EP 61: An Unconventional Approach to Goal-Setting | Part 1

Heyyy, welcome to another episode of the Think Happy Podcast. This episode and next episode, we are going to be talking about goal setting with two amazing guests. But we're not going to be talking about goal setting and the way that you might assume. Okay, so we're going to talk about it in a very outside of the box sort of way. You'll totally see what I mean when the episode starts rolling. Before we get to that, in the spirit of Black Friday, I'm opening up Think Happy's Black Friday sale early for podcast listeners. Okay, so we're taking next week off of the show for thanksgiving, but I absolutely do not want you guys to miss out on this. Uh amazing Black Friday sale. So you've probably heard any talk about Think Happy's Workshop bundle that includes the Regain and Reallocate Wasted Time Workshop, it includes the Conquering Screen Time Workshop, and third it includes the From Zero to Hero Workshop. The bundle is already priced super super great at a hundred seventy five dollars, but four Black Friday you can get it for a whopping fifty percent off. What in the actual world this sale is so good? Okay? So in a nutshell, the Regain Wasted Time Workshop, that one's going to walk you through identifying time that you waste in reallocating it to something that serves you better. Conquering screen Time that workshop is about cutting back the time you spend in front of screens, and the From Zero to Hero Workshop guides you through creating and implementing sustainable routines. So I'm just gonna tell you right now you need to hurry up and go grab your bundle before this sale is over. I have never ever discounted any of them Happies programs this much, and I likely won't do it again until Black Friday next year. So go get your your bundle. Guys. Sent off that's a lot of percents off. For more information on each of the workshops and to get your bundle, go to thinkhappyco.com/programs and use code black Friday all one word at check out for your fifty percent off. I'm so excited. I hope you guys enjoy it. I know that you will.

Okay. Now, so with that being said, let's go straight into part one of this two part conversation. I am so excited to have you both here today. Welcome to the show, Ali and Carly. How are you guys? Thank you so much good excited to be here. Well, we're excited to have you. Let's start, you know, tell us a little bit about yourselves, about your company. Phillis in on the four one one, all the details, okay, Well, Alian I started Continuum about eight years ago. We are a co founders of Continuum Solutions. We are a boutique talent acquisition firm here in Houston, and we are lifestyle entrepreneurs as we'll cover more later, and and mothers and best friends. And it's been just a fun journey. So that we each have daughters. I have three daughters and Ali has two daughters, and we're just um building this business and raising our babies and that's what we're doing so fun. I love the term lifestyle entrepreneur. It's a good one. It's a really good one. We were glad when when we identified with that, and I stole it from Alley. That is her term, So that didn't mean distill her thunder that one for sure. And so you guys are also super good friends too, right we are. I mean that happened. Carly and I worked together for a few years at a prior firm when you know, the idea to kind of birth continuum emerged, but we were you know, we had worked together on a few deals. I've gotten to know her. I found her to be one of the smartest people at that company, and um, yeah, and so it's just been a fantastic journey because you do life together, as we all know, you spend so many hours at the office, and so eventually, i'd say after that first or second year, we just became close friends and now we're truly family. Our kids are integrated. They call me Auntie and all the fields choose right exactly exactly. Yeah, that's really sweet. My best friend and I have always talked about working together also, so we'll see if that ever happens. I recommend it. It has been a very positive experience from us. That's so sweet. So today we're here to talk about goal setting, but in an unconventional way, which I'm super super excited about.

