Jan 8, 2020Sharon Spano's Podcast

Conquering Challenges and Finding Your Sense of Confidence, with Dr. Cortney Baker

 

Dr. Cortney is on a mission to change the world – one woman, one mother, one daughter and one legacy at a time. But her path to popularity, power, and prosperity has required her to navigate numerous potholes.

In 1993, six months after graduating from high school, she put dreams of attending college at Texas A&M on hold and instead became a single teenage mom. Watching her friends leave for college, she was instead forced onto Medicaid, food stamps and double-shifts as a pregnant waitress. Despite those immense obstacles, she launched a successful and transcendent business career. Through a combination of passion and persistence, Dr. Cortney earned her Master’s degree from Southern Illinois University and founded KidsCare Home Health.

In 2005, Dr. Cortney suffered a pulmonary embolism and in 2012 endured a stroke that required 7-hour brain surgery. Despite seemingly insurmountable health odds, she quickly rebounded, earning her doctorate in Organizational Leadership from Pepperdine University.

She is currently the CEO and Chairman of the Board for KidsCare, a multi-million dollar enterprise providing speech, physical, occupational, and nursing services to over 2,500 children with special needs from Texas to Colorado. She has also authored Unlimited: Conquering the Myth of the Glass Ceiling and the best-selling book, The 10 Dos and Don’ts for Business Leadership: Lessons to Lead Effectively.

When not getting lost or making a stop at Whataburger for her beloved Diet Coke, Dr. Cortney resides near Dallas with her husband, two children, two dogs, and a rescue cat.

What you will learn in this episode:

  • How Dr. Cortney began facing difficulties at a young age, and how she overcame those challenges to get her doctoral degree and become a thriving entrepreneur
  • Why Dr. Cortney decided to leave a job where she was under-appreciated and instead built her own company
  • Why the many challenges Dr. Cortney faced as a young woman served to strengthen her resolve and altered the trajectory of her life
  • Why Dr. Cortney strongly believes in empowering other women to succeed, and how she conducted her research for her book Unlimited: Conquering the Myth of the Glass Ceiling
  • What four challenges most women face that make it difficult to achieve the top levels of leadership in their careers
  • Why a lack of self-confidence is one of the biggest challenges women in the business world face, and why too often women pull each other down rather than lift each other up
  • What steps Dr. Cortney takes to help women better develop a sense of self-confidence, and why confidence is a choice
  • How Dr. Cortney helps women entrepreneurs bring their business ideas and entrepreneurial vision to life
  • Why Dr. Cortney found herself in a dark place of “now what?” after she achieved her doctoral degree, founded her company and wrote her first book, and how she worked her way back out
  • What advice Dr. Cortney would offer to anyone needing to build up their own confidence and make progress toward their goals

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Copyright © 2021 Sharon Spano, Ph.D., All rights reserved.