All It Takes Is A Goal
Jon Acuff is the New York Times bestselling author of ten books, including his most recent, All it Takes is a Goal.
Published in dozens of languages, his work is both critically acclaimed and adored by readers. When he's not writing, Acuff can be found on a stage, as one of INC's Top 100 Leadership Speakers. He's spoken to hundreds of thousands of people at conferences, colleges and companies around the world including FedEx, Range Rover, Microsoft, Chick-fil-A, and Comedy Central. Known for his insights wrapped in humor, Acuff shared the stage with an American Icon when he opened up for Dolly Parton at the Ryman Auditorium.
Jon lives outside of Nashville, TN with his wife Jenny and two daughters.
All It Takes Is A Goal
ATG 30: Lose 100lbs, build a multi-million dollar business, laugh a lot - the Corinne Crabtree story
What does it really take to be successful? A platform? The right connections? A giant start-up fund?
Corinne Crabtree didn’t have any of those things but that didn’t stop her from building a massive business. Corinne is a weight loss coach, multi-million dollar business owner, and productivity genius, but her success wasn’t the result of some big break. Corinne was raised by a single mom without any money. She didn't finish college. She started her business without a platform. And now she's got a multi-million dollar business and has helped thousands of people achieve their health goals. Whether you’re looking to get in shape, advice on growing your side hustle or want a productivity hack that will transform your calendar, my conversation with Corinne has what you need to know.
Keep up with Corrine on Instagram and try her No BS Free Course!
Follow Jon on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.
Order Soundtracks, Jon's newest book available wherever you find quality books!
Hey, it's Jon Acuff, and welcome to the All It Takes Is A Goal podcast, the best place in the entire world, including all of Canada to learn how to build new thoughts, new actions and new results. I'm your host, Jon Acuff and today, I've got an awesome conversation with Corinne Crabtree. This is kind of a double or dare I say triple dip episode because Corrine is a weight loss coach. So if your goal is to get into better shape, I think you'll get a lot out of it. But she also runs a really successful, multi-million dollar business, and is a productivity genius. I've been trying what she does with her calendar in my own life, and it's helped a ton. And the decision that she had to come to with her autistic son and her business is really inspiring. So even if you're like, "Nah, I already already have a six pack abs, like I'm actually it's an eight pack. I've like a 14 pack. It's a rib thing You wouldn't understand. I don't need any health advice." I think you should stick around and listen to this episode. Before we get started. Today's episode is sponsored by Medi-Share. Have you guys ever had buyer's remorse? You know that feeling of intense regret because the thing you thought you just had to have was only something used once or twice? For me it was the time I bought a really expensive road bike because I thought I was going to get into cycling. I proceeded to hang it on the wall in my garage and feel ashamed for six months. Well, I know some of you are experiencing buyer's remorse right now for something much more frustrating. You know what I'm talking about. It's the healthcare you rushed to get during open enrollment last December. Well, I have some good news for you. You've probably heard me talking about our main sponsor for this podcast, Medi-Share. And these guys have the answer to healthcare buyer's remorse. Check this out, members of Medi-Share save up to 50% or more per month on their health care costs. 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So it's a M-E-D-I, that's Medi, share, S-H-A-R-E dot com slash J-O-N. Alright, here's Corrine's bio. Corinne Crabtree is a top ranked health podcaster, master weight loss and life coach, motivational speaker and all around amazing person. She's an expert in the field of weight loss where she teaches her unique, no BS, weight loss program that helps women lose weight the way they want to, to live their lives. She's known for telling it like it is. She's a proud mom to Logan, wife to Chris, devoted cat lady, and holds it all down in Nashville, Tennessee. I met her years ago and was blown away by how she lived her life. I really wanted to have her on this podcast because sometimes I think it's easy to think that people who have achieved great things had the odds stacked in their favor. It's easy to see someone like Corrine on the internet and think, "Ah well, she must have had it so easy. She had so many different breaks. And she's had it easier than me." But here's the thing. Corinne was raised by a single mom without any money. She eloped out of high school and got a divorce. She didn't finish college. She has no business training. She started without a platform, her entire business started with no platform. And now she's got a multi-million dollar business. And that really encourages me and I think it's going to encourage you too. So without further ado, here's my conversation with Corrine. Alright, Corrine. I'm so excited that you're here today. And we actually met years and years ago. And I wanted to have you on this podcast for three reasons. I was thinking about that before we started today. One, you're really fun to talk to. You've got this infectious sense of energy. I think anybody who gets around you loves what you have to say, how you do it. And so that was my first reason. My second reason is that you've helped 1000s and 1000s of 1000s of people get in shape and stay in shape. It's not a yo-yo approach. They actually have long term sustainable results. And the third is you've built a massive business. So even if someone is listening to today's episode and go, "I'm not, like, I'm not in the health space, or I'm already wicked ripped," like, I don't know, maybe somebody right now is like, "I already have eight pack abs. I don't even need this episode." I think that every entrepreneur is gonna walk away from this one going, "Oh, I hadn't even thought about that." So those are the three reasons that I'm really excited about today. Thank you so much for joining me.
