The Entrepreneur's Mirror: How Business Growth Reflects Personal Development with Carly Pepin

Leadership requires stepping into uncertainty with unwavering determination, even when you don't feel ready. This powerful conversation with Carly Pepin, an international leadership consultant, explores how personal development and business growth are deeply intertwined mirrors of each other.

Carly shares her journey from starting her first business at 18 to helping executives and entrepreneurs balance their professional aspirations with personal fulfillment. She offers profound insights into what high-achieving leaders truly need - both from their teams and from themselves. We discuss the critical importance of creating a company culture where employees feel safe bringing forward challenges and bad news, as this foresight prevents larger problems down the road.

The discussion ventures into the inherent isolation many leaders experience and practical ways to navigate this challenge. Carly explains how personal development isn't just a nice-to-have but an essential component of sustainable leadership. By addressing internal "prides and shames," leaders can respond to criticism without being derailed by it. This freedom creates space for true innovation and courageous decision-making.

Perhaps most refreshingly, Carly acknowledges that growing a business is inherently difficult. Behind every polished success story lies messy challenges and chaos. She offers practical frameworks for identifying specific gaps in your business - whether in culture, strategy, execution, or team composition - and addressing them systematically instead of constantly putting out fires.

If you're feeling drained by your business or struggling with leadership challenges, this episode provides both validation and practical guidance. As Carly emphasizes, you don't have to normalize burnout or exhaustion. With the right support and personal development work, you can fall in love with your business again and lead from a place of empowerment rather than depletion.

http://www.carlypepin.com/

Sponsored by Nico Van de Venne CommV

Chapters

• 0:00 The Nature of True Leadership
• 5:10 Creating a Culture of Open Communication
• 9:33 Carly's Entrepreneurial Journey
• 16:42 Personal Development and Leadership Growth
• 22:41 Embracing Challenges in Business
• 25:38 Strategic Business Growth and Final Message

Transcript

Carly: 0:00

The leader is the person who's like I'm not ready, but I'm going to do it anyways, and then on the back end we might be doing some personal development on that. The leader is the individual who, this world, might be falling apart at home, but still doesn't want to stop doing what they're doing, you know, at their business, at the office, and so sometimes the personal development dynamic is actually working on a little personal stuff and like helping them to get to the other side of that, you know. So it really is a reflection as we grow our business and as we grow it's a reflection of us growing ourselves, right.

Nico: 0:43

And we're often asked to do things that we want to label bad or wrong. Right. Let me invite you to sit back, drop your jaw, tongue and shoulders, take a deep breath and, if you wish, close your eyes for a moment and feel the beat within. In a few seconds, you just jumped from your head to your heart and felt the beat within, opening up to receive even more value and fulfillment out of your business and life. And today's episode. I'm your host, Nico van de Venne, confidant to successful CEOs, founders and entrepreneurs who are striving to achieve everlasting fulfillment.

Nico: 1:17

Before we dive into today's episode, I have a small request. If you find value in our episode, please take a moment to subscribe and leave a five-star review. Share this episode with at least one person that you think might be benefited by it and thank you for the support. In any case, let's get started. First off, let me introduce our next guest, Carly. Carly is an international speaker and consultant with a specialized focus on leadership and scaling business, utilizing human behavior principles and strategic growth strategies. Wow, that's a mouthful. She shares that, regardless of background, occupation or origin, every individual encounters personal and professional challenges from their own perceivable flaws. Carly highlights transformative power of reinterpreting these narratives to lead a fulfilling life. Welcome to the Everlasting Fulfillment Podcast, Carly.

Nico: 2:21

Thank, you, I want to ask you one question what do you think that high achievers need from their team?

Carly: 2:31

Yeah, everyone is going to need something a little bit different from their team, and whenever I'm sitting down with an individual, I'm looking at specifically what their roles are. Right, because sometimes you'll sit down with a CEO and you realize, whoa, this person is taking on way too much, right, like, way too much Like. I was just actually working with an individual recently and we were going. They were very stressed out, they were low on time, right, and they just wanted to spend some time with their son. And we're going through all the different things that they're doing and I'm like, why have you not delegated this? Like? This is not something you even like to do, this is not something that you enjoy and it's not something that's even your expertise you know.

