Your success matters! That next step in your career is important and it’s okay to prioritize yourself. A lot of people don’t get what they want because they make decisions based on their external circumstances. Look out for yourself because the success that you get in your career matters. Join Rosie Zilinskas as she talks to world-class Success Mindset Coach, Cut the C.R.A.P. Mentor, and author of Navigating The “High C’s” to Success, Sandy Rutherford. Learn how to manage your self-image. Find out how you can align yourself with your mindset. Discover how to let go of your limiting beliefs so you can achieve success. Start finding a sweet spot where you can excel today!
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In this episode, we’re going to be talking about success at every level of your well-being and that is going to be intellectually, emotionally, physically and spiritually. To do that, we are going to have a conversation with Sandy Rutherford. Sandy is a world-class Success Mindset Coach, Cut the CRAP Mentor, Destiny Maker and Success Accelerator as well as an international speaker and bestselling author. She’s taught and mentored by Bob Proctor.
Sandy uses her global coaching practice and life-changing programs to show people how to step into their inspired destinies. You can learn about the core of Sandy’s teaching in her bestselling book, Navigating The “High C’s” to Success available on Amazon and at her website, which is InspiredDestinies.com.
Sandy is going to talk to us also about specifically how to help people cut the CRAP. CRAP stands for Counterproductive Really Asinine Programming. We’re also going to go through the eight Cs in her book as well. This is cool because Sandy is very clear on trying to make sure that people are successful. She tries to be very specific on the pieces that you need to focus on to achieve that success. Stay tuned for my conversation with Sandy Rutherford.
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Sandy, thank you so much for being on the show. You have a website and one of the things that I wanted to ask you from your website is your statement. I’m going to read it from your website. It says, “Stop letting others decide the role you play in your life.” What do you mean by that?
Rosie, it’s great to be here. I’m looking forward to our conversation. It’s such an important statement because too often we let other people make the decisions around the success we want to pursue. The name of our company is Inspired Destinies. What we want you to do in our motto is step into your inspired destiny. Often, it’s for the right reasons, whether it’s entrepreneurs or people in corporate positions, they’re choosing their next role because of all the external circumstances going on, whether it’s the economy, your kids, your spouse, your boss or your friends. You can go on and on.
One of the fundamentals for every single one of us and this goes for women and I’m one of them who put aside my desires because of kids but our success matters and this goes for men too. Your success matters on every level of your well-being, which means four levels, intellectually, emotionally and physically your success matters because how much does that play out negatively? We get stressed when we’re not achieving the success we want.
Also, spiritually, your success matters on every level of your well-being and you touch people’s lives day in and day out. One of the things I’m always encouraging women to do is start putting themselves first. Start thinking about what you desire. What is it that you want? The more you achieve the kinds of successes you yearn for from within, the more positive impact on those around you is profound.
As you were talking, I’m thinking so many of us like my peers. A lot of us have kids that just graduated from college. I’ve had a conversation with a couple of my friends saying, “We need to keep our kids on our insurance until they’re 26 because it gives them a little bit of a leg off.” The reality is that if I were to want to switch jobs, one of the considerations that I think of is, “I have to keep my insurance because of my kids,” but to your point, I don’t need to do that.
Women are notorious for putting everybody else first for good reason. I get it. Very good intentions but our success matters. We need to put ourselves first so that we have an even more profound impact and our ability to contribute is that much higher, better and more meaningful if we put ourselves first. That’s counter-cultural.
You’re a success mindset coach. Tell me a little bit about your journey. You don’t have to go into a ton of details but how did you get to become a success mindset coach?
I’ve had many career chapters as many of us do. I’ve come from corporate. I was a physiotherapist in my first life and went back for an MBA and then was in corporate. I was very successful in leadership roles in multinational companies. I have three amazing kids in their twenties and when one of my kids developed some health issues, I knew I had to leave corporate and be home-based, flexible and find something to do from the home.
Thus, I began my entrepreneurial journey. I thought I would achieve success easily because I’d achieved easy success. It came easily to me. I didn’t have to work hard for success as a physio and in corporate but as an entrepreneur, it didn’t come easily. I sucked, to be honest. That was confounding and frustrating. I’m sure every one of your readers can identify with this. The more the success that we know somehow should be there and achieving it, the more we’re missing it and coming short of the success we know is right there. The more frustrating it is, the more we start to doubt ourselves and the more it’s dinging the self-image.
