Career Growth Advice from Colleen Biggs, Career Development Leader | Career Tips for Women in Career Development

2B Bolder Podcast – Episode 46
Featuring Colleen Biggs

Episode Title: #46 Career Podcast Featuring Colleen Biggs a Peak Performance Coach : Women In Business

Host: Mary Killelea
Guest: Colleen Biggs



Mary Killelea (Host): Hi there. My name is Mary Killelea. Welcome to the To Be Bolder podcast, providing career insights for the next generation of women in business and tech. To Be Bolder was created out of my love for technology and marketing, my desire to bring together like-minded women, and my hope to be a great role model and source of inspiration for my two girls and other young women like you. Encouraging you guys to show up and to be bolder and to know that anything you guys dream of, it's totally possible. So, sit back, relax, and enjoy the conversation.

Hi there. Thanks for tuning in. Today on the show, I am joined by Colleen Biggs. Colleen is a performance consultant with over 18 years of experience. She has launched over 340 businesses, is an international speaker, authored a number one international bestseller, Anatomy of Accomplishment, and serves as the CEO of three businesses, including Lead Up for Women, a community that boasts tens of thousands of female entrepreneurs that are driven by their passions, support, and promote others with purpose to fuel female voices with power. Colleen supports women to move from surviving in their businesses to thriving through strategic wealth building. Colleen, thank you for joining me. It's so great to have you here.

Colleen Biggs (Guest): Thanks. I'm so happy to be here. This is just such a fun time of year. I'm really happy to be here and be on your show and share some nuggets that I can share today with your listeners.

Mary Killelea: Thank you so much. Well, let's start with, tell us about your background.

Colleen Biggs: Okay. So you talked a lot about it already, but my background is 30 years in corporate America. I got a job when I was 15 years old for a paycheck. Before that, I was cleaning homes and delivering the paper. So by the time I was eight years old, I was working and I have not stopped working since that date, just so everyone is aware of that. And I'm not a spring chicken. I have seven kids and 11 grandkids. So, I'm up there in age, but let me just start with sharing that anything is possible. That's the way I look at it. And I climb the corporate ladder through several different positions. Whenever I was offered, I never said no. And that's my background. My background was corporate America. And I'm thankful for the time that I spent there molding my skill sets, growing my knowledge and my wisdom and my experience, which really prepared me to become an entrepreneur and working with entrepreneurs for over 18 years. That really helped because I was able to get into their map of the world, understand them, understand what it took to be an entrepreneur. And there's a secret to it. And we'll share that in a little bit. Yeah.

Mary Killelea: Mother of seven. That is amazing. Congratulations on that. That's just amazing. So let's talk about your successes. You're a leader of the community of women, coach, speaker, author, and I also read that you're a black belt.

Colleen Biggs: I am right. Something that no one would really know. So I have these seasons in my life is what I like to call them. And back in the eighties, when I was having kids, you know, I think I did like aerobics and then that was kind of the thing. And then I got into CrossFit and then I got into running. And so I would run half marathons and I was always running a different run every month. And most of the time I was out there by myself. I didn't have a lot of support, but I was doing it for the charity and I was doing it to push myself mentally and physically. And then we moved into the season. Once the kids were all grown, we did softball. My husband and I did co-ed softball, all of those fun things. And then when the kids all grew up, we looked at each other, like, how do we even have an evening that we're home? Like, how are we not going to nine different sports activities right now? Right. So we decided to do something for ourselves and become first degree black belts. And that was one of the best things I've ever done. It took us a few years to become a first degree black belt. We competed, so here we are, 40s and 50s, competing. I was surprised at how many ladies wanted to get into the ring and kick your butt, you know what I mean? But it was fun because it pushed us mentally, it pushed us physically. And we did it together as a team. We supported each other. I traveled a lot for work. And so times that I wasn't ready to test to the next level, he would wait for me and we would practice together for a week. So we took the journey together. And I have to tell you, that's one of the reasons why I create groups a lot of my clients around me and create community is because when you have someone on the journey with you, it just makes it that much easier. You have the support, you have somebody to lean on. And I needed that on times where I was hard having a hard time breaking through some mental barriers and we all do in our lives and we need to realize that, right? We all do. We're not on islands by ourselves. So yeah, so that's kind of the crazy things that I've done.

