was like, I understand that's a symptom and we need to understand the source. And so she caused me to open to a vulnerability that allowed me to be more deeply curious, curious, and brought a different kind of clarity forward that all of a sudden made this connection that went, you know what? I think maybe the stress that I've navigated over the course of my life, including Boston and the experiences that I have had, are actually what have led to and caused me to be sitting in this position I am right now, and I continue to flow down that no expectation of outcome, right? No.
Cari (00:21:30) - Like I just knew I want to be from here to here and I don't care how it happens. And once I followed that, I got the clarity and all of a sudden it was like, oh, I see, I see how this connects to this. And I understand how this now happens in my business. And the creativity started to flow in, the insight started to happen and opportunities started to show up. And that's how the business continue to grow. Some of our best years were after I became ill. It's how it continued to grow, right? Because all of a sudden I had a different perspective, I had a different view, and I was able to let go of a lot of that control that I had earlier. And transformation happened, healing happened, and it came back into the wholeness of who I was. I finally understood my worth right.
Julie (00:22:23) - And so then how did that impact your decision ultimately to sell the business?
Cari (00:22:31) - You know, again, that was just one of those moments.
Cari (00:22:36) - I had no desire interest, in selling the organization. I actually had built a management team, and so I wasn't needed in, in the day to day operations. I had stepped out. I was already starting to build, you know, coaching and continuing my own healing process. I was doing a deep dive in neurosciences and, you know, quantum physics. And so I really kind of was leaning in that direction. And I received a text message one day, and this text message was from a peer, and he said, hey, if you ever think about selling, I would offer you multiples of what you could get anywhere else. And I immediately kind of that instinct, the same one that took me to that conference in 2016, I immediately responded back and I said, I think you caught me on a good day. And then I went, what did I just do? And I sat with it and I had to get really I go back into that like real present space with it because I think I, we as entrepreneurs have such an amazing instinct and a wisdom within that.
Cari (00:23:46) - Unfortunately, because of the way the system is set up and because of the expectations that are laid on us, we shut that down. Right? We're kind of moving one thing to the next, to the next, and we make these quick decisions or we ruminate too much. Right. And then I'll talk myself out of it, which could have definitely happened in this moment. But I sat with it and I really kind of asked the question internally. Through meditation, through prayer. And I was like, is this what I'm supposed to do? And I felt a very strong yes. And I thought, okay. I shortly thereafter received another offer and was like, is this the direction? Yes. And I just kept following that through.
Julie (00:24:35) - Yeah. I do think it's one of those interesting things about timing, because ultimately, as an entrepreneur, I think what you build in your business is your future. You know, it's not you don't have a pension, you don't have, you know, if you have health coverage is because you are buying it for yourself within your own company, and there's no assurance you'll have it forever.
Julie (00:24:59) - you know, all of those pieces that kind of come with having your own business. And it's not like magically one day at retirement somebody's going to appear and buy it, right? So. So, you know, your own, your own good timing isn't always, you know, what is going to play out in real life.
Cari (00:25:20) - Yeah. Well and I think too it is that idea of like yeah, it's, it's that, you know, you, you have the plan like I did. I had the plan. I was going to be in this organization. This was going to be the retirement. you get a text message and I could have stuck with. No, that's not the plan. This this is the plan. This is the thing that I set out to do, as opposed to listening to kind of that wisdom or that guidance or kind of that nudge. And to this day, this gentleman who purchased the company and I both are like, I am so grateful that everything played out the way that it did because I was in I was in the marketing business, trade shows and events, and we all know what happened in 2020.
Cari (00:26:08) - And had I not listened to that intuition, had I not followed that kind of gut reaction, I would have lost my business because of the pandemic. Right? So I think, too, it's that it's that learning to trust yourself and learning to trust that inner wisdom and that inner knowing, but allowing yourself that moment to just sit in the midst of the chaos, in the midst of the confusion and bring a curiosity to it. Because when you do that, the answer will arise. It comes from within. Yeah.