Carly: 3:11

And so if I break down a high achievers day and we break it down into multiple parts of everything that you're responsible for, it's really wisdom to look and see is this actually the role that I'm meant to be taking on? Or is someone on my leadership team meant to have this role right, because we have all these different departments and sometimes, genuinely, a CEO loves, like, a specific area of the business so much that they'll be involved in it forever and that's great because you're, in fact, you're fulfilled. I love that. But if you're just doing it because, like, somehow it fell on your plate and you're not even enjoying it, it's like well, go put that in the hands of the person who's genuinely responsible. So usually when I'm figuring out like what a CEO can take off their plate, we're also simultaneously working with the leadership team at the same time to make sure they all have like the right jobs and the right positions and the right things there in Georgia.

Nico: 4:04

Yes, indeed, the right jobs and the right positions and the right things they're in charge of. Yes, indeed, yeah, there's always a layer that needs to be, you know, directed in a, in a certain direct direction, which is, you know, double using the word, but in any case it is, it is what it is, um, so, if I understand correctly, in, in any case, what you've experienced with c levels is that sometimes you know they have the little baby within the company that they love nurturing, but there's, you know, a lot more going on which can maybe, you know, direct them into focusing on all that solo thing. Now, what I've noticed in the past is sometimes C-levels or founders, because you know, at that point they get the good news all the time, because you know the level that supports them is trying to make their life easier. How is your, what's your, experience in that?

Carly: 5:00

I want to coordinate it so that your employees from the bottom up are able to give you not just the good news but also the bad news right. So if you're not getting bad news, then there's a reason why your employees are afraid to share that with you. So part of that is creating the culture within the company to make sure that you're getting both right, so that they feel comfortable sharing the challenges that they're encountering, facing maybe some foresight that they're having. You know, I remember one actually individual in the accounting department I was working with and the corporate culture was really bad where she was and she could foresee that within a year to two years they were really going to struggle financially if they didn't make a few changes. But she was scared to talk to the top right Because the corporate culture is really really failing.

Carly: 5:43

So it's interesting because that's the kind of foresight that you want brought to the table.

Carly: 5:48

You don't just want the good things, you also want the bad things, the things that these people are actually paying attention to on ground level, and so that's a pretty cool kind of reflection.

Carly: 5:57

If you're only getting positive news on a regular basis, it would be ask yourself the question like what's going on in my culture that my employees, my leaders, don't feel comfortable bringing forth like bad news to me. Why aren't they bringing forth things or problems or anything? Because the iron browning part about this is a problem is just again, it's just foresight on what to worry for when we want to solve the problem. But two, it's like it can often be foresight where we're thinking, hey, no-transcript, like, hey, this is an issue, but I don't really know it's an issue because this is where we're going, this is what's important. So I don't even know if it's a problem, but I just want to double check. So really, it's about our company culture and creating an environment where your employees feel comfortable actually coming up and butting up against you and giving you really bad news and saying tough things sometimes. So that's really what we want to hear.

Nico: 7:31

Let's catch it early. Yeah, indeed, indeed, absolutely.

Nico: 7:35

And it's usually it's kind of a contradiction, because most people think, oh no, we're going to put these things on the down low, we'll fix it ourselves, and so on. What I've noticed in my leadership roles is I love people. I love it when people fail, when they make mistakes, and one of the most important things there is that usually I know when they're going to make them, because either somebody told me something's going on or this or that it's like you said. You need to create that environment that somebody is able to stand up and say, hey, nick, there's something going on here, we're probably going to hit a wall somewhere. And then it's, of course, the responsibility of the leader either to assess that we're going to walk into the wall or we're going to save this, this baby, before it walks into the wall, because sometimes it might be too critical. But, yeah, and um, it's, it's very important. Yeah, it's basically trust, isn't it? It's it's about trusting your team, trusting the people around you and and them trusting you.