Self-image is our biggest asset and block. When I wasn’t achieving the success I wanted as an entrepreneur, then I started to get in more into personal development because as an entrepreneur it’s all up to you. In any role, whether you’re in corporate or entrepreneur, it’s still up to you. You got to work on the self and that’s when I started to follow Bob Proctor, Darren Hardy and John Maxwell who were my three go-to’s.
Your self-image is your biggest asset but also your biggest block. – Sandy Rutherford Click To Tweet
I was on some of their daily stuff and I’d hop on seminars and buy the books. I still did not achieve the breakthrough high-level success that I thought should be coming my way. I made some gains but not what I thought I should be. It wasn’t until I had the opportunity to join Bob Proctor as one of his coaches and get immersed into the whole success system and get the support, guidance and accountability then everything began to change.
That’s when I began my journey six years ago as a success mindset coach and Cut the CRAP mentor. We can go get all the skills we want, whether it’s sales skills, admin skills, social media skills or whatever you want but if your mindset is not lined up with the success you want, you’ll only go as far as your current mindset allows you to.
This show is geared toward women advancing in their corporate careers. I have come across a few women that continue to go and get those certifications or degrees. They think that the more degrees they acquire, the more it’s going to make them successful and it doesn’t. When you think about that scenario, what do you think is holding them back?
It’s such a great point to raise it. It’s not a matter of going and getting more certifications and building more skills. We have it within us. Every one of us has it within us to create consistent extraordinary success, doing what we love. It does come down to mindsets. What is mindset again? The biggest asset and biggest block are self-image and belief system. What you believe about yourself, your values, how people should behave, how you should be accepted and how the environment should work around you, we all have this set of beliefs and a very built self-image built up over the years and I call that programming.
You might hear paradigms, wiring, your subconscious conditioning or your comfort zone. It’s all the same thing. As computers are programmed, we’re programmed with this stuff at the subconscious level. Like a computer, we can only go as far as our programming allows, no matter the certifications and degrees we go continue to get.
Your programming will always stop you. That programming is self-image and belief system. It’s funny because I have this conversation numerous times and very frequently that some people will say to me, “I’ve got a pretty strong self-image.” That was me in corporate strong. The bottom line is we have very strong self-images that have supported many successes in our lives.
To all your readers, you’re an incredibly successful woman. You’ve had many successful chapters personally and professionally, whether it’s in previous jobs or community roles, as a parent, a spouse or a friend but it’s where that dream goal success, that outside the programming comfort zone success is concerned that your self-image is not aligned. If it were, you’d be pedaling quickly toward it. That’s the biggest thing that we all have to think about and work on. “I need to get my self-image in alignment with the success I want in that new corporate role or maybe a different company or industry in corporate.” You’ve got to get that self-image to support what you want. When that gets into alignment, it feels magical.
That’s so interesting because we’ve heard about so many people disengaging with this whole quiet quitting in their jobs and that’s part of it. Their desires or dreams are not aligned with the job that they’re doing. There are plenty of people that I meet who are like, “I love what I do. It’s fun, engaging and exciting. I help people.” Those are the people that are engaged and aligned.
The reason why I opened with that question at the very beginning is that when you’re in the corporate world, a lot of what you do isn’t necessarily up to you because they are the corporation and the leadership team is dictating, “This is our strategy. This is what we’re doing,” but I do feel that as an individual contributor or even a manager, you can still try to align yourself and your career with some of the company goals, though sometimes it might not. What would you say to a person that is in the corporate world where they know they’re not aligned? Where do they even start to figure out how to get aligned?
The first question is to ask yourself, “Do I want to stay here?” If you want to stay, then getting yourself aligned is all about understanding what the values of the corporation are, the goals of the corporation, the vision, the mission vision and that whole thing. I’ve done another pod recording for Bookboon which is corporate recordings. It’s about company purpose versus employee purpose.
