Reinventing Success on Your Terms with Lori McDowell | 004

Hello and welcome to the Profit Connections podcast. This episode is going to be so much fun because I have my friend Lori here, and you are going to love her. We have so much in common. And I I just, I love spending time with this woman. And I just was like, my community needs to hear from Lori McDowell, so let me officially introduce her. Lori McDowell is a best selling author, coach and speaker known for her heart led spiritual approach to helping people redefine success and fulfillment through her award winning book, the reinvention mindset coaching and retreats and transformative workshops. Lori guides women to overcome limitations and create lives of purpose and joy. Everybody, please welcome Lori McDowell,

Hi, Sharon, everyone. I'm so happy to be here, and yes, I'm with you. This is going to be a lot of fun.

Um, so Lori, one thing that I didn't really talk to you about is one of the components of how I work with my program, with my program and my clients, is the joy quotient. So I love that joy is a part of what you do as well. Because what I find with my clients is that they're so consumed with running the business and making a profit and making it work and making it successful, and having lives and taking wearing all the hats, and at some point in there the joy, the reason they started their business, the why, the the connection to that passion, it can be lost. And I don't think we talk enough about that. So that's something that I was when I read that. I was like, oh yes, Joy. I want to make sure we talk about a little bit of joy today. But before I continue to speak so much, Lori, I want you to share with everyone why you do this. What is your big why?

Well, you talked about joy, and really, Joy is one of my Big Whys because I have a motto that life is meant to be lived one crazy adventure at a time. And I think when we do that, then we do we serve our highest purpose, and we get more success. And part of that is Troy. I mean, I think the world's an amazing place. I don't care what's going on. I think the world is incredible, and we're so I'm so excited to be living here and with all these other people, and we forget that. We get so wrapped up in work and we get wrapped up in, you know, politics, business, war, all the stuff that's going on around us. And if we just, we make a choice to be happy, to be joyful, to be, you know, we can't, we can't control all the stuff around us, but we can control what's inside of us. And when you do that, that stuff doesn't bother you as much, and you get so much more done. So by being more joyful, more happy and happy with yourself, your business is better. I mean, you kind of get rid of all the stuff that holds you back. Yeah,

yeah, absolutely. I agree with that 100% and I love that. That's that is the way that you said it, and the way that you brought it out is exactly what what I think people need to hear. So that was amazing. Thanks. So what else reinvention mindset? Ah, I love the title of your book. So talk a little bit about that. Because I when I hear reinvention mindset, I think something, and I think other people do as well, and we're probably all right. And I'd love to hear what you how you define reinvention mindset, because you've got a story,

yeah, for reinvention mindset. And, you know, I wrote the book, and I had worked in corporate America for over 30 years, and, and and I like to say, one day I, you know, I heard the voice of God, and he set me free. So suddenly I was no longer with corporate America. I wasn't sure what I was going to do, and I always wanted to write a book, so I said, Well, I'll just write a book, and I have no idea what the fuck was going to be about. And I just followed my intuition and came up, you know, work with some coach on writing a book, and we came up with the title the reinvention mindset. And it's about that there are people in life who horrible, horrible things happen to them, things outside their control, and rather than crumble or fall apart, they take those horrible things and they do something amazing, and that's the reinvention mindset, because they don't let those things get them down. There are other people that something bad happens and they wallow in it for years, and they let it affect their life and they're miserable. And what I did was I looked at people in both categories, interviewed most of the reinvention mindset people and saw what they have in common and what it is that enables them to do it. So those characteristics are part of the reinvention mindset, but a reinvention mindset is what happens outside of you. Doesn't really matter. You can always create. A life you desire. You can create your own joy, you can create your own peace, and you can create your own success. And if you think that way, then there's endless possibilities. So that's kind of what the reinvention mindset is. Yeah,

I love that. I know that whenever, like I said, when you're running people are running their businesses, it just it can become all consuming. And to take that breath and to step back and say, How can I look at this differently? I when I work with my clients, sometimes they'll have some kind of a challenge that they just it's like a brick wall. They can't get past it. And so I like to play a game that I call make it a feature, which is whatever that challenge is, lean into that challenge. Be able to like, I was at a at a show this weekend. I do some dinner theater, and this woman was really nervous because it was her first time hosting, and so she was nervous about all of the getting everything right. I was just like, lean into that make that funny. She's like, I can't be funny. I'm too worried about being on script. I'm like, make that funny. Whatever it is that you want. Like, this is a ridiculous one. But if you had a business, and it was brick and mortar business, and in order to get for people to get to your business, they had to cross a moat full of alligators that were man eating alligators. They're going to eat you. So how can you? Can't, I can't have a business. They have to cross this, you know, man eating alligator pit. Well, how do you make that a feature? You know, feed the alligators. So you come do business at my business and feed the alley like I've done that with groups of people to say, Hey, how can you make it a feature? Make it funny. Start with the funny, and then, you know, make it a little bit ridiculous. And then maybe you can even bring it back to something that's more practical, because it's only a challenge in your mind.

