Stephanie Skryzowski:

Welcome to the 100 Degrees of Entrepreneurship Podcast, the show for purpose driven entrepreneurs who want to get inspired to step outside of your comfort zone, expand it to your purpose and grow your business in a big way. I’m your host, Stephanie Skryzowski, a globe trotting CFO whose mission is to empower leaders to better understand their numbers, to grow their impact and their income. Let’s dive in.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

Hello, hello. Welcome back to the 100 Degrees of Entrepreneurship Podcast. I’m your host, Stephanie Skryzowski and today I am here with my friend Kari Elizabeth Enge. Kari is the founder and editor in chief of Rank & File Magazine, a publication that shares authentic, vulnerable advice on building a social impact business. She’s also a coach for purpose driven entrepreneurs. After graduating from Auburn University Kari was selected into the management intern program for the world’s largest private mega-yacht. What started as a three month experiment at sea turned into a life altering journey. Kari climbed the corporate ladder holding six positions in six years. As one of the youngest leaders in her company, Kari traveled to over 30 countries and worked with people from over 40 nationalities. With time, Kari came face to face with extreme poverty and realized that her values were no longer aligned with her corporate life so in 2016 Kari quit her corporate role to pursue a life of purpose. She launched Rank & File Magazine which has featured notable thought leaders and entrepreneurs such as Simon Sinek, Jessica Honegger, Liz Forkin Bohannon, Caitlin Crosby and more.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

After running the vision and growth of Rank & File Magazine for four years, Kari knew that entrepreneurs needed much more than a business magazine to succeed and felt a calling to deepen her impact. Kari took a brave step to not settle for what was working but to go for what was truly important. Kari has a coach certification from the renowned Life Coach School and is passionate about empowering and equipping entrepreneurs to build intentional fulfilling lives and businesses that contribute to a better world. Kari now splits her time between Oslo, Norway where she lives with her husband Thomas and her daughter Olivia Joy and Chattanooga, Tennessee where her family is from.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

Kari and I had such a good conversation today, really all about her sort of interesting journey and putting the pieces together to take her from this mega yacht with the world’s wealthiest people and then seeing the other end of that with the world’s poorest people in some of the countries and places that she was visiting on this yacht. She really filled a need that she had for herself in creating this magazine to help social impact entrepreneurs and then the coaching. She felt as an entrepreneur herself there was so much that she really needed and resources that she wanted that she decided to start coaching and so she really found that as soon as she was investing in her own personal growth she saw massive growth and abundance and expansion in her business as well.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

We talked a lot about getting outside of your comfort zone and some of the mindset shifts that have to happen to take you out of that safe place into a place of impact and abundance and expansion. She shares with us so many awesome just tips and stories and I probably could’ve talked to her all day so without further ado let’s dive into our episode with Kari.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

Hello everyone. Welcome back to the 100 Degrees of Entrepreneurship Podcast. I’m Stephanie and I’m here with Kari Enge and I am so excited for our conversation today. Thanks for being here Kari.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

Hello Stephanie. Yes, I’m so excited to chat with you again today.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

I always love to start my episodes talking a little bit about how we know each other and I don’t know if you know but I’ve been kind of following along with Rank & File and we’ll talk about that in a second but I’ve been following Rank & File for quite some time and I have to say it was always a dream to be able to write for you and now that I have I feel like it’s a dream come true and I’ve been able to be on your podcast and I’m just so excited that we’re chatting again here.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

That’s so fun. Yeah, you know it was so nice to talk to you for the first time and I don’t even know when that was, maybe a few years ago and I think you have been maybe in the magazine twice. I don’t even know but I’ve just enjoyed your outlook on finances so much that I just kept inviting you back so thank you so much for contributing to Rank & File, for being on my podcast and yeah, now I get to be on yours so it’s going to be lots of fun.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

I know, I know. Well, it’s definitely a dream come true. So, tell us about your business journey. You have a bit of an interesting story that I actually didn’t know the beginning parts of your story but I would love to hear what the trajectory of your path has looked like and how you landed doing what you’re doing now.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