Nico: 8:41

Um, I've always wanted, I've always looked at it, um, from from a perspective where you have this horse's carriage and you have managers that are sitting on top of the carriage directing people towards where they need to go or what they need to do. Then you have leaders that are in front of the horses giving examples and doing everything for them, and then you have the leader that's between the horses, usually between the carriage and the horses. Let's say just saying you know, you guys know what you're doing. I'm just following you and if you need any decisions, turn around five seconds and say you know what do we need to do? Because we have this or that. And it's a culture thing indeed, and it's something that needs to evolve, because I've noticed companies in the past where I've done projects that it was horrible. You know there was infighting, people didn't trust each other, but you have to build towards that. So, carly, how did you get to the point where you are right now? Just let's skip over to what you're doing and who you are.

Carly: 9:42

Yeah, so I had started my first business when I was 18 years old. I wasn't doing well in school, but I was doing well in business. Funny enough, I first did school to go to work, and so my parents kind of saw that I was doing really, really well. I'm kind of working my way up. I was working in a search shop, so I was manager by the time I was like 17 and I was really loving it. And so they're like, okay, let's do a little business. So they helped me out. Instead of going to college, we decided that I would start my first business, right, I mean, obviously I failed because it's an entrepreneurship thing, Looking back, I did not understand marketing.

Carly: 10:25

So actually that wouldn't change everything. Marketing and branding would have changed everything. But now I know. So which is why. But it was a really great experience.

Carly: 10:35

And after that, once it wasn't working out, I kind of just started diving into different arenas and I just was thinking, what do I love to do? Right? When that didn't work out, I was like, ok, so I don't have a college degree, I don't have the education. I was like, well, what do I love to do? And I love fashion. And so I got a job as an executive assistant in the fashion industry and I wound up making friends with the marketing manager and eventually moved and worked my way up into marketing manager at that company, which is really inspiring.

Carly: 11:05

And I kind of just bounced around a bit from company to company after that. I mean I've done some creative direction, art direction, production, like various different things in kind of that industry to the hospitality industry for a while, just doing like uniforms and those different dynamics. So it's been quite fun. Right, it's been quite fun, but it was even an entrepreneurial journey in the business dynamics and what I kept realizing is I kept going into these companies and I would be in charge of these, like little divisions within the larger corporation, and I kept building businesses and building businesses, and building businesses. And I just remember the last one thinking it's so hard to build businesses for other people. I was like why am I not just doing this for myself? So I had to do some personal development work on the perceived failures of the first one.

Carly: 11:57

I think I got caught in my head a little bit on that one and then it was go time. I started with personal development. Just because I love personal development, I wound up attracting a lot of entrepreneurs and leaders in corporations and stuff, and so that really transferred into just focusing on those leaderships, executive coaching, and that's transferred into also doing more of the business-to-business dynamic after it's grown and evolved, just because it was a natural thing that was, you know, on demand, with clients right, they wanted it, they were enjoying it, and so it's like, all right, well, let's keep expanding on that. Yeah, I didn't like summary, yeah, yeah.

Nico: 12:32

There's a couple of things that are very recognizable from my side as well. You know bouncing from one business to another company, to another, and you're finding yourself in the middle of leading a team, building it up and then thinking, why am I doing this for somebody else? I love when you said that. It's like so recognizable and at some point it's one thing that within my family there's not a lot of entrepreneurs, so there's not people that you know might have inspired me to jump. There's one uncle, two uncles, who were plumbers. So basically it's kind of different entrepreneurship environment than you know, those basic services that we deliver in our business. But it's so, so prevalent because I see more and more young people going in that direction saying you know, I can sit on a chair for eight hours a day looking at somebody who thinks they know what they're saying.

Nico: 13:24

It might sound horrible what I say, but sometimes it's just the truth because they're putting people in front of a classroom that have never worked for a boss or they've gone from school to school to school and now they're actually teaching in a school and they might even go from school to school to school to pension. It's like a completely different story. Of course there is an advantage when it comes down to universities and so on. That's a completely different story. There is an advantage when it comes down to universities and so on. That's a completely different story. But until young people get to that point, they have to struggle through college, through high school and stuff like that, and usually they're like okay, what am I doing here? I love what you're saying.

Nico: 14:03

It took me a little bit longer than you, you were 17, 18 years old, I was like in my 30s, so before I started realizing I need to do something different. But yeah, and personal development, like you said, it's something that you start in and you get addicted. I find it's very addictive because you just start to realize how different you are in essence. And my wife's going through the same thing. You know. She started her own company, she's become an entrepreneur and you know, wall after wall, mirror after mirror, she meets them all and, and especially when I've gone through that last five years as well, it's like been there. But how's, how's that for you? How's's that ending up in your environment?