Corrine Crabtree:Yeah, I'm so excited. You know, I've been a big fan of yours forever. From the like, from the days when my business was small, I was already knocking on the Jon Acuff door.
Jon Acuff:That's so funny. And that's what initially connected us was kind of that shared, goal setting hustle, side-hustles, helping people and I think one of the things I really like about your story is that your own personal weight loss journey impacts what you do. Somebody told me that today. I was on another person's podcast. And they said, I feel like you write books that you figure out a problem in your own life, and then you go solve it. And then you share with other people who might have the same challenge. So where does your personal story kind of fuel what you do?
Corrine Crabtree:So, well, I lost 100 pounds after just basically, I always tell people, the only time I was ever thin was when I came out of the womb and nobody cared then.
Jon Acuff:You probably didn't get any credit.
Corrine Crabtree:No, it's like, you know, you want a chubby baby, you don't want a thin baby. So I just did everything backward. But when I was in my late 20s, I just hit a rock bottom. I had been up to 250 plus so many times, and I really just decided I was going to have to lose weight. And then when I solved that problem for myself, in a way that I guess because I'd always been overweight, I knew two things. Number one that I had did it in a way that nobody was really teaching us how to do. I mean, it was just like, we're going to make some small changes. And I'm not going to do anything that I'm not willing to do the rest of my life. So everything had to be, like, made sense, sustainable, I was not gonna count calories, I wasn't gonna do that crap. The second part was, I knew for the first time that I had lost weight and I actually felt good about myself. I wasn't just glad to be thin, I literally had changed how I talk to myself. I'd went from someone who had always, like just, I really talked to myself, like a jerk most of my life. And then throughout weight loss, I started having all these moments where I realize you cannot quit talking to yourself like this, if you're gonna keep going. You can't beat yourself into a better decision tomorrow. We've got to
Jon Acuff:Woah, like we need Can you say that again? That's fantastic.
Corrine Crabtree:Oh, thank you. You can't beat yourself into a better decision tomorrow. I did that so much in my life, where I tried to just demoralize myself, hoping that I'd feel bad enough to do better the next day. And I realized that when I thought better, I just did better. When I encouraged myself, finding a solution suddenly seemed like an easy thing. So I wanted to teach people that part. Like I knew that I had tapped on something that nobody else was talking about. And I also felt desperate to tell people. I knew how devastating a life of being overweight was, for me. I had been bullied and teased, and, you know, just everything you can think of traditionally that comes along for the ride, when you've suffered with your weight all your life, I had it. And I did not want another woman to suffer like that. Like I was just like, gas had been lit and like thrown on the fire. So that's, you know, when you talk about solving a problem, I had just solved two major problems in my life, I'd went from being someone who didn't like herself to learning how to like herself. And then I solved the problem of the weight on just how do you actually lose weight without losing your mind along the way?
Jon Acuff:Do you think that there are people that think,"Once I lose the weight," and this is probably true of a lot of goals, "once I accomplished the thing, then I'll feel better about myself." They lose the weight, they don't feel better about themselves. And it's even more demoralizing because they promised themselves "by the time I hit this number," is that something you see working with people?
Corrine Crabtree:Yeah, so that's one of the things that really teach that's different is I had tried that so many times, like I would get to a certain weight, I never got to my goal weights, but I'd get to the certain weights, and I would realize I didn't feel better about myself. Like I would weigh in, and I'd be terrified I couldn't keep going. I would like lose a lot of weight and then sit around and wonder when the shoe was going to drop. And so I was just like "Gah, like why even bother if all I'm going to do is sit here and worry and having anxiety and be stressed out?" And I'd always go back to eating. So one of the things that I teach my people is we have to learn how to enjoy the process. And in order to enjoy the process, we have to watch our language around the process. Like when you are going to let's say you say you're going to eat a salad at night for some reason. Tonight's gonna be the salad night. A lot of my clients will sit there all day long going like, "Well, I'm gonna have to eat that salad." And then when they're eating that salad, they're like, "Well, I guess I'm gonna have to eat salads the rest of my life." And then they wonder why they run out of steam. Like they're not sitting there thinking, like, "I choose to eat a salad for these reasons." And then, once you follow through and eat the salad, women just don't even know how to pat themselves on the back. It's like, be frickin proud of yourself that you followed through on what you said. It's like, if you don't build that mindset shift along the way, then you end up at your goal with the same freakin mindset that you started with.
Jon Acuff:Regardless of the results.
Corrine Crabtree:Exactly! Some of us can beat our way to a result. Like I did that for years.
Jon Acuff:It's not fun.
Corrine Crabtree:No, but I could do it. And some people can drag themselves along, but they get there, and that's when they're not satisfied. It's just like, so that didn't fix how I normally think about myself. It's like, if your self concept doesn't change along the way, that goal is not going to suddenly drop fairy dust out of the sky and suddenly make you into a better thinking person. It just doesn't happen.
