Energy Weldfab's Michael Clements and Cori Moore, serialpreneur, author and founder of iTRI365 discuss goal setting and overcoming obstacles.
NOTE: Due to strong language, listener discretion is advised.
Show Episode Transcript
Manufacturing Leadership
Goal Setting with Cori Moore, Serialpreneur, Author and Founder of ITRI365
Intro:Welcome to manufacturing leadership, a podcast for young professionals in and out of the oil and gas industry. And now here's your host, Energy WeldFab's Michael Clements.
Michael C.: We've got a great episode for you today, but due to strong language listener discretion is advised.
Michael C.: What's up listeners, welcome to manufacturing leadership I'm your host Michael Clements and we are setup for another great show. Today we have an exciting entrepreneur, motivational speaker, and endurance coach and two-time Ironman athlete with an extensive background in management and startups. She often speaks on topics inspired by business management, self-improvement and healthy lifestyle choices, welcome Corey Moore
Cori Moore: Thank you for having me.
Michael C.: You doing all right today, Corey
Cori Moore: I'm doing great.
Michael C.: Wonderful. Well Corey has been starting businesses since she was 21, and has authored and published a book on staff management, and has frequently spoken at chiropractic conferences in colleges about motivational tactics and office management. She also gives presentations on self-growth, goals and overcoming obstacles.
In her spare time you'll find this wife and mother of two on a road bike or mountain bike or volunteering with embark women, that is an extensive track record. Corey I'm excited to hear what you have to share with our listeners about goal-setting, so let's get started.
Cori Moore: Let's get started.
Michael C.: All right, well Corey tell us a little bit about yourself.
Cori Moore: I just turned 36 yesterday.
Michael C.: Well exciting, happy belated birthday.
Cori Moore: Thank you. I've been married for almost twelve years now, I've got an 8 and 10 year old, and I'm just working on my own business, helping other people grow their businesses, and try and keep a healthy active lifestyle in the midst of all that.
Michael C.: Wonderful. Well it sounds like you definitely have a spirit for entrepreneurship, you started at a young age at 21, tell us a little bit about before you were 21 the time that was leading up to that?
Cori Moore: That's a good story. My dad was an entrepreneur pretty much my whole life, so I grew up mainly with him. My mother was also an entrepreneur, though she was an illegal entrepreneur, she was a drug lord, drug somebody I don't know what you would call it. But she actually spent most my childhood in and out of prison, because she smuggled drugs back and forth from Mexico to Texas. So those drug movies that you see made back in the 80s that's like a real thing, that really happened, that was my childhood for I don't know ages about five to ten with her going through that and I joke about it because I've healed through that.
But I find it funny that I have a dad and then I had a mom who was pretty much a kick-ass entrepreneur in a male-dominated industry, albeit an illegal one. So I grew up seeing the initiative, the ambition, how to be assertive, and management through both parents basically but my father was definitely the most influential and he was a naturopathic doctor who owned four health food stores. So my early years as early as I can remember I was in the stores helping him build shelves, doing inventory, fronting products, checking people out, I made it like it was my own, so it started early that spirit started early with me.
Michael C.: So the drive to succeed is something that just came natural for you from?
Cori Moore: I feel like it, I feel like I was blessed to have the environment to encourage that. I played sports and my dad was a coach, my uncle was a coach and if you are anybody in sports who has a parent who coaches you, there is very little room for error and I was pushed a lot, so there wasn't a lot of room for mediocrity when it came to my raising with my dad. So I think that's a natural kind of path that takes in the leadership when you're involved in things like that.
Michael C.: Well it definitely takes a headstrong person to want to start a business, and at 21 years old starting your first business it sounds like you had to have definitely had a drive and determination that very few at that age have.
Cori Moore: I did, I probably an old soul. My dream in high school was to grow up and be a motivational speaker, I was a speech com major in college but that dream started in high school and my first business ownership came, I was constantly looking for a way to start a business and it never came into fruition until I was 21. And I bought a franchise, a magazine franchise called natural awakenings with a partner and mentor, she's still a mentor to me today and I was the youngest franchise owner in in that particular business at that time, and that was my first experience in business ownership and the responsibility that came with it.
But you learn a lot, I ended up selling out my part, but that was huge. You think that you can take on a lot of things when you're that young and it's a rude awakening when you get stuck in a situation, early on you realize how much you don't know, but it didn't dissuade me from continuing to try.
Michael C.: Experience is everything in business and you definitely know that now. How often did you lean on your family and your mentor during that time?
Cori Moore: Always, that's a huge thing. The people that I talked to it's so important to have strong support systems in place whether it's family, a lot of times when you go out on what some family members might think is a little dream pie-in-the-sky you don't get a lot of support from family, I was lucky in that I did.
But if you don't have that kind of support system you definitely need to have mentors in place who are there for you to go to and get advice, and bounce ideas off and be sounding boards.
Michael C.: You know after starting a business myself a few years ago, there were definitely things I was getting into in industry I didn't know I guess what I was getting myself into necessarily, it was just like hey I know this is good there's a need, let's just jump into it. And you're really surprised right away with all the different things that you have to deal with, and it's extremely important to have people there that you can talk to or ask especially that are experienced in the industry. Kind of luckily enough I had people around me that had been in business and had been entrepreneurs, but unluckily enough I didn't have very many people that have been doing it in the industry that I've gotten myself into.
So there were a lot of challenges there and you probably know these employees in all different kinds of industries they're all different, you deal with a lot of different personalities. How did you deal early on with being an entrepreneur and working with others, did you ever find yourself looking around and saying I have an amazing drive here, is everybody else on board with me, does everybody else have the same amount of drive that's trying to do this with me?