Carly: 14:50

Yeah, it's definitely very helpful, Whether you're a leader, founder, entrepreneur, it is. It genuinely is a mirror to be in these positions and have these roles, and so personal development and again, I think that's why I naturally started to attract all these business owners, these founders, these leaders is because there's this constant natural evolution of ourselves and we're being forced to step into positions that we feel uncertain about, that we feel we're not ready for, but we want it, we want it anyways, right. So the leader is the person who's like I'm not ready, but I'm going to do it anyways, and then on the back end, we might be doing some personal development. On that, you know, the leader is the individual whose world might be doing some personal development. On that, you know, the leaders, the individual who this world might be falling apart at home but still doesn't want to stop doing what they're doing, you know, at their business, at the office, right, and so sometimes the personal development dynamic is actually working on a lot of personal stuff and like helping them to get to the other side of that, you know.

Carly: 15:42

So it really is a reflection as we grow our businesses, as we grow, it's a reflection of us growing ourselves, right, and we're often asked to do things that we want to have labeled bad or wrong. Right, because when you're running a company, you realize that these things aren't bad or wrong, all these things that you may have judged someone before. As you're looking at these larger corporations, you realize, well, this is a necessary part of the corporation of business and this is actually just a normal dynamic of how these things function. And it's like, well, how do I become okay with what I once judged as bad and wrong and all these labels right? So I'm often working on those dynamics as well, right, and yeah, it's really quite fascinating. It's really quite fascinating.

Carly: 16:24

There's so many different variables that come up when it comes into the personal development component, and I do find that the people that are quite inspiring to work with almost feel like it's funny, they're probably the best at it.

Carly: 16:39

When I'm working with them, they're the best at it, but they feel like they're the furthest behind. Yeah, I love them a little, by the way, if you're listening, you're probably one of the best at it, but you feel constantly like you're so far behind. But what I love about those individuals is that there's this inner almost desire, meaningful purpose, this mission inside for them to grow to the greatest degree they possibly can, because the human potential in itself is unlimited. We don't really know the limits to our own. Human potential in itself is unlimited. You know, we don't really know the limits to our own human potential. And to sort of have the opportunity to work with those people and fill that void, it means that they're just going to get on the call every time and be like let's grow, grow, grow, go go go it's like what can I do next?

Carly: 17:23

what can I do next, what can I do next? And it's really cool because that's where the mastery comes forward. You know you've been judging yourself where mastery comes forward. You know you've been judging yourself when mastery comes forward. The one who goes to the gym every day, a professional athlete going to go practice their craft on a daily basis right, they're going to practice that.

Carly: 17:41

So these type of individuals are, like I said, quite inspired to work with because they're practicing that craft of self-mastery, leadership mastery, business mastery on a daily basis and it becomes that obsessive genius. You know we talk about this. There's a level of obsession that comes with genius where we don't want to stop, we can't stop and it just feels like that hole will never be filled. So those people, I love working with them because it really takes us down rabbit holes that a lot of people who kind of stay on the surface don't really even get to understand and see about themselves, the world they've created. You know, and it's quite humbling to see, like when we think about personal development. It's humbling to see, like how things have been perfectly crafted for you yourself, like, and how you can utilize that information to really empower yourself to move forward and be on that mission, have that vision make an impact, you know. So it's pretty cool.

Nico: 18:36

Yeah, it kind of reminds me of the 10,000 hour story.

Carly: 18:40

I would say more.

Nico: 18:42

Yeah, it's a little more.

Carly: 18:44

See what happens after 10,000 hours. Then you become the most amazing athlete the magic moment. Olympic athletes definitely spend more than 10,000 hours.

Nico: 18:56

It's a part of consistency, isn't it? It's like, yeah, every day you just be there every day and do that one thing and just keep on doing it. I have the experience with this podcast as well. You know you doubt yourself. You have so many people that you talk to who are at a completely different position in life than were yourself, but you just keep on going because you learn so much from them. So when you mentioned where people were love, the whole, you know, stepping into leadership, I think that's the only way to actually learn leadership. It's becoming a leader. Um, either you do it naturally or it's kind of, you know, natural evolution within a company.