Mary Killelea: That's amazing. So what drives you? I mean, what keeps you so determined to fill your life with purpose?

Colleen Biggs: No one has ever asked me that, Mary. Do you know that I have probably been interviewed over 500 times and no one has asked me the question, what drives my purpose every day? And I really believe that, A, I believe that God created us for greatness and a purpose, right? So, I would be letting him down, letting myself down, letting people around me down if I didn't show up at my best potential and reminding everybody that that's not always every day, every second of every day. I don't pop out of bed thinking, here's my best potential today and I'm just going to kill it. No, I like roll out of bed like everyone else, right? When the alarm goes off and it's dark and it's cold, but I fill my morning with gratitude. First thing I do, get a cup of tea or coffee. I go into my office and I write and I read and I read inspirational books. I read books that fill my mind like think and grow rich with mindset tactics, right? The secrets of a millionaire mind, anything that I can read that is helping me create positivity for the day. And that sets my intention.

It's also the time that I get my downloads of I really feel from God or the universe and the way that the universe works, right? With the law of attraction is it has to match. So if I give nothing, then I get nothing. It's just the way it works. But if I give what I've got and I put my intentions out there and I do everything I know how to do, then the universe will match that for me, right? If I'm living in my purpose and I'm out there impacting others and I'm doing it with the pure intention of my heart for impact and change, then I will get back tenfold. And that's just the way my life has always worked. And I just see greatness in other people. I truly do, Mary. I don't look at the flaws that people have. They're just temporary that hold us back in a time where I feel we need the most help for us to be able to move ourselves forward. So that's probably why I get out of bed every day. And I couldn't imagine not doing what I do or serving others or assisting others or pouring into others. I've just had to learn over the years that it's just as important for me to pour into myself. That was the biggest lesson I think I've learned because I'm a mother and I have kids and we constantly pour in to others and the airlines got it right because if you do not put on your mask first, you will die trying to help others around you. And that's life. It really is life. And I've seen so many moms not eat or have scraps or take leftovers or put themselves second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth last. And it's so sad because when we're fueled, we're unstoppable. We just have to stay fueled.

Mary Killelea: Absolutely. And when you're talking, I feel like I'm meeting my soul sister. Seriously, what you're saying resonates so strongly with me. Let's talk about lead up for women. Tell me about that and how it came about.

Colleen Biggs: Lead up for women came about because I was at a conference one time and usually in this business conference that I was in back in corporate America, there was a bunch of women sitting around the table in a male dominated industry. We're all in them, but this one was pretty heavily male dominated. And this was a chance for all the women to get together and talk about the struggles we're having, how we've overcome things, what's on our plate. This was the first time in a room, Mary, that they ever asked us the question, what's your story? And women were just like, they want me to tell my story? Like, what are we doing here? Right. You want to hear from me? And I, you know, I was probably three quarters around the table. So I got to listen to all the other stories first, but it's very interesting to me how the women opened up and how they shared their struggles, their personal lives. Even young girls at the table that were widows that I didn't know. We've never talked about them because it was so business oriented. And this was the first time I'd sat in a room for three straight hours, no breaks, no one got up to go to the restroom. You could hear a pin drop and we were crying. I mean, it was in that moment, how supportive and cohesive that group was in that short amount of time, just from opening up and being brave and courageous to share where you've been. And it just gave me so much strength, me, it gave me strength from listening to other stories. And I remember thinking to myself, right then, I need to create a community of women that feel this all the time, that feel supported, that aren't judged, that no matter what we've been through in our lives, it's not where we've been, it's who we are today and where we are today. Right?

