Turning 1% Changes into Life Transformations with Robin Osborn
Episode 150
Are you wrestling with the idea that you're stuck in the same routine, unable to find that miraculous breakthrough everyone talks about? In this heart-stirring episode, we speak with Robin Osborn, who turned her life-threatening encounter with a brain tumor into a story of unwavering self-love and relentless positivity.
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About the guest
Robin has nearly a decade of experience championing companies from good to great, while giving leaders a simple yet powerful tool to consistently transcend their goal: “A Customized Framework.” This framework combines all of Robin’s financial, operational, and leadership expertise and it is with this that she leads C-Suite executives and their teams to excellence by helping them build confidence, conquer team issues, gain clarity, and deliver real results.
Prior to coaching and consulting, Robin was at the helm of her family business for 33 years in Southern California. She took over for her father at the age of 21, managing over 40 employees, with an employee retention record of over 28 years. With big shoes to fill and the company facing adversities, Robin found and implemented the operational tools that doubled the company’s revenue in only 18 months. This experience gave Robin an intuitive understanding of both the employees’ and customers’ needs and catapulted her into the career she has today.
Connect with Robin Osborn:
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LinkedIn
About the host:
Danielle Cobo is an international female speaker for organizations, associations, and the public sector. She works with audiences to harness the grit and resilience to lead through change.
With over 15 years of corporate experience in the medical sales industry, she knows how to build high-performing teams that increase sales, productivity, and employee retention. Her expertise includes corporate resilience and burnout prevention.
Danielle is the author of “Unstoppable Grit: Breakthrough the 7 Roadblocks Standing Between You and Achieving Your Goals” and hosts the globally top-rated podcast "Unstoppable Grit Podcast with Danielle Cobo.”
As a former Fortune 500 Senior Sales Manager, she led her team through downsizing, restructuring, and acquisitions to become the #1 sales team in the nation. As a result, she was awarded Region Manager of the Year. Her resiliency motivated her to earn four consecutive national Sales Excellence Awards in a male-dominated industry.
While her husband, a Blackhawk pilot in the Army, deployed to Iraq for a year, Danielle learned to balance a demanding job while caring for their energetic 1.5-year-old twin boys, who possess more energy than a squirrel after a triple espresso.
Danielle’s resilience led her to start her own business, helping others develop the grit, resilience, and courage to thrive in life and business.
Her tenacious attitude stems from being raised by an ambitious mother and recovering from being taken from her father and cast out at 17 years of age.
She is a two-time 60-mile walker and a monster truck driver in Louboutin’s.
Danielle has a bachelor’s in communication with a minor in psychology from the California State University of Fullerton, Certification in Inclusive and Ethical Leadership from the University of South Florida Muma College of Business, and accreditation in Human Behavior from Personality Insights. Inc., and Leadership from Boston Breakthrough Academy.
She is a member of the National Speakers Association, the Central Florida National Speakers Association Chapter, Innovation Women, and a former member of Working Women of Tampa Bay. Danielle serves on the Military Advisory, Workforce Development, and Women of Influence Committees of the Tampa Chamber of Commerce. She is also a contributing writer for Women's Quarterly Magazine.
Her experience includes serving as a Training Pillar on the Military Spouse Economic Empowerment Zone Committee and Career Transition Advisor for Dallas Professional Women.
Through Danielle's captivating storytelling, content-rich and motivational style, she empowers individuals and organizations to cultivate unwavering resilience, igniting a transformative path towards increased sales, productivity, employee retention, and collaboration.
About the show:
The Unstoppable Grit Podcast with Danielle Cobo explores the journeys of people who have overcome adversity and harnessed the grit and resilience to thrive in all areas of their lives, Guests share how they overcame difficult times - the strategies, mindset shifts, lessons they learned along the way, and actions that propelled them forward. From navigating career setbacks to overcoming personal obstacles, each episode is a testament to grit and resilience.
You'll learn how to develop the grit and resilience to lead yourself and others through change.
