Who is Jo?
Jo Cowper is a business strategist who specializes in helping entrepreneurs and business owners achieve their goals. With a focus on those who have big ideas and dreams but feel stuck in their current situation, Jo provides structured guidance and a proven system to help them overcome obstacles and make significant progress. By helping her clients navigate the challenging journey from where they are to where they want to be, Jo empowers them to take the next steps and reach their true potential. With Jo's expertise, business owners no longer have to dwell on "if only" and can instead turn their aspirations into reality.
Key Takeaways
[00:02:39] Two common challenges when pursuing ideas.
[00:05:01] "Workbook for success: find encouragement and clarity."
[00:09:10] Three steps to turn big vision into reality: clarity, mindset, community support.
[00:13:09] Sign up for the email newsletter at thecompleteapproach.co.uk
[00:14:20] Joe discusses clarity and show link. Good luck!
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Transcript
Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
big vision, turning vision into reality, clarity, writing it down, mindset, conviction, goals, trusted individuals, encouragement, support, supportive community, significant difference, big vision workbook, exercises, finding energy, messages, encouragement, clarity, printing out workbook, generating ideas, free workbook, own pace, backward planning, end goal, necessary steps, series of questions, smaller goals, creating a clear path, strategy, accountability
SPEAKERS
Stuart Webb, Jo Cowper
Stuart Webb [00:00:24]:
Hello again, and welcome to It's Not Rocket Science five Questions Over Coffee. I'm delighted to be here with both my coffee, which I probably should be stopping drinking.
This is about the 6th one so far today. Joe, I believe you've got something more like tea in front of you, by the looks of things, which is excellent news. So welcome to the podcast, Joe. Joe is a vision coach. She helps people to take the business they have and transform it to the business they really wanted to have, which I think is a wonderful subject for discussion. Joe, I'm really looking forward to this conversation. Welcome to the podcast. I hope you're going to enjoy it and please tell us what it is you do. Let's start with my first question. Who do you help and and how do you help them?
Jo Cowper [00:01:12]:
Thanks, Stuart. Well, thank you very much for having me. It's great to be here today. I help business owners, founders, people who have got small businesses and big ideas, people who have really got a big picture of what they'd like to achieve in their business. But perhaps they've had this vision for years, perhaps for a long time, they've been thinking, I could do more than I'm doing right now. I wish I could just take this next step, I wish I could be just serving these slightly different customers. I wish I could be doing these slightly different things. But these ideas haven't yet come to anything because it's hard. There's a long way to go from where they are to where they want to be. There are lots of what, unforeseen stumbling blocks along the way. There's lots of distraction. You're running a business, you're already working flat out and somehow this stuff never comes to fruition. And I help people make that jump in a way that is structured and to follow a system that means that you can actually get where you want to be from where you are to where you want to be, rather than staying stuck where you were in the first place for an endless amount of time thinking, if only. I wish.
Stuart Webb [00:02:16]:
I love it. I love it. Tell me, you often must come across people that have been trying to do this for years. You said that people are stuck because they can't quite make the lead. You've come across those people that are somehow not quite getting there. What is it that you find that they've done that tries to get them out of that position and move forward, which you can help them to overcome?
Jo Cowper [00:02:39]:
Sure. There are two things that can really often happen when you try and do this yourself. And I know I've experienced these two things myself. It's totally normal. One of them is that you just keep on having ideas after ideas after ideas, but you don't actually make the time and space that it's going to take to transform those ideas into anything more solid than that. And so you have all of the excitement. You've got all the vision, you've got this really clear sense, I could definitely do this. But you don't actually ever take that step. Or you start trying to take some step, but then real life comes in, work takes over, you don't get there. And then a couple of years down the line, nothing has happened. That's the first common thing that can happen. And then the second common thing that can happen is you think, yes, I've got this brilliant, great idea, I'm going to do it straight away. And you set off. But you haven't actually done the thinking that needs to be done along the way and so you're throwing yourself a million miles now into this thing and for whatever reason, perhaps you haven't thought it all through fully. Perhaps it doesn't really quite stack up. Perhaps once you get it out of your head and put it into reality it doesn't quite make sense. I mean, I think there's something that you'll find. One thing that I'll do with my clients all the time is get them to really write down stuff about their vision, about their customers, about where they are now, ask them to really tough questions and these are often things that you think you already knew. It's easy to tell yourself when you're doing all in the privacy of your own head, I know this, this is easy, I can answer this question. When you come to actually try to make sense of it, you say there's a gaps in here. Actually it doesn't make quite as much sense as I thought it did. And so what I'll do is pose these questions in the right order and insist on filling the gaps so that instead of wasting off 1000 miles an hour, you can actually tackle it in a way that's systematic and that you can see is turning your big vision into a real reality.