The question was never the two shall meet. If they’re not meeting, you have a choice. There’s always a choice. You have a decision to make and maybe you should be leaving. If you can’t align your purpose with the company’s purpose, there’s always going to be discord there and life’s too short. Your success matters. The first question is to understand the company’s vision and purpose. “What is the purpose of this company? Does it align with me? Does that sit well with me?” If it does, then you can start to build your purpose.
One of the things that I can talk about is what I call finding our sweet spot. I use it as a tool in the coaching that I do. The sweet spot is the intersection between what you love to do. If you think of Venn diagrams in three circles, what you love to do, what you’re good at and want to keep getting better and better at. How you can use those two to serve people? If you want to achieve big goals, you must be in service. When you understand the company’s purpose, the company’s sweet spot, what is it good at or what the company loves to do, thriving to be better in the marketplace and how is it serving people, you then work on your own and explore your sweet spot.
When you take the time to do that, you might find a fair amount of overlap that may open up some avenues of thinking and exploration. “I might be able to help the company better at over in this area versus what I’m doing now.” It’s important to understand your sweet spot or purpose before you can ask yourself does it line up with the company and its purpose. That’s fundamental.
I love that because even as an individual contributor or a manager in the corporate world, you can still be serving people.
People might be internal, which is fine. It’s always about service.
We’ve talked about this briefly. You help people cut the CRAP and the CRAP is an acronym. Tell me a little bit about that.
Cut the CRAP is my acronym that stands for Counterproductive Really Asinine Programming. We’ve all got it. I’ve touched upon it. It’s what stops us. It’s what sabotages any of our successes. You’ve got to cut the CRAP. You’ve got to switch that programming over. You’ve got to learn how to upload new programming like a computer that aligns with the success you want.
It sounds so simple and it is but carrying it out takes some time. This concept is simple because it is never a lack of talent or capability that’s holding any of us back. To all your readers, you do not lack the talent or capability. You’re so gifted. It’s stunning. How many gifts do you have within you? A powerful little book by Price Pritchett called You2. It’s 35 pages and it’s a power-punching inspirational book. I quote from him a lot because there are so many great lines out of that. If you have to doubt something, doubt your limits because you don’t have any that you’re ever going to run into.
The CRAP is old conditioning or an old way of thinking. You’re sitting on so much giftedness or talent that is never lacking. It’s a matter of getting the programming to get into alignment with the success that you’re looking for. It is as simple as that. It’s harder to do because there’s a process but you start to do that and understand that success is a process. Success is an exact science. There are certain things you’ve got to do in a certain order.
You're sitting in so much talent that it's just a matter of getting the programming to align with the success that you're looking for. – Sandy Rutherford Click To Tweet
If I could be in a room with 1,000 people and say, “Who knows the steps for success and then in what order? Put your hand up,” I don’t think a hand goes up because we’re not taught this. We’d lead very different lives. We’re taught this early in our lives but there are certain things you got to do in a certain order for success to unfold more easily. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in corporate, entrepreneur or network marketing. Success works the same for every person.
I like the whole, “Cut the CRAP. ” You’re right because there are so many people that are working in the corporate world that are stuck. When I talk to them, they’re very talented. It’s not that the talent is missing. It’s more that the alignment or the programming is there and they’re like, “I can’t go anywhere else. Where would I get the same benefits, the same vacation and all that stuff?” They’re stuck there and miserable. They’re not moving forward. When you have a client like that, for example, what are some things that you might start recommending to them? It’s not like once and done. It’s a process. Aside from looking at their company values and their values on their own, what else can they start looking at?
A high overview of how success works is as follows and I call it a success triad. It starts with clarity of desire. If you’re familiar with Napoleon Hills Think and Grow Rich, the first chapter is all about desire. Every guru out there past and present, all success begins with desire and you need to be crystal clear. Your success triad quick formula is clarity of desire and desire is also inferring that emotional component, self-image and beliefs and commitment. Those three are always in play whether you like it or not, whether you know it or not if your success hinges on those three being in alignment.
With that type of person you are mentioning, they need to start with clarity of desire and look at not their husbands’, kids’ or boss’ want but what they want. You want to take a deep dive into that and get clear. I have some people say, “I love financial health.” I said, “Me too. That’s a condition though. That’s not a goal.” Financial health could be $5,000 a month, $500 a month or $500,000 a month. It doesn’t matter. There’s no right or wrong. It’s what is it for you.