And I knew that as an entrepreneur and coming out to be an entrepreneur, I would need that support because I've always needed it along the way, which is why I was at that type of conference to get the support from other females. So it just grew from there. I created it in 2019 and launched it. We were guests on a radio show and then they asked me to start my own radio show, which started the podcast, which by the way, I had never ran a podcast before I was coming from corporate America. So, I had to learn how to do a lot of things very quickly. And once the path opened up and I started down that road, those stories I have heard of women, the trials, the successes, what they think are failures, I think are stepping stones and building blocks to our future. We're all so intertwined as sisters. And if we just believe in our capabilities and what we can accomplish and be at our peak performance, it changes everything because the belief in yourself is what creates success. But if other people believe in you before you believe in yourself, that is what carries you to the point that you get to the belief in yourself. So it's crucial. And that's why I created it.

Plus, I know in building those 340 businesses that you talked about, the number one rule is telling everybody about you. If you build a website, no one's going to come. They don't know you exist. You have to get out there and tell everyone about you. Get in every circle, talk about yourself, talk about your brand, talk about your message, talk about how you serve. And so many women become keyboard warriors, and they're afraid to get out there. They're afraid to put themselves out there. But you're your best secret sauce, right? You're your best first impression. So, getting out there was the number one thing. And that was why we did Member Monday Spotlights and Thrive Thursday Spotlights and magazines and blogs and everything that we create. Teaching Tuesday, Masterclasses, all of this is about every member in the community getting out there and promoting herself and getting visibility. So, our tagline is really about being seen, being heard, and being visible.

Mary Killelea: And that's a muscle, I think, that all of us, myself included have to work at and have to practice, that showing up saying I'm going to put myself being vulnerable. It's uncomfortable, but I know I'm going to grow from it. And environments like your community are such a great place to strengthen that muscle. What challenges did you face in building lead up for women? And how did you overcome them?

Colleen Biggs: Oh, okay. So the challenges I faced, which was looking back now, it was just natural for me to want to talk to everyone about it, you know, get out there with confidence and book calls with everyone. It was exhausting. I'm not going to lie, right? So, one of the challenges I had was thinking, well, why wouldn't all these women want to join this community that's so affordable, where they can be supported, they can get all of this value that I'm adding, right? One, it became so much value and so much stuff that I was doing for the women. They were overwhelmed with it all to start, right? So less is more, but I did more is more. And so it confused people. So that was the first thing, right? Less is more be intentional with what you're doing. Start with just a couple of things and over deliver on those, right? And then understand what your community is looking for and deliver more. So that was the first lesson.

The second one was I thought it'd be super easy to get a hundred members this month, a hundred members next month. It was not, it was building the conversations, getting awareness, getting out there over and over and over and over again, and just slowly building the community one by one by one until the ball starts rolling. And that's generally when people quit is in that first year when they're not seeing that high, huge return that they're expecting right away. And I feel that momentum is super important in anything that we do in relationships. You don't just go on one date in a year and go, well, I don't know why my relationship with my spouse isn't working. It's you've got to put effort into it, right? But it's both sides. So it only works if the other people that are participating or put an effort into it too. So, set realistic goals. I think that we tend to, our goals seem to be so massive, but our dreams seem to be so small. So dream of a better life, dream of a better future. For mine it was for women and what, how many women would be sitting on chairs at fortune 500 companies as CEO, right? Women starting more businesses and not just using it as a hobby to pay for vacation for their family, but making six, seven and eight figures with their companies because it's possible. That is my dream, right? My big dream. And then we have our goals, which I believe we just tend to set too big for ourselves. And then we disappoint ourselves.