Stuart Webb [00:04:26]:
I love it. I absolutely love it. Joe, I hope I've got this right. You've got some great ideas, I think, on your website that can help people with this sort of visioning. What can you tell us about how you can help them? And I'm going to put up the link that you showed us or you told me about before we started. So I hope that I've got the right link and you're about to tell us about what you can get from your website which can help people with this first steppers as they start this journey.
Jo Cowper [00:04:55]:
Good, I hope it's the right link too.
Stuart Webb [00:04:56]:
I believe it is technology, Joe. We'll get there, we'll get there.
Jo Cowper [00:05:01]:
Well look, there's something there, right there. There's an incentive. Go there and see what you find. Now what I've created actually is what I've called a big vision workbook and this is about giving yourself a support kit for success because having the big idea isn't hard. Anybody can have a big idea, right? We've all had dozens of big ideas, I'm sure. But the tricky bit is going through the tough moments that come between having the great idea and feeling totally discouraged after guardian know, this is too hard, I can't do this. I don't know why do they ever think I could in the first place? I feel so alone, all of this stuff. So I've created this workbook so that you can, from where you are right now, prepare your own toolkit for success, the stuff that's going to support you when it gets hard. And so in this workbook, you're going to work through seven different exercises, all about finding the energy, the messages, the encouragement and clarity that's going to keep you going all the way towards that vision and starting to put in place an action plan that will help you to get from where you are to where you want to be. It's totally free. It's something you can do in your own time. Totally recommend that you print it out because that goes back to what I was speaking about before. That when you actually put pen to paper and you write stuff down. I'm looking around myself with all the paper where I've written stuff down, the ideas will flow more freely.
Stuart Webb [00:06:18]:
I tell you the other point about what you've just said about writing it down, and that is when you've got those ideas, I find it really helpful to stick them on the walls around me because they're very visual reminders. You cannot have things just put away in a drawer. They have to be out around you so that you can see it. So having something written down so that once you've written it, you sort of put it on a wall or put it on your desk or whatever, it's so much more useful to you than just leaving it in a drawer and going, well, that's great, I've done all that. I can get back on with the day job now. You've got to have these things in front of you, haven't you Joe?
Jo Cowper [00:06:51]:
I couldn't agree more. Yeah, I really couldn't agree more. And that's actually in my full program. That the paid for program as opposed to the freebie. That's one of the important things that you get to at the end. That you'll literally have a one pager of all the stuff that you know that you need to commit to and do. So that whenever the next opportunity, the next distraction comes along, you've got this one pager which printed out, you stick it on your wall. No, that's where I'm going. Okay, that's why I'm going there. So important.
Stuart Webb [00:07:18]:
I love it. Was there a particular book or course or time in your life which helped you to sort of make the realization that you have to have these visions and you have to sort of move towards these things on the journey that you've just spoken about?
Jo Cowper [00:07:36]:
Well, the system that for me has been transformational in this is a system called backward planning and I learned about this on Gosh, I think on a border way day several jobs ago and it really stuck with me. And it's this idea that you start with the end in sight. You don't start by thinking, right, kind of going roughly over there what should we do now? Now you get really clear on the destination and then you work back. I can't get another image sorted out to get my hand in the screen but you work back and so you ask yourself a series of questions to always frame this. In order to do this I will need first to have achieved blah. In order to achieve that I will need first to have achieved blah. And what you do that is you reliably come back to an action that you can take, you follow it down to its conclusion, you'll come to an action that you can take right now or a goal that's small enough for you to work towards today. Today like now. Now that you know is leading you all the way to where you want to go and then you just keep on following that. You've retrofitted your path and you follow it brilliant.
Stuart Webb [00:08:37]:
Love it. Love it. Joe, I've spent the last ten minutes sort of asking you a bunch of questions and there must be one, I suspect that you're thinking when's he ever going to get to the really important question? So here is my opening to you. There must be a question I haven't asked. There must be a way that you are wanting to express something but I haven't yet asked it. Please tell me what is the question that I should have asked you by now? And obviously once you've told me the question you have to answer it because I don't know the answer. What is the question I should have asked you? What is the answer to that question?