Jon Acuff:Well, it's funny you say that. I think we talked about this before on your podcast, which I got to be on, which was super fun, that I had a kind of chaos, stress, fear, you know, negative fuel. Like I could do that same thing where it was like, you got to grind and you got to pretend like things are terrible. And at times, they were terrible, so I could use that fuel. But then when they weren't terrible, I had to pretend they were terrible to use the stress. And my wife, Jenny was kind of like,"We have a great life, you're not even acknowledging because if you acknowledge it, you're afraid you'll lose your edge." And so I see people that I mean, executives are the same way. Entrepreneurs are the same way. They'll say, "Okay, I like this is my stress fuel." Were you difficult to be around when you were using, "I'm beating my" Because I'm curious if if you've got negative language to yourself, you're not enjoying yourself. And like, at least for me, Jenny would say I was difficult to be around when that was my fuel.
Corrine Crabtree:Oh, yeah. I remember when the last diet might, you know, my own diet that I went on. Like, my husband was supportive, and was like,"Yeah, you can do it." But there was like some trepidation, because every time he'd seen me try to lose weight, he knew that, like, I would be cranky, and I would like yell about all the things that I couldn't eat. And you know, just, it just comes out in little ways. Like, I wasn't probably yelling at him. But there were like, these subtle things that I was doing that would erode the relationships around me just a little. Like, leave a residue. So if I went out with my friends to eat, you know, I was the martyr, I'd be like, "Well, you know, I can't have it. Because I'm doing this." Just people don't want to be around people like that. If you don't manage your mind around, you don't really see what you're doing. Like, there's just a little collateral damage around you, too.
Jon Acuff:What would you say are some of the soundtracks that you know, we've talked about that, like repetitive thoughts that you change where you said,"Okay, now, here's the things I say. I used to say, I have to eat the salad. And now I say, or, I used to say this to myself. And now I've traded in those old thoughts for new ones." What are, you know, your short list of things you say to yourself?
Corrine Crabtree:Probably the biggest one is I watch for when I say "I can't have," I always say "I choose to," or "I get to." "I get to" is a big one that I teach and the one that I use. I think especially in weight loss, this like applies in everywhere in life, but most of us are feeling out of control and at the effect of the world all the time. And so when we use"I can't," or "I shouldn't" language, we feel like something outside of us is making us do things. I just love being in control anyway. It's just one of the things I enjoy. So I like to use language that gives me that. Weight loss in particular that I think women really need is, um, the biggest shift for me was when I would weigh in. As you're losing weight, of course, most of us use the scale as one indicator of what's going on. Like, I don't think the scales evil, because it's just how we think about it. But I remember one day, I had been training for these triathlons. I had never played sports a day in my life. I had never worked out as hard as I was working out. Like, I just was amazed at myself every day like "Oh my god, you're the kind of person who can ride a bike for an hour and then go run too?" Like, it was just voodoo. And I had a six week stall on the scale. Like I was living better and healthier and doing more than I've ever done in my life. And that's well I don't, do you even cuss on your podcast?
Jon Acuff:I think you can. We might edit it depending on kids. We'll see. I don't know.
Corrine Crabtree:I'll stick to SOB. I'm over here self-censoring. I've almost done it like ten times already.
Jon Acuff:So funny.
Corrine Crabtree:I got on there and I was like this one week, I literally just like thought all at one moment. "Why bother? If I'm going to work this hard in the scales not going to move, I should just stop." And it was like a moment where like the clouds parted. I swear to God, angels came down and played a harp and said, "You can't think that way." And I was like, that is how I've always thought. And like in this one moment, I realized how hard I was working, all the changes I had made, and that there was no going back. I was like, I know that that scale will change at some point. But it won't change if I don't keep going. And I just told myself,"You're not allowed to think like that anymore. We have to be thinking about what we're doing for ourself more than getting hosed up over here on what's not happening on our own timeline."
Jon Acuff:One number on a scale.
Corrine Crabtree:Yeah, that was like a, it was like this big pivotal moment, over the course of my life was to start realizing when my expectations weren't being met, that didn't mean quit doing amazing things for myself. It meant my timeline is delayed, keep going. Yeah, that was like, the big one.
Jon Acuff:And you're so right, in that the temptation to quit there won't get you closer to the goal, it actually reverses you. So the solution can't be "'m mad, I haven't moved the numb r. So the best response to me b ing mad I haven't moved the numb r is to not do anything, that will move the number." Like whe you say it out loud, that's cra y. But that's what everybody doe.
Corrine Crabtree:Well, and we do it because we're actually seeking relief. So if you think about the moment that I was standing on the scale, there was all this disappointment, all this, like shame all this, like there was a lot running underneath the surface of like,"I'll probably, see, I'll never be able to lose weight. This scale is telling me that everything I believe about myself is true." And the reason why we quit, is because we just want relief from our crappy attitude about ourselves. And it's like, we could get relief from our crappy attitude by thinking better about ourselves. We don't have to quit doing good things, just to shut down that voice. But a lot of us spend our life running from our own thoughts. without even realizing we just have work to do and redefining how we speak to ourselves. We can get relief that way. Just as easy as we can get relief going backward in life.