So just to set the tone for our conversation, I thought we could start with going over the gold you two had in mind when you first started Continuum. Sure. So when when I kind of first had this idea, I thought, you know, there's an underserved community. The private equity start startup arena was a bit underserved by traditional agencies and there were some gaps there. You know, I saw that the nose happening a lot in my in my business. But you know, I had this idea like this would be a really neat community to serve. And eventually as work kind of just got busier and busier, and I loved it. I loved being busy in my job. I realized that there is not as much time for the kiddos at home, and so eventually that just pressed in too much, and so the idea of Continuum was birthed. Carly had been at home, I think since April of that year. just because she was having to put her kid in daycare for like twelve hours a day, and she she lives a little further out of Houston, and you know, it was the right decision for her family, but she was very missed, right and so there was this gap pre COVID where you know, the idea of maybe work from home just really hadn't fully processed for all all of the executives. So, Carly was kind of on the bench at home and Continuum several months after that was was worn about day two. I was like, hey, how do you how do you think about you know, coming out of maternity leave and and jumping in with me and and doing this deal. It pays zero dollars to guys, I was at home with a six month old, so I was and a toddler. So I was very excited to make zero dollars to work with my friend. Like the paycheck will blow your mind. I could see the writing on the wall that I needed to just, you know, stay at home motherhood, which is a whole other that is a whole episode that you could do. But I am not personally cut out for that full time work. It's very very hard. I love my mom so much. But anyway, but yes, well I was thankful she said yes, because like there's there's just no way operationally this thing would have gotten its fitting. I have my background is in business development, and I knew that silo really will so I knew I could go do that. But but it was fun. You know, we got to be moms, be present in our kids lives, ensure those first few years we didn't make a ton of money, and um, we just kept going back to our core prince, but like that's you know, that's not necessarily the goal at that point. It was to do what we love and be present moms. Continuing with births, we got some clients, we grew and eight years later, here we are. I bet it feels like it went so fast. Like eight years later, the lifetime of experiences that have happened between our two lives, like just it's just been huge, And we talked about this all the time that we are. We just feel so incredibly blessed that continuum existed when we or each just kind of walking through various seasons, you know, of whatever it was raising children, all of all of the challenges that that just life brings, and the fact that we were able to lean on each other and on this company that was created without us even knowing what was coming. We didn't have, you know, a crystal ball. We didn't know exactly what the next eight years were going to bring. But we've we've joked like, had we had full time jobs where someone was checking our pto time, like we would have had to been let go. Probably, Yeah, just with some of the challenges that we faced. So we that's not lost on us. We're always mindful of that, of that blessing, but it's been huge for us. Well, I can't help but think, you know, there is this struggle because to your point, Carly, I think that being a stay at home mom would be the hardest job in the entire world and I am not cut out for it, right,

So there's that extreme But then the other end of the spectrum, the guilt that I would feel at my nine to five for being at work during times when I felt like I should be home with Eleanor or vice versa. If I had made the decision to stay at home with Eleanor for something, then I still felt the same level of guilt for not being at work right and it just it was not a sustainable thing for me. And bear in mind it was self induced guilt. No one was putting this guilt on me. which I mean, I think it's amazing that you guys have have now created an environment where you get both you do I mean, but I I completely echo what you're saying. There there is that challenge. There's always gonna be this breakdown, and the guilt factor exists in life as moms, So it's whether it plays out at work or life. But I think that's the beauty and having in my opinion, a co founder to really balance these thoughts, you know, like Carly, man, I really need to be at this event today. And it's always principle based. It's like, go back to why did we start this company? The why? So we do have each other to kind of balance that out. But but I think over time we've just seen that family first is really just how we operate and that's that's not changing. Yeah, yeah, that's amazing. So as we talk about this, it seems like you guys are actively and quite intentionally pushing against this. I'll say, quote unquote cultural norm, which is, you know, to grow and grow and grow your business and to something that's just huge, ginormous. And I'm like smiling laughing at myself as I say this, because I know it's going to sound cheesy, but it almost seems like, you know, staying small. Continuum allows you, guys, to foster an environment where you and your team can live bigger. Is that? How do you guys feel about that's work in marketing? I love that tagline like stay so all live big. I think that that really embodies what we're trying to do. And and it's funny because it's just who we are as um mothers and as people. You know, we we want to be incredibly intentional with our children and and doing the work this way allowed for that. And then now once we embrace that story and we owned it and it became part of the fabric of who Continuum is. Now, it's something that we are able to when we're hiring internally, when we're adding to our team, we can say this is how we function. You you might not get access to us, you know, at any back and call, because we are going to be very present with our children and intentional with them when time. If you can work in that environment and that's something that you also desire and want for yourself, then this could be the right place for you. And it just becomes more of a talking point, not only with our internal resources that we're bringing on as as team members of Continuum, but even with our clients and our candidates, like you know, COVID post COVID has the world has changed a lot, but and a lot of people are embracing I feel like some various different work environments but for us it's just a way, it was just natural. I feel like it was a natural piece of because of just who we are initially and then it's bled over I feel like into the people around us, right right yeah. It kind of makes me think, how I think that you know, like growth, there's this connotation of seeing numbers grow, or number of clients grow, or a number of employees grow or you know, just something like that.