Cori Moore: Yes definitely, with my latest company so we're four years into it. When I started this one there were a lot of partners involved, and there was a lot of me encouraging or wanting, I would say probably me wanting other people to be involved in wanting something as much as I did. But it was my baby, it was basically my husband and my brainchild and you are not ever going to find somebody who loves your business as much as you do, it's not going to happen.
But you can create an environment where they feel connected, and the amount of [Pause 00:07:41.26] in a way that makes your company something that they believe in and that they want to invest, not only time but their emotion and their heart into it and they need to believe in you first, and then they'll believe in that business. So it's always tricky dealing with personalities, you can't get away from that, but you can do your part in making the best environment possible to have a productive business and the relationships within it.
Michael C.: An exciting environment is something that really, especially with millennial workforce today and I mean just in general people want to work somewhere they enjoy it. I've seen some crazy stats out there that it's like over 50% of people don't enjoy their job, they don't enjoy what they're doing and it really is.
And it's tough because as an entrepreneur and a manager you know that you're going to have those types of people in your workforce that I don't know some people I guess just aren't happy to work, they just don't want to but they know they have to maybe, that's a challenge in itself. Your first business you started at 21, did you start bringing in employees right away or was this something over time when did that really get kicked off for you?
Cori Moore: No, we didn't do that, it was the two of us and I think that we may have had one sales rep and that did not expand. I was not in the role, the management role to be bringing on employees at that time. Most of the management that I dealt with actually wasn't my business, I spent 10 years in chiropractic and managing a practice and managing patients and a doctor and the staff and the turnover that occurred there, learned a lot in that position, but it wasn't mine. Now coming into ITRI365 which is the company that I own now I have races where I have to bring teams together, and each person has a role that they have to play. So I may have anywhere from five to ten people that are crucial to that event being a success, who are also coordinating other people.
So there's a huge, large, team dynamic and to your point of having people who are there just to work I think it's important for management and leaders to understand that the jobs where people are just there to work are the jobs that anybody can do. You don't put people in key who don't care about the job and the work ethic that they have, but not everybody's going to love what they do, and I think if you're going to be in their lives for a short period of time that part of your role as a leader is to help influence those people, and to teach them that to get the most out of life it's not about your circumstance but your perspective and your mindset.
And that's always my goal, if somebody's going to work with me whether it be a short-term or long-term I hope that my impact at least if they don't want to stay with me carries on into the next level of life that they go to, and we can do that in any time with anybody who's in our business.
Michael C.: So setting your workforce up for success and those you work with, and getting them excited for the goals and things that you and aspirations that you have for your business, where do you find that common ground and we'll get on the topic of goal-setting here, how do you look for those organizational goals and give us an example maybe an organizational goal that you have in your business right now for your team?
Cori Moore: So it's always my goal to have a fluid event, to have the least amount of hiccups possible. And what I have found that works the most is I'm not a big micro manager, but if you can set expectations, very clear expectations and boundaries upfront they know exactly what they're dealing with, and then you step away and let them bring their version of that role it allows them to take ownership. And when someone takes ownership of something most of us, there's always exceptions but most of us if it's something that we feel like we have ownership and we're going to do a good job because it reflects on us personally. So if they're personally invested in what they're doing, I find that the goals that I set for the organization tend to be met.
So if I have a job that I want someone to do it's as a volunteer coordinator job, and I would love for you to step into this role and take this over. These are the things that I need, this is when I need these things done, go and do these things and then you see them put a spin on it. Because they know how to reflect themselves to get the job done, they get to use their skillsets and the things that they feel like they're good at.
And I value that, I value those different diversities and the skillsets and the personalities that people have, I think the issues come in when you have goals and organizations when people don't have very clear expectations, they do not have boundaries, they don't know what they're supposed to do and so they're flying by the seat of their pants and then all of a sudden you have a problem with them or you never told them. So it's always management problem, if you've got an issue with your organization it's always a management problem always.
Michael C.: So you'd like to take ownership over those, it sounds like if there's an issue in your organization you're taking the ownership from the managerial position that hey I'm taking this responsibility we're going to be able to work through this.
Cori Moore: Absolutely.
Michael C.: I guess your team admires that about you.
Cori Moore: I hope so.
Michael C.: So on the goal setting for the organization, have you had good and bad experiences with finding goals that maybe worked to motivate your team, but also finding goals that did or didn't?
Cori Moore: I have, I've experienced all the above, the best thing that works for us is to sit down together. Even though as an owner of a company or maybe someone in management you can exactly divulge everything that has to do with your numbers, or the pressures that you might have and the demands that may present themselves. But you can sit down with a team and set goals and get their input, when you're setting those goals again if they feel like they're a part of something and you make them feel that they are a valuable part which they are in reaching those goals, that's been the most successful way that I've seen my team succeed.
We set those goals early in the year, we write them down, we talked about, we brainstorm what can we do to make these things happen and typically those goals are met usually by the summer, and we do that and we reevaluate that again in the summer time and set them all over again for either the fall or the following year. And any time that I've seen a dissonance between the things that are happening in my company that should or I want to happen and they're not happening, it's because we're not on the same page and again I take possibility for that as a leader and a manager.
It's your responsibility to make sure that your team know what's expected, and setting goals and being vested in those goals then we're all on the same page if we're looking at the same vision and we might be getting there in different ways using our different skill sets, but that vision is going to come to fruition because we're all looking at the same place.
Michael C.: So I take it you have a vision for your business, you have a vision for where you want the individuals in your company to go.