Jon Acuff:By quitting. I love that. Do you think that we're not taught that? I mean, you know, a lot of times when I started to actually research okay, thinking and overthinking and mindset and all these topics. It felt like some new eureka thing that I think some people may be new it but for me, it felt very new, the idea that I get to choose my thoughts. I get to create my thoughts. Do you think that we don't grow up knowing that or people just don't have a language to talk about their thoughts? How do we miss what in hindsight feels obvious?
Corrine Crabtree:I just don't think we are taught. I look back on the course of my life, I don't ever remember hearing any messaging around the idea of being able to choose how I think. I think we spend our life being told what to think. You know, like, people just explain"This is how it is. Like, this is just how things work." And you just, especially as children, you don't even, like the reasoning part of your brain that can be like, "Well, is that how it works?" Like our, you know, upper level executive functioning skills aren't even developed yet. So we just take it all in. I always tell my, especially my clients who are in their 40s and 50s, you need to know you can challenge everything you've been told, because most of us are walking around with a belief system built by the age of 12. So it's like functioning 12 year olds all over the world, just you know, making crap happen every single day.
Jon Acuff:So like 45 year old 12 year olds.
Corrine Crabtree:Yes. 45 year olds walking around with 12 year old belief systems.
Jon Acuff:Well, I heard somebody say once you wouldn't, it's kind of like, you wouldn't ask a 12 year old for advice. Like I wouldn't in my 40s I wouldn't go, "Hey, I see a nine year old over there. I'm gonna go see if I can get some advice." And you'd be like, "No, that that kid's night. Like he's great at jumping stuff off a dirt like his bike," but I'm not gonna go like, "Hey, I'm having an argument with my wife, I'm going to go see if I can get some advice from that kid," you'd be like but we carry old things around with us that we've never retired. I'm interested, I want to pause on something you said, that you were desperate to share it with other people. So what is that process like? Because I think that some of the best things that are ever created, whether it's a book or a class or a community or a business, happen when, you know, you go through a situation and you go look for somebody that's written about that or shared about that and you can't find it and you go, "Okay, I'm not going to let somebody else go through this alone." What was your process like shifting from "I'm an individual who lost some weight changed how I thought feel healthy, it's changed my life" to where you said, "You know what I want to see if other people need this too"?
Corrine Crabtree:So for me, this was so back in the day. I mean, when I started my official business it was, I think it was 13, I think we're on our 13th year, it was like you lose count after 10. Like people just weren't doing this in the online space. I mean, like literally Weight Watchers had just came out with their online portals and stuff. And so I would go and sit on the Weight Watcher message boards, and I would start my own thread each day where I would tell people, it was called Ask the Trainer, I thought I was going to be like a fitness trainer. I had gotten a certificate and all this other stuff. I never got into the gym, I just got on these message boards, started answering questions every day, noticed people were asking the same questions, started a blog, so I could copy paste them and link them because I was like, "Oh, my gosh." I was getting like 50 to 60 posts a day. And it was becoming like, a very big time expenditure. So I started thinking, I want to speed this process up, because I was going to answer everyone. And once I started my blog, I started hearing about how you could tell people, "I'll work with you online and email you instructions and stuff of what to do. And you can just PayPal money." Like this is all a new age kind of thinking. Sure. Sure. It's just like, you know, yeah, big, you know, big deal.
Jon Acuff:Yeah. 12 year olds have Venmo and are like running empires.
Corrine Crabtree:Right? Exactly. I was like, "What's a PayPal?" trying to figure out all that. And so I sent out an email to the people that had subscribed to my blog, and started saying, like, "Hey, for X amount of dollars a month, if you want, I'll email you every day, and I'll help you with your food. And I'll help you lose weight." And that's where it really started for my business was that was that it was that moment where I knew I wanted to help people. I didn't know how I was going to do it. But I just got busy figuring out where's the first place people are and then it just kind of kept evolving as a problem would arise, I would create a solution. As a problem would arise, I would create a solution. But I would just keep going.
Jon Acuff:I love that. The idea that you just got busy where people already were. Because I think there's people that are listening to this, that maybe have an idea, maybe have a side hustle or a passion or something they want to turn into something. It's easy to see someone like you from the outside and go, "She has this really successful company, really great team, huge community, she probably had a 10 year plan. And she's now in year nine of it. And she's been working, you know, there's an Excel spreadsheet with every right move." But that's not what it sounds like at all. It sounds like you found one place started to work it and then every time you bumped into a problem, you came up with a new solution, and just kept solution stacking again and again and again.