You guys are showing that growth, you know, think outside of the box a little bit. You know, it doesn't have to be a numeric growth, right I think, you know, we talk about growth like this is an active example. We haven't even talked about this before, but you know, we we brought a person onto our team recently who who has no industry experience, but we knew her heart, her personality, her work ethic was there. She came highly referred. Um talk about growth. I mean this, this has been transformational to our business just women, how one isolated resource because I think she champions what we do. She doesn't have kids yet, but I have zero guilt walking out of the office at three ten to go handle my life knowing that my business is being handled and and that could be said of our entire team absolutely. But I think what's great is because that was such an integral higher to us operationally because it kept the day going a little bit longer. But to see such great growth into such a narrow time span has been really encouraging. And I I think that if she were here, she would say the same thing, like watch the growth that has happened in one year if you invest the time and care for people. And what I like to think is like give them that work life balance, you know. sometimes we have to tell her to take a day off, though I think she might actually love what she does, and I hope but we have we are backed by a fantastic team of of ladies and so um, you guys for that matter. So and I think it's good, you know we do. I mean, we are running a business first more and you know, there are goals that we we have to set um and that we want to reach that are to your point, like, it's not what we lead with. It is an important facet but how do we meet our personal goals are family goals and and then peripheral to that our business goals. Our business is incredibly important and the people that work for us are incredibly important, and we certainly do want to grow financially, right because that's just a representation of the hard work that our people are putting into the company and that is happening and that's huge, um. But at the same time, we're not going to sacrifice what's the most important to us. I wouldn't ask that of our team for the dollar. And so maybe the dollar is just more of a byproduct of the environment that you guys foster, right, So growth in these other avenues um, and then just because of the growth that you're seeing there, the dollar sign follows it. You know, it's like watching our team grow and develop. Is just life giving to me at the end of the day. That makes me happy. I don't take away like I can sleep at night and I just think. I think, you know, I know, back back to the way you said earlier, but I truly think we're incredibly fortunate to have built the team that we have. People make the difference right, and I want to go to work every day right. That helps get me charged up. You know, we we love what we do, but also the people are around it does it does certainly help you.