So I like smart goals. I like to set those goals in increments and have kind of the bigger goal, but there should really be one thing that you need to accomplish in that year that’s going to transform you completely. Maybe you have healing to go through because someone's passed away lately in your life and that's screwing everything up, right? And you've not taken the time for yourself. Maybe it's your fitness or your health or your eating or your sleeping or how many hours you work or the balance. I don't really believe in balance, but it's priority, right? Are you putting yourself last? So what are the priorities in your goals and what are the things that you need to be working on? The little tiny steps every day that you can work on toward that goal. And I think everyone gets overwhelmed because it's too big, but if we break that down goal, setting hands down is the number one success factor in any business I've ever worked with following through every day on something working toward that goal.

Mary Killelea: That is such great advice. And don't you think that your corporate background gave you that intensity or that ability to think bigger?

Colleen Biggs: It was a blessing and a curse.

Mary Killelea: Right, right, right. No, I know I'm living it. I went from entrepreneurship into the corporate world and then I look back at it. I didn't think big enough. Yeah. And so now I have a whole new perspective. Like as I look in the future and what I might want to do, there's unleashing so much more potential and, and drive that I have. And I love that, that dichotomy of entrepreneurship, but with corporate culture.

Colleen Biggs: Yeah. Yeah. So I feel like what I didn't know, I didn't know. And that's okay. And this is, this is what I want to let every one of your listeners know and let this land, let it sink in and share it with somebody else. You don't know until you know.

Mary Killelea: Right.

Colleen Biggs: So don't blame yourself. But then when you know, what do you do with your knowledge? That's probably the most important lesson we can all learn because we beat ourselves up for something we don't know. But then when we finally do know it, what do we do with that knowledge? Let's pass it on. Let's put it to use. Right? And I say it was a blessing and a curse because it was a blessing because I was so intense. I worked with so many wonderful entrepreneurs. I had so many goals and, and metrics that I had to hit that I was pushed to hit. The curse was I felt my worth was what the company paid me because that was what your job description was. And what the company felt your worth was what you were paid. That's a dangerous line for an entrepreneur, dangerous line for an entrepreneur.

The other piece of that was I was thinking so small while I was in corporate America that when I got out here, I said one time on an interview, it just fell out of my mouth. I said, this is like a millionaire's playground out here. You can make as much money as you want anytime you want to make it. And anybody that doesn't realize that call me, right? You can make any amount of money at any time. You just have to know it's possible and create a way to do it. My husband always jokes around and says, I can pull money out of thin air and people ask me all the time, how do you do that? It's like, well, I was going to a networking event that I was sponsoring, was a sponsored speaker and had 10 minutes to speak an hour before I went to this networking event. I decided I got to have something really good to sell. That's just something I can get someone in right away. So, I created a workshop that was 90 minutes, didn't create the workshop, just the name, a price point went on to Calendly created it. And all I did for three days in this networking event was sell this workshop. I did not have anything written for it. And I made a whole bunch. I made all the money back for sponsoring the event plus more money. Plus now all of those people that were at the networking event showed up at my workshop to get to know, like, and trust me more, which some of them became private clients. Some of them joined my community. Do you see how that works?

Mary Killelea: Oh, absolutely.

Colleen Biggs: I created out of it didn't even exist. It just created it to, to drive people to me. And we miss a lot of those opportunities. And those boats pass us by because either we're not thinking big enough or we're thinking no one's going to want to come to my workshop if I create it and people just start thinking, oh, maybe they want to just go to my website or book a call with me. That's not always the case, right? Give them something valuable and you would be surprised at how many people will take you up on that offer.

Mary Killelea: And you hit on such a, such an important point. And that is, don't worry about perfection. You know, action dominates.

Colleen Biggs: It's called ready, fire, and then aim. Now coming from the corporate world, the curse, ready, aim, fire, you aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, and aim, and aim, and aim for a year before you fire. Right. And as an entrepreneur, I say ready, fire, aim, because you better just get ready, fire it. And then you can move things around afterwards and then find out what works, what doesn't work. And that's probably a big hump that I'm really good at getting my clients over by pushing them to make detailed dates of things and get it out there, say it out loud. And then they're responsible for it to do it, right? Putting a date and then that makes everything else happen. Or then the universe goes, okay, she's ready. And then they start driving all the forces to you. And it really does happen. But you have to have a lot of faith and faith is if we believe in something that's great, and that's kind of like the seed, but the faith part, that's a constant everyday practice of that muscle of having faith in something you don't see the end result of all the time, and that faith and needs to be stronger than your weakest times. It really does.

