An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Celebrate all of your wins. Often as founders, we have such big visions or dreams, that nothing can feel good enough. I’ve learned the hard way to truly embrace the process and the journey. As a former perfectionist, this was hard for me to learn but now something I’ve changed within myself and teach all of my clients. Every success, big or small, is a step forward for your company. Celebrate each win and watch how much magic this will also bring your way!
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Carrie Veatch.
Carrie helps ambitious entrepreneurs bust through self-limitations to build wildly profitable online businesses. Carrie combines neuroscience, teaching clients to rewire their brains and feel safe in their bodies, and provides a safe container for clients to create lives of time, financial, and location freedom. She hosts the innovative, community based podcast: Set Yourself Free which shows the behind the scenes of what it takes to be profitable online and you can find on iTunes, Spotify, and Stitcher. Find out more about her at setyourselffreellc.com.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
With my MA in counseling psychology, I have been a therapist, worked in gang prevention and victim services, and was the Executive Director of a highly successful education-based nonprofit.
Although I never really dreamt of being an entrepreneur, I’ve always been great at helping others and service is a core value of mine. I’ve craved true freedom and have always joke that I’m allergic to offices.
A few years ago, I packed my life in two suitcases and moved to Asia. I was craving adventure and more freedom. I found the online coaching space about a year later, and instantly knew I wanted to be a part of it to help people create lives of freedom and impact. But when I couldn’t sign a client to save my life online, it was incredibly frustrating. Now that I’ve “cracked the code online” I’m incredibly passionate about helping driven entrepreneurs scale their businesses to 6 and multiple 6 figures working from anywhere in the world.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
There are so many at this point and it’s honestly my clients that inspire me to keep doing what I’m doing! One of the most rewarding and inspiring stories that happened recently is a client who 7’xed her income from one month to the next (after believing it was straight up impossible!) but we worked to keep it really simple to ensure she was showing up each day to be in service to others and make offers for her services. And she was amazed how it worked like magic!
Since starting my coaching business, I will say the most rewarding stories continue to be helping others understand that their unhelpful patterns not serving them can be changed, and to own their voice and expertise to be of service to the world (while making a LOT more money in the process).
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
There are certainly a lot of those! I really knew nothing about the online space or marketing when I started. I fumbled a LOT and thought everyone on the internet was annoying and super selfish. It took a lot of inner work and looking at my own judgements of myself and others to re-write these narratives.
I would say when I first started a funny “mistake” if you will were a lot of my judgements. My insecurities were brought to light, and the way I simply thought everyone was lying on the internet about their income. I simply couldn’t wrap my head around it! Ultimately though it was super inspiring to open the door to possibilities of what others were doing, and see that my judgements were showing my desires. I now understand it was showing me what I wanted to: more financial, time, and location freedom!
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of great mentors and coaches in my life. I had a mentor when I was 17 years old that completely changed my life because she believed in me when no one else did. Her faith and belief in me was truly life changing. She taught me so much about taking a stand for people and seeing beyond what others may or may not see in them. Even all the years later, I take lessons from that period in my life where I was so down on myself and could borrow the belief someone else had in me. That saying of “be who you needed when you were younger” couldn’t be more true and I love modeling that for clients now.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
As much progress as we have made, there are still places where women don’t have the same advantages as men. I believe the top thing holding women back from founding companies is a lack of equitable systems that give the same kinds of opportunities to men.
That being said, I do like to focus on the possibilities and how we can begin to make change. We need to empower more women to start companies. I believe in empowering women and with the right mindset and strategy, women can be successful with founding their own companies.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
One of the simplest things that we can do is support local, women founded businesses. When we intentionally choose where we spend our money and resources, it can make a big change. Since women are not given the same opportunities still in our society that men are, it’s important that we advocate for fair and inclusive policies. It is essential that we focus on diversity and women led companies when it comes to funding and support.
This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
As cliché as it is, I believe women can do anything! Women are natural care-takers, problem solvers, and great on the fly. We are determined and loyal to a fault. This is something that helps us to be great founders and a reason I believe more women should own their own businesses. I seek to empower women to believe in themselves and go after their dreams. Entrepreneurship is the scariest and most beautiful thing I have ever done. Doing the work to unlearn the behaviors and conditioning in society of who you “should” be or “need to be” has been some of the hardest work I’ve ever done, but the most important. Learning to lean in and trust myself above all else is a skill that I hope every woman alive develops. We are taught to shrink, to play small, and not take up too much space. The path of being a founder teaches you beyond this pattern and opens up doors I can’t even describe. It takes a lot of courage to break out of these patterns and yet I know that it is the most rewarding thing I have ever done and want every women to experience this too!