Nico: 19:34

I do have an issue sometimes with you know, getting somebody from the team into a leadership position. You have to prepare that very well. I've recently done it and it's going well at this point. But what I've noticed with a lot of people that come into that leadership role after a while, they start noticing something very specific, which is a form of isolation.

Nico: 19:57

You've always been part of the team, part of the people that are there, and then you become their leader or you become a leader of isolation. You know, you've always been part of the team, part of the people that are there and then you become their leader, or you become a leader of another company and you're, you know, you kind of become isolated. And another part of that is loneliness. You know it's not in the essence of not having a partner, but it's feeling that what you do is, you know, people look at you all the time and you don't have the possibility to always talk to somebody else about that. So that's where I focused on confidence, being a confidant, being on that other level where you just, you know, listen to the stories and whatever happens to them. Is that something that you've been experiencing as well?

Carly: 20:38

I think it's definitely normal. Like it's definitely normal. Like it's definitely normal, it's definitely kind of standard. One thing I will say is it's really worth working on when we say personal development, our own unique prides and shames, right. So this dynamic, because the whole world is looking at you, right, the whole world is looking at you and I like to think to myself what is it that I have shame about that? If someone found out no-transcript share that, right, it's like did I actually feel shame about sharing that? And it's like okay, if I did. It's like let's dive in and do that work. So then if someone even comes at me, it's fine, rich shit happens, right, people had some interesting.

Carly: 21:43

Sometimes you feel sometimes people love the podcast and sometimes people send me really interesting stuff and then it's like, okay, if it's not, if I've done the inner work, then that's not going to impact me as a leader. So that's another reason why the inner work is really really important a leader. So that's another reason why the inner work is really really important, because then when we get that feedback, it's only going to impact us if we haven't done the work inside ourselves, right? So the more that we kind of dive into that the easier it gets, and of course, there's going to be, you know, those bombshells that get thrown at us from time to time, and then we work on it later. It's not like you know, it's what it is. Welcome to life, yeah, and so that's a really interesting dynamic. So, when it comes to kind of balancing those dynamics within to also balance the dynamics on the outside as well, because, yeah, when we are stepping into these new roles and different leaderships, it's very natural for us to waver in our own perceptions of ourselves, and it's very natural for us to waver in our own perceptions of ourselves and it's very natural for us to waver in our understanding. It's just like when we first rode a bike, we didn't really understand what to do, right? So we had training wheels, and what's funny is, as leaders, we expect ourselves to, because we've reached a certain point, to just be able to dive into all these other things without training wheels, right, which is not the truth and then we think that we should feel like we could just walk into it, when the reality is is you're going to feel disconnected, you're going to compare yourself to others. All that imposter syndrome comes in, and there's going to be a lot. You don't know how to do. So.

Carly: 23:11

Part of the training wheels may be the personal development side. It's also bringing in people who can help you with the strategies like the real world, life, external kind of things that you can implement on a day-to-day basis, because that is the reality You're stepping into kind of a new role and a new zone. So it's, like you said, like when we have someone going into a leadership role, there's a level of training that's required. There's going to be a level where that person is required to show up as a leader with it and pull that out of themselves as well.

Carly: 23:41

But it makes it a lot harder if you just throw them in and say, okay, now you're leading and it's like what did that even look like? I don't even know what that job role is. So it's kind of like how do we do the internal work balance with the external dynamic so that the two hand in hand can really help to just move you along more effectively, efficiently, more smoothly, you know, and it just makes things less stressful and more of like an inspiring challenge to face, right. So instead of feeling overwhelmed, overcome like we're actually facing a challenge where it's like this is hard, but I would love to do this Right as opposed to like. This is really hard. Should I have done this? Yeah?

Nico: 24:19

Where's's the exit? Where's the exit?

Carly: 24:21

exactly we weren't, we weren't.

Nico: 24:23

This is hard, but I would love to do it good yeah, I think I think a lot, of, a lot of high achievers are kind of sadomasochists, as they say.

Nico: 24:32

You know they love pain and suffering, but but it's, it's a good kind of it's a good kind of pain, it's evolution, and I think that's one part of life that that that's been a bit pushed away of saying.