Mary Killelea: No, I totally agree with you. Let's talk about The Anatomy of Accomplishment.

Colleen Biggs: Okay, so that was the very first book I published. I'm on book number seven now. So that was the first book I published a few years ago. As I came out as an entrepreneur, everyone's like, you have to have a book. I'm like, well, why do I need to have a book? Right? I was already a trainer in corporate America. So that was easily converted to be in a speaker. And then they were like, well, you've got to be an author. And I kept meeting all these authors. So once it's in your brain, right, you can't get rid of it. And I was working with a group of ladies. And they invited me to be in this book, The Anatomy of Accomplishment. And I was like, this can be awesome. It's my first book, I have it on my vision board that I want to be a published author and a best seller. And so it was a collaboration book, my very first one. And I loved it. I got to write my story. And now I look back at that story. I laugh a little bit, because we've written so much since then. But it was a great experience of it's a business playbook. It's about the success of creating a successful business. And these were all entrepreneur women that from a different perspective, create success in their businesses. And some of them do it through so many different ways that that after that, I went on to write a couple of journals, because I'm very much into gratitude. So I wrote a couple of journals and publish them. I give them out mainly to my clients, but I did publish them on Amazon. And it's just a guided gratitude book. And then one's just a lined book, right for you to write in.

I think that the art of writing is lost. We need to do more of it. And then this year, I published my own book called Step into the Spotlight to Expand your Influence to Attract the Right Clients. And that's what showing up is to me visibility, being seen, being heard, getting everywhere where you don't even have to be at that next networking event. And they're talking about you someone saying, Hey, have you met Colleen? You need to meet her, she's someone that can help you with what you're looking for. Right. So getting out there and attracting the right people, I attract all the right women into my community, because of who I am, my energy level, what I say, my personality, I'm attracting certain people that are attracted to that other women, they're like, No, thanks, that's not I'm not attracted to you. So that's how we attract the right clients to us. And that's important, because so many of us go fishing for the right clients. And then we'll just take on any client, right, though, we know that's not our ideal client, they will suck 90% of your time, by the way, it'll be the worst investment you've ever made in that client. So attract the right people say no to the ones that you know aren't a right fit for you. And really, this is your business, your life to design the way you want to design it. So like I said, I use a lot of goal setting tactics, because it really works when you're when you're held accountable. That's the only way we're going to reach our peak performance, because, how else unless we're challenged to go to that next level, are we going to get there?

Mary Killelea: So about your coaching career, you said you were a trainer back in corporate, and then you took it kind of offline out in the wild in the entrepreneur, what have been some of the common challenges that you see with your women clients? Is there a common theme that seems to be kind of that stumbling block?

Colleen Biggs: Oh, yeah, yeah, it's the same one for every single person except for men. And I know that they struggle with this as well. And I worked with about 4% men back in corporate America, the rest of them, and that was by request, they wanted to work with me. And I think it was my personality, because I was so direct and so confident that they wanted to work with me. I didn't him and how I'm not sure. And the one number one thing that was a problem for every single person was they couldn't get out of their own way. They could not get out of their own way. And just the lack of confidence to make a decision, there's a lot of decisions that have to be made in launching a business, in a year's time, and there could be a design, there could be a location that brick and mortar, but they're staff that they're hiring, it's about making decisions. So the ready fire aim, and because many of them have been in that corporate world, they wait and wait and procrastinate and procrastinate and procrastination is the devil. It really is. The fastest path to wealth is speed. And you need to be quick at doing things. And knowing that if it wasn't the right decision, that's okay, you learn from that, right. And so many of us are afraid to make those mistakes that we procrastinate and great opportunities pass by. And I've seen it so many times in working with entrepreneurs and launching all those businesses.

