Unleashing Grit: The Key To Success in Life and in Business

Your Dream Business

Today’s episode of the podcast is an interview with Danielle Cobo, where we are talking all about how to overcome challenges and achieve your goals.

In this episode, Danielle shares her own personal experiences of this, as well as some wonderful tips and advice on how to break through the roadblocks that are stopping you from achieving your goals. Danielle is the best-selling author of Unstoppable Grit: Break Through the 7 Roadblocks Standing Between You and Achieving Your Goals, hosts the globally top-rated podcast, Unstoppable Grit Podcast with Danielle Cobo, and creator of the Attract Your Dream Job Master course. As an international keynote speaker, best-selling author, and podcast host, Danielle channels her expertise into her passionate mission: igniting transformation in others and helping them develop the grit and resilience to succeed professionally and personally.

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

1. Why having a personal definition of success is key to overcoming perfectionism
2. Why it is important to focus on progress rather than just the end goal
3. The importance of aligning personal and professional aspirations for a fulfilling life

If you enjoyed this episode then please feel free to go and share it on your social media or head over to iTunes and give me a review, I would be so very grateful.

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Connect with Danielle on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or TikTok Listen to the Unstoppable Grit Podcast on YouTube, Spotify or Apple Buy the Unstoppable Grit Book Connect with Teresa on Instagram, LinkedIn or Facebook