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One thing that I loved about the two of you is that at no point did either of you, specific to our pre recording conversation, bring up a specific goal that did include a dollar sign line. And I don't even know if you guys recognized that until I had brought it up, But I think it's so admirable and says a lot about your character that you have built a successful company that really truly embodies your quote unquote why. So I think happy co we talk a lot about your why behind your what right, so can you tell us what your why is and also how it drives your decision making and goal setting for both of you. I would love to hear from both of you on this, both personally and professionally. So I'll back up and like say the first question again, what is your why or your why behind your what for continuum and for you got? And just like personally too, Yeah, yeah, I think balance is a hard thing to achieve. I just I want to preface this the why with I did go. I worked with a lady in a similar kind of industry adjacent business, and and she had done the same thing, and she was very honest with me, like you will work your face off and that is not a lie. I mean, there's there's a ton of work going into what we do, but I love the level setting as a mom as what I you know, I believe her to be a very successful businesswoman, an entrepreneur. She gave that great guidance. She's like, you will feel torn often, but the greater good is there, you know, because you can access your kids and be present. So that that, I think for me, that layer of guilt is removed. But the why it was truly we loved our profession, Like, we love what we do. We're in a people industry, so it gets us out of bed. We love um, we love our industry. And then as as I mentioned, Carly and I really targeted startups in private equity backed companies when we first started. That's grown we work with um you know, much larger, more established organizations too. But at the end of the day, we get to do what we love. But the vision and the motivation behind behind starting this are real. Why was those kids and our families just making sure that we had that access to to them? So yeah, yeah, anything, yeah, just not feeling not feeling that pressure to be present, right, I think before it was like I remember years ago, like having to go ask for you know, the afternoon off so I could go to my daughter's, um, go have lunch with her or go to her first grade presentation or whatever, and and trying to balance those conversations. And there's still a level of guilt that you feel that doesn't ever go away. Um. I feel like as a just as a woman, entrepreneur, mother, that's just always hanging. It's a constant daily battle. Yeah, I feel like, but um, but yeah, I think that was so that our babies could have us and we could be professionals and do what we love. And like eight years later, I love getting to tell my kids today you know, hey, we're going to get to go talk about this And they're like, well, do you get to talk about us? And I'm like a little bit, because you're a whole big piece of that addition of that second kid. For me, just push that to the limit, you know, um, dividing your time and that intentionality. But it's fun I think for me to get to to to see the kids, like telling them that what they were modeling should I say, like yeah, where they can go, Like a career is different like this is not the life that I thought I would enter into. This is not the profession that I even knew could exist. But teaching these young ladies to stay curious in life and just think kind of big and um, and you your motivations do change as time goes on, right, looks different every time. Well, I really like that you have brought this up because I have found myself already so Eleanor at the time of this recording is not even too yet, but I find myself telling her, like, Mommy wants you to see that, you know, like you can create something that you want, Like you really can be anything that you want to be. You can make a career out of something that isn't quote unquote a normal career. And it's just you know, telling them like a little girl, like you're my why, Like you're the reason why I'm doing this, Like I wanted more time with you, and so like I gave up a study salary, a study salary when inflation is crazy. Feeling a little crazy right now myself, but and like my goal is to show her like you can do that too, you know, like, yeah, mommy is gonna work, um, but it's to show you that you can do it too, you know, and seemed too, I think, and I know you kind of just hit on a little bit. But it's but thinking outside the box and living different so that you can live different, like making the sacrifices. It doesn't it's not always pretty, it's not always perfect. And just know that Ali and I each could be making a very different dollar sign in our bank accounts had we, you know, stayed the path for the last years in a in a bigger organization. But um, we decided to make those those movements, those pivots in our in our lives, so that you know, we could reach other goals.