Join host Danielle Cobo, keynote speaker and author of "Unstoppable Grit: Break Through the 7 Roadblocks Standing Between You and Your Goals." A new episode is released every Wednesday at 4:00 AM EST.
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What would you do if you were given the opportunity to have a second chance in life? Our guest Robin was given a second chance to life. She was told some devastating news that she had a baseball-sized tumor in her brain and through her journey, she has learned how to develop grit and resilience.
But this is not the end of her story. Although she had this baseball-sized tumor right before we jumped on and hit record for today's episode, she shared some news with me today, and we're going to be diving into it.
You have been an entrepreneur. You've been a success story in building a business. You have overcome a baseball-sized tumor, but there's so much more to the depth of your story.
The Peaks and Valleys of Life and Business
I was an athlete as a young kid. I had a very all-American family. I'm a twin, and I won the lottery with my siblings. My siblings are amazing. So life was great as far as growing up. When I turned 21, fortunately, my dad took his own life. He was a business owner, and we were given the opportunity to take over the business in one day. So my middle sister, my twin brother and I, my mom sat us down, said, you can run the business and get along or I'm selling it. We said we wanted it. So we had 40 employees, and it was really the school of hard knocks in business 101.
I would say as a kid, I always had leadership qualities. And so the journey began. We're an FAA repair station, so we overhaul landing gears. We also do government contract work. And I'm really proud to say we've successfully ran that company for the last 35 years. So through that journey, I would say I look at life and I say it's about peaks and pre-peaks because you're always going to have the ups and the downs, and a pre-peak is always being on the cusp of coming out of that valley. And so for me, I do a lot of positive mindset.
About 25 years in, we got stuck. I was, like, sick and tired of doing the same thing, getting the same results, didn't know how to grow the company to the next level. We were still very, I would say, mom and pop shop in the way that we operated. I read the book Traction by Gino Wickman, and I call that the business Bible. But it really challenges my perspective. It inspired me.
I got trained in the EOS process, which stands for Entrepreneurship Operating System came back, we implemented it in our business, and we doubled our revenue in 18 months. So for me, really leaning in and taking control because I always felt like the business controlled us was freedom and relief that I had always prayed for. And what I would say is the 02:00 a.m. thoughts on how am I going to solve this people issue or how are we going to create enough cash flow? It really was an amazing operating system. And so from there, I realized that I wasn't in my gifts and that I really wanted to go out in the world and help people get not only traction, but I really wanted to help be a teacher and a guide to what I call EQ. To taking all of that knowledge of being in the trenches and falling on my face and helping not only family businesses, but all businesses, anyone that's looking to grow. And so I've been doing that now for ten years.
What have you learned through implementing this EOS system that you have learned to kind of apply not only in your business life, but in all areas of your life?
The learning with the operating system is it comes down to accountability. And what I truly mean by that is, first and foremost, it starts with you. It doesn't matter if you're an owner, if you're an executive. It truly is looking in the mirror and really getting authentic with how you're showing up. Because what I find when I go into companies is that they're either pointing the finger, but they're actually not stepping into owning the values. They're not holding themselves accountable. And as they say, as go you, so go they.
I found in my own company I was being a weak leader because I would come in, I would have my hands on my hips, I was frustrated and I wanted to blame. And truly for me, I would show up late. I was the owner of the company. I felt entitled. I had a little bit of a chip on my shoulder from all the pressure and whatnot. So I made excuses. And once I realized in order to truly change, you've got to own your part and do the hard work and then it naturally starts to become a catalyst for change. The system.
I would say the key to the EOS operating system there's a lot of different systems out there. The key is consistent execution so you don't use it as a flavor of the month. Once you decide to truly engage and embrace it, you got to get in there and strengthen the muscle and do the reps inconsistency. And I find that true in personal transformation as well is getting a coach, getting open, honest and transparent with what's getting in the way and then making a decision to own it and be consistent with it. And I would say I use that to drive me in my recovery from my brain surgery as well. The tools work no matter if it's for business or your personal life, if you're really inspired and committed to change, it's limitless.