Cori Moore: Yes.
Michael C.: So you know where these goals as an organization you want to go, do you start to put the individual goals, are they I guess countered off of that main goal or are your individual goals more focused to the individual and maybe what their self-improvement needs to be?
Cori Moore: That's like a multi-layered question. So I have an ultimate vision that I want to see there's that fifty thousand foot view of where you want to be in five years or ten years, and that is for the most part has stayed the same. I'm always looking to evolve and sometimes there are certain details about that that view that that does change, but for the most part everybody is aware of what our ultimate goal is, where do we want to be, what does this want to look like and then we break that down into smaller increments.
And then when you get into like the yearly or the monthly and you're looking at KPIs and certain benchmarks that you want to hit, those tend to be smaller steps that again I don't micromanage those, but when it comes to whether or not my team can get to those places and how we look at those goals, one of the things that I've begun to do is to invest in the self-awareness and the self-growth of my employees specifically. So I have someone that works with me and she's amazing, but there was a particular book that I really felt I wanted everybody on my team, it was even people I contract to do work I'm like you have to read this book, this book is amazing and for anybody listening to it's called you are badass by Jensen Sarah and this book it was a life changer.
I knew if I could get everybody with the same mindset on how we could achieve our goals, to let go of the how, if you have an idea and you have a vision and you believe without a doubt that's for me, the universe will bend to make that happen. As long as we don't say well that goal yes I really want that goal, but the only way I'm going to accept the result is if it happens like this and within this timeframe, and it has to come from that person and that was something that used to be a roadblock for my team in reaching goals, and the idea and they would get discouraged because it wasn't coming the way that they thought it should come, or it didn't happen when they thought it should come.
And when you're in my position and you're saying but hey that was still a win, wait a minute you let's look at this at a different perspective it is worth my time which is a valuable thing, to take time out of my schedule to invest in them personally and recommend things that I know are going to change their perspective and their mindset, and put them in a position to let go of worry and stress that gets in the way of things that can come to us, I started doing that the last couple of years and really truly investing in the growth of other people.
Who worked with me and were instrumental in the success of our business, and that has been a huge factor in how quickly we've gotten to some of the goals, how quickly we that we've met certain KPIs that I've just set. I'll set something and within a couple of weeks we're getting phone calls about things, and it's because mindsets have changed and the goals for me and when I teach them, when I speak about them it all boils down to mindset.
Michael C.: So it sounds like the goals you're setting especially for your team are almost even more I guess mindset based, and even skills based because you believe that their skills will improve as their mindset improves, and as their mindset improves they're going to be motivated to attain those skills that it needs to take, to attain the goals that you've set for your organization.
Cori Moore: And if they're personally invested in my company, they will be achieving those goals with me.
Michael C.: That's terrific, and was this something that I mean I'm guessing at 21 years old you didn't know that right out of the box if you did I'm really proud of you, because that's wonderful.
But I guess how long did it take you to really grasp that and have the understanding for one and the patience for two, to be able to invest in your workforce and say okay I know I can't have this overnight, I'm going to start this journey that may take a few months to first get the mindset there, and then I have a journey of the next few months for them to catch up to the skill set, so although we want it to happen today we're looking at three to six month timeline. Was it hard to almost get behind that at first for yourself?
Cori Moore: No, not now being at 21 years old I was reading the Robert Kiyosaki's books Rich Dad Poor Dad, I was totally tapped into to Tony Robbins these people are all my idols, so if you ever see me stars truck it won't be over an actor and actress it'll be over some of these inspirational people out there. So I have always been interested in self-growth and the self-health books and that sort of thing, but it took me personally going through a major shift in my outlook on life about thirty one years old.
And before that there was some impatience, being a type-a I wouldn't say perfectionist but being someone who was driven, you get a little impatient with people around you who don't want to work as hard as you to get something, and I was that way on the basketball court, I was that way in management, even if it wasn't my company I didn't understand I mean there's nothing more important than work, like you don't need a break, we've got stuff to do why would you take a break.
And so I was really judgmental and critical up until about year 31 or 32, having kids changes a lot of that, but I had a pretty major life change happen and that was my dad passed away. And when he died a lot of the expectations that I grew up with kind of died with him, and it was the first time that I felt like I was not living my life with his voice in my head, and me trying not to disappoint him and at that moment I started asking myself well is this really something I want to do, what do I really want to do in life and how do I feel about this, like wait a minute I'm an individual, I can make these decisions on my own. And I started the journey of trying to figure out well what is my belief system, what do I value.
Man I spent a year just immersed in books trying to figure myself out, I wanted to know who I was without everyone else's influence, and there was a lot of rebellion amidst that and my husband was a saint and put up with it for a year of me just trying to figure stuff out. And then when I got through that I came out on the other side with so much more compassion, realizing that everybody has their own journey and when it came to me having to staff a company, I started to look at people as what part of that journey are they in. Once you've been to some place you've gone through school, you've gone through high school and you have a teenager standing in front of you and they're this is what I'm going through, and you're sitting there having them through college and you're with kids and you laugh because you know exactly what they're going through, you've been there you've done that.
And so that's kind of what I was doing I could see people and I can see where they are in their journey, and when you know someone they're not ready to go there, and maybe they're not coachable or maybe they're still kind of stuck in the mud, they want to do things their way or they're resistant to ideas and influence on mindset and perspective. And when I go through the hiring process or I look at people, I look at first are they somebody that is looking to grow awareness, is looking to better themselves and you can feel that. And I'm not trying to sound all esoteric or whatever but you get that aura from somebody, when you're around them you can tell if there are a know it all or there's somebody that's like yes they're listening to you, they're open to ideas.