Corrine Crabtree:That's really all I ever did. Like I did not even go to college, I have bout zero business background. I was a corporate trainer for a little while. But at a restaurant company. I mean, basically, if you could fog a mirror, you made it to the executive offices at that point, that's how you leveled up out of the restaurants. If you look back at my past, there's zero evidence on the resume that I should be where I'm at now. It literally was I just knew I wanted to help people. And I wasn't going to I just didn't look for excuses. I just stayed focused on who I wanted to help and figured out everyday like, "Alright, how can I help them?" And then as we kept growing, I just kept bumping into new problems and just figured out there's got to be a better way to do this. There's got to be a way to do this in a way I can help more people and I would just Google and find things. Well, actually, I would Yahoo them that Google wasn't even around then.
Jon Acuff:Throw that to Ask Jeeves. you would throw that over to Ask Jeeves and see what he's got to say.
Corrine Crabtree:Exactly.
Jon Acuff:Oh, man. He's he's answering questions and having Did you always have grit? Because a lot of what you're describing sounds like there's grit, you're tenacious. Growing up, like, was there a shift for you where you said, "Okay, once I started to lose the weight, it became infectious. I started to do other things." Like because discipline begets discipline to progress begets progress. Was there a shift for you? Or were you always kind of ambitious and focused and goal oriented?
Corrine Crabtree:Well, I would say, I don't know if I was ambitious. I guess I was ambitious. So I grew up very poor. My mom was a single mother. I had to start working literally at the age of 12. If I wanted anything, I had to start working. Like, you know, we, like even when I was in high school, if I wanted, you know, lunch money, I better go get a job because my mom couldn't even give us lunch money every day. So there was just, you know, a lot of it was a necessity that I hustled. It was a necessity that I did things. And I watched my mom worked really hard. So there's always probably been that role model of a hard worker in front of me. I would say that I've just always been a hustler. I will say this, I've always had a belief whatever you need, you can figure out how to get it. Because we always had to. It was like, not an option for us. So I ended up eloping with a dude fresh out of high school who was like, I hope he doesn't listen this podcast, but he was a straight dope loser.
Jon Acuff:Yeah, probably not. It's a fairly small And we don't even let people like that listen, we're very selective.
Corrine Crabtree:That's right. So well, knowing him, he's probably not listening to podcasts that are going to better himself.
Jon Acuff:Probably not. probably not his space.
Corrine Crabtree:No. So I married him and dropped out of my I had a full ride scholarship to college, and dropped out to support him because he wants to play Xbox or whatever, all day long.
Jon Acuff:He's probably going pro. Is that right? He was a professional and he was like, a Fortnite, a Fortnite expert.
Corrine Crabtree:So for me, when I started working after the age of 18, like I knew I was gonna have to prove myself through my work ethic. Like I knew what I was good at. I was good at out-hustling every single person. I would be there first. I would be there last. I could learn anything. I knew I was smart. And I could learn anything. And so I would just throw myself into anything that my bosses would give me. And I would learn anything. So I guess I've always had that in me. But other than that, there's, I mean, I guess if you call that grit and ambition and stuff, there's that. I will say from my early ages, it always came more from a place of "I have to". It wasn't coming from this, like belief that "Oh my God, you're so smart. And oh my god, you're gonna slay the world." It was like, "No, you have to make something out of yourself. Because no one else will help you. You know, you have to do it."
Jon Acuff:Yeah, it's gotta be you. There's no wait. I think the title of this episode might be The No Excuse Podcast, because I just want to review a couple things you said. No business degree. It's not like you're, you know, you're rocking an MBA. And it's like, "Well, of course, like I was a huge, I was in charge of a corporation. And it made sense that I built my own." Raised by single mom. Started without a platform. You're not saying "Hey, first I built up a million followers. And then I started answering questions on message boards." Didn't go to college, and eloped and then got divorced from a guy who really wanted to play Xbox a lot. So if anyone's listening to this right now, and they're like, "I would love to grow a business. I would love to lose weight. I would love to write a book." Whatever your goal is, and you've got one of those five excuses. This is a difficult episode. Because Corrine is saying you can have all those things in your background and still do something amazing. I love that.
Corrine Crabtree:Well, thank you.
Jon Acuff:I love your willingness to share that. What was the toughest part about your first year with the business?
Corrine Crabtree:The toughest part was probably overworking. I know this sounds crazy, but I just wanted to help people and I threw myself in. Like I was just figuring out, like, once I finally started actually doing the business, it was a lot of me just ignoring my personal life, because I really wanted to be all in on it. So it was that was probably the hardest part for me was not getting like mad when my husband wanted to spend time with me and a lot of mom guilt because I loved it. You know, I loved the business. And my son knows this, but he was not easy child. And so I was having so much fun in my business. But I was like dragging my guilt along for the ride with me. So it was a lot of mental hurdles for me the first year, it was just how do I not feel guilty for working? How do I you know, how do I like spend time with my husband without thinking like, you know, you just want my attention. And I should be over here doing this, you know. There was just a lot of that stuff for me. But in terms of like, the business business, I don't remember it being hurdle-y or hard because I think I was just so into wanting to do it. It was like putting together a puzzle all the time. I just wasn't getting sick of putting together the puzzle, you know.