Yeah, so I guess I’ll start by kind of talking about what I do now because sometimes when you start at the beginning it’s like sounds really messy but my name is Kari Elizabeth Enge and I’m a business coach for female purpose driven entrepreneurs and I help women to reach their income and also their social impact goals without sacrificing their personal lives. I should mention Stephanie I’m also the editor in chief of Rank & File Magazine which is a digital magazine that shares authentic, vulnerable business advice for purpose driven entrepreneurs and yeah, we’ve featured you, we’ve featured amazing other people like Simon Sinek and Jessica Honegger of Noonday Collection. Most recently I’ve gotten to chat with Caitlin Crosby of The Giving Keys and so yeah, I just feel so blessed to have the media outreach side of my business and also get to work very closely with entrepreneurs to help them succeed but back tracking a little bit I have quite an interesting journey as you mentioned and like most entrepreneurs I really saw an injustice in the world and then kind of went about asking how I could be a part of that solution.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

The first sort of ah-ha moment I had was kind of around when I started with my first job. Back in 2009 when I graduated my first job out of school was for the world’s largest private mega yacht. I was an intern at the beginning and I was dropped into a place where side by side I was experiencing the world’s wealthiest people, like literally and then the world’s poorest and so as I traveled on this yacht and went to all corners of the globe I really saw these two crazy opposites really up and close and so that experience really opened my eyes. I traveled to 40 different countries, worked with people from 40 different nationalities, held six positions in six years so it was like this whirlwind in expanding my worldview and I learned so much about life and leadership and values and I was really saddened by how powerful money is and yet how terrible of a job we do with it most of the time. I saw that we weren’t actually keeping the money in the communities where these big businesses are being run.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

That’s when I got acquainted with social entrepreneurship. I think I was in Brazil at the time running some sort of program and I came across a grass roots bootstrapping social entrepreneur in Rio and I was like, “This is awesome. I love social entrepreneurship.” It really led me to start with the magazine and then a few years, maybe two years into the magazine I was talking to so many successful women, right? Who were leading really great businesses and I was also talking to a lot of women in my community at my coworking spaces who were like, starting out and struggling and I saw a very big mindset gap between these two types of women and I also was sort of in that gap.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

I came to understand that it was really a self belief issue. The people who were sort of just starting out and were struggling really had some limiting beliefs around money, around time, around just even embodying the role of a CEO and they weren’t confident to sort of do that their own way. That was really holding them back from sales and from growing their businesses and at the time I was also in my own form of a low self belief and so I knew, okay, I need to shift to a more powerful mindset. Decided to hire a coach. Was completely blown away by how my business grew when I grew and I fell in love with coaching so much that I decided that I want to deepen my impact. I want to add this part of my business. I got certified and ever since then I have been having so much fun both doing the magazine side and also walking with women on a close level to reach their success. Yeah, I hope that wasn’t too long of a story but there’s been so many shifts and twists and turns so hopefully that gives you a little bit of an idea.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

Yes, yes. I love it because you’re right. It’s so interesting because I think about my own journey as well. When you look at where you are right now and you go all the way back to the beginning, you’re like, “Oh my goodness. Things are so vastly different than they were at the very beginning but you can kind of see the little threads that connect each part of your journey and I think that that… That’s just so interesting. What I would love to know is okay, so you were on this mega yacht which I’m sure you have so many stories from that. I would love to hear them someday but how did that transition into the magazine. Did you have media experience? That feels like, wow that’s a pretty big undertaking to create a magazine.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

Yeah, no. I had no media experience. I was a hotel and restaurant management major in college. I was working with the food and beverage department and then with the concierge department and the sort of tour operations department so they moved me around a lot in the company. I was sort of like the person who they put in the different departments to fix it so I’ve always been kind of like entrepreneurial to go in and look at how it’s done and decide, hey this is how we can tweak it. I guess I love learning and nothing has ever really scared me. Something that I don’t know how to do is not necessarily like overwhelming to me and I didn’t really know that I was supposed to know how to start a magazine in order to do it, I just kind of like did it my own way which people think it’s hilarious now but I really I think am an example that you don’t have to follow the rules. You really can do it in a different way and sometimes that’s exactly what your industry or your area needs is someone to look at it and say, “We don’t actually really need all that overhead. We don’t actually need to do it in that way,” and sometimes it can really end up in a creative new product or service.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

