Episode# 031: From Side Hustle to CEO with Dr. Cortney Baker

If you’re someone ready to take their side hustle or small business next level, but you’re not quite sure when to take that leap, today’s guest is going to help you make some moves!

Dr. Cortney Baker is an award-winning entrepreneur, host of the podcast Women in Business: Inspirational Stories of Women Entrepreneurs with Dr. Cortney, TEDx speaker, and a nationally recognized authority on women’s leadership.

This busy mama of 3 has been featured FOX News, Forbes, iHeart Radio, and Huffington Post, among other publications.

Dr. Cortney is the author of the best-selling book The Ten Do’s and Don’ts for Business Leadership: Lessons to Lead Effectively and her most recent book, Dr. Cortney was named the 2016/2017 Texas Business Woman of the Year, and the Top 100 in Healthcare
in America. She’s the founder and CEO of KidsCare Home Health, a multi-million dollar healthcare organization with 12 locations across Texas, Colorado, and Idaho.

Her journey wasn’t linear. She started her own business at 27 years old while pregnant and with little money to her name. This episode and her journey will INSPIRE you into action, so don’t miss out!

Will you tell us a little bit more about just you and what brought you to where you are today? What did that path look like?

So you're right, it was not linear at all. It was actually a very bumpy road. I started my adult journey as a single teenage mom when I was six months out of high school. So, I had my son at 19, and all my friends were going off to college and I was going to the Medicaid and the food stamps office and grew up really fast. I was waiting tables; double shifts and it was hard. And then fast forward through a failed marriage and a move out of state and put myself through college in Undergrad and Grad School in speech pathology in Illinois. And then I decided I really needed to move home near people who supported me because I was still a single team or a single mom at that point. And I had started dating this amazing guy in college and he said, what are you going to do? And I was like, I’m moving back to Texas. So, he was like, okay, let's pack up.  

So, we moved back to Texas and I started a job as a speech pathologist in the school district and worked for about one year and absolutely hated everything that I did. Then I started doing pediatric home health care, which is basically home health for kids. So we would go to each individual kid's house and do therapy. And I loved what I did, but I didn't love who I did it for. I was really in a position where I was undervalued and not appreciated, but everyone was there. We were told pretty openly that if we didn't like our job, we could leave and that all employees were replaceable. And so, I was pretty newly married, I was pregnant at the time. I was about four months pregnant and decided I could do this shit myself. And so that's what I did.  I started my own company in 2003. We opened the doors October 27th, 2003 and it was me with 10 patients and a whole lot of credit card debt and a prayer. And today that company is almost, this year it'll be 16 years old. We have about 550 employees and we are operational in 12 cities in three states, all over Texas, Colorado and Idaho.

Can you take us back to that moment when you were still working for somebody else and that conception of the idea of doing this on your own came to be what happened next? How did you get from there to here?

It was right after September 11th and the economy was in the toilet and my husband had been laid off.  And I actually, I had a business partner when I started and she and I had known each other for about four, maybe five months (So a very, very short time).  We went to the office of a healthcare consultant and he told us three times, you're crazy. Don't do it. And I pretty much on the last time said, thank you. Do you want the job or not? Because I'm going to do this regardless. You know, when you're 28, you know everything and you have nerves of steel. And I thought, what do I have to lose?

And at that point, I could have gone to another place and worked somewhere else. But I really started thinking about it and I thought, you know, I don't want to be an undervalued employee for the rest of my life and I can continue to go somewhere else, somewhere else, somewhere else. But that's not going to solve the root issue. And the real issue is, I'm worth more. And the only place that I know that I can be treated where I want to be valued and respected is at my own company. And I thought to myself, if I could just open a company where people feel valued and respected, the success will come. And it has, it really, truly has. So finally the consultant realized I wasn't going to go away. I don't know if it was pity or what his reasoning, but he finally was like, all right, I'll help you. So he did, he helped us go through the process of getting set up.  We were incorporated in February of 2003 and then just, I took a week off for maternity leave when my daughter was born on July 1st and hustled and then we opened October 27th.

I think people so often forget that that road to your dream and building this amazing business that's impacting so many lives, it isn't always glamorous and it isn't like when you're steering that ship, you're not just watching all your people do the work while you sit back and do nothing. You are steering the ship. You are up there going to bat for this business and for the stream. And if people aren't willing to pull up those overalls and those boots and get them dirty, maybe taking that step into what you think is going to be your dream isn't the right thing for you because it's gonna lead to some disappointment. I love that you are willing to get in there. Not that I'm recommending women take a week and a half from maternity leave, but you are at a stage that that was kind of what you were facing and you made some choices in and did it. And I would imagine now 16 years into it, that you have so much more quality time with your children because of those sacrifices you made back in the day.

You mentioned, you went into business, not because you were focused on the bottom line…you followed the passion.  You followed the vision and the money and growth followed that. Tell us more…

It was also a quality of life. I always say, don't start a business to follow your passion. Start a business to solve a problem that pisses you off. The problem that pissed me off was the fact that people weren't being treated right and what did I want to do to solve that problem? And it was start my own company.

Can you tell us a little more about your company?

We provide speech, physical, occupational therapy services and nursing services to little kids with disabilities. So Down Syndrome, cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury, autism, you name it.  We go to their homes and their familiar environment and provide therapy services for them.

What mistakes do you see people in entrepreneurship making today? Why aren't they able to do what you did?

A lot of times I think that we fold way too early. We face those hard times and when you don't have the support, then you just kind of pack it up and you give up. And I have this analogy, we always hear this, this phrase- light at the end of the tunnel. But if you think about that tunnel, it gets darkest when you're in the middle. But in the middle you're the same distance from where you were to where you're going, but you don't realize it. And so you go back to what's familiar, not realizing you're the same distance to the light. So if you just keep going and keep your nose down, you can reach a light if you just keep pursuing your, your goal or that the light at the end of the tunnel. So there's that. And then there's also not having a firm grasp on your financials and knowing the heartbeat of your, your company is really your financials and knowing your customers.

CHECK OUT THE ENTIRE EPISODE TO HEAR MORE ABOUT DR. CORTNEY BAKER’S JOURNEY FROM SIDE HUSTLE TO CEO!