Jon Acuff:That's so good. That's so because you want to find a thing that feels like a puzzle that you want to keep putting together. So then when you run into more loose pieces, if you're doing a beautiful puzzle, you don't go "Oh no, there's more pieces," you go,"Oh, wow, the puzzle just got bigger." I love that approach. How many team members do you have now? How many people are on your team?
Corrine Crabtree:Including me, we're now at 20.
Jon Acuff:20. 20 team members. That is amazing. Yeah. Do you remember a moment where you thought, "Okay, wait a second. This thing might work." You know, I remember the first time somebody paid me to speak as a public speaker. And I thought,"Wow, I had no idea you could do that. That people actually paid you to do that." And when I went to do it, I was so excited and I and I wasn't great at it. But I saw the path of okay if I work this way, if I do these things I can learn. What was the moment for you where you said "Oh wait a second, this, this thing might work, I might be able to do this"?
Corrine Crabtree:I will tell you. So the first few years of my business, I'd never even thought about that. And then in 2015, so I started in 2007, and in 2015, we were moving my son who has autism to a very expensive private school. And I had kind of been what I would just call, like doing my business, and just enjoying it stuff, but I really wasn't studying it and growing it. I was just like solving problems. And when that happened, I knew right then that I did not want to go back financially in our family. And that it was such a big expenditure that I needed to start making money, like, some serious money. And then that's when I got serious. And so I think, for me, in 2015, was the moment when I was like, "I am now going to grow this business. I'm going to start making a plan on how to grow it. I'm going to start studying growth, like I'm really going to figure out all the pieces of what it takes to take us from" like, we had a membership, we had a few 100 members and that kind of stuff. But I wanted like, now we're gonna make the real money. And I wanted to outpace my husband. My husband had a 25 year corporate job. He was C suite level employee, making good money. Now, my first goal was, I will make more money than him. My second goal was I want to retire him, like I wanted to make it like that was the next one. And so when I got real focused that way, in 2015 is when it just got when I took myself seriously. When I was like,"Alright, are we a serious business woman, or are we just having a business that we enjoy?" and I was like, I want to be serious. And I started setting goals and started getting training and started figuring and reading all the books and listening to all the podcasts and taking courses and investing in all of it. And just I went all in and that was the year. That was the year.
Jon Acuff:I love that. And so part of it was the idea of "I'm going to be able to pay for this school for my son. Like he was autistic, and I'm gonna you know, that matters to me." And it was an invitation to level up. I think that's so fascinating. What would you say, okay, somebody listen to this, and they go, "Oh wow, I feel like I'm at an inflection point." Because I think there's a lot of people coming out of the pandemic, out of COVID going, "Okay, I've been messing around in my career, I've been messing around with my goals. It's been a nice hobby, whatever it is. Now, it's time for me to buckle down." If I'm listening, I go, Okay, what are three things that you'd say, oh, if you want to level up, like if you want to, you know, really grow a business be more serious about what you're working on, here's the three first, like, what are the first three things you'd recommend somebody do?
Corrine Crabtree:I think the first thing is to figure out like, what is your first goal. I'm a big believer in, like, you've got to have a number, or you've got to have something that's just tangible. Like your brain needs to know where you're going. And it doesn't mean that once you set a goal, it's like, it's just gonna magically appear. But if without something like for me, that first goal was, I have got to make it to where this business, like, the profit is $50k because I am paying that tuition off. Just knowing that then I could do my math backwards, like okay, well, how many members does that take? And then, so how many like, what are the things that have to happen to build us up to that? So I think reverse engineering on a goal like that is super helpful. I think the second thing, so I do this exercise, I totally, like stole this from Run Like Clockwork. So not Corrine's idea. I watch a lot of entrepreneurs get stuck in thinking they have so much to do. And so they never prioritize things. There's a lot of 'em that can hustle. And they can get lots of things done. But they're not always getting things done in an order that scales their business or grows it. So you can take everything that you think you're supposed to be doing in your business, and you write it all down on sticky notes. And then you cut it in half. So the way that you do the exercise is you write all the things you think are important in your business. All the things, little steps, big steps, anything you want. Then you tell yourself, you challenge yourself with this question of"Okay, if I had to dead stop half of these exercises today, what would they be knowing that the other half are the things that will create money?" Like these are the revenue-generating activities. And then you do that several times until you get to one sticky note. And then when you get to that one sticky note, you know, this is the most important thing I should be focused on. So when I am working, if I don't start with this, why the hell am I even bothering? Because all this other stuff is great, but it just gives you some real clarity. I think a lot of early entrepreneurs, they don't have clarity and they're looking outside of themselves for somebody just to tell them what to do.
Jon Acuff:Nobody's gonna show up. Nobody's showing up.