Jo Cowper [00:09:10]:
Okay, so I think that the kind of burning question is what does it take to go from being somebody who's got a big vision? We've all got a big vision. What do I have to do? What can I do right now? If I really want to turn that into something real and I want to do it this year. I want not to be sitting here in twelve months time still thinking I've got all these great ideas, I've got these great ideas. What can I do straight away without having to pay anything to anybody, without having to buy any service, without having to take a massive leap and change my website, change my direction? What can I do easily now? What could anybody do? And the answer to that yes. Well, there are three things that anybody, anybody could do right now. First one is get really clear on that vision. So write it down and the work I've spoken to about will help with that. The second thing is your mindset. It's also well, jumping into this is what I'll have to do, this is the strategy I'll have to enact and I have to say for years in my career and in my business, I honestly fell into this trap of thinking, strategy is enough, I know what to do, I'm going to do it. It's not without that mindset, things will get hard. You really need to work on this conviction. What's going to keep you going? What do you really believe in? What is it to you? So mindset. The third thing that you can put in place for yourself right now, that will be a game changer, is tell people who you trust, people who will encourage you about what you're trying to do, because they will encourage you. They will get your back. They will give you a kick when you need it and say, look, hey, didn't you say that you were going to do this thing? Didn't you convince me of that last week when didn't believe you? Didn't you just tell me it was going to be great? So come on. And so having the clarity, the mindset and the people, the community around you is what will make the difference between you still sitting in the same place in a year's time thinking, wouldn't it be great, wouldn't it be great if I was working differently, living differently, helping different people make it happen?
Stuart Webb [00:11:10]:
Brilliant. I do absolutely buy in. And you're absolutely right, strategy is great, but implementation is better and accountability is the key to making those things happen. Because if you keep it in your head, once again we go back to the sort of it's in your head, nobody is going to turn around and go, whatever happened. And then you feel that, oh yeah, I should go on with it, shouldn't I? Having somebody who's just going to hold you to account is so valuable. It doesn't need to be anything more than just a two minute sort of reminder that that's where you were supposed to be going to kick you back into action. It's the most valuable thing in the world, isn't it? Everybody needs to have some form of accountability to make sure that they're delivering on the promise that they set themselves.
Jo Cowper [00:11:56]:
I think so. And having people who get it, they understand that you want to do this crazy thing, so why don't you just go and get yourself a job like everybody else? They understand that you've got a drive, you've got a vision, you really want to make a difference, get people around you like that and you'll support each other. It doesn't have to be a lonely business.
Stuart Webb [00:12:17]:
Love it. Love it. Joe, it's been an absolute delight having you here listening to this because I think what you're talking about is the thing that just about every business owner needs to have in their life. They need that vision. They need the transformation from where they are into what they really actually set out and wanted. So thank you for coming on and describing it. Thank you for giving us this free tip and for telling us about how you can help them get there.
Jo Cowper [00:12:46]:
Thank you, Stuart, for having me. It's been an absolute pleasure. It's my first ever LinkedIn life experience as well, so I'm excited to go back and see what I've done to my LinkedIn feast.
Stuart Webb [00:12:56]:
And you got through without actually sort of collapsing and the whole world ending as you expected, didn't it?
Jo Cowper [00:13:03]:
Yeah, and I didn't even touch my tea, so I feel should have made a coffee, shouldn't I?
Stuart Webb [00:13:09]:
So, listen, everybody, thank you so much. If you would like to get onto our email list so that you receive an email pretty much every week which says who's going to be on the podcast. Sort of interesting people that are going to be coming on so that you too can get brilliant advice like Joe has been giving us today, go to this link, which is link thecompleetproach Co UK. That's link thecompleetproach Co UK newsletter. That's link the completeaproach Co UK newsletter. That will take you to the newsletter sign up page. You just get a simple email from me, basically saying who's on what they're going to be talking about. Please come and ask whatever questions you want. Joe, thank you so much for coming on and allowing us to listen to your wonderful vision stuff. I do encourage people to go back to Joe's website, six Degrees East Co UK home hashtag vision. That's home hashtag vision. That's where you'll find that free booklet, seven Steps, seven pages, something like that.
Jo Cowper [00:14:16]:
Joe seven Steps.
Stuart Webb [00:14:20]:
Getting your clarity. That link will be in the show notes as well. So thank you, Joe, so much for coming along and talking to us, really appreciate it and good luck with the rest of the afternoon.
Jo Cowper [00:14:32]:
Thank you, Stuart. Been a real pleasure. Thank you much for having me. Have a great afternoon. Please.
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