And so when I meet those personalities I love to see that, you always want to be learning and it's been easy for me to do that now because I've already been through, I've seen myself and I've learned how to be patient with myself in my transitional process. But when I bring people on with my team if they're someone that's coachable, and there's someone that's going to listen then that means that I have the ability to kind of help mold them into something that works for this company, and in the same time empower and encourage them through their self-growth in their journey because I've been there. And that's why I'm patient with it now, is it a 3 or 6 month you know it might take a while to convince them to read that book, or maybe to grasp a concept that their belief system didn't before, but at least they're in front of me and I can ask questions and they can think about it. But if they're coachable, I mean you can do almost anything with someone who's coachable.
Michael C.: You were talking earlier about your experience and how much that contributed to I guess what you're just expressing with me over. I mean it sounds like whenever you hit 30-31 years old that significant life change really had a great impact on you, did you almost automatically start to see once you kind of had this change of pace it sounds like it took around a year for that to occur, did you really start to see a change of pace and those around you and how you were investing into them?
Cori Moore: Yes, definitely everything changed. I went from ready to have a divorce to appreciating my husband that affected who I was as a parent. My family really that was tough to watch me struggle through that and change, I wouldn't say I changed who I was but I changed a lot of the things that I believed. So when people identify you based on a certain belief system, and all of the sudden you change that they have to adjust too. And so there was a lot of adjustments going by those around me and I lost a lot of friends, I lost a ton of friends going through that and I gained just as many.
And I would say going through that transition the people who stuck around are still super influential in the success that I have, and having their support and having their encouragement it's not just a family thing or a friend thing it's a how am I continuing to feed the things that make my heart seeing that my passions, and knowing that you have surrounded by going through that transition as hard as it was, you've now surrounded yourself with people who believe in you and that's consistently, like I'm amazed. My life is amazing, is it perfect? No way, and I dropped the f-bomb at least 50 times a day.
You know there's something going on and she's like are you kidding me, but if I believe that my ultimate vision is going to come to pass then every time I stub my toe or something goes wrong it's just part of that process, and now I can look at it with gratitude instead of a crappy attitude about it.
Michael C.: On the experience part of this, we look at the time before you were 30 like I said that was a kind of a transition moment for you, it sounds like you went through a little bit of a rebuilding for yourself and for others around you. How much different did you look at the responsibilities before and then after that transition, how did your view on your responsibilities to people, to your organization to your customers to all those things combined, how did that really?
Cori Moore: It changed everything, it went from me looking at clients or customers as the problem, and to me looking at the way I'm handling things as the problem. So that perspective if you are the one that's controlling your environment, then you have ability to change it, but if you are going to blame external factors or anything else that's going on outside of yourself for what's happening, you've lost that power and you've lost that control. So I mean I was still an empowered person before that, but I did not take responsibility for my part in the relationships that could go wrong or could go right, and when you want to share blame or you want to place blame you lose sight of your ability to grow in that process, you lose sight of different ways to solve a problem, you lose the ability to create resolutions and not burn bridges but create new relationships or salvage a relationship or look at being more innovative when you take responsibility for your part.
So from a business perspective doing that, when you step back and you say okay what's my part in this and how can I take control and take responsibility, and even if that means saying you're sorry or admitting a mistake, even if they're the ones that or sometimes that means just stepping into who you are and saying hey these are my boundaries, this is a hard rule and no I'm not going to lower my price, or this is how it is I'm not going to take a discount. That all came with it, it's taking responsibility for who I wanted to be and how I wanted to run my company.
Michael C.: Was there ever a time for you as you were also just I guess growing older as an entrepreneur and going through and gaining experience, was there ever a time for you where you started to replace maybe what you took as, you thought maybe someone would take his cockiness but now you take that as confidence? Just like you were talking with your customer, you know you're straightforward with them, you let them know this is what we have to have, and this is what we got to do to make this work.
Is there ever a point when you were younger you thought maybe like well this can come off a certain way, but as you matured now it's hey I have to be strong for our business and the people that I'm working with, now it's more about holding my ground it's not about who I am, but it's about the responsibility I have to others in this team?
Cori Moore: Yes, I think age helps a lot with that and you're younger and you thank or you're doing a good job and you're thinking to yourself well I'm let them go somewhere else, they're not going to find somebody who does as good a job as that, I don't care. And not that we don't think that still from time to time there are a lot of up times that that still happens, where they're not going to go somewhere else and get a better a better service or a better product. But now when it comes to pricing or scheduling or changing procedures around for someone, if I can be accommodating absolutely.
The biggest thing for me though is approaching my clients, my customers as if it's a partnership and being completely transparent about my motives, about our pricing, why we price it that way. Everybody knows that we have expenses involved in business, and if I can't cover those expenses and still make a profit this is not a mutually beneficial relationship for me. We have charity work that we do, and if there is something that we can arrange so that it makes it, I get a good give-and-take then I'm open to that. But I have bills to pay, and I have people to pay and those things, yes I don't even know that confidence is the word, I think responsibility, at that point it's you being responsible business owner or responsible leader and that's a must.
Can you be cocky when you're younger yes and you could see through that, I mean there's a lot of cocky people walking around and I think Millennials especially are tired of that and you just lose respect for people like that, nobody has time for the macho act male or female. Now we're just in the age where we can find something somewhere else, nobody wants to be treated like crap. But setting your foot down because you're responsible for a company I think is totally different from being cocky, because you know that you might be the best in town.