I love that. Yeah, I love that. Make it a feature. Yeah, I always think there's everything we get as a gift too, you know, and having that funny and the fun, because I think we don't play enough. And when, you know, when people start their businesses they want to have. They did it because they want to have fun. They didn't want to have all that pressure. And then we put so much pressure on ourselves, and the pressure stops us from having fun, it stops us from playing, it stops us from smiling and laughing. And then we don't have fun anymore, and we don't love our business, and when you don't love it, you're not going to do as well. So yeah, I think having fun and seeing every you know, negative things are, they're a gift. You got to figure out, what can I learn from it? How can I turn it into a positive? What can I do better next time? How can I make myself stronger? You know, maybe I something bad happens, I can help compassion or I can build my resilience, but it's always something positive. So I love that. And you know, if I were in that business, I would buy a hot air balloon company and just take people across, because I think that would be funny, because then you suddenly have two successful businesses.

That's awesome. I love it. It's there's no limit when, when we release our minds to dream and be silly and bring that fun back in. We really can be unstoppable. What we do is we stop ourselves when we start having an idea of who start. Oh, this is ridiculous. Oh, I can't do it. Oh, this is, you know, this is not right. This is impossible. This is too hard. This when we get all up in all of that, we can't see anything. So I loved that you talked about play. Can you talk a little bit more about play?

Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, everything is when we work from our heart, our heart wants to have fun, our inner child, who's, you know, holding us back is because they're, they're kind of scared. But if you give that inner child permission to have fun, that inner child can help you. Instead of holding you back, your intuition will always take you positive places, so that by letting yourself enjoy it and play, and particularly in business, you can open up possibilities and creativity and things that you never thought. And you know when you lead from your heart, you just naturally go there. But like you said, So many times we stop ourselves. We question, oh, you know, should I be doing this? Or is this fun? Or, you know, I mean, how many times you're, you know, you have your own business, you make your own schedules, and you have an opportunity to have lunch with a friend or do something, and it's like, oh, I don't have time for that. And it's like, if you don't make time for that, yeah, you're not going to have those. And having that as part of your life, and taking that time is going to make you so much productive the rest of the time, and it's going to make you so much happier. Yeah, and happy people get things done. Yeah,

and. And I think as adults, not only do we think we don't have permission to play, we forget how to play. Mm, hmm, yeah, cuz it's so and, and particularly with, with people who have businesses and and practices where they want to make a difference in the world, and they think that, well, the subject matter is a heavy subject matter. And they, you know, it's not it, you know, if it were a funeral home, you know, like, there's, there are, there are places that there's that's kind. Of a heavy thing, and you can't think about playing around that. And Lori, what you and I know, because we're in programs together, is that the heavier the subject, the more serious, the more the more important it is to be able to make people laugh and find joy and play in it, so that they can actually access what's in, what's available for them.

Yeah, I'll just share a quick story. I learned that from my dad. My dad was a joker. My dad was fun. Everybody loved my dad. And when my dad was young, only in his 50s, he ended up getting cancer, and while he was in the hospital for his first chemotherapy treatment, his mother passed away. So here's, you know, tragedy upon tragedy. Well, I can remember being at the funeral. My dad had just gotten out of the hospital from his chemo, and I'm sitting in the room and the priest is talking, and my dad's out in the hallway, and suddenly I hear my dad talking to a friend of his that he hadn't seen, and he curses in him, in Italian, like, really loud. Like, I don't know if everybody else heard it, but I heard it, and I just started laughing, and I could not, you know, I'm trying to be quiet, and I'm laughing so hard, like, I'm Tears are coming down my eyes. You know, those laughters that are, you know, between the stress, no, but this laughter, and my dad walks in and sees me. He knew I was laughing, that I must have heard him. He starts kind of laughing, and it's funny because all the people in the funeral like, Wow, they're so upset. They must have been so close to their mother and grandmother, they're just and in the meantime, where hysterical, cracking out. But that was just how my dad was, and it's just a way, you know, if you laughing playing, it releases stress, and it doesn't make I'm sure my grandmother was laughing with so excited. You don't have to make us even a bad experience doesn't have to be horrible. And like some of the people I interviewed in my book had, you know, like, had horrible things, and they turned it into something amazing. And part of that is keeping that, that play, that laughter, and seeing that there's lightness everywhere and there's joy around us, you just need to look for it. Yeah,