Yeah, I love that. It was funny because I was going to ask you, oh was it scary leaving what I’m sure felt like to some degree, like a pretty secure job to kind of move to something totally brand new but I love how you’re like, “No, I’m not scared. I’ll just figure it out.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

I mean, I did have all the mind drama right around going out there and doing my own thing. It’s not like I’m fearless. I have all the fears. I’ve just learned how to just keep going I guess you can say and there was a major shift at the company when I left. There was a board restructuring and the board had sort of shifted away from my values so it was really easy for me to say, “You know what? I’ve grown so much. I know what business can look like, I know what leadership can look like, and so I’m going to do this my own way instead of staying here and feeling angry that the company’s changed,” and all of that that can happen. It was a time where it was more of like, me on a mission to do business in a way I felt that really aligned my values.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

Yeah, I love that. I love that. It’s interesting, did you ever think about going into the non-profit space? I feel like a lot of people feel similar. Okay, I’m working this corporate job. It’s not really aligned with my values or I just don’t feel like I’m making an impact I want to have. I feel like a lot of people think okay, well the answer is go to work for a non-profit. That’s the solution and I love that kind of like you said before, you sort of chose a different path and you chose a new path and I think that the way that you are serving not only in your coaching business but also with Rank & File it’s just, like you said, it is so needed in the industry but yeah, did you think about going into the non-profit space or did that not really cross your mind as an option?

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

No, it didn’t. My dad is an entrepreneur, my uncles are entrepreneurs so I guess I’ve been surrounded by businesses. I haven’t been surrounded by the NGO space at all and as I was in my last role with that company I was planning destination programs, like really elaborate trips for groups of people and elaborate programs in places around the world and so I was able to see all these great little businesses in these villages and these cities and I fell in love with the little social enterprise restaurants and the weaving cooperatives and all of these really creative little businesses that were in these places that not only were affecting their communities but also just made traveling so much more rich because you got to see the authentic experience. I wanted to do that. I wanted to start a business that generated revenue so that in 10 years I could employ a lot of people, right? Yeah, it didn’t really occur to me to go down the non-profit road.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

You know what? I love that because I feel like oftentimes we think there’s one path to achieve a certain result. This to me, it’s just encouragement for myself and anybody listening that if there’s something that you want to do there’s not just one path that’s going to lead you right there. In your case, wanting to have that impact and do something different and more positive than maybe you felt was happening at your company. Non-profit was not the solution to that. I just, I love that because I think often we just think that there’s one road to the result that we want and there’s really limitless potential. I love it.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

Anything that you do requires sales activities so I forget who told me. I think it was an early mentor at the time when we were just talking about models and he might’ve asked me the same question and he said, “If you run a non profit, you’re going to constantly be in the money raising cycle anyways. You have to learn how to generate income no matter if you ask people for it through a non-profit or you ask people for it through your product or your service so it’s just like how do you want to spend your time? It’s not as important of a difference I don’t think, it just depends on what kind of model you want in terms of the behind the scenes structure but none of them get you away from sales.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

Yes, oh my gosh. It’s so true. I actually know non profits that internally call their fundraising department the sales team. That’s exactly what it is. I think it’s really interesting and I love what you said that you hired a coach and you sort of connected the personal growth that you were doing and working on with your coach to business growth. As you were growing as a person your business was growing as well. Were there any really key mindset shifts or maybe a turning point that you remember in the beginning of that journey?

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

Oh my gosh, so many. How much time do you have?