Transcript

Teresa: Hello and wWelcome back to another episode of the Your Dream Business podcast. How are you doing this week? So this week I have a really good conversation for you. I'm excited to talk to the very lovely Danielle and talk through her new book and how she overcame some of her challenges and how she achieves her goals. So Danielle, please welcome to the podcast. Danielle: I am excited to be here. Thanks for having me on the podcast. Teresa: I am excited about our conversation. I've been doing my research, having a look at everything, and I'm excited to see where it goes. I always leave these conversations very fluid and just let's see what happens. So I'm excited about that, but let's start by always by just explaining. How you got to where you are today? Danielle: Well, I, how I started in, I guess my life was, I was raised by a single mom. So I was raised by a mom who really embodied grit and determination and tenacity. She was, when I was younger, she was a single mom. I was, she was going to school full time and she was also, and then also Working as a server at night as well. So the combination between the three and she went from, we really went from nothing. We were in a one bedroom apartment. My bed was in the living room of our one bedroom apartment. We most of my clothes were on that thrift stores and they were on layaway. And I saw her go from nothing to rising in the corporate ladder working for one of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies in the world. And she was a region manager in the 1990s for, so for a female to be a region manager and leading a team in the 1990s. With non as prominent as it is now. So, we've made a lot of progress but she really embodied grit and that was somebody that was a big role model for me and my life. Then I ended up falling in her footsteps. I spent 15 years in medical sales. I was an individual contributor role before stepping into a region manager role where I spent the past seven years leading a team for a fortune 500 company before breaking out into my own and doing speaking and coaching and. And writing a book full time. Teresa: Amazing. So that like I came from corporate as well, and I never had any intention of having my own business. Had it ever crossed your mind? Danielle: Absolutely not. I had no intention of starting a business. It's an interesting story because I, in 2020 was a very pivotal year for me and I believe it was for many of us. It was the great resignation is what that year was coined as. So in 2020, my husband had just returned home from serving a year deployment in Iraq. My, our twins at the time, our twin boys were two and a half years old when he came home and we were trying to navigate through this new life that we had. I had become very independent when he was gone. I was making all the sole parenting decisions, which as a parent, you know, we each have our own approaches to parenting. He had just come home from war, so there's, you know, some exposure to things that most of us don't, aren't exposed to. And so we kind of, it was a little challenging in the beginning with us trying to find a way to reconnect in a way for us to come together as a united family unit. And right as we started to find our rhythm. March 8th, I lost my mom and I lost her to suicide. And that moment when I heard the news, I remember collapsing to the ground and tears flooded my eyes and started to fall down my cheeks and my cheeks became flushed. And I just couldn't believe that my mom was in so much pain that she believed her only option was to take her life. Yeah. And as I'm trying to cope and even try to comprehend and understand what had taken place, March 13th, the pandemic, the global pandemic happened and the world shut down. So I wasn't even able to go home to go care to her things, to take care of anything, to be part of that healing process. And then. Lastly, I was working for an organization that I had been with for seven years and had just been acquired by a larger pharmaceutical company and it became a very toxic work environment. I had been with the company for seven years and I ended up deciding to leave. So all of this happened within a six month period and I felt lost, confused. I was having panic attacks on a consistent basis. I would just walk into the room and just start bursting out in tears because I had tied my identity to a paycheck to a title to this lifestyle that I had created and I'm going, what now? I don't know what's going on with the pandemic. Are we going to go into a recession? I don't have a job. My husband's come back from deployment. We're still navigating through that. And I ended up saying, well, I need to rebrand myself. If I'm going to be pursuing a job, I actually need to be more active on LinkedIn. And so I started to rebrand myself and people ended up reaching out to me and saying, I started to talk about career development and leadership and people started reaching out to me and saying, Hey, you know, I want to pursue this job, but I need help with writing my resume or interview coaching. And can I hire you as a career coach? I'm like, what is a career coach? I don't even know what one is. I wish I would have known what a career coach was back when I started my career. It would have been. Teresa: Yeah, maybe could have done one. Danielle: Yeah. I mean, it, well, it would have been really nice. I probably would have, you know, it would have been kind of helpful to have somebody to help navigate through the career when I started when I was 23 years old. So it evolved into eventually building this brand on LinkedIn where people started to reach out to me for coaching and speaking engagements and to work in their organization. And so that's how I started speaking. I had no intention. I, I basically went into LinkedIn thinking that I was going to really develop my brand so that I can position myself as a hireable asset to an organization. And I ended up being a hireable asset to many organizations. Teresa: I love that. Like that. I'm just trying to think about that time in your life. Any one of those things is life changing, you know, going through the pandemic was life changing for all of us to lose your your mom. I lost my mom during the pandemic. She didn't die of COVID. She died of cancer. But, you know, it's one of those cases where we didn't see it coming because we weren't seeing her. And And then obviously when she did pass away, there was rules around who could be at a funeral, how many, there was like nine of us and, and just even losing, and I specifically think a mum, for me anyway, and, and, you know, in, in my, I guess where we live, but. Losing a mum full stop is really, really hard. Losing a mum the way you lost that mum, I just, I've interviewed someone before whose mum, you know, took her own life and, and it, I feel like that is a whole nother level of something to have to think about and deal with. Danielle: There's a lot of questions that go in. So, and my mom and I had a very interesting, there was a lot of beauty, but there was also a lot of brokenness between my mom and I's relationship. My mom actually, I didn't find this out until later on in life, but my mom kidnapped me from my dad when I was two years old. So I grew up thinking that he had chosen another family, that he had left us. But in all reality, my mom one day packed up all our things, moved, and said, you can't see her anymore, you know, and so I didn't meet him until I was 15. So in many ways, my mom was a role model and I, I looked up to my mom, but then also my mom did suffer from mental health and, and there were a lot of brokenness from, from her as well in what she was experiencing. And so we did have an estranged relationship for some time, but she was still my mom. She was still somebody that I cared about and I loved about, and I loved, and I do believe that when you become a parent. It really shifts your perspective on on empathy for our parents because when we're young, we hold our parents to such a high level of standard. And we expect so much of them. And then when