And I think the other one thing that we need to remember is people do not fit into our blueprint and bucket of how we feel that every person should fit in, right. So we need to meet others where they're at. So understand their map of the world, what's going on with them in that day, what's going on with them in those months or that year, meet them where they're at and start from there. And I see a lot of entrepreneurs make this mistake as well, is with working with clients, they just want to bring them through the exact same. This is probably why I'm so successful as a coach and have been even in corporate America was because I would just meet people where they are, I treated them like people, I addressed what they were struggling with. I worked with them. No matter what you, even if I'm built helping someone build their business, I'm working on them the entire time, because we are the ones that need to be worked on because our businesses, our relationships, our faith, everything in our world can only grow to the extent that we're willing to grow. So if we're not willing to grow, they won't grow. And I think that's important to remember.

Mary Killelea: It's so important. Failing fast is one of the biggest things that's an important takeaway for all of us, not to be scared of failure and do it. Put yourself out there. And if it does fail or if there's a learning, there's no failure, I really should say there's no failure. There's just lessons learned.

Colleen Biggs: Yeah. You got to build them, right? I built, you build, you build building blocks, you build stepping stones. Those are all my failures along the way. All the things that I failed on. It's like, I feel like physically I just step up on that to see it from a different perspective and a different horizon and go, no wonder why that didn't work. Or when things don't go the way I plan them, because in my mind I had a plan and I was in my head bubble and God was like, got a different plan for you, girl. That path is not the, I know your head strong and you want to go that direction, but I have to cut that off. And it's going to feel like failure. It's going to feel like you're going to have a hard time going through this, but it's what I need you to go through to get to where, you know, I need you to be because, it's about, it's about those we serve.

Mary Killelea: I think your, your personality just comes across so contagious, but what would you say sets yourself apart from other coaches?

Colleen Biggs: I think it's my ability to just get to hone in on a person and understand their feelings, where they're at. It really is about where they're at. And some of them are really struggling with self-esteem and they've worked with other coaches and have come to me and I am very intense, right? So that can scare some people away because of my confidence but never let that be mistaken for ego because my confidence in my ability is based on my belief in my love for myself, which is what I want for all my clients because that's when you feel and have faith in yourself to know you can do it. If you put your mind to it, cause you can do anything. Doesn't mean there's not going to be stumbling blocks along the way, a lot of learning, but I really know that's what sets me apart. I do not judge others ever. I don't have the right to do that. I feel God is the only person that has the right to judge.

So, I'm here to help others be really extroar- like pulling the extraordinary out of people of what they already possess. And I really feel like that's the best way to lead is by helping others become their best version of themselves and focusing and pouring everything into them so they can realize it. Because most of the time they have everything they need already. They just need us to acknowledge it and help them find it and see it for themselves. It's not about, okay, you've got to post on Monday, do this on Tuesday, do that on Wednesday. And then I've had so many women come to me and they're like, this coach said I had to do this. This isn't felt so wrong. And they changed all my programs around. And I'm like, let's get back to what feels right for you. Let's talk about what feels good for you. What has always felt right? What do you want to do? When I ask people like, what do you want to do? What feels right to you? And then they truly share. It's like, then why aren't you doing that already? And they're like, I don't know, because someone else told me to do it differently. And I'm like, you've got to follow your heart.

Mary Killelea: Trusting your instincts is hard because it puts you out there so vulnerable. So what tips do you have for building self-confidence?