Stephanie Skryzowski:

I know.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

One of the main things that I had to work through and of course it’s going to be slightly different for every entrepreneur but my issues are very common because I get to see them in a lot of the women that I coach and one of them was that I sort of had this underlying sort of belief that making money is hard and also that starting a business is hard. I was really making things more complicated than they needed to be and I was sort of my biggest road block even though I didn’t even understand it. It was sort of like this underlying belief was creating all this stuff that I wasn’t aware of. I had to do a lot of work on really stepping into the idea that you can make an impact in the world and you can even help the world’s most vulnerable but it doesn’t have to feel heavy and hard. I know a lot of non-profits actually struggle with this because they are surrounded by so much poverty that they feel a lot of scarcity around money and time and so they end up going through burnout after burnout because they’re just struggling so much.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

I had sort of like the similar version of that where I had seen my dad just hustle, hustle, hustle for so many years of his business although he was very successful and I had this idea that I had to do the same thing and yeah, it really just caught up with me. I wasn’t making the right business choices and like I said I was over complicating things that could be very, very simple. Once I changed and shifted my mindset, I was able to put less steps and less complexity between me and the sale and I started to see a lot of momentum very quickly and so that was really fun, just one day you have one belief and you’re like, struggling, and the next day you get to that belief shift and you see something just change almost overnight it seems like. That’s when I knew I love coaching. I need more of this. There were several other beliefs that I had to work through as well but I think that was my first one, the biggest one that I think that I got over that really made a difference.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

Yeah, oh my gosh. I love that so much and that really resonates with me as well because I think about the beginning stages of my business too and even like the simplest things just submitting a proposal to a potential client, I made it into this gargantuan effort and this whole big ridiculously fancy thing and I’m like, “Okay they kind of just want to know what I can do for them and how much it’s going to cost. That’s it. I don’t need to over complicate this.” Even those tiny things that feel like such a big deal in the beginning really can hold us back. Now you’re coaching. You coach women founders, entrepreneurs in some of those same mindset things that you struggle with yourself and so I know you specifically mentioned helping entrepreneurs who are plagued by analysis paralysis. Can you talk a little bit about what does that mean and where are people when you start working with them and how you kind of help them get unstuck.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

Yes. Analysis paralysis is something that I think every entrepreneur has experienced. I’m sure you have and it’s basically where we’re just caught in a state of almost confusion where we’re going around and around in our heads about whether or not we should do like this or that, right? Maybe we’re trying to think through a strategy or a direction and we can’t just decide which way it should be done. So a lot of unneeded complexity happens during those thought loops and a lot of procrastination and we kind of just end up looping in our heads instead of moving forward with really focused action. It’s really important first of all to understand where analysis paralysis comes from before you can start to help move yourself through it. Analysis paralysis is basically just a coping mechanism of the human brain because our brains are wired for saying this, right? If we were living in prehistoric times we would want to stay alive at all costs and we would have the fight or flight response come up way more often so we could like run away from an animal or we could fight if someone was attacking us. We could deal with maybe even famine if it was happening. We would yeah, have these fight or flight responses and we would really get cued up for survival.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

Our brain over time has been conditioned for sameness because sameness means survival, it means that we’re safe and so when you’re an entrepreneur, you are constantly doing things that are new. You don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. It might just be someone saying no to your proposal or your email but like our brains kind of knew that as maybe there’s an animal behind there. Our brains are just a little confused so our brain sort of digests this as very scary and not a good place to be. What happens is that we’ll just put things in front of ourselves so that we don’t actually take the action. The brain can do funny things. It can add complexity, confusion, lots of pros and cons, lots of analysis and so we just kind of stay looping and again we don’t have to actually take the scary step.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

That’s really like a “success” for your brain because you end up staying in dreaming and planning mode forever and you don’t have to go out and reach the potential failure. I think once we understand that that’s where analysis paralysis comes from then we can start to recognize when it’s happening and be like, “Well there it is brain. You’re doing that again,” and we don’t have to necessarily beat ourselves up for it or we don’t have to make it mean that we’re not a good businessperson or tell ourself it’s imposter syndrome and make it this huge deal. We can just say, “You know what? This is just a normal thing,” and then we can have some tools to move through it.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

Oh my goodness, you’re right. I think that every single person who is in any business journey has experienced this and I think it’s really interesting about what you said about sameness, sort of being safe and the first thing that came to my mind is comfortable and being inside of your comfort zone and that’s something that I talk about a lot at sort of the beginning of my business and where the name of my business and the name of this podcast came from is really pushing outside of that comfort zone, of that safe place, of that sameness of your day to day life and that’s where the transformation and the growth happens. I love that you are helping women push past this and whatever you call it, whether it’s analysis paralysis or your comfort zone or whatever it is because on the other side of that is always growth.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