So on to the goal setting, getting back to that a little bit as you've worked with your team and all this transition and these things have occurred over the last close to two decades of your life. What have you seen as far as goal-setting, is there a difference in how you set goals now versus how you set goals say 10-15 years ago?
Cori Moore: It's changed in the last three months, and it was actually a pretty crazy change that happened for me. I've always been a goal setter, I've been a checklist person, and you’ve got to check it off.
Michael C.: So you like the write goals down?
Cori Moore: Yes, I have lists about lists about lists and I've always been that this is what I want to do this year, there's so much money I want to make this year or this is my fitness goal and my race goal or training goal or I've always done that. I would set goals for my house, my kids, my husband, my marriage you name it I had a goal for it. And I've always been pretty good at reaching those goals, but this year I read a book that totally changed my perspective and it's called the desire map and I can't remember who wrote it.
But she introduced the concept of how do you want to feel and that changed everything, I just sat down and I spent a good week rewriting everything based on how I wanted to feel, and her premise in this book was we set goals and we get so stuck on goals, and aside from the fact that if you don't reach them there's a discouraging element to that. But aside from that we set these goals with the idea that if we achieve them, that we've achieved something, so there's some sort of productivity attached to checking this off your list. When in fact those goals may or may not be getting us any closer to the actual type of life and the feelings that we want to have, and ultimately everything that we do is based on how we want to feel.
We give something because we want to feel good about giving someone, we create a huge company because we want to feel power, or we want the money because we want to feel the freedom of travel, so it all comes back to a feeling. And I thought about that, and at first I was a little skeptical but I said you know what I'll go through this, we'll try it out. And so I went through the things that I wanted to feel, how did I want to feel, I wanted to feel the freedom to work wherever I wanted to work, I wanted peace, I wanted to feel like I had my own space, I wanted to feel empowered, I wanted to feel loved. And I sat down and I wrote my goals and then I looked at whether or not those goals were aligned with how I wanted to feel.
And it changed this was a my pie-in-the-sky goal once upon a time was to be CEO who had an office in a high-rise in New York, got ridiculous amounts of money and these huge business meetings, with all these investors and boardrooms, I mean I had this huge idea in my head. And so I'm sitting down and I'm trying to figure out how I want to feel, and I'm like that doesn't seem very peaceful, I'm going to be really busy, there's no freedom in that, I'm going to be stuck in it like this is a bad goal, like this is not in line with how I want to feel at all. So let's scale this back again, like what exactly does my business look like if this is how I want to feel.
And so that changed a lot of things for me, and so with my goal-setting and when I talk to people now I like to get to the root of their why, why did you set that goal? Well If you set that goal because I just think I'll be a badass if I meet that goal, okay well what do you have to do to get there, I've just got to sell a kidney or two okay that's great, so you are going to feel like a badass on dialysis, awesome, no that's not how you want to live life.
So that's change, that's literally been a change in the last three months and I've taught goal-setting, I've mentored on goal setting and I'm not going to say that it's not a good thing because it is great thing to have goals. But understanding why and what those goals mean, and how they're going to get you to how you want to feel has been just a dramatic change in my perspective.
Michael C.: So that sounds like a wonderful piece of information for our listeners as far as how they can set goals, did you do that for an organizational level too by setting the feeling that you wanted, give us a little info into that?
Cori Moore: So I wanted my workplace to be an empowering workplace, I wanted everyone to feel empowered; I wanted my events to empower others that was my go-to word. I wanted people to be accepted, inclusive those were other words based on feelings that I wanted, and that has a lot to do with how I communicate with people. If our organization and the people who are in it are not making others feel like they're included, or they're accepted, or that that they can be empowered and encouraged then they're not going about it the right way, then they're not following the principles that I've outlined for this company and it's not a good fit.
If I'm working with and that even comes down to the type of vendors or sponsors that I'm willing to work with, if it's somebody that's they're only looking out for number one, they're not there to encourage you. If you're a sponsor and you're coming to my event, I'm not going to tell you have to be out there clapping and screaming your head off, but it doesn't need to be just about you we're a community, and I want when I set those goals and I think about my company I want the people in my company, and I want my company to reflect empowerment for everyone who comes in contact with it.
Michael C.: How have you seen a change in the landscape of business for a female entrepreneur, has it changed over since you've started in business?
Cori Moore: Yes, absolutely and that's thanks to a lot of empowered women who stepped up to the plate and started pushing for more awareness for female entrepreneurs. Like I think the stat right now is less than 3% of female entrepreneurs ever make it to the million dollar mark, and that's because it takes venture capitalists, you're kind of walking into what has culturally been the men's room. And across industries I've been plugged into chiropractic industry a lot, there are some extremely talented, strong influential women who are paving the way for speakers and getting more women on stages. If you go back and you look at major seminars and conferences and whether they're business or this particular thing was chiropractic, it was a male-dominated stage.
And part of that reason was one woman weren't stepping up to the plate and bringing the type of presentations and the power to the stage, and so they weren't being seen. But the other part of it is they weren't doing what needed to be done to get people to pay attention, so if you're a great speaker and you want to be on stage you need to be hey squeaky wheel gets the grease, let these people know I'm here, I want to talk, I have something to say and it's valuable I need to be on there. So I think there's a lot more of that going on over the last 10 years that I've seen personally, just the groups that I'm involved in I hired a business coach and she's amazing Julia Pimsleur, and she has a group and her mission is to get a million women to the million dollar mark by 2020.
And I mean that's a huge goal, but she's rallying the troops men and women who are investors in the venture capitalism world and who are doing those things that are mentoring to help these women see one what do they need to do to scale their businesses, and two how could she help them through her own journey to get them to that place. So again as experienced in age comes along and being more exposed and seeing a lot more now than I did then, definitely see a huge change.