Get that clarity on what it is you would love. I encourage people to explore way outside the nine dots. Go get silly, crazy, over-the-top ideas going, “Why?” Not because you’re going to act on all of those. Every one of us has a powerful imagination. Some people will say, “I’m not very imaginative or creative.” That’s BS. Yes, you are. You shut it down too quickly and that’s crap. Allow yourself to get silly. “What if I was a professional old birdwatcher and I had this big business?”
Get over the top because it triggers your imagination and it gives it permission to go get creative. You could come up with fifteen ideas that are wacky but you look at them and in there you could go, “That one reminds me of something,” and some lateral thinking kicks in. “I could do something over here.” More often than not, there are some golden nuggets in the over-the-top brainstorming. Christmas time’s a great time to do it and I say to people, “Every day, take 20 minutes to 30 minutes by yourself in the morning, your favorite chair, maybe it’s by the Christmas tree, whatever it is, grab your coffee, tea or smoothie, sit down with a journal and brainstorm. Let it go. Don’t reject anything.”
As soon as you reject something, you’re shutting down your imagination. You’re messaging your imagination. You’re like, “I can’t do this.” That’s crap. Take twenty minutes with your cup of coffee through the Christmas holidays and brainstorm. Let any ideas flow because whatever comes from within somehow you want it. You do not choose it but you do want it. Here’s the cool thing. Whatever comes from within, it’s within you to achieve because your inner voice does not mislead you.
If it comes from within, it's within you to achieve because your inner voice doesn't mislead you. – Sandy Rutherford Click To Tweet
That’s magical right there. That’s a quote. I love that.
I’m having fun coming up with that. That’s igniting the emotions. “I would love to be that bird watcher in business.” You start to get excited. Clarity of desire, self-image and commitment, if you’re not clear, there’s no way you’re committing. If you’re clear but not excited, you’ll find excuses and you’re not going to be committed. You’ve got to get that clarity and emotional engagement for the commitment level to start to rise.
My son loves cars. When we start talking about cars, we cannot stop talking about cars because he is so clear that he loves cars. He is so committed and engaged but if I were to talk to him like, “Let’s talk about your career, success or anything,” he’s like, “No.” He doesn’t even want to go there.
That’s the funny thing that this formula I’m talking about is clear and desire, a self-image that supports that and commitment has been going on for every single one of us in any of our successes. That’s what’s happened. For your son, he’s got to do cars and he’s all emotionally excited. His self-image is going without him knowing it. “I’d love to do that. I can do that.” He’ll find a way to be in service somehow. He’d be committed to making something happen because his self-image supports it and he’s clear and excited. We all have examples of that exact formula that’s been at work throughout our lives but we haven’t been taught it. That’s the missing link. This is what you’ve got to zero in on for the next corporate-level success or that next level, what does that look like?
I like the fact that you say if you’re not engaged in your career and you’re trying to brainstorm on other things, your creative aside, don’t shut anything down because if you’re shutting it down, you’re not allowing yourself to be creative. We’re not saying out of 50 things that you might have liked to do when you were a kid or a teenager but write it all down because you never know if one idea may spark something else.
I tell people, “Ask yourself a whole bunch of different questions. What did I always want to do when I was in my teens, 20s or 30s? What did I park because of kids, elder care or health issues? What do I admire about other people? I wish I could do that.” There are questions to ask that will help you, “I always used to want to do such and such.”
You have your book, Navigating The “High C’s” to Success. I want to talk about that because I am interested. I’m sure the readers are interested what are the high Cs of success. Let’s talk about your book.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk about the book. I launched Navigating The “High C’s” to Success on Amazon and it became a bestseller in both motivation and the bigger category of self-help. First of all, I wrote the book because there’s so much great content out there, whether it’s Bob Proctor, Tony Robbins or Jack Canfield. It can be overwhelming. I was like, “Whom do you listen to? Where do you start?”
What I wanted to do with the book is bring the key concepts together in one place so you don’t have to go find them elsewhere. I’ve referenced a lot of people in the book but all the key concepts are together in one place. There are eight of them. It’s an eight-step charted course to extraordinary achievement. They all happen to start with the letter.