You hear me talk all the time about how important it is to know your numbers as a business owner but you may be thinking, “Well, how in the world do I do that? Where do I even begin? So, I have a free resource for you. The Profit Playbook is an amazing template that you spend about 15 minutes getting it all set up and you can literally see into the future of your business. Revenue, expenses, cash flow, just like a crystal ball. It is a huge resource that will absolutely help you create a road map to reach your goals in your business. It is for free over at 100DegreesConsutling.com/profit.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

What are some of the practical things that entrepreneurs can do if they find themselves sort of stuck in this loop or this safe place and they want to get out of it but they don’t really know how or they’re scared. What are some tips that people can take away?

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

Yeah, there’s a few things you can do. The first thing I would recommend is to work on some of those self beliefs because I think that a lot of times we are viewing our businesses through a dirty filter. We’ve got all of these beliefs that we sort of like put up there and then all of the strategies have to get through them and a lot of them really will hold you back, right? For example, the more money I make the more busy I’ll be, or I can’t make a million dollars a year and make an impact, or whatever your stories are that you’re telling yourself that are going to block you from really getting out of that comfort zone and also simplifying the steps to get there, right? You first want to work on uncovering some of your belief systems and just kind of getting a good overview of where you are right now. I think it’s important that you don’t punish yourself or shame yourself for where you’re currently at. Everyone has limiting beliefs that are holding them back. You want to be really kind to the person that you are because the person that you are has gotten you this far. It’s just that you haven’t learned some things yet. You just want to use the energy of awareness when you’re looking at your current self concept is what I like to call it.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

The second thing I think that’s really good to do is also really not directly looking at the analysis paralysis but also looking at your future self [inaudible 00:26:26], right? The person you want to become. One of the first things I do with my clients when they come to me is we talk about what the woman looks like who is running your ideal business in three to five years. I have them paint the vision, the picture of their ideal vision in five years and then we paint the picture of the woman who leads that company. I’ll ask them questions like, “How does this woman dress? How does she feel in the morning? How does she put herself out there? What does she care about? What does she not care about anymore? What kind of value does she create in the world?” I’ll just keep asking them questions until we paint such a vivid picture of this woman.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

A lot of it will be around how she thinks and how she feels and how she takes action. That really helps you paint a picture of not the goals you want to reach like I need to have this much revenue and this many partners and this many features but it helps you to step into really understanding the person who you are becoming and then here’s the most important part. Are you ready Stephanie? The most important part of that is that I want my clients to just decide that they are that woman now.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

They’re not going to defer the feelings of confidence. They’re not going to defer the feelings of fulfillment, of dressing however they want to dress and feeling ready and all these other thoughts that they think are not possible until they reach the goal. They just decide, “Oh, I get to be this person now. I could just show up like this person now,” and then sort of the daily challenge for acting outside of your comfort zone is just practicing being this person now. It’s amazing how when you just decide you’re this future person now the goals become really easy because you’re being the person you need to be to make it happen. Does that make sense?

Stephanie Skryzowski:

Oh my gosh, yes. Yes, yes, yes. It makes so much sense and I feel like I’ve been reading a couple books that like are teaching me this as well. I love that. That’s so interesting. I have done similar exercises, maybe not in as much detail as you lead your coaching clients through but it is so powerful when you’re like everything that I want and that I need, it’s already here. It’s within me. It is accessible. I just need to tap into it. I feel like so often we’re just sort of drowning in our day to day that we forget about what’s already within us. That exercise is so, so transformative if you really step into it and then live it. I love that so much. That’s so good.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