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
That you have to be a certain type of personality or leader to be a founder is a myth. Not to mention that many founders are solopreneurs when they start anyways, so they might be a team of 1. The idea that you have to fit into any kind of box is a myth, since after all you started a business since you are most likely a little rebellious. I see this rebellion as such a great thing if you can learn how to hone in your skills of leadership and ensuring that you carry out the vision of your company to help and serve others.
Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?
It is absolutely not for everyone! Some people like the 9–5 work life where they know exactly what hours they are working and what their paycheck is going to be. However, I do believe that most people can become entrepreneurs with the right mindset. The founder or entrepreneurial life is a completely different mindset than being an employee — that’s for sure!
In order to be a founder, you’ll need to be committed to your “why” and your mission. Business has become easy and flowy for me (once I decided it got to be), but there are still plenty of hard moments and days. If your vision or your commitment to serving isn’t strong enough, it’ll be hard to stay in it when things aren’t going your way.
The top traits I see needed for this path are creative thinking or solution focused thinking. Business is all about solving problems for people and charging for your services and in order to be a great founder, you’ll need to tap into your resourcefulness and determination to stay in it. Although I don’t believe it’s for absolutely everyone, I do believe a lot of this is a mindset that you can cultivate.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
- Know your target audience. Particularly if you are marketing your business online, you want to ensure you are speaking directly to those that you want to help and can help. Business doesn’t have to be complicated but you do need a way to speak directly to people so that they have a moment of going “Oh my gosh. She’s in my head! I have to hire her!”
- Work on your mindset like it’s your full time job. As much as I help clients with ease and flow in business, mindset is something we always need to be working on. There’s never an “arrival” point since especially as driven, high performers, we are always growing and striving for the next level. Mindset and learning how to feel better in your body are critical in business, so make sure you are checking in on the false stories and things you are believing that are not serving you. I have so many doubts, fears, and things that come up every single day since starting this path of entrepreneurship. But the one quote I like to remind myself of when the voices are loud or it’s a low income month is the Thomas Edison quote “When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this — you haven’t.
- Get great at sales. There are so many amazing coaches out there that don’t have clients or the businesses they want because they haven’t mastered sales yet. Selling is a requirement for having a profitable business. It doesn’t have to be sleazy or wrong to sell. In fact, I (now) believe selling is of the highest service because we value what we pay for. So, do whatever you need to do to get better at sales. Sort out what kind of aligned sales strategy works for your business and being willing to work it till it works.
- Celebrate all of your wins. Often as founders, we have such big visions or dreams, that nothing can feel good enough. I’ve learned the hard way to truly embrace the process and the journey. As a former perfectionist, this was hard for me to learn but now something I’ve changed within myself and teach all of my clients. Every success, big or small, is a step forward for your company. Celebrate each win and watch how much magic this will also bring your way!
- Get into rooms of people doing bigger things than you. Success leaves clues and there is no reason (or no badge of honor) in struggling on your own. What I’ve learned and wish I would have learned even faster is that people genuinely want to help you! And this is my fastest hack for anyone that struggles in ways that I used to (and still do) with receiving help. I love helping and get so much joy out of helping others. So of course others want to help me too! So do what you can to get resourceful and join masterminds or groups of people up to bigger things than you. It’ll probably bring up imposter syndrome for you, but it’ll stretch your edges and help you to hit goals so much faster!
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
Our goal at Set Yourself Free is to empower clients each and every day. For them to step into the power that was always theirs and use this to impact the world in a positive way. Although these days, I generally focus on helping clients scale their businesses to 6 and multiple 6 figures so they can enjoy location independence, it’s about so much more than that! It’s about the freedom to live life on their own terms. The money that allows them to send their kiddos to better schools. It’s about the ability to give to charities that we care about.
My goal is always to make everyone feel like a someone and I know I get to do that each and every day in my work with clients. Many clients tell me that our work together is more powerful than 40+ therapy sessions. I cry happy tears on a regular basis, because I am so honored to get to do this work. As a former therapist, I absolutely believe in therapy and I also believe I was built to be a coach. Supporting others in this way is truly my superpower and the greatest joy of my life!
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I want to inspire women to know that they are far more capable than they ever imagined! Rewiring our brains is some of the most important work we can possibly do and learning how to do this through intentional future journaling, thought + feeling work + big, bold action.
Our thoughts create our feelings, not the other way around and once we understand this — we truly start paying attention to the thoughts we are thinking between our ears, since research says we have about 60,000 thoughts per day!
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
Sara Blakely is by far my favorite female entrepreneur. I resonate deeply with the mission of being here on this planet to empower women.
Sara and her husband Jesse’s annual “Hell on the Hill” charity event are truly #lifegoals for me of how I desire to make an impact on this world. This is the type of charity event I absolutely want to run in the future and give back similarly to how they do. Both Sara and Jesse have incredible mindsets and attribute so much of their success to it. My dream would be to sit down to a private meal with Sara and/or Jess and talk about billionaire mindset mentality!
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this!
Female Founders: Carrie Veatch On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.