I talk about them and unfold them in a certain order because success is a process or a system. The first one is about connection. The subtitle is Little Me versus Big Me. When you’re in little me, you are not connected to your inner self. There’s a whole world beyond us to connect to the universe, the resources and the people beyond us but when you are connected to your authentic self and you are connected to beyond you, you’re in Big Me. There’s a whole world of difference in your vibe.
I do talk about vibration a lot because everything is vibration. Everything is energy in this universe so far as we understand from science. That means everything’s vibrating on frequencies, including thoughts and feelings. Let me ask your readers to think about this. When you are in a low vibe, which would be things like you’re feeling discouraged, frustrated, upset, pissed off or lacking hope, how productive do you feel?
I can’t answer that.
I don’t want to dwell there because our vibe lowers when we think about that but when you’re excited, you are happy, jubilant, gung-ho and “go for it,” how productive do you feel? “Come on. Let’s make things happen.” Everything is energy and everything is about vibration. When you’re in Big Me, you’re in an amazing vibe and able to be productive. That’s the first chapter.
The second chapter is all about creation. The subtitle is You Are the Architect of Your Own Destiny. You have the ability. We’ve talked about we all can be incredibly creative if we allow ourselves to be. We’ve got very powerful imaginations. We got to unleash them. When you do, you can start to think about, “What is it I do want to create for myself?” Creation is a second chapter.
Each of the chapters is short. This is not a long book. It’s over 200 pages. It’s light and has got quotes in each of the chapters that line up with the concepts being discussed. You will recognize some of the quotes. Some of them you probably won’t. It’s got an exercise. First of all, a quick assessment at the end of each chapter. It’s not scientific. It’s to gauge your awareness of this concept for yourself and an exercise to work on to help you bring up that concept more in your life.
The third chapter is Clarity of Desire. We covered that one. The fourth chapter is Conditioning. Your comfort zone is your discomfort zone. Your future is hinged on your current conditioning. The reason I say that is because you’re not happy there. You want more. It’s the condition of the human spirit to want to be more, do more and have more. When we go, “I’m okay here. I’ll be satisfied with what I got.” Always be happy and grateful for where you are at but never satisfied because the spirit wants to grow, create, expand and more fully express itself. That is what the spirit is all about.
Your future is hinged on your current conditioning. – Sandy Rutherford Click To Tweet
The comfort zone is discomfort because you do want more. Working on that conditioning, that’s self-image and beliefs. I’ve given some tools to do that. The fifth chapter is on Commitment. The Results or Excuses You Choose is the subtitle. It’s a choice. “Do I go after the results or let my excuses hold me where I am?” We’ve got good excuses going and you mentioned some of them. When you’re in corporate, “I won’t get the same benefits or vacation,” those are all excuses. You can create way more for yourself. It’s out there but you are limiting yourself by holding onto those excuses and staying in that discomfort zone.
The sixth chapter is on Consistency, the smooth acceleration. Napoleon Hill talks about persistence. It’s got a big chapter on persistence. The more persistent you are, the more you’re able to be consistent. It’s the consistency that’s creating new habits for you. It allows you to accelerate more quickly towards your goal. You’ll be more persistent if you’re clear and excited. If your self-image is starting to get into alignment and not supporting your goal at all, you won’t be persistent. The excuses will be there.
The seventh chapter is on Collaboration and Community. Our motto at Inspired Destinies is, “Together we thrive.” We are way better and stronger together. We need way more support, guidance and accountability than we think we do when going outside our comfort zones, where dream goals are. Our comfort zone or old programming has a good hold on us. It wants us to stay in our comfort zone. We do need way more support, guidance and accountability than we think we do.
Every successful person that you ever interview will tell you, “I couldn’t have done that alone and I wouldn’t try.” Here’s the fun thing. Successful people don’t want to get stuck. They’re keen on achieving their goals. They don’t want to plateau. They will bring in other people to coach, mentor, partner with and make things happen for them.