The other thing that I really do a lot of work on and it’s actually one of the main themes of my mastermind this year. I started a new mastermind called The Year of Uncomfortable and we work a lot with something I call the brain drama diet. It basically, I’m just challenging all the women in group to go on a diet from brain drama. Brain drama is just all these feelings that are normal parts of entrepreneurship because we’re living outside of our comfort zone but we need to understand how to manage them effectively. Brain drama can be analysis paralysis of course. It can be confusion, worry, fear, procrastination, complexity, confusion. It can also be the victim mentality. If you get stuck thinking like my circumstances are the reason for everything and I can’t do anything, right? All of this stuff can lead to brain drama and it’s not needed. It’s actually not essential. It’s just like your brain doing its stuff.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

Yeah, I have my clients go on a brain drama diet and there’s a series of things that I have them do every day so that they can look at the thoughts and think about the feelings that those thoughts are creating and then move to a healthier place where they can move forward without all that analysis paralysis.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

Oh my gosh, I love it. The Year of Uncomfortable. I love that name so much. I want to get uncomfortable for a whole year. Imagine the person that you’ll be after 365 days of making yourself intentionally uncomfortable.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

Yes.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

So good. So good. As part of the women that you coach, obviously so much of what you do and the business that you’ve built are blending like social impact and business and do you help business owners really figure out how to infuse that social impact into their businesses as well?

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

Yeah, absolutely. It’s something that a lot of people have brain drama about, right? They don’t know how to simplify it so their values are really expressed and they’re actually moving the needle on a problem and it’s financially sustainable and so it does cause a lot of unneeded complexity. That’s something that we always touch on as part of working together. It always comes down to mindsets. We’ve got to clean up the filter first and then we can start to look on the things like, okay how does this move the needle? How does this become financially sustainable for you and for your community and we can really lay it out on paper but I think it starts with really getting to a clean place. So many of us we just have so much of yeah, these beliefs about how it should be run and how it should look at how much money we should make and all this stuff that really clouds our judgment but absolutely. It’s always something that I work on and really the most exciting part.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

I’m so blessed that I get to help women to see what’s possible for themselves expand what they see and then therefore increase their impact beyond what they thought was possible and in the mean time they grow so much. They become so proud of the person they’ve become and they’ve just brought so much more abundance into their personal lives. I think a lot of them think I’m going to start out on this mission and I’m going to be poor forever and burned out forever and it really doesn’t have to be that way. You can make an impact and you can have a sustainable income and you can have a fulfilling personal life. It doesn’t have to be like a but. It can be an and.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

Yes. Oh gosh, that’s so true because it feels often that it’s like okay, either I can make a bunch of money but I’m going to have to work really hard and maybe sacrifice family time, or I can not have a lot of money and work for a non-profit and be able to make this amazing tangible impact but I’m probably also sacrificing family time there, or I can hang out with my family but then I’m not going to have money. It’s like, yeah it totally feels like you can have one or the other and I love that you’re opening people’s minds to the fact that you can create wealth in abundance for yourself and that ripple effect can transform communities and the world really. That’s something, we work with all of our clients we work with non-profits and we work with purpose driven businesses and one thing I see especially in the businesses is there are these people with really amazing intentions and really beautiful hearts that want to have an impact and want to do something with their money but they often done know what to do with it or how to… What should I do? Should I donate a couple thousand to a bunch of different non-profits or should I make a big donation to this other non-profit?

Stephanie Skryzowski:

They feel like those are kind of the options and they don’t know what to do so then they don’t do anything but then they feel like they’re not really fulfilling their true calling and purpose and so like you said, it does become overly complicated to make that impact. It’s like we have the money but now what do we really do with it? I see that happen quite a bit. I don’t know if you see that as well.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

Yeah. We have such a small view of what we could do. We haven’t really thought outside of the box and we’re so scared. We have so much scarcity around time and money so that’s really I think what blocks us. Once someone can say like, “Okay, I don’t have any of these beliefs so let me just kind of show you how I’m seeing this,” and they’re like, “Wait, what? Is that even possible?” You can show them some examples of other people who do it that way and you can talk them through how simple it can be. Then it’s really fun to see the light bulb go on. It’s like they were wearing like sunglasses and it was all dark and then suddenly they turn the lights on and it was all clear so it’s really fun to watch.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

Yeah. Oh my gosh, I know. You know what? Light bulb moments of our clients, that is one of my most favorite things in the work that I do and really being able to basically create this spreadsheet and then see that light bulb moment in the client through Zoom. It’s like… Oh, it’s one of my favorite things. I’m sure you see those light bulb moments all the time.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

Yes, and I have experienced it. A spreadsheet can do that, I promise.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

Yes, it can. Yes it can. Oh my goodness. Well, I feel like we could just keep chatting forever but I’ve got just a couple more questions for you and because I’m a CFO I always love to hear how our guests manage the numbers in their businesses. Obviously you don’t have to get into specifics but do you have any sort of finance routine or anything special that you do to manage the numbers in your business?