Julie (00:26:44) - Yeah, yeah. And I think it is one of those things where like, why not? Why not have the conversation? I mean, maybe, maybe it wouldn't have gone anywhere. Also, you know, that was entirely possible in that moment. but why not?
Cari (00:27:01) - Exactly right. This kind of see, see where it goes. And since then, that's kind of how I've navigated my journey. Right? It's, you know, took a deep dive into studying and and all the classes.
Cari (00:27:15) - And my ex-husband at the time would say, gosh, why are you doing all of this? And I go, I don't know, I just know I'm supposed to write. And so it's just continuing to to follow that and not be attached to anything. I mean, that's where the beauty arises. That's where we get to be ultimately, you know, creators and creatives and leaders, not just for the people around us, but for ourselves.
Julie (00:27:42) - Yeah. And so how has that freedom, the after of selling the business, led you to what you're doing now?
Cari (00:27:50) - Oh my goodness. Well, I would love to say that it was, like, instantaneous. I knew exactly what I was going to do. It took me a little bit. Right. Because there's I think I'm going to call it like like the entrepreneurial corporate hangover. Right? It doesn't matter the work that you do or the questions that you ask or the deep dives that you do, there's still that little bit of, you know, remnants of what had been and what you had done in the success that you had.
Cari (00:28:21) - That kind of hangs out. And sometimes being incredibly successful can be detrimental. And I say that because. Right, because here I had this amazing, successful, like thriving business. And now I step out to do something different and it's like, oh, but can I do that again? Right. Maybe, maybe that was it. Maybe. And then we're always measuring up, right to like what had been. And then the self-doubt comes. I mean, it's just a fascinating journey that we all have to navigate, right? And so I kind of worked through that in order to get to a place where I was like, you know what? I feel confident and comfortable. And because of the journey I have navigated right throughout the course of a lifetime and specifically within business. And then that catalytic moment. I think I'm pretty sure what I need to be doing moving forward and helping other people navigate those same types of journeys. Yeah.
Julie (00:29:17) - Yes. Yeah. But there's that little voice at 3 a.m. that does come and say it's the best thing you ever did in the rearview mirror.
Julie (00:29:24) - Like, come on, how are you going to. How are you going to top that?
Cari (00:29:28) - Right. Yeah. It's so true. But I tell you what, the one thing that I say is, and when I'm working with clients or when I'm speaking like two things, one is that if you've had it, it's meant to be yours, only better. So if I've been there and I've been that successful and I've done those things, then that is that kind of success. That level of success is meant to be mine. It's just meant to be better. Right. Yeah. And then yeah it's.
Julie (00:29:57) - A springboard of some kind isn't it.
Cari (00:29:59) - It just very much is. Right. And then I've never known because I think the other thing that kind of keeps people stuck in a, in a position is the taking the risk on themselves, no matter what they're doing, no matter if they're changing positions, shifting, you know, careers or stepping out of the entrepreneurial journey into something else. Right? It's a risk you're taking on yourself.
Cari (00:30:21) - And sometimes that can be the scariest thing. And then I look back and I go, you know, I've never heard a story or had a conversation with somebody who went all in on themselves, and it didn't work.
Julie (00:30:33) - That's true. Yeah, it's true and it doesn't. It doesn't always work the way you think it's going to at the start. But when you go all in, it does work.
Cari (00:30:44) - Yes it does. Absolutely. Yeah.
Julie (00:30:49) - Yeah, yeah. And I think that's like it's the like you need to drive it forward and have the vision. But you also have to stay open to allow yourself that recalibration as you get going down the path. Right. And the faster you're going. The more quickly you need to notice when the recalibration is needed.
Cari (00:31:08) - So true. Yeah, that is so true. And it is. It's like you've got kind of those guardrails. Right. But know that ultimately you can be super creative within it. And then yeah.
Julie (00:31:20) - I always think it's like the bowling alley where they put up the little things for the kids.