The last chapter is on Celebration and the subtitle is High Five, High Vibe. The more you’re celebrating, the more you raise your vibration. I tell all my clients, “At the end of each day, take five minutes and celebrate.” “On some days, I don’t have anything to celebrate.” “Yes, you do. Find it.” Personally or professionally, there’s always something to celebrate. When you do, you raise your vibe.
There always is something to celebrate. So at the end of each day, take 5 minutes to celebrate. – Sandy Rutherford Click To Tweet
I love all your chapters but I want to go back to chapter number four. That’s the conditioning where you have comfort and discomfort. I spoke to somebody saying, “Work is just there. I’m going through the motions. I don’t know if anything’s going to change.” I thought to myself, “What a stuck place to be.” This person is successful but plateaued in the position that he’s in. The way I was reading the situation is they’re afraid to take that next step because they’re comfortable where they are and they don’t want to go through the discomfort of getting to that next position because they will be the newbie and they’re starting all over again.
It’s the same thing with people leaving one job for another job. “You’re going to have to start all over again,” but you’re not happy where you are. What are you giving up? What are you measuring? Let’s talk a little bit more about the person in the corporate job that is dealing with it. They’re bored and not going anywhere. We talked about clarity and that’s the first piece. What would you say to somebody in that position that is struggling with that clarity and maybe they have tried to figure out how to be clear? What’s next?
I would still work with them on getting more clarity. What by that is often when we’re looking at the next steps, the next potential roles for us in a corporation, the ideas that are coming are narrow. It’s bound by our current self-image, “I don’t think my boss wouldn’t support me that way.” It’s all bound by excuses. First of all, “Do you want to stay in your corporation?” “I love the business.” “What would you love to be doing if it were handed to you on a silver platter? If there were no restrictions whatsoever and you could make it happen, what would you love to be doing?”
You got to take away the limiting self-talk that goes, “My boss wouldn’t support that one. I’m not skilled enough so I couldn’t do that.” Shut up. That’s crap. If you have to allow yourself and push the boundaries of thinking that’s probably previously gone on. Everybody needs to do that because unless you’re aware of how limiting your thinking is, your ideas or career path is always going to be bound by limited thinking. There aren’t any limits. If you have to doubt something, doubt your limits. You’ve got to take that first step of, “If I could create anything and my boss and everybody would say, ‘Go for it. You’ve got it,’ I would love to do it.” That’s where it has to start.
A limiting belief is something that you believe about yourself or your situation that is holding you back because you think it’s reality but it’s probably not reality. You’re limiting your actions based on that one thought. We do it all the time.
This all comes down to self-image there. You’re talking yourself out of the stuff because of self-image. Ninety-eight percent of people make their decisions based on their external environment that might happen. You’ve got to make decisions based on your internal environment. Highly successful people are going from the inside. You’ve got to go inside and not talk yourself out like, “The boss won’t support me.” Stop that. Go inside first. That self-image programming and your beliefs are not your programmings. It was put in there but usually, it’s for well-intentioned people like parents, teachers, coaches, community leaders and religious leaders. It’s not your programming but it is because it’s in you.
Often that programming is out of alignment with our authentic selves. My husband, for example, became an engineer because his dad wanted him to. He finally moved on from that and did what he loved. That’s the case with a lot of people. You’re doing something because either your parents wanted to or the opportunity fell in your lap, “I might as well take it because I want to settle down.” We take things because the external environment’s giving them to us. It’s not coming from within. Your programming isn’t your programming but it is yours to do something about. You have to tend to that.
One of the examples that I have as far as parental programming is my dad is very well-intentioned. This is when I was a kid and I come home with an A. He was like, “Why didn’t you get an A plus?” When I started working, I was like, “I got a job.” “Did you ask for a raise?” If I got a raise, he was like, “Why didn’t you ask for more?” He was playing kidding but serious at the same time.
The thing that happened was every time I did something and I told him, he was giving me this message that what I was doing wasn’t good enough. Whereas when I’ve talked to him about it, he’s like, “No, I was trying to encourage you to do more.” It’s not good enough. No wonder I have that limiting self-belief that I’ve worked on for many years but I am good enough. I know that he meant well but that little programming that’s in the back of your head, it’s always there.