The Power of Accountability in Leadership, Goal Setting, and Personal Growth
I've worked in organizations where I'm sure you've seen this as well, that a lot of times a leadership team will look at an employee and be like, well, they're not performing or they're not doing XYZ, they're not meeting the expectations. And very rarely do I see a leader like yourself look and do and self reflect and say, well, what am I modeling for my team? What expectation am I setting through the role model that I'm doing? What are my contributions if people aren't meeting the expectations? Am I developing them? Am I taking the time and effort to develop them? And I don't see that as often in an organization from a leadership perspective. A lot of times it becomes this blame game and I also see it on the other end where there will be people that are working and they're saying, well, I'm not getting promoted and they're not doing anything about it. Instead of saying, well, if I want to get promoted, there's got to be some accountability on my own and am I taking the time to develop the skill sets that I need? Am I reaching out to people and creating advocates and sponsors within the organization and as a business owner, the same applies. If we're not seeing growth within our business, it's always time to pause, reflect and say, well, what am I not doing maybe right? Or what can I do differently and hold myself accountable to it and be consistent in our execution? Because you're right. I mean, there's stats out there that say that a lot of people will create New Year's resolutions, for example, and then by the second week of February, 87% of us have already given up on them. And so we create these visions of what we want our life to look like. But a lot of us don't achieve our goals because we're not consistent in.
Setting the Course for Success
Our execution and we make it too big. So what I would say is when you're really focusing on what is it that you truly want to create and achieve in 2024 is when we're sitting it's December 31, 2024. We're closing our eyes. We're envisioning what it looks like. Maybe three to seven key one year goals is once you get clear on what that looks like, then how do we reverse engineer that? So how do you eat the elephant one bite at a time? What's it going to take the first quarter of 2024 to really set you into success for achieving that by the end of the year? And that's where the accountability piece is so powerful, because if you're not truly going after and executing on that first quarter, what we call rocks 90 day priorities, you won't achieve the end of the year. And it's self correcting. So I say if the one year goal is your control panel on the airplane, then your weekly accountability in action. So what do I need to do to track what that looks like? If we're going to grow 20%, what do we need to do the first quarter? And then what does it look like in action? It's not just the number.
You've got to really use measurables to create what the action looks like. So revenue is keeping the circles connected with the current client base. It's finding new clients. So what does that look like? And to me, it's the same with, we're going to lose 25 pounds this year. Great. But it's really are you food prepping? We can't just weigh ourselves every week. It's not going to get it done.
Crafted Goals Through Intentional Living
I have four different sets of genes, four different sizes of genes, depending on where I am in my accountability to my lifestyle. And it boils down to a lot of what you had just said is that I can set a goal out there. But if I'm not being specific on which days I'm working out, what is my workout going to look like? Food prepping is a big one, because if it's the end of the work day and I'm exhausted and I go into my fridge, I'm like, what can I whip up really quick? It's never going to be as healthy if I go into it with intention and saying, this is what my meals are going to look like this week, this is what the groceries I need to get, this is what I can prep ahead of time. Maybe I can make dinner one night that's healthy, cook some extra, have it for lunch the next day. But I love what you say in taking that step further, is you can have the goals.
Where is it going to be when it comes to applying it and how is it going to be an action that's going to help you achieve your goals? Whether it's in business, whether it's in advancing your career or our choices and lifestyle, that we have our personal goals?
I think the key is preparation. I love that you use the word prep because I think in business and personal, whatever those goals are, we have to think it forward and be prepared so we're proactively managing. But the other thing is when you have an obstacle or you get stuck, don't go to victim because a lot of people use time for and excuse or like I say, you need to learn to be selfish. Time management. I would say universally, most professionals don't do an amazing job with time management. They're either over committing or we're not doing the self care to take the time to actually make an appointment with yourself and block it, so you putting yourself last. And for me, I live this and going through a major health opportunity, the light bulb.
My priorities change because I learned that that's not for me.