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

Yeah, I do a CEO day every month. I’ve been doing it for several years and my process has evolved over time. Now it’s like very specific and I put it into a planner. We actually use it in the mastermind but one of the main sort of sections of that is looking at my finances. I always, always, always look at how we did last month, how we did last month… Last year and what is coming up ahead. I always like to look at the numbers and I have said something to myself for many years which I think you say as well, maybe a little differently but what you focus on grows. I think that so many times as purpose driven entrepreneurs we feel like money is selfish or money is dirty or evil because we’ve seen bad examples of it and so we don’t want to be just people who think only about money, right? We want to be the people who think about impact but we cannot have that mindset. If you’re putting impact against income you’ll never make an impact. You have to grow together and you have to focus on both and so always, always, always look at the finances once a month through my CEO day.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

I also work with my accountant, my financial person who kind of helps me to get an overview of maybe like some of the things I’m not seeing. As a non finance person there’s things that I’ll miss, right? I do think it’s important to have financial assistance in your back pocket. You’re not going to be the finance brain probably if you are the founder. You’re thinking about the visionary stuff, the creation stuff, the sale stuff hopefully. You’re not looking down line by line on a P and L all the time. I do think it’s important to get assistance either before or after your monthly CEO day so that you can fill in any gaps that are there.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

Yeah, I love that. You know I think that everybody’s routine might look at little bit different. I think the key thing is that it’s a routine and it’s something you do consistently because you’re right. I do say that all the time what you focus on expands. I think you said what you focus on grows but same thing.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

Yeah.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

Yes, I love that. Well, that’s great. I’m glad that that’s part of your CEO day and that you’re incorporating that into your mastermind so that that routine and that consistency grows out to your people as well. Okay, so I’ve got just three quick questions to wrap us up and you can just share the first thing that comes to mind. The first question is what is your favorite productivity hack or tip or trick in your business or your life?

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

Oh, there’s so many.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

I know, I know.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

Oh my goodness. I have created a whole planner with lots of these but my favorite one other than the future self concept that we talked about because I really do think that when you are tapped into the person who you need to become to be that woman or that person in five years you can save a lot of time and remove a lot of complexity from your day and so I do think that you can grow your business by literally just reading your future self concept and asking yourself what would this person do today? But I also really love doing a process called Monday hour one. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it. There’s lots of steps. Maybe we won’t go into it all today but basically you just brain dump everything that has been populating in your mind on paper once a week.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

Of course you’ve got your monthly CEO day planned, you’ve got your quarterly plans and your weekly plans and you’ve got everything planned out but you still have that stuff that populates in your brain. Things come to your mind in the shower, and in the car. If you’re an entrepreneur, this happens to you. You write down everything that is on your mind. The ideas, the to do’s the personal stuff, the big stuff, the small stuff, everything and then you just run it through a few questions to help like cross things off the list, delegate items, move things to the months where they should go or really analyze them to see if it’s something that even needs to go into the agenda for your next monthly CEO day. I love that. I love how Monday hour one has helped me to not have the grass is greener syndrome. It keeps me focused because I know, okay if I think of something in the shower I can write it down on the paper that I’ll use for my next brain dump and I don’t have to think about it now. Then when I get to that time I’ll be able to assess it.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

Most of the time I don’t take any of those things with me because the monthly CEO time is really when you do the most productive planning anyways. This really helps to keep me on track.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