The beautiful thing is all personal development or personal growth is hinged on awareness. If you’re not becoming aware, you will not change. You can’t correct it because you’re not aware. It’s cool to listen to you say that you’re aware. “Look at that. I know that’s from my dad and that’s not serving me.” We’ve got lots of great programming in us from these various other people. Also, lots of programming has served us well over the years. Programming is not whether it’s right or wrong, good or bad but is it serving you? If it doesn’t, do something about it.
This is why we’re having this conversation because it’s important for people like coaches like yourself and myself. I heard someone say this and it makes so much sense, “When you’re a kid, you have a coach for piano, music, little league and football. When you start in the corporate world, you no longer talk about coaches.” I was like, “That makes so much sense. Why do we stop pursuing coaching once you go into the corporate world or any job for that matter?” Even entrepreneurs, there are tons of entrepreneurial coaches out there if you’re having a difficult time with your business, get a business coach.
In corporate, it’s not on the radar screen to even recommend that for very few but you’re right, if that was part of the natural evolution as you move into corporate jobs, you’re going to get a coach for this or that. It’d be very different career journeys.
You do relate to the women in the corporate world because you experienced it. What was your catalyst to leave the corporate world?
My daughter had some health conditions.
Once you exited the corporate world and then realized that you weren’t as successful so you went out and sought some personal
development. What was your work with Bob Proctor with his program?
It’s phenomenal. For those readers who aren’t familiar with Bob, he left us last January 2022 at the age of 87 but he was considered the senior statesman in personal development. He was the greatest success and prosperity teacher in the world. He was in the movie The Secret and Think and Grow Rich, The Legacy. I worked with him. I was taught and mentored by Bob as a whole bunch of us coaches were. I was on stage with Bob.
In my corporate life, I did a lot of presentations in front of large audiences and stuff. I thought, “I want to be on stage with Bob Proctor.” My self-image kicked in immediately and went, “Who are you to think you’re going to be on stage with Bob Proctor when every one of us is a coach?” There were a few hundred in there. We all want to be on stage with Bob Proctor but I want to and it came to pass a few years into working with him. I was on stage at a big event that I helped organize with another colleague of mine and Bob was our keynote speaker. I was with him on stage for over half the day. It was amazing.
Working with Bob and his teachings of how success works and I was immersed in his Thinking into Results Program, which is a twelve-module success system. When I started my business and working with clients on the success system, I found that two key areas needed even more work than I had learned from Bob or in the Thinking into Results system and that was self-image. I created a Self-Image of Your Dreams Program, which is a deeper dive into self-image. All this work doesn’t dredge up the past. The past has no bearing on the future unless you let it.
It’s all about understanding and being aware, “Here’s where I am now. These are limiting beliefs. I know what I can work on to go forward.” It’s all forward-thinking. It was self-image that needed some more work. Another fun concept I want to share with you is people would get clear on their goals. “I want to be earning $70,000 a month.” There’s a big difference between being intellectually enamored with your goal and emotionally enamored.
There's a big difference between being intellectually enamored with your goal and emotionally enamored with your goal. – Sandy Rutherford Click To Tweet
Most people or me too, when I was struggling as an entrepreneur, I had very clear goals intellectually enamored with them. I was not emotionally engaged. Being intellectually enamored can feel exciting but it’s still all on the head. You’re not getting it from the heart. There’s a huge difference in the way it makes you feel. When you’re starting to feel that surge of excitement, then there’s something that bubbles up from within that you want to start moving into action way more quickly.
I started to see that clients and me included weren’t getting out of our heads and into our hearts enough. I created another program called the Goal Achievers Forum, which is a deeper dive into getting that clarity of what you want, bringing up that emotional engagement and raising that level of commitment. That altogether has created a fabulous journey of helping people. Any one of us can break through into higher levels of success in corporate. You can go into executive leadership if that’s what you want. Your self-image does not have to say, “I’ll never make it there.” Stop. That’s crap.
All of this has been fantastic. You have a gift for us. It’s called A Seven Step Guide to Start a Successful New Chapter. It’s not on your website yet but people can contact you through your website, is that correct?
If you go to my website, you can book a call and even if it’s not a call, you can put in the quick filling on the Book A Call. If you say, “I would love the gift from the show,” then put your email there and we can send it to you. If you do want a call with me and I hope you do, I would love to chat.