Corrine Crabtree:Nobody else got time to help you. And you probably ain't got the money to pay somebody that good to come in and be like, "build my business for me." So you can do those things yourself. And then I think the third thing is, get on a calendar and get committed to it. I tell people all the time, if you're going to build a business, you got to know where you're spending your time. And the way that I time blog, you can look at my calendar at any time. And you will know exactly what Corrine's working on. Like, this morning at 5:30 in the morning, I wrote the camp sales emails for early July.
Jon Acuff:That's pretty specific.
Corrine Crabtree:My calendar says exactly what's supposed to get done during this time. It doesn't say like, "write some stuff." I was just gonna say the reason why you want that clarity on your calendar is so that you're plugging the right things in. But when you sit down, especially if you're doing a side hustle where you've got your main gig and then get your side hustle, you do not have time to sit there like, "Okay, it's time to work, what's first?" you need to plan that crap out ahead of time, because you got to optimize all your time. That's all I wanted to add.
Jon Acuff:Tell me that process for you. Is it that it's a Sunday and you plan out the next seven days? Is it, you know, is it a three day cycle? What does that look like?
Corrine Crabtree:It's the next seven days. But I mean, in the beginning, if you're not really good at committing or doing it, even if you just plan the next day or two, that's fine. But I do on Sundays, I write everything down, that I possibly can think of in my brain that I'm supposed to do for the week. Like, I just let it all out. Then I take that piece of paper, and I go to my calendar, and I start looking at time blocks. And I just start like, "Alright, where's this one going to go? Alright, where's this one going to go?" And I just fill my calendar that way. And that way every task has its place on the calendar and know when it's happening, including like, at 10am on Monday, I had my lashes done. Like everything is on there. You don't want to be guessing. We do the same thing in weight loss. I make my clients just write down what you're going to eat for the day. Like the last thing you want to do as someone who needs to lose weight is to show up to a meal and be like, "Well, I don't know, what do I want the moment?" We're going to want like Oreos, so don't give yourself that option. It's the same thing when you sit down to work. It's like what do I want to work on? You'll want to work on something like messing with your logo. That will be fun, but cold calling someone
Jon Acuff:Endless.
Corrine Crabtree:Yes. You want to sit down and you want to know what you have to work on. You want clarity so that your brain is not going to just offer up the fun work or the the non revenue-generating things.
Jon Acuff:Oh, my gosh, this is so so helpful. I'm taking personal notes because I know I had a bit of a "will I level up?" moment the other day where somebody bought 1000s of copies of my new book, like and I was like, "Oh, that's awesome." And then for like two weeks I didn't I just said "Oh, thanks." I didn't follow up. And I was like, wait a second, I need to go super serve that client I need to and like meanwhile, I'm thinking like, "Should I do more on Twitter?" And it's like what? Like you have Like, it's very obvious. Like, if you said to me"make a list of your top 20 clients," I could do that. And then if you said "Well, are you serving them?" I'd go, "Hey, let's not this is about you Corrine, let's not" so hearing you talk about okay, where do you put stuff on the calendar. I want to get a score from you. So you do that on a Sunday. It's the next Saturday, the seven days are over. What's your score? Have you done it 100%? Or did it take you like initially when you did your calendar was like you were only able to do 40% of it, it was hard to stay disciplined to it? Like, what's a good score for you in an average week?
Corrine Crabtree:An average week now I'm probably 80 to 90%. Like sometimes things come up. Sometimes things take longer than I thought that kind of stuff. But when I first started, I was probably like, I would say 30%. I don't even think I was like all the way to 40. It was probably like 20-30%. And it was like learning, alright, these are the times I'm more likely to work. Like it took me a few weeks of planning to really figure out I get a boss load of stuff done between 5 and 7am. I don't plan hardly anything between 1 and 4 anymore. Between 1 and 4, like my brain is just checked out. It's usually meetings, podcasts, things that I don't have to sit and create and think and all that kind of stuff. So took me a while to figure out my good work rhythms, my most optimal time slots to where I could learn like alright, harder things go here easier things go here. Then it took a while for me to figure out how long things would take. So I would plan for something to take two hours that ended up would take six. You know, it just was like I just way underestimated how long something was going to take. Sometimes I would way overestimate. You know, like I would give myself a lot of time. It took me a while to kind of figure out and then once I got to where a lot of the work that I do all the time, I now know about how long that will take. I know when my energy rhythms are I know what days I like working, I know what days that I don't really want to do heavy lifting. So it just took a while. So the thing is, like, don't think you're going to start it's going to be perfect. Just get started. And then at the end of the week, look back and see what were my common patterns. What can I learn from how well I stuck to my schedule and stuff? And then like, Alright, let's do it again. Let's see what happens.
Jon Acuff:And let's iterate. What worked, what didn't work? What can we tweak? I think that's fascinating. I only have two more questions. The first is your brand is super fun, super colorful. We don't use video, but you're always colourfully dressed. And it's all you know, fun haircut. You would say your brand is sassy. How have you dealt with people who might not like it? Who might go like, "Oh, like no BS? I don't like no BS, I want a more serious brand or a more serious approach"? How have you learned to deal with whether it's criticism or people that you're just not for?