we become a parent, my least from my experience, I realized my mom was just human. She was just trying to do the best that she could. And I understand that. I don't agree with a lot of the decisions that she made, but she also did make some great decisions and, and really shaped me into the person that I am today. So it was, yeah, I think a lot of people will ask me. If there was one person, cause I do have a podcast, Unstoppable Grit, and they said, if there's one person that you would interview, who would it be? And I say, my mom, cause I've got so many questions that are just unanswered and I can't ask her. Teresa: Yeah. I can't imagine. So, so you have these massive things happen and you start to go down this different route in life. What were your thoughts of like starting the business? Showing up in that way, doing this, like what was going through your head as you were going through those processes of, oh my goodness, this is where I'm at now and like this is happening. Danielle: I was terrified. . I was absolutely terrified because I was used to a six figure salary and a company car and stock options and consistency and I had been in my career for 15 years, so I knew. I kind of had a rhythm going, and so there was many times where I would apply for a job, and for a particular reason, maybe the pay wasn't what I was looking for, or maybe the position wasn't available in my backyard, or they hired an internal candidate. And as soon as I would get kind of a door would close on me getting a new job, a door would open to starting a business. It was like, it was so strange. I would go for an interview and then maybe it wouldn't work out. And then the next day somebody would reach out to me on LinkedIn and say, would you consider doing career coaching? I am a believer, so I do believe that really God had a plan for me, and, and I believe that a lot of times he'll close doors to redirect us to something greater, and that's exactly what happened. If it wasn't through that series of events that happened in my life, I would have never started a podcast. I would have never written in a book. I would have never been where I'm at today if it weren't for so many doors shutting all of a sudden, at once, being like, okay. You're going a completely new direction. Teresa: Giving you no choice. Danielle: Exactly that. But it was also, I look back and I go, wow, I was really meant for so much more, but I didn't know that because I was living in this bubble of going, I'm just going to climb the corporate ladder. Teresa: Yeah. So one of the things you talk about is obviously things around your passion and going for your goals and that sort of thing. So how long did it take you to Kind of, I was going to say reframe, but I'm not sure that's the right word, but kind of go, Oh, okay. Well, this is no longer my path. This is. And then how quick was, was it that you got so clear on, this is the direction I want to go. This is what I'm after. And then started going for it. i.e. the book, the podcast, all of that. Danielle: I think it took some time because when I left the organization, I took a few months off of work for the first time in my life. I started working full time when I was 16 years old, worked two jobs in college. I've never gone more than one week without a job. And then mainly because I had been with companies for a long period of time. So when that time came for me to not where I didn't have a job, I was in no position to apply. I was very broken and I was very, I was having panic attacks all the time. And I remember my husband looking at me and saying, I think it's time for you to just take a break for a little bit. I've gotcha. And let's just. Have, let's kind of like process what just happened and let's, let's take, let's kind of find what you want to do in the future. And so for a couple months I hung out with my kids. I really got into my creative flow, which is a healing. It's creative flow as a way of healing through finding something you're passionate about, but not having a specific tie to an outcome. And so I started painting Christmas decorations. And I look back, which is really funny because my first business was when I was seven years old. I used to go to the trees. I would cut down mistletoe and I would sell mistletoe outside the grocery store during the holidays. That's how I raised money for my mom eventually got remarried and I had stepbrothers. So that's how we paid for our Christmas gifts for each other. So it's interesting, like all kind of circle back. I ended up starting my first business when I was seven, but no, it was, it was a journey and, and I didn't know immediately. And there was a lot of self doubt in the beginning and questioning. And sometimes I experienced it today. You know, I look at go, well, I'm not achieving the particular results that I may want at this particular time in my life. Number one, I have really high expectations for myself. So I have this vision of what I think I should be achieving by a particular milestone without really looking at everything that I had accomplished that's leading up to that. And that's common. I see all the time. People will be comparing their step 12 to somebody's, I mean, they'll be comparing their step 3 to somebody's step 12. Yeah. I do that. And, and so the, the pivotal moment for me was I was, applying for a position. I was on the phone with a recruiter and I was telling her what I was doing. And she says, Danielle, I have a position for you, but I see what you're doing on LinkedIn. I see, I can hear in your voice how passionate you are about coaching people. And Yeah. And. I'd love to place you in this position, but I really think that you should pursue this speaking and coaching full time. And I did, and I haven't looked back. Teresa: Yeah, that's so good. Danielle: Maybe a little. Maybe sometimes a little, I look back at that paycheck, but it'll be there. Teresa: Yeah. Yeah. Well, there's swings and roundabouts to everything, isn't there? Like, I say that, like, getting a job would be the worst thing in the world I'd have to do. Like, I would hate it. You know, I've been in business now, Almost 10 years, and I could not imagine having to turn up somewhere when they tell me to will be available to people or like, there's just no way it would just be awful. However, you know, there are other things like paid holidays and salaries and benefits and other things that are nice, you know, so tell me about the book because You know what was interesting today? I was, when I get ready in the morning, I often either play a podcast or a book or this morning I was, I saw a reel, I don't, I try really hard not to get distracted by stuff like this, but I saw a reel and it recommended like seven Ted talks that will change your life. And I watched them. That's what I did this morning. And one of them was called grit and it was talking about. Basically, when they look at what will make someone successful or what will make kids successful, it's not down to IQ. It's not down to these other things. It's down to grit. And then she likened it back to Carol Dweck's research on having a growth mindset. So, so it's so fascinating that that literally came up today. And then I'm interviewing you later on, you know, the universe has its plan, but tell us about the book. Tell us about the, the name and behind and the concept of it. Danielle: So you must have been watching Angela Duckworth's TED talk on grit and her definition of grit is passion and perseverance towards long term goals. And I remember when I was first, when I had first left corporate and I was feeling so lost and confused, I remember going on Facebook and in a very vulnerable moment, I had posted on Facebook and I said, if there's three words you can use to describe me, what would it be? What would it be? And the comments started to flood in and it was driven, motivated, empowering, inspiring, grit, tenacity, all these words that were describing me and I said, wow, this is what people are seeing in me, but I'm not seeing it in myself. At that moment, I didn't because I...