yeah. And in and also, just as a little caveat, if you happen to be in a heavy plate you're going through it, that this isn't your business if you're going through it and you think that you can't laugh or or have joy in that moment, this is not a judgment on grieving and processing through heavy things. We were talking about it from a different perspective. So don't feel like that is what we're saying. You feel what you feel. You have to, you have to honor what you're going through. And it still might turn into a laughing fit because there's so much pressure, and that's a way to, that's a release valve, you know, that's a way to to process through it as well. But yes, I absolutely think that that that joy and laughter and play is a part of an adult's world, and we need to normalize, as the kids say we need to normalize, yeah, adult play and laughter again, I think more successful.

I love that you said feel how we feel too, because that's like, Yeah, that's so important. I feel like as adults, particularly, and people who are, you know, want to be successful. We, we have this set of rules that somebody, whether it's society or somebody, put these rules on us, and we feel like we have to follow all the rules. And if we just follow the rules and we do that right thing, we're going to be successful. And half the time we do that, and we get to a place and we're like, you know, I don't see that success. Or is this all there is? And I think you need to break those rules, make your own rules. I mean, because those rules were not they weren't made for you, they weren't made specific, and they were made by, I don't know who made them. You know, do what feel your feelings, and find your joy and find what lights you up, and do life that way is really important.

Yeah, I love that. I love that. Yeah, yeah. I think that's and, you know, as as we move forward into our business, like, for me, it's really funny that you said don't follow the rules, because, you know, I am a strategist. I'm a profit growth strategist. So I have things that I want to list out. And yes, these are the things to do. I note I didn't say, Should these are the things to do, and it's, it's an and world. These are the things to do. And so if you need to change or adjust or something, it is an and world. And I think that looking at our businesses, our families, when we're when we're working for other people, when we're transitioning, when we're going through hard times, what? When we're living life, all of the life stuff of life, if we remember, and I think that will really take us further, because it's, it's it is an and we're. World, I think sometimes it's black or white, and black or white will keep you stuck in one or the other. And if it can be black and white, black and white, and all the colors of the rainbow, black and white, all the colors the rainbow, and every color you can imagine that doesn't really exist, it can be anything, and it's limitless, and that's why I love your reinvention mindset. It actually is a limitless way to look at your life and and your world,

right? It really is, and it's also that you can do it at any time. I mean, you don't have to wait for this big you can reinvent yourself every morning,

if you choose to. I love that. Yes every morning. Love it, yeah, yeah. That's really great. So Lori, you have a gift for our profit connectors out there, our audience, and I'd love for you to share that with us.

Sure, I have a gift. I call it the Celebrate soul success assessment. And you know the name came from so many people look like success on paper, but they are. They're not successful in their soul, because they're while, you know they're, they're doing what they're supposed to do. And they think this is what they but they forgot, they lost that joy. So when I coach people, I help them find that joy. Because I think once you once you celebrate that success in your soul, then everything is limit, and your business takes off, and you can do things you never thought possible, yeah, if you need to have a starting place. So what this success, this assessment, does is it helps to figure out where you are today. So it looks at different areas your life and your business, and you answer some questions, and it kind of tells you where you're strong, and then it tells you where you're, where you could use a little help. And after the assessment, I invite you to schedule a call with me to review the assessment. We could look at, you know, what might be some steps you can take to help you where you are. We can, and we could celebrate the areas where you're strong, and because celebrating is so important,

I love that. And just what you were saying is sometimes you look like a success on paper, and a lot of times people are like, I don't want anyone to know that I'm not really a success because I feel like a fraud behind the scenes, or I have imposter syndrome or something like that. Secretly, you know what's going on inside of you, and if you have any inkling that something could be better, go ahead and get Lori's gift, because it will absolutely be a benefit to you. Nobody has to know Lori's not taking out a billboard saying, you know Joe schmoes, you know t shirt Emporium owner doesn't feel successful inside. Really, truly, we've been talking about taking care of you. And take care of you. Take the assessment. Look at what's going on, because happiness is not always the dollar signs on the piece of paper. If you can't access that success inside of you and feel actually being a success, and it just you're just looking like a success, even if you are doing millions of dollars, there still might be a little empty place inside of you that needs a little help. And so I encourage you to go to the profit connectors dot club area. We will have a link to Lori's gift and some information about Lori, and I encourage you to go there. We will make that available to you. And thank you so much, Lori for being here at the profit connections podcast. This has been great.

Thank you. It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it.