Sandy, this has been an incredible conversation. I love all of the chapters in your book. It all flows well. I love the triad that we discussed. Being emotionally connected to your goals is the key that I’m walking away with. A lot of times people write goals but if you’re not emotionally invested in it and you don’t have any commitment, then nothing’s going to happen.
Your readers don’t take that lightly. Work at that. The last thing I wouldn’t mind leaving you with is don’t settle. Settling is a cousin to disappointment. Your success matters.
We’ve already talked a ton about a lot of good things but can you think of two things that women in the corporate world can use to apply their careers?
I want you to spend some time working on your sweet spot. That is what you love to do and get granular. “I love to help people.” “Help people do what?” What are you good at and would love to keep getting better at? Those two may not overlap. Sometimes they do but sometimes they don’t. I’m good at numbers but I don’t love to do numbers. That’s the second one. What are you good at and want to keep getting better at and get granular? How can you surge people using those two components?
Work on your sweet spot, every one of us. When you’re in your sweet spot, you’re in an amazing vibe. When you’re in an amazing vibe, you think on different levels. New ideas will come to you. When you’re in a lower vibe, your mind is in a brain fog. When you’re on a high vibe, you’re way more productive. Your mind is kicking in to pop out some new ideas. You want to explore your sweet spot.
During the holidays, sit down and do that over-the-top brainstorming, whether it’s different industries or countries. Go for it and have some fun with it. For all the things that you’re coming up with, whether it’s your sweet spot or that brainstorming we talked about, I want you to think of at least ten reasons why you can and should go after what you’re zeroing in on in those exercises.
We get caught in the can’t. I can’t is a low vibe. I can is a much higher vibe and your mind will start to kick in. If you take the attitude, “I can do this. I’m going to figure this out,” come up with ten or more. I’ll put out a big challenge, find twenty reasons. Go for it. Find the reasons why you can and should. You’re going to push past some boundaries and find some new doors opening up with that line of thinking.
I love everything that we talked about, Sandy. Thank you so much. You have so much great content. I urge everybody to go by the book. Any final words?
Go for it. Don’t let your old thinking keep you back. You’re capable of great new successful chapters in 2023 in your corporate life. If I can help, let me know.
Sandy, thank you so much for being on the show. I appreciate your time.
Thank you, Rosie. It’s been a privilege to be here.
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This was an episode chuck full of concrete ways that you can continue to advance in your corporate career. Sandy talked to us about her book, which is called Navigating The “High C’s” to Success. The high Cs are Connection, Creation, Clarity, Conditioning, Commitment, Consistency, Collaboration, Community and the last one is Celebration. These are the ways that you can elevate yourself to be successful. Sandy is kind enough to provide a gift, which is A Seven Step Guide to Start a Successful New Chapter. You can email and contact her on LinkedIn to obtain that free guide.
Sandy leaves us with three different tips. The first tip is to work on your sweet spot. That is what you love to do. Be very granular about the clarity of what you want to do. Tip number two is what are you good at and what are you going to do to keep getting better at that one thing? Finally, she’s adding a third thing, which is to take some time to write down ten reasons why you can and should do whatever it is that you’re aspiring to do. Often, we’re in the “can’t mindset” so we want to shift and reframe that to the “can mindset.”
We also talked about cutting the CRAP, which is Counterproductive Really Asinine Programming. We want to do some deprogramming within our mindset to continue to be successful. Sandy gave us some amazing information. If there’s anything that you would want me to cover in the future, send me an email or contact me on LinkedIn. With that, I hope that you all have a great time. Lastly, remember to be brave, be bold and take action.
Sandy Rutherford is a world-class Success Mindset Coach, Cut the C.R.A.P. Mentor, Destiny Maker and Success Accelerator, as well as International Speaker and Best Selling Author. Her versatile professional chapters include stints in Health Care, Show Business, Multinational Corporate Leadership and Entrepreneurship. Taught and mentored by Bob Proctor, Sandy uses her global coaching practice and life-changing programs to show people how to step into their inspired destinies. You can learn about the core of Sandy’s teachings in her best selling book Navigating the “High C’s” to Success, available on Amazon and at www.inspireddestinies.com