And if there are women out there that are trying to, again this is about taking responsibility you don't sit back and say well nobody's hiring a woman. Female entrepreneurs we've got the odds stacked against this so what, what can you be doing, take control, there's no room for excuses go out and do it, there are other women that are out there doing it. So yes it's changing and it's changing because people are taking responsibility for themselves.
Michael C.: It sounds like you're encouraging other women who have those types of aspirations just grab the bull by the horns and do it.
Cori Moore: Absolutely, you've got to take action, you can set goals all day but goals without action it's just a wish.
Michael C.: Have you found yourself as someone that other women are now looking up to and asking questions and saying, how did you do it, what do I need to do, how often does this occur to you?
Cori Moore: I do yes; people do ask me those questions. I'm involved with embark women and that's a women specific nonprofit that focuses on empowering women in business and entrepreneurs, and I've gotten some exposure in that regard because I helped a lot with some of the workshops that we do. But even before that with writing the book and I'm very open on my Facebook page about my journeys and the things that I go through, and I do that on purpose. I have a lot of people that have reached out that I've coached over the years and mentored, they'll ask me questions about things and I can give them my story and I can give them as much help as I can up to the experience that I have, and then I can refer them to somebody that can help them pass my point.
But it's my goal to help as many people as I can, and it's my passion to see people reach their goals and go after their dreams and passions. Just like you mentioned earlier we don't want to waste our lives doing things that we don't like, I mean you can be really good at filing papers and wish that you were out there making surfboards, and the difference is one believing that you can go out there and make the surfboard, and two figuring out how you can do that.
Michael C.: I know what your advice would be; I'll go make a surf board.
Cori Moore: Go make a freaking surfboard, that's right get started.
Michael C.: I think you're so right on that, a lot of this I think of the boundaries that we place, our limitations they're all self-inflicted almost. We make an excuse for our self as to why this can't happen or maybe well it's because I have kids or I'm married or well what will my family think if I decide to quit my job and go make surfboards. But there are so many stories out there with people who have done it now, and I think that's the beauty of social media and especially with this large influx of entrepreneurship.
I feel like we've had, which we've always had a large number, United States is the number one country in the world for entrepreneurs. I guess we've seen the landscape change in a sense that I get the feeling because of social media there's not a lot of people out there that don't buy into that they can do it, they just have to do it.
Cori Moore: Yes.
Michael C.: What do you thinks the biggest challenge for getting over that hump?
Cori Moore: Well there's a fear factor that is innately programmed into our brains, that's the lizard brain that pops up and says this is really scary and you're going to die if you do it, so don't do it. And so there's a psychological actual neurological occurrence that happens the moment that you want to try something new or change occurs, and that's I think the first resistance. Doing it anyway is huge, because you're basically creating a new neuro pathway. The other thing is start surrounding yourself with people who are like-minded, who are also trying it may not be the same thing as you but at least you're around somebody who's doing something.
Getting accountability partners, getting mentors, doing the research, just start doing something in that direction even if it's baby steps you'd be surprised at how the door is open and visualizing what does it feel like to make that surfboard, where are you, are you standing in the sand, are you in a hut, are in your house, are you working at 12 a.m. with sublime playing in the black, visualize that and keep that in your head. And it makes those really scary leaps a little bit easier because you have that vision in mine and knowing why you're doing that, and I think that's the important part of how do you want to feel when setting your goals if you know that, even if it's really tough to make that cold call and/or ask your uncle for $10,000 or whatever that looks like that's super scary for you.
By having that ultimate vision in mind, sometimes that's enough to get you over the hump at least to make take that first step and you know what you're going to screw up and you're going to fill and you're going to fall and it's going to suck and it's going to hurt, but that doesn't mean that it's something you're supposed to do. That's not your excuse to say that wasn't part of the plan, this is God's Way of telling me I'm not supposed to be doing it, actually it's just what happens when you don't know what you're doing.
Michael C.: So vision is extremely important for goal-setting, and two of the takeaways I've gotten so far are really that taking a vision and recognizing the feelings that you're going to have once you're living out that vision, and once you can start living out that vision is that something that you really want to pursue. And I think if you answer yes to all the above, and in a way in your mind you've probably made your decision.
Where are the challenges of getting others like your family members on board with these goals, and I mean if you have a spouse, if you have kids, you may have to leave a job that's producing income for a job that's not producing income. I guess once you've convinced yourself this is a good idea, what is the next step?
Cori Moore: So the job question is a valid one, because a lot of times people want to step into the entrepreneurial role because they're in a job that they don't like, and that's maybe one of the really huge driving factors that made them even think about starting their own company. And that's been a question and a thought that I've discussed and I mulled over and I have, sometimes you can't leave immediately, sometimes that's just not feasible. You could be the number one breadwinner in your family and you have three kids that are depending on you, and you've got bills to pay and I get that, but there's also 24 hours in a day and how bad do you really want out of that. Can you be putting money back to start to fund this thing that you want to do, do you have the money to hire someone, and can you get a loan? There are ways around that.
If we're talking about your support system and how do you get your family on board, sometimes you're not going to get your family on board, sometimes the biggest critics are the people that you feel like should be loving you the most, and helping you out are the ones that are like oh I know you, there's just no way, like that's not going to happen. It is unfortunate and typically my advice in those situations is that now is a good time for you to set a boundary with those people, and in this moment in your life if this is something that you really want to do that's toxic to that dream that you have. So you've got a couple of choices you can continue that relationship and listen to everything that they had to say and believe them and not do it, or you can tolerate them and ignore them and continue to do it or just create some space there for a while until you have the confidence that you can't be around them.
