We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cara Brookins. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cara below.

Cara, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

Out of all the impossible ideas I’ve decided to go after, the one I found most difficult to execute isn’t the one you’d expect. Fifteen years ago, I had the idea to build a house from the ground up with my four young children, learning every step of the way solely from YouTube videos. It was brutally hard mixing concrete in a wheelbarrow to set 1500 foundation blocks, and framing walls, windows, and sidewalks. It was terrifying to fire up an arc welder and a nail gun. But that impossible house build was not the most challenging idea I’ve executed.

It was after I’d spent six years writing a book about that house project that the most challenge idea of my life hit like a ton of bricks. Conference organizers began asking me to speak at their events, and I had the idea that I could quit my job and become a full time motivational speaker. Maybe that sounds like a simple transition to you, maybe you were born to stand on a stage, maybe you’re a natural in the spot light, but I most definitely was not. Not even close.

I was a software developer, fiction writer, and accidental one-time house builder. I was the girl who stood up in oral communications and burst into uncontrollable tears in front of the class. I was one hundred percent behind the keyboard and zero percent on a stage. But the way I executed that impossible idea was wildly successful because I followed the same format I had used to build my house. One that I learned—you guessed it—from how-to videos. But not the part of the how-to video you’re thinking of.

The format of how-to videos forever changed the way I go from idea to success. Because, it turns out, these videos follow a format that’s been used for centuries by the most successful people in history. This format works because it aligns with the most primitive and stubborn areas of our brain. And if there is one thing you need to succeed, it’s a mile-wide stubborn streak. Best of all, this format is simple and familiar.

Begin by holding up your goal. I’m talking visualizing with such technicolor clarity that you could walk right into the image. Throughout every single day, I imagined myself on a stage with a massive audience in front of me. I saw my success. I had done the exact same thing with the house project, waking up every day with a clear image of the finished house and what it would feel like to walk through each room in it. Daily visualization convinces your brain that not only is this huge idea possible, it’s possible for you.

The next step was fast action. Just like I had for my crazy house project, I jumped in to my speaking career eons before I felt ready. I didn’t hesitate. I didn’t procrastinate. I jumped in and completed the first step before I had any idea how to do step 507 or even step seven. Yes, this means I said yes to the very first speaking offer even though I had no idea how to be a speaker yet, even though I was shaking in my shoes through the whole thing. Here’s why this worked.

Completing the first step quickly committed me to my goal before I could chicken out. It gave me a deadline and the stakes to really give it my all. I learned a ton from the successes and especially the failures in that first speech. This first bold move also changed me from the person who wanted to someday be a speaker, to the person who was actually a speaker. From that moment forward, I said yes to each new offer. I sweated through events and situations that were the furthest point on the map from my comfort zone. I took my goal seriously, but I didn’t take myself seriously. I learned a ton. And you already know what happened next.

I quit my day job. Today I work with a fantastic speaker bureau and an amazing agent to perform at events around the world. My ninth book Unstuck was released this year, and it’s all about using the format of how-to videos to take yourself from idea to success. I’ll use the strategies I learned from how-to videos for the rest of my life, and I challenge you to use them, too. Set your goal up in such a clearly visualized mental image every single day that you feel as though you already own it. Then don’t plan your project into oblivion, use the excitement and adrenaline of the initial idea to charge forward and do the first step. You have everything it takes to reach your goal. Go get it!

Cara, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m best known as the women who built a house with YouTube tutorials. But after sharing my story in a memoir, it unexpectedly became an overnight viral story with two billion global views in the first year as well as options for film, television, and reality TV. Now I deliver in person and virtual keynotes and workshops to global corporations and associations to challenge attendees to dig deeper, reach higher, and build exactly the corporate culture and personal life they want. I’m especially proud of my Unstuck Framework which utilizes the psychology of motivation to jumpstart productivity by moving quickly from idea to action.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

See above

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.carabrookins.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carabrookins/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carabrookins
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carabrookins/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/cmbrookins
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CaraBrookins
• Other: TikTok: tiktok.com/@carambrookins

Image Credits
Sarah Oden for headshot