Julie (00:31:24) - So the ball stays out of the gutter. And that's basically what you're trying to do. Yep.
Cari (00:31:29) - That's exactly yet right. I'm trying to knock down all 10 pins, and it might take me a hot minute to get there, right? But I know that's the goal. And whatever way, if I need to come in at it this way or that way, like I can adjust and shift. I just got to be open to it. Yeah, yeah.
Julie (00:31:45) - Yeah, I just got to figure it out and keep working. Keep working for sure.
Cari (00:31:51) - So true.
Julie (00:31:52) - And so what's it like now? So you have you've cofounded iShft. And so that's a little bit of a different journey to going from being a solo entrepreneur who had the business in the event space to now being a co-founder and having a business partner.
Cari (00:32:09) - Yeah. You know, it's been a lot of fun. And here's the thing that I would say, you know, it's I think there's so much ingrained in us where we feel like in culturally, it's kind of like this where you feel like you've got to do it on your own, where you feel like, you know, I, I've got to make this happen.
Cari (00:32:26) - and and what my business partner Lee and I have come to, you know, more of an understanding is that, you know what the impact that we want to make is bigger than just one. And it's going to take a collective of people in order to make this happen. And I have amazing gifts and she has amazing gifts. Why not bring those together and amplify everything that we're doing? Because the impact that we want to make in the disrupting the way that we live, love and lead, and empowering leaders and inviting them and the cultures within the organizations into a greater form of leadership. Like that's the deep desire. That's what we want to do, because we understand the power and the creativity and the ability that every human has to be able to step into that role and into the best version of who they are. Right? It's just simply that invitation back to that space. And so why not do that collectively as opposed to individually. And so that's why we came forward and and co-founded iShft.
Julie (00:33:31) - That's so great.
Julie (00:33:32) - Yeah. because I do think it's one of the things that, you know, you got to get out of your own little echo chamber of thinking and of perspectives and bring in. It's so much easier when you have other people you know, who are cheering you on along the way and who are sharing their own lessons with you and all of the different, you know, pieces about what that is like. Yeah. yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I went through, I know I went through a phase, you know, as an entrepreneur where I was like, okay, I'm an operational leader within this business. So, you know, I'm going to sit at my desk and put my head down and work, but that actually was not what I needed to do. I needed to go out into the world and meet other people who could, you know, talk to me about the problems they were solving in their businesses. And I could learn from them and they could learn from me. And it would make it easier for all of us.
Cari (00:34:29) - Yes. Yeah. It is. It's in that collaborative spirit. You know, I sit on the board of the National Association of Women Business Owners, and other institute side as well. And, you know, we're seeing so much of that beginning to shift, I think collectively, where we had been in such a competitive hustle culture for such a long period of time. And I believe that women are coming to this place of realization where they're like, you know what? I don't want to do it that way anymore. And it be great if we could start to kind of lay down those arms and come together in more of a collaborative spirit, in a sharing of those insights and a sharing of our stories, and in a connected way, that just helps to amplify everybody. And so that's what I'm starting to see.
Julie (00:35:19) - Yeah. And I think, you know we can all win. There's room for everybody. And my desire is really to see us growing bigger businesses and to really like stepping into that greatness and the magnificence that we have and saying, you know, I can see other people doing this and I want it as well.
Cari (00:35:40) - Yes, absolutely. I think, you know, in the beginning of the, you know, Skyline, when I had that, it was I thought I had to, you know, I thought I had to do it. It's my company. Right. So I've got to do it and I've got to make the decisions. And I remember very clearly sitting in a meeting, and I was with a group of other, business owners about the same size. And, you know, I'm sitting at my computer and I'm doing all this. I'm supposed to be in a meeting, but, you know, you're checking the emails and you're doing all the things, and it's everything's still running. And, you know, entrepreneurs say all the time, I never get a vacation. It's like the moment I leave, everything goes crazy. And they looked at me and they're like, would you stop? Stop it. You need to hire somebody to do operations. And I was like, I can't afford to hire somebody to do operations.