And so you can't make anybody else do anything that they don't want to do, so if they don't want to support you they don't want to support you how. How bad do you want that dream, what are you willing to do to get to it, and if you are literally in a situation where a husband is or a wife it's like absolutely not, if you do this I'm going to leave. And I don't think that's a very healthy relationship, so maybe you need to re-evaluate that first and get that relationship where it needs to be before you start tackling something that's going to make an unhealthy relationship even more unhealthy.
Michael C.: So the timing of goal-setting, it sounds like it can be highly critical to the success of the plan or the goal that you've set for yourself. So if you're setting goals for organizations, for individuals, for yourself. The right and wrong time to do that, you always hear and I've read on like motivational post like there's no better time than now, I do think there's some caution with that, there's no better time than now.
And I think you kind of alluded to that just now that the situation also has to be right, if other are going to have to sacrifice our going to have to sacrifice you have to be sure they're on board for the sacrifice, and if not you may have to reevaluate the goals of that relationship or of that situation before you can actually go after the dreams or goals that you've set for yourself professionally.
Cori Moore: I usually reward that one what you said there's no better time than now, I'd look at it and say there's never going to be a great time, there's a better time but there's never going to be a perfect time to do this. So yes I think you should be considerate of others especially if you have a family, but in my situation I had a husband who's been very patient and he's as driven as I am, so when I go off trying to do something I mean he's my biggest cheerleader, and I've never wanted to do something that he didn't fully support and probably want to go off on a tangent and start some other crazy idea that I didn't want to go with.
But not everybody is so fortunate, not everybody has that kind of support system. But again it took my dad dying and those expectations falling off before I even had the balls enough to even try and do something, that to be or say or identify myself as something different than what I had always molded myself to others expectations are. So other people's process may be a little bit slower, that journey may be slower than mine.
It was a very specific traumatic event that happened, and other people may have to ease into that and it's not going to be quite as easy as it was for me, but it's not doable, it just may not look the way that you have envisioned in your head and that's why you got like oh what the hell. You just have to have that vision, and take a little bit of action and it'll unfold.
Michael C.: As far as measuring your goals and this success, do you think it's healthy or not healthy to measure your success against others?
Cori Moore: Man that's kind of loaded when you're talking about business; I am going to say that it depends on your definition of success. So if we're talking hard numbers, then how you stand against your competitors may be an indicator to how financially successful you are in the business world, which you need to know if you're to move up or you want to go public or if you're looking for investors these things are important, you need to know where you stand and you will be at the mercy of how the business world judges you, especially when you're dealing with investors.
But when it comes to setting company goals and how you feel about being successful, if you are meeting certain goals that you've set for your company or you've created the environment that you want, maybe success isn't necessarily based on what you're reaching, it's based on where you are. So goals, say financial for example that you're being judged on; it just may take you a little bit longer if you're trying to compare yourself. I think it's maybe not healthy for the psyche and emotionally to say oh look at them, they're bringing in half a million dollars a year and they've got to vacation homes, and I'm still trying to pay off my car, that's not healthy no, absolutely not because you have no idea what other people are doing.
It does not matter what they say everybody has their own life, and they have their own journey, you need to evaluate the success of yourself and your business based on the type of life that you want. But from a business aspect it's healthy to know your numbers and it's healthy to know your competitors numbers, I don't know if I would call that as much a success factor indicator as much as I would where you're just knowing where you are.
I think it's smart, I think it's responsible as a business owner to know how you stand in your marketplace. If you are trying to be a fortune 50 company, and you're sitting at ten thousand dollars in that revenue you're probably not successfully reaching that goal at this moment, but that doesn't mean that you won't.
Michael C.: And how important do you think it is for businesses, leaders when they've set those goals and by the way based on what you just said, it comes off to me that really awareness for one, and number two staying in your lane. It sounds like having an awareness of what's going on around you, but being sure you're not going to focus on what their goals are, being sure you're focused on your goals seems like that thing to do there. How do you stick with staying on top of your goals and pursuing those goals, like if you've set a six month or a year goal for your team how do you keep that and maintain that focus until it's time to measure?
Cori Moore: Communication, having a very open flow of communication is key. Even on a moment's notice you need to be aware of whether or not somebody needs to be motivated, what's going on. I know a lot of companies that there's a weekly meeting that's going over, my company can't operate that way because we have seasonal things and there's so many different things going on that looking at a cash flow analysis every week that's not how we operate, that's not something that can work for my particular industry and how my company works.
And so my version of doing this is checking in almost on a daily basis with certain things, like if I have an idea and then while I'm on the phone talking about that idea, hey by the way how's this going and that kind of gives me, I just get to put little feelers out by communicating with my team. And then as my team grows and management has to do that with other, I expect my managers to manage the way that I am which is just touching base and getting a temperature. That's what I would say, it's just take the temperature of your team, it doesn't have to be a daily basis but if you have very specific monthly goals or short-term goals that are like that then you're going to have to have regular updates.
And sometimes those regular updates don't mean hard numbers, sometimes those mean taking the temperatures of attitudes and motivation and what's being done productivity from a personal phone call, not a hey I just need you to email me your sales numbers, I need to know who well that to me is a little bit too much micromanagement, but that's my industry and that's my company. When you get bigger sometimes that's how it works, but that's not how I want to do business.