Colleen Biggs: Yeah. So that one starts with yourself, right? So, the one piece that I think for building self-confidence, that works really, really well is action. So when we're in action, we build confidence automatically, because as you're doing things and completing them, you feel confident like, oh, I did do that networking event. And what I didn't kill me, right? I always say write down everything like what could possibly go wrong if you ran an event two weeks from now, and one person showed up, like what would be your biggest fears? No one shows up as the number one thing. Okay. So then you record it and it becomes a workshop. And now you have something you can share, but you prepared for it. And you can do it again, right? There's positive, write down everything that could happen wonderfully, everything that could happen negatively. And if dying is not on that list, then you move forward with it. Seriously. So, I think it's the daily actions. I've even challenged some clients to go out and do a one mile run where they cross a physical finish line, like crossing a physical finish line and completing something does a lot for your psyche. And too many of us miss that. And that's not hard to do. Anybody can walk a mile, you're in a wheelchair, you can roll a mile, my brother in law does, so let me tell you that if you cross a physical finish line and complete something and succeed in an area, your confidence rises like a meter, right? So you have to just continue getting out there and continue moving forward. It's those that are stagnant, that are not in motion, that just sit and don't take action. They're the ones that struggle the most because they're sitting in their way, they're holding themselves back and success is on the other side of action.

Mary Killelea: Love it. Oh my gosh, that's so great. Let's talk about your vision board. I am a big believer in vision boards. So, tell me your process. Tell me what kind of you put on it, those kind of things.

Colleen Biggs: I'm glad you asked that because I did something different with my clients this last year. And I do a business intensive training where we get together for two straight days in person. Everyone flies into Phoenix, Arizona, and I get together for two days and we just do business training. And I tend to load a lot into those two days. Less is more, right? But I know my personality is about loading a lot. So this one day I had two things on the agenda for a full day. I was so nervous and I had two things on there. One was write our eulogy, which took hours and then reading it and realizing what do you really want your lights to be known for in the end? That changed a lot of things for a lot of women. And the second thing we did in the second half of the day was just do a vision board. So I brought a printer in, you could print off any photo from online, I didn't bring magazines or anything in. And I wanted them to look at their year in review and what they wanted for their life moving forward and look back at all they had accomplished when they did their vision board the year before. So I like them to be annual. And then I love that you have it like mine's right. I'm looking at it right now. It's across from me on my wall where I can physically see it. So it's if it's not in your face every day, it's not a reminder, right? But by looking at it and realizing the things that one of mine on there says, let go and let God lead because I tend to control the head bubbles and things and everything I have to do and need to remember to just have some quiet time. You cannot receive if you're never in receiving mode, right? How else are you going to receive money or knowledge or any ideas if we're just always on the go? So that's a reminder of me to relax and receive because that's just as important for money for knowledge for wisdom for anything. So I that's my process is every year getting together, putting it together. Some of the things from my previous board flow over to my new board because I'm still on a mission for that. But I never get frustrated like, oh, these four things I didn't accomplish this year. My vision board is not about accomplishing all of those in one year. They're reminders for me and their visions of grandeur of things I have set for my life. And then I did realize after I had done my first vision board coming out of corporate America, how small I was dreaming. And then it was like, Oh, my gosh, there's it's you can do anything. We really can. If we put our minds to it. And I hope that your listeners are taking that and really believing that.

Mary Killelea: Yeah, that's my hope too. When you reflect on your career, what are you most proud of?

Colleen Biggs: A that I didn't kill anyone. But you know what I'm most proud of? I'm most proud of myself that I was able to endure labels being told what I was capable of doing what I wasn't capable of doing. And I'm so most proud of just being me through all of it and really knowing that there was this person boiling inside of me that was getting wanting to get out and I was different than everybody else because I just didn't want to conform. I was different. And that I allowed other people to take me under their wing and teach me and I think because of those relationships that I had in the last five years of my corporate world of really climbing fast in the corporate ladder to become an executive and allowing other people to take me under their wings and have constructive feedback and just being a student. I've really learned the value of being a student. So, I use the phrase if learning is beneath you, then leadership is beyond you. And if I wasn't willing to be a student, if we're not now today, no matter where you are, you could be making more money than another person.