Cari (00:36:23) - Like, no, I've got to do it. You know, I've got to figure this out. And I tell you what, the moment I did, everything flipped. It's like the moment I let go, the moment I went. You know what? I can't do this on my own. And it's okay to bring somebody alongside me in this journey. Everything exploded in, like, a beautiful way, right? It was. It gave the opportunity for everybody to just really be able to sit in the expansiveness of who they are. And so that's what I want leaders and entrepreneurs to understand that, you know, we hold things so close and so tight because we feel like we have to, right? We've earned that position. We need to hold that position. We got to prove that we're worthy of being at the helm of the ship. And at the end of the day, it's like, you know what? No. Just relax. We've got to. We've got to let go. We've got to empower the other people.
Cari (00:37:12) - We have to understand who we are and our gifts and what it is that we can truly offer to this organisation. When, at the end of the day, it's your purpose at your mission. It's your values and your story, right? Because that's why you brought it forward. And then allow everybody else to take it and to run and to help build it and to help grow it and stop thinking you have to do it all on your own. Right? Because you are so much bigger than that organization. Yeah. Yes.
Julie (00:37:40) - And I think people forget to ask themselves the, you know, can you afford not to?
Cari (00:37:46) - Yes.
Julie (00:37:47) - Right. It's the I can't afford, I can't afford, I can't. Timing's not right. The and but but the bigger question really is. But can you afford not to do this? Can you afford not to hire the operations person? Because really, what would have happened if you hadn't? You would have stayed small.
Cari (00:38:03) - Well, and here's the thing, too.
Cari (00:38:05) - I want I want us to think about this, and this is a part of iShft. And what we're really pushing for people to understand is we have we just talk about that return on investment. Right. So when you when you're saying, can I afford not to. Right. Can I afford when I can't afford it, what can I afford not to? Because we look at it like, okay, what's that return on investment. Like how much more is that going to offer from a profitability standpoint? What about return on life? What about return on you and your mental health and the anxiety and all of the burden rate that we're continuously carrying around, or the fact that I don't have the ability to, like, be home with my kids the way that I want to be home with my kids because my head is constantly worrying about the next thing. So when we look at that, it's like, gosh, can I can I afford not to? Not just from an ROI standpoint, but from a return on life standpoint.
Cari (00:38:56) - You can only sustain going at the particular pace you're going for a period of time before your body will eventually say no the way that mine did when it shuts down. And it's like, you know what, sister? Let's try something new.
Julie (00:39:11) - And I think you can only sustain yourself in the like. We wear a lot of hats as an entrepreneur, and some of those hats were not very well suited for. And those are the big like energy and life drainers from you, I think. And so it's also about, you know, figuring out how to put people in place to mitigate those kind of, you know, less strong areas or weak areas that we all have because we don't like looking after those areas and we're not good at it. And so it's very stressful. Well, it's.
Cari (00:39:43) - Stressful. And then what it does, and I don't think people understand is when you're sitting in a when you're sitting in a seat on the bus, it's not positioned right for you. It is stressful. It causes anxiety.
Cari (00:39:53) - Right? You're drained. Your energy is completely depleted. You don't have the ability to be creative. You don't have the ability to have the insight or see the opportunities or the possibilities that are sitting around you. Because your mind is cluttered, it's clogged up with all of the other things and your energy stream. We have to have that energy flow. We have to be filling our bucket, right? We have to feel energized and excited about what it is that we're doing so that we can keep that inspiration, that insight, that opportunity flowing for us.
Julie (00:40:24) - Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so that the drag doesn't take you out of your zone of genius as well, because that then you start to not even be inspired by the things you're really good at. Exactly. So I think that's really great advice. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for joining me today. This has been a really interesting conversation and I love seeing the journey that you've been on, and I look forward to following you and seeing how things grow and blossom at iShft.
Cari (00:40:49) - Awesome. Thank you so much. This has been a great conversation, I appreciate it.
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