One thing that I will always admire is when someone can't find what they're looking for, so they create it themselves, you know, you know, um and a couple. Gosh, this was many many, many episodes ago. Um I had a primary care physician on the show and she left the typical PCP world because she couldn't. She was not a fan of you know, all the red tape and all of the loops that clients jumped through, not clients, I guess if you're a doctor patients. And she took her risk and she opened her own practice, you know, And it's because you couldn't find what she was looking for there and there was this gap for her and for patients, right, So she just created the filler for that gap, which is so cool. Absolutely, I think our world is really accepting of that too. Like the creativity. I mean, did did your profession exist, you know twenty years ago? Is as a podcaster? I don't, probably not right, There's I wonder when podcast and started. Actually, now that I think about this, we should. But but there's innovation happening. I mean, we we look at jobs every day and what we do, and there's there's job title new job titles emerging all the time. So I think the message you're sending your daughter is very sound. That's so sweet. Guys, you're gonna make it a pregnant girl cry. Okay, So I'm gonna bring us back to the second part of this question. So the first part was telling us what your y is now, um, and I'll start with Carly. You can answer first, tell us how this why drives your decision making and goal setting, both both in your personal life and in your professional life. Well, I'm gonna I think I'm gonna kind of bring in a new topic. So we recently really set down and thought about who we who Continuum currently is, and who Continuum wants to be when it right, and kind of really put some some strong words to our values. And so you know, when you know we've we've we've talked about this, right, like we know what our why is. Our why is being present with our families. I think a lot of that into our decision making, crosses over into what our personal values are how those lead into you know, our decisions. So I think a lot of it is just having grace for each other and and for our clients and Continuum clients and candidates, and and being able to make decisions that are the right thing. You know, we I teach my kids all the time and we have it. It's even on a thing on our refrigerator, like do the right thing the first time, right, Like just do the right thing. And I feel like that if you just gut check yourself along the way, whether it's work decisions, family decisions, marriage, do it whatever it is that you have to do. If you're asking yourself and you're constantly kind of doing that self check, like is this the right thing that I should be doing. Is this accomplishing the bigger goal that I've set for myself? Is this action? It am moving me towards that goal, you know? And so I feel like the why folds into all of that. It's like, how do we create an environment? How do we make business decisions that will allow us to grow and foster the amazing people who are on our team and continue as a whole, but also continue to pour into our families, and and all of that comes back to just gut checking with ourselves and with each other. I mean, didn't we share a brain? Honestly, we share a brain? Um, you know, I I agree completely.

I think our our personal goals often kind of drive our professional goals. Like that's realistic, Like we get really aggressive with these professional goals. You know, we'll throw out some big ideas. This year, we had to go check a professional goal. The timeline just it was you know, it was consuming. It was great. We're like, that's so we have to get real. But it's so nice to to utilize our team kind of link arms and and just kind of gut check that professional goal. Um. That's a great example, actually, live example of the why, because this is an amazing goal that we have for Continuum, and it's one that we will achieve, but the timeline around trying to squeeze it into everything else that we had going on in this year, both personally and professionally, we had to go, we're pivoting. We're going to reassess the goal that we're set for ourselves. It's okay that we're not reaching that goal this year like we originally thought we would. We're going to do it next year. While it's setting the goal up for success us it is you know, if you're trying to squeeze it in, then you're not giving the goal the room and the space that it needs well. And we have a core business to Karen feed right and walking into Q four and as you mentioned, the you know fear of inflation impacting our economy, which we have not seen or felt by the way we're hopeful, but yeah, we're like we have to with this goal. It requires so much of our time and energy and intentionality that we want to see that succeed in the same way that Continuum succeeded, because it is going to be such a great additional feature to our business. So it just the clean slate of the new year, and just really driving hard in Q four, we knew that was the right answer. But back to what you said, it's a gut check. But then you just get the whole team to kind of weigh in, and it was it was a great decision. Yeah, and we're gonna reach it. We're going to get there. It's great. Yes, I love a clean slate. Me too. Yeah, I love a clean slate, whether it's a new year, a new month, a new week. I don't think that necessarily a clean slate should be used as an excuse to not start something, but if starting something is going to fall in line with a clean slate, I think that the umph that you get from the clean slate is just a really unique sense of adrenaline if you will, that you can pump into a goal. Yeah. And also I have to say I am not surprised that I heard both of you mentioned how your professional goals are kind of driven by your personal goals. So it's like the horse that pulls the cart. Like the horses your personal goals, and then the cart is your professional goals, which I mean, you guys might not even be picking up on this, but like the same theme has been going through this whole entire conversation, which is why I knew you guys would be so great for this conversation. Yeah, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for joining me for this week's episode of the Think Happy Podcast. If you just can't get enough, find me on Instagram at think Happy Underscore Co. That's CEO, and online at thinkhappyco.com See you next week.