Nico: 24:47

You know, you always have to be happy, always have to be chipper and so on, which is to me absolute bs, because it's within the hardships and in the difficult moments of life that you grow a whole lot faster. I've had a couple of weekends and I'm not saying weekends, I went out was business weekends where we went into full failure mode, where something went really wrong, and in those three days I learned more than I could have learned in three years or two years. That's just the whole point. And I've learned to embrace those, even though it's very hard at the time. You don't want to and you want to run away, find the action and so on. So, carly, if you want to bring out one more message out to my listeners or out to the world because you know you're going to send out this podcast as well what would be that message for you? What's the thing that you really want to put out there.

Carly: 25:41

Yeah, growing a business is hard. I think in the world today, where we get the opportunity to listen to a lot of these business owners that have been around for quite some time, you forget that the journey along the way was a pretty messy. And even where they're at now, they're also not sharing with you all the messy stuff on the back end. Quite frankly, a lot of them aren't even tackling it anymore. They have so much delegation they don't even have to hear about it because it's not necessary to even get to them. It's solved by the time before it's even an issue, right? So it's just to remember. There's a lot of things that go on on the back end and whenever there's challenges in the business, it's asking ourselves the questions like well, what's actually the gap? Right? Is it my culture? Is it my leadership team? Is it the people dynamic? Right? Is it the strategy? Do I not have a vision? Do I not have a strategy on how to get there? Are we kind of in it all the time? Are we not executing it properly? You know, like, where's the execution? Are we kind of all over the place? We have too many people in the same seat. Do I have the wrong people in the wrong seat Right. Are we stuck on cash flow? Do we keep running out of cash flow, like, how do we solve that problem? So it's really looking at all the external dynamics in that you know how do we actually solve this. And no matter what size business you are, I suggest you start when you're smaller.

Carly: 27:02

Sometimes people say, well, I don't need to do that because I'm a big business. Well, if you want to become a big business, it's very hard to scale. And even if you're a $10 million company, a $15 million company, it's hard to scale to a larger degree if it's chaotic on the back end and you're just wasting all your time putting out fires. And instead of wasting that time putting out fires, it's like invest that time in putting in the proper strategy, systems, execution, all these different things, because it takes just as much time to put that in place which neutralizes all that like crazy chaos. So you could just have normal chaos as opposed to just like managing like crazy chaos.

Carly: 27:40

Right, and then, on that journey, pay attention to what's going on on the inside, like you don't have to sit there and struggle with yourself, with your journey, with all these different things, with whatever you're going through, if you feel disconnected, if you feel like you're challenged, like you don't have to just sit there. People have normalized it for sure and you just don't have to. You don't have to be burned out anymore. You don't have to have like that drained energy. You don't have to feel like I built this business and now it's like exhausted me and I just wish I could sell it. Like and I've seen people sell for way too low because of emotion Like you don't have to let this get the best of you anymore and it's like, yeah, it's like the internal work, figure out, find whether me, nico, anyone else, like find the person who can help you fall in love with your business again. You know so that if you did sell, you're selling from a place of gratitude and empowerment.

Nico: 28:33

So you get the price you deserve.

Carly: 28:37

And you're like that's where you get out.

Nico: 28:40

Yeah, indeed, yeah, don't take the small briefcase, try to get the big one. Yeah.

Carly: 28:45

Yeah, that's what I want to help people with Working building businesses. All right, let's get that briefcase thickened.

Nico: 28:53

Yes, indeed Great. So, Carly, where can people find you? What's the best approach to get a hold of you if they want to talk to?

Carly: 29:03

you? Yeah, they can head over to my website West Coast Growth Advisors. They can contact me directly or head on over to LinkedIn if they want.

Nico: 29:10

Okay, super, so we'll put the links in the show notes in any case. And well, there are people you know. If you have those issues, if you you got a couple of things that you want to discuss with Carly, go right ahead, contact her and I think you'll probably be much more inspired, even after this podcast show. Thank you very much for coming over, carly, taking the time to have a little chat here and, yeah, actually there's a couple of things there that made me think, so I'm a little bit absent of all the stuff that you were talking about. So, thanks a lot, and to the listeners, thank you very much again for listening to the podcast and you all have a good one. Bye-bye, bye-bye.