Oh, I love that. There’s something so powerful about getting things out of your head and onto paper. It’s like once it hits the paper, your mind is almost like, “Okay, we’re good. I don’t need to keep that on the top of the pile anymore and it just releases. To me at least it just releases so much pressure and sometimes anxiety depending on what it is, as soon as it hits paper I feel like a weight has been lifted so I imagine that process is very powerful.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

Yeah. Sometimes when you do it you’ll feel overwhelm because you’ll see it all on the list and your brain will immediately want to clean it up but that’s really powerful because all of that anxiety has been subconscious and now you’ve just brought it up and so by the time you’re done with running it through the questions you feel so amazing, you’re right. You just feel so refocused and you’re like, “I don’t even have to worry about all those ideas and all those things. I know what I need to do right now. That’s a priority.”

Stephanie Skryzowski:

Yeah, oh my gosh. That’s super powerful. I need to learn more about that. Okay, my second question is what is a favorite book that you’ve read? I’m sure you’ve read a ton like everybody has. Let’s say a business book or something related to your business or personal growth, that kind of thing.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

Yeah, I just read the book you recommended to me, I think it’s called The Upper Limit.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

Oh, The Big Leap, that one? The Big Leap?

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

Yes, The Big Leap.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

Oh my gosh, yeah. Is all about expanding your upper limit, that’s why I call it that.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

Yes, oh my gosh. So good by Gay Hendricks. I loved it. I read it during Christmas during my walks in the Norwegian mountains and it was just so magical and yeah I loved it. It was in line with a lot of the things I had been learning through my coaching practice but I got so many good tidbits around how are just our own roadblock, right and how we can achieve so much more so I would highly, highly recommend The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

Yes, I’m so glad that you read it and enjoyed it. I feel like I read it once and then I read it again with a journal next to me and it’s only been a couple months and I want to read it again already. So good.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

Yeah, so good.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

All right, and my last question before we wrap up. Imagine that you had a weekday completely free from work or any obligations. What do you do?

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

Oh my goodness. So I would just hang out with my husband. He travels for work. He travels, can you believe it, five weeks away from home and then he’s on-

Stephanie Skryzowski:

Oh wow.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

Yeah, then he’s on vacation for five weeks so when he’s home I get him like all to myself. We just get to have lots of fun and the fact that I can have a business that’s flexible lets me see him when he’s home. Then he’s away and he’s actually coming home tomorrow. I’m super excited.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

Oh yay!

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

Yeah, when you said that it’s like, right now I’m thinking because I haven’t seen him in five weeks like, that’s all I would do. We would probably go hiking. We can walk from our house to waterfalls and to ski tracks and stuff here so yeah, it’s really beautiful in Norway.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

Oh, that’s amazing. That’s definitely on my dream destination list for sure. I know several people actually before COVID have traveled to Norway and just absolutely loved it so it’s on the list as soon as it’s safe to travel again.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

Yeah, well let me know when you’re here and I can take you around.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

Yes, oh my gosh. What a dream. Sounds awesome. Well Kari, thank you so much. This was such a great conversation. Where can our listeners find you and is there anything you’d like to share with us?

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

Yeah so everyone can go to rankandfile.com and there you can learn all about my coaching programs, you can learn about The Year of Uncomfortable mastermind. You can also go to rankandfilemag.com and that’s where you can view all of the digital issues of Rank & File Magazine and I also have a podcast called Rank & File Podcast. It’s a combination of solo shows where I share business coaching advice, kind of like I did today and interviews from Rank & File Magazine. Yeah, there’s lots of places you can go to get more advice from Rank & File.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

Yes, thank you so much. Yeah, and the magazine is awesome so I definitely encourage you to check that out in addition to everything else that Kari has shared. Thank you so much for joining me today and yeah, I really appreciate your time.

Kari Elizabeth Enge:

Thank you so much Stephanie.

Stephanie Skryzowski:

Thanks for listening to the 100 Degrees of Entrepreneurship Podcast. To access our show notes and bonus content, visit 100degreesconsulting.com/podcast. Make sure to snap a screen shot on your phone of this episode and tag me on Instagram @stephanie.S-K-R-Y and I’ll be sure to share. Thanks for being here friends and I’ll see you next time.

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