Overcoming Overwhelm and Achieving Big Results Through Small Changes
Speaking about preparation, so I was having a conversation with a girlfriend last night and we were talking about that feeling of overwhelm. She's got five kids, they're all in sports. She's a nurse practitioner or no, she's a physician assistant. So she's a busy mom and her husband travels a lot. And I'm a business owner, mom of six year old twins, and my husband's in the military, so he's gone all the time. And we were talking about these challenges of feeling overwhelmed and it kind of came to me this morning where I like to choose a word for a year and 2024. My word is going to be intention. An intention about everything.
When it comes to, let's say, self care, for example, my intention is going to be I am going to dedicate time in my schedule for working out for a massage once a quarter. But be intentional about planning it ahead of time so that weeks, months don't go by when all of a sudden I'm burnt out and my neck is hurting and I'm going gosh, I would really like a massage when I can take a more proactive approach in it. And the same goes for the intention of having connection with friends and family. My intention for 2024 is I want to reach out, whether it's text message, email, DM, whatever call, obviously is always the best. But to one person that I care about per day, every single day, the intention is going to be phone a friend, a family member, somebody to help build those relationships and be intentional about being connected with the people I care about the most. Because so often and we get caught up in work and all of a sudden we look back in our life, and we realize that we're not in touch with our friends as much because we've been so focused on work.
Small Steps, Big Results
Coming off of my brain surgery, I had a really new perspective in life, a new just honestly, joy for being giving the gift of a second chance. And when I would go to the gym, I would smile at a stranger that kind of had a grumpy face. And through my joy of life, they would awkwardly smile back, thinking, like, why is she so happy? But I made it a game that every day, I wanted to change one smile. So I think starting with baby steps is really there's a lot of perfectionists overachievers. I say, back it down. And just one baby step can bring a lot of joy in knowing that you're making a change. It doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing.
It's those small changes that we make on a consistent basis that lead to the big changes in our life. And there's a book I'm trying to remember. It's about the 1%. There was a particular racing team, cyclist team, where they were consistently year over year. They weren't winning the Tour de France or one of the Tours. I'm not a cyclist, so please forgive me in not knowing the exacts of all of this story. But what resonated about it was that they made 1% chances or changes that led to big results. So they taught them how to wash their hands so they weren't getting sick a lot.
They found pillows that were the best pillows for each of them so that they would get better quality sleep. And they traveled everywhere with the pillows. They changed little minor things on the bike. They changed their cycling routine just a little bit. But all of these little changes they're called 1% changes led to big results. They ended up earning back to back in these chores because of these little changes that they made. So a lot of times, we have these visions of, I want to achieve this particular goal, and it becomes so bigger than ourselves that when we don't achieve it, we internalize it, and we judge ourselves for it versus what you're saying is make little changes and let it lead to big results.
And then the next day, we might go a little bit farther, and then I just kept at it. It took us a year, but the consistent execution is what really and believing in truly, you are going to do it.
A Journey of Resilience and Purpose
I want to shift just a little bit, but it correlates to what you're talking about right now because you had this brain tumor and it was a baseball size, but you had also shared something with me before we jumped on. Are you okay sharing it with our listeners?
Absolutely. Yeah. I'm hitting just over two years that I overcame this benign brain tumor and really got a new perspective in life, and we're running in just excitement and gratitude for that journey. And then we just found out two weeks ago that my brain tumor is back. So big shock. It took, I would say, about a few days to really process and get to what I find is the most important thing is just acceptance because staying in victim doesn't help or serve anyone. So I am going to be having a more extensive surgery December 21. So I'm about 23 days out, and I'm in the process of really learning even a deeper knowledge in my first and foremost, my faith, because I really do believe that gives me a lot of peace.
Gratitude and Tenacity
I'm in fight mode right now. I'm doing my walking. I'm fixing my nutrition. I want to go in the strongest I can be, and I'm staying out of the head, trash the negativity and continually every day focus. So I learned that optimism is attainable through gratitude.