Let's just use that example or in a been an entrepreneur for six years, but here's someone that comes out and starts something brand new and you're like, wow, they have a lot of knowledge in an area that I don't become the student, humble yourself and learn from them, ask them questions. And I feel like a lot of women, especially men, find that as a point of weakness. If I'm asking questions of someone to help me, I must be weak because I don't know. But I actually really think that that shows a lot of courage and bravery to become a student of others.

Mary Killelea: I completely agree. Having that growth mindset and like you said, being humble and inquisitive definitely is a key to success. All right. So this is kind of the rapid fire section. If you could tell your 20 year old self anything, what would it be?

Colleen Biggs: Love your body. Love your body. I can't tell you how many years I went. You can do better. Your body doesn't look good. And I was a runner and black belt. Trust me, I had a great looking body and every time I found something wrong with it and would just not enjoy it, work harder, harder, harder to get to the point where you're my age now and you're like girlfriend, you should just love that body when you have it.

Mary Killelea: Well, you look fabulous.

Colleen Biggs: Thanks.

Mary Killelea: What does to be bolder mean to you?

Colleen Biggs: Oh, there's just another step I need to take to become be bolder, right? So be bolder to me means to get out there, to say what I mean, to show up, to be present. There's so many opportunities for us to be bolder and say no. That's another important thing. When you don't want to do something, say no. That's what being bolder means to me. Doing what you want to do when you want to do it and living the life that you desire on your design, not by default because you just gave up.

Mary Killelea: Absolutely love it. What's next? Where do you see yourself in three to five years?

Colleen Biggs: I still see myself doing what I'm doing now. I love, love, love, love working individually with women. I love working in groups. I'm creating another community right now because I love creating communities and I really just see myself traveling more. My husband and I looked back at this year and I'm like, wow, we've we get an ornament everywhere we go. We make an ornament of something everywhere we go. So, every Christmas when I put them on my tree, sometimes those are my only memories because it's 10, 15, 20 years ago. I don't remember that we've visited this bridge, that was amazing, suspending in Vancouver. I don't remember any of that because it was so many years ago. So for me, it's our family continues to grow. It's spending the time with the people that I love, spending the time making more memories. And that's, you know, that's why I do what I do. It's why I do the work I do. It's why I make the money I make. It's so that we can spend the money and making memories, whether it be with our family or with each other, because we're not promised tomorrow. Today is all we have.

Mary Killelea: And don't you think having your own business doesn't feel like a job?

Colleen Biggs: Yes, but I work so many hours, and I get to pick and choose when I work those hours. So it's a lot different when you own your own business. The revenue that comes in is not a paycheck that you're guaranteed unless you set yourself up that way. That's why I help a lot of women with figure out how to create passive income streams. That's the wealth building. So, the passive income streams is something that a lot of entrepreneurs don't do. And they exchange time for money. But when you build the passive income streams, you're not having to exchange time for money anymore. And then you could take two, three, four days off and the money's still rolling in. So yes, it is definitely a blessing. And I don't feel like I have a job. My number two and number one gratitudes every day are I'm so grateful for my freedom of time and my freedom of choice, because I choose what I want to do when I want to do it.

Mary Killelea: What an excellent thing to stop on. That is just the nugget that I think is key. So, thank you so much for being here. How can someone connect with you? Learn more?

Colleen Biggs: Yeah, one of the best ways to connect with me is at my website, Colleen Biggs dot net, you can find me at lead up for women.com. I'm everywhere on social media lead up for women. You see my personal pictures of my grandkids there. That's where you're going to find me. And you can learn so much more about me and understand what I do and how to get connected in my inner circles at Colleen Biggs dot net.

Mary Killelea: Thank you. It's been a pleasure.

Colleen Biggs: Same Mary. Thank you so much.

Mary Killelea: Thanks for listening to the episode today. It was really fun chatting with my guests. If you liked our show, please like it and share it with your friends. If you want to learn what we're up to, please go check out our website at to be bolder dot com. That's the number two little b bolder dot com.