Corrine Crabtree:It's funny, because so my brand has a lot of cussing in it. So we actually get a lot of feedback. The two big things people complain about our brand is number one is my mouth. I'm not going to change that. Like I learned a long time ago that this mouth is foul, and it came straight from my mother and her mother. So it's like we are a long line of women cussers.
Jon Acuff: :This mouth is foul" is maybe my favorite quote on this podcast.
Corrine Crabtree:And so for a while it like angered me that people would, like, people will write in and tell me I'm going to hell and things like that. And then I just started realizing there's always going to be people who don't like me for some reason. So we created an email that just says, "Here are people who teach weight loss like I do, who do not cuss. Please feel free to go listen to their podcast." I was like, if at the end of the day, I truly want to help people, I have to help the people who don't even like me.
Jon Acuff:Oh, that is good. That is good.
Corrine Crabtree:The other thing is, people do not like my blonde hair and my like, spray tan and all this other stuff. And it's like, well, alright, there's not much I'm gonna change there either.
Jon Acuff:So good
Corrine Crabtree:Came out the womb blonde, gonna stay blonde, or my mother will smack me across the mouth. She does not like it when I change my hair. I think for me, at the end of the day, I just decided I can spin my wheels on people who won't like me and try to like spend a lot of energy on that. Or I can just keep focused on the people who really want what I have. There's plenty of people, like, I always think about this. When we think about the billions of people in the world. There's plenty of people sitting around waiting for you. Don't make them wait, while you're trying to change yourself for a bunch of people who are hard to please.
Jon Acuff:That will probably never like you and aren't your customer. Yeah, they're not. No, they're not. Yeah, exactly. I absolutely love that. This has been a blast. It's so fun that we live in the same city. Before we even started recording, we talked about me bringing my team to come learn from your team. So it's such an honor to get to ask you some questions. I think there's gonna be a ton of people that want to know more. So where can people find you? Where can that you know, I'm curious about, okay, I have a weight loss goal or maybe I just want to listen to your podcast, where's the best place for people to connect with you?
Corrine Crabtree:The best place is to go to NoBSFreeCourse.com, that's my website. So if you want to see what my podcast is about, there's blogs that will kind of give you information. You have the link to the blog is there. My free weight loss course is there. Anything that you want to know is always on that website. So that's the best place to go.
Jon Acuff:Perfect. And we did an episode not too long ago, that was super fun.
Corrine Crabtree:It releases tomorrow.
Jon Acuff:Nice, nice! Look at the timing. Well, I love this. I can't wait. We've got to go. Me, you, and your husband, and my wife need to go out to dinner. Because I think that we'd crack up and we'd laugh a lot and you'd probably be able to swear more. Because I was able to visually see you hold back 72 swears and you were like "Does he even swear in his podcast? I know he's the son of a preacher man, but I don't even know what's going on." So that was cracking me up on a personal level. So I am such a huge fan. I'm so glad we're in the same city. And you've been so generous with me to share my books with your audience, but also to share knowledge about"Hey, I think you should try this" or so it's fun for me to learn from you. And I think there's gonna be a lot of people that learn the same things that I get to.
Corrine Crabtree:Awesome. Well, thank you. I've enjoyed being here. And you are, I think you are our favorite author in all of No BS. We talk about your books probably second to just the No BS program.
Jon Acuff:Well, I love it. I love it. I think we're doing a book club with you guys soon. So that's gonna be super fun. So definitely check out NoBSFreeCourse.com. That was the URL right? No, N-O-B-S. You know how to spell BS, free course dot com. Corrine, thank you for joining me today.
Corrine Crabtree:Thank you.
Jon Acuff:Thank you so much for listening today. Wasn't Corrine fun? Didn't she come through all the promises I mentioned at the beginning? Because at the beginning of this episode, I was like, "You're gonna love this one. It's a double triple dip." And it was. I could have listened to her for hours. Please make sure you subscribe to my podcast. And if you've got 60 seconds to spare or longer, I mean, if you feel, if you're feeling wordy, you want to be chatty. Like if you want to write a long review, I would take a long review as well. With new podcasts like mine, because this one is very new, it started in January, your feedback is huge. So thank you for writing so many great reviews. I love them and I really appreciate it. I'll see you next week. And remember, all it takes is a goal. This episode of the podcast was brought to you by Medi-Share. Text JON, J-O-N to 474747 for more information. Huge thank you to Medi-Share for sponsoring it. J-O-N to 474747.
Corrine Crabtree:Thanks for listening. To learn more about the All It Takes Is A Goal podcast and to get access to today's show notes, transcript, and exclusive content from Jon Acuff, visit Acuff.me/podcast. Thanks again for joining us. Be sure to tune in next week for another episode of the All It Takes Is A Goal podcast.