Okay. A lot of people will say, I've got this. I'm going to beat this. I'm going to go into it with a great attitude. But there's some people out there that just are like, I can't even comprehend that because they hear devastating news and it just consumes them. Some people can be consumed by it, and some people, they find a way through it. But on a deeper level, how do you feel like you've been able? How do you feel that last time is different than this time? And how is it preparing you for this time? Because last time you received the news and within two days you were having surgery. Now you've got 23 days to process this.
Yeah, I call the tumor the gift because, look, I didn't ask to have a brain tumor. I think what's interesting is it doesn't have to be a brain tumor. It can be anything in business as well. Like, we all have COVID. We all have to adapt, pivot, adjust. We're not all powerful. We're not in control. And so to me, all I have is today to be my absolute best.
Support System
Also, it's really getting a strong team. So I believe in my neurosurgeon that he is the best to really get this done to where it's going to extend my life and get it 100%. So, again, in businesses, if you don't have the right team, then what are we doing here? Right? So the emotional side of it, I have a very supportive family. I've been married for 30 years. I have an amazing husband. I have two man children that are 28 and 25. And it's tough because for me, when it's all said and done, I want to be here to see them continue to grow and develop. That's to me, my life and my world.
And I feel like I've been given a gift of sharing the journey, like I'm learning every day more about resilience, about perseverance and staying positive. So I call that being an adversity warrior. And so for me, my goal is to have an amazing success surgery and then share the wisdom and help people become better. So purpose having what I call the higher calling is coming from servant leadership in the learning. Not just the learning from the surgery, but the learning from taking a business over at 21 from all of the peaks and pre peaks. And we all have them, we're all Adversity warriors. So I would say that's where I'm at is being open to verbalizing and putting into a book something that's really going to help change people's lives.
5-Pivotal Keys to Cultivate Resilience
Small Steps Forge Great Leaps: Consistency creates change; a daily dose of dedication reaps a reward worth the wait.
Encounters with Adversity Are Gateways to Strength: In every battle scars are earned, within every hardship lessons are learned.
To Lead Is to Serve: Leadership is not a crown worn but a plow to cultivate the potential in others.
Accountability Is the Anchor of Achievement: It is the discipline of consistent execution that turned potential into palpable success. Set your sights on specific, achievable goals, reverse engineer them, and find your anchor.
Embrace the Second Chance to Craft a First-Rate Life: Life’s encore performances are opportunities to bring down the house with a standing ovation. With a second chance, let's be audacious in reinventing aspects of our lives, edging toward impactful results marked by our own evolving stories.
From Pain to Purpose
It's so exciting to hear that you're writing a book, because my book is coming out soon and there were some challenges that I experienced a couple of years ago. And what I found through writing the book was it was a very healing process coming out of writing a book, in a sense still who I am, but from a much different perspective because a lot of healing happened through the process. And taking that pain that had been carried for so many years from trauma, from childhood and being able to heal from it and turn it into a purpose, as you said, a higher calling and sharing the message and being in servant leadership by showing up and being vulnerable has been a life changing experience, powerful.
It's interesting because prior to finding out that the tumor had reoccurred, I have become a C Twelve chair, which is I was launching in your Belinda for Christian CEOs and business owners and opportunity to equip a greater purpose for a greater business, for a greater purpose. And so to me, that's where I want to say that whether you're listening to this just for your own personal growth or as a business owner, it mirrors the same in that how you really get a clear vision of what do you want for your life? And then how are you going to step into that?
Such a good question to ask ourselves, what do you want for your life? What do you want to do with it? I take it a step further in saying who do you want to be? So often we say, I want to achieve this particular goal. And when you achieve this goal, who do you want to be? And show up when you achieve that goal and it goes into that greater calling that you're sharing with us and.
Who do you want to serve? How are you going to take your unique ability and God given talents and serve?
Outward Mindset
There is something very building in life of spending each day focused outward. There's actually a book, Outward Mindset, that I had read in previous years. But when you focus your day on how can I serve others is living a happier life. It just is, because you're called to something greater and higher and there's fulfillment and joy in being able to serve others and see a situation where maybe somebody is feeling down and out and you've lifted their spirits and you get to see that joy that radiates from it. It definitely brings a lot of joy.