Michael C.: Well that definitely sounds like the idea of sticking with it, moving through things and having to basically keeping it together is highly important and as the things start to go one way or another you just have to stay focused on your goals and keep your team focused on those goals at the same time. As far as being an entrepreneur these days, there's a lot of competition out there and you can get on social media and see entrepreneurs everywhere, you see leadership everywhere, it can be very intimidating for someone that maybe is just wanting to get started.
But there's a couple of stats here that we got offline and one of them is, so in 2014 there were over 450 to 2000 companies founded, but that was significantly lower than the 500 to 600 thousand that were founded on average between the 70s to early 2000s, so there's actually less startups today. Now this that's now at this point a few years old, but there's less companies being starting up today. And another interesting stat was that the rate of which American entrepreneurs closed shop has fallen by 30 percent since 1977, so I think entrepreneurs are getting smarter, as well as I think a lot of this has to do with seeking out mentorship, having coaches, being able to listen to podcasts like this one and hear leaders like yourself share their experience.
I see that right now entrepreneurs are feeding off of each other, they're getting better, and that sense of competition is there but also that will and that meaning of success. Like I know just sitting here with you how important success is to you, and I don't know what your definition may be of success whether that's monetary, whether it's the size of your company whatever the things are I just know that you're drawn to success. So obviously right away I'm motivated and I want you to succeed, I feel like that is the commonality right now that entrepreneurs have that there's this sense of hey, we are all competing but the pie is big enough let's all succeed. And really if you're 20, 30, 40, even 50, 60 years old I still believe that right now is the time for you to start a business.
Like we discussed there's good and bad timing of things, but overall there's never a time that if you have a goal in mind or if you have something you really want to do, you need to go after it. And that process doesn't start with you quitting your job, it starts with thinking about it and I think that was a point you were making earlier is that just think about it, get it down on paper, see what the fillings are you want to have, see what you see the vision. I like what you said, you're sitting there at 12 am working on a surfboard listening to Sablan like that's a setting someone could put themselves in if that's what they want to do.
So I think that's very important, I think that the information you shared with us today has been exceptional and this is all stuff that right away I can take back for myself, I can take with our team and I know that our listeners are going to get a great amount of use out of hearing basically your story, but also how you've been able to sculpt your story and I guess make your business and your companies what you have. So in ending here, we've discussed quite a bit about goal-setting, tell us a little bit about your companies and your business and what you do?
Cori Moore: So ITRI365 is a timing and event production company, so we manage endurance events basically. So we time which is chips that runners we're so 5ks, 10ks marathons things like that, anything in the endurance world whether it's mountain bike, triathlon we can time those things. But we also manage them and we produce them, so clients will call us nonprofits, for-profits a lot of times we have people who call us they just want brand awareness, they want people to see their logos, they want to just get out there, they're not trying to make a dollar they're trying to do a marketing campaign for brand awareness.
And so they'll call us and they want to put on a 5k or we'll just say that we'll put on a 5k, and so we basically do that from top to bottom. And then we also produce events, so we've got the corkscrew half marathon coming up in Bullard at key Purcell winery here in October 13th, my baby is the diva do which is a women-only Duathlon Sprint Olympic and a 5k, and I'm working on actually going national with that.
So we're trying to get that race series started, but we're three years into that race and we also hold that out it keep us all at the vineyard and the premise behind that is just to empower women out of their comfort zones. So we're timing, event management and then we've got our own races and that's primarily what I spend my days doing, is getting my team wrapped around the twenty to thirty events that we're working on in a year and making sure that all of those are lined up and good to go.
Michael C.: Well it sounds like you still have a busy year ahead of you.
Cori Moore: Yes, we've got another very heavy race season coming up.
Michael C.: Well that's very exciting, and sounds like you do quite a bit of work in the East Texas area, and it also sounds like you're getting into expanding?
Cori Moore: Yes, we're in Houston and we're in DFW and I mean I'm connected across the nation, so it's just a matter of time invested on expanding and recreating the team that I have now so that I can walk away from that and do things in other places.
Michael C.: Well how would our listeners be able to get in touch with you or Facebook pages, anything like that, contact information?
Cori Moore: Yes, you can find me on Facebook Cory Moore you can go to our business page ITRI365. If you want information on the diva do or the corkscrew they're both, of course you have to even do is they're both on Facebook my websites ITRI365.com so there's a contact page there. You can email me at ITRI365@Gmail or Cory@ITRI365, so those are all easy ways to get ahold of me; I'll eventually see one of those.
Michael C.: All right, and that's ITRI365, that is cool. Where did the name come from?
Cori Moore: Well we were pretty heavy in triathlon when we started this, and we wanted to have a facility for triathletes, so my husband came up with that. And then that kind of just the trying, always trying 365 days a year, the spin on that, the action of trying and it just stuck. So when we started in city in that production, and I was coaching first triathletes and then we expanded it to the timing event and we liked the logo and didn't want to change it, so it stuck with us.
Michael C.: Well as far as wrapping up the show, I really enjoy talking about goal-setting with you today. Do you have any last words of encouragement for our listeners today?
Cori Moore: That you can, that's just it, and you can. Whatever it is you can do it, bottom line you want it you can.
Michael C.: Awesome. Well Cory it's been a wonderful experience being here with you today, and being able to do this show. It's wonderful hearing your story, and I just like to thank you for being here today.
Cori Moore: Thank you for having me, I enjoyed it.
Michael C.: Yes ma'am. I'd also like to thank our wonderful producer Gabby Sims, as well as you the listener. Please like, review and share our podcast, we're available on all the major podcast platforms or you can just simply go to our website EnergyWeldFFab.com/podcast your comments are how we improve our show, and we enjoy hearing your feedback.
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