How to Become Unstoppable: Path to Empowerment with Corina Burton! Ep90

Richard Conner: [00:00:00] Hey, my friend, are you at a point in your life where you’re feeling stuck, but you want to make a change? Well you will be inspired by our guests today corina burton successful entrepreneur and podcaster and she shares her journey how she became unstoppable and she talks about the big changes that she made in her life and how her running journey was a big part of that hope you enjoy​

Hi everyone. Welcome to Inspire to Run podcast today. I’m here with Corina Burton, who is the co founder _of_ CPR construction [00:01:00] cleaning, franchisor, author, founder of Unstoppable Media and host of the Unstoppable Podcast. Corina is a mother of five serial entrepreneur, brand builder, marketing disruptor. Corina was recently named top 50 women in franchising. Women of Wonder in 2022 and featured in Forbes for leadership in 2023 as a branding expert coach and mindset mentor. Corina lives her life. Believing and knowing she is unstoppable, drawing upon her unwavering belief that circumstances should never determine the outcome of desired goals.

She crafted the four pillars to becoming unstoppable. Welcome to the show, Corina.

Corina Burton: Thank you so much, Richard. I’m excited to be on the show about something that I feel initiated this entire mindset, which is running.

Richard Conner: For sure. For sure. And I’m happy to have you on the show and you know, I’ve been following your journey [00:02:00] for a while, , professionally and personally and your podcast. So I’m really excited to, you know, share your story with our community. Cause I think you have a really powerful story. around mindset that can help our listeners, , in their own journey.

And, you know, while you have such an incredible professional career, you know, we really want to kind of focus on your personal journey in terms of how you started running and what that journey has been like for you. So, you know, let’s just kind of wind back the clock a little bit and tell us a little bit about you and, you know, where you started with your running journey.

Corina Burton: Yeah, I, you know, I was going to say that when I first started running was back when I had my second daughter, but actually I was literally about to lie to you. That was like my. Quickest memories. When I was really young, probably five, six, seven, I’d always encouraged my mom to go for a walk because I wanted to run.[00:03:00]

I ran and she would walk. And I wanted to go, you know, I grew up in, uh, the foothills of Yosemite National Park in California. And so my neighborhoods looked very different than your, uh, traditional suburban neighborhoods or communities. And, you know, we would go in the back roads and my mom would. you know, walk and I would be running and then walking, running.

And I don’t know, as I got older than I participated in sports and the thing that I was really great at, I loved soccer, but they would put me in midfield because I was a runner, right? I was just like running up and down the hill and are up and down the field. And I was the fastest and I loved it. And it’s funny that it took me a minute, though, to just [00:04:00] singular that love and that passion and just run, right?

I didn’t want to participate in track. I didn’t want to participate in cross country. For some reason, I stuck with soccer, and then it wasn’t until… My early 20s because I had my children really young. Um, it was my second daughter that I had a friend who kind of, she initiated this, Hey, let’s start training for a half marathon.

And I thought, well, why not? I don’t have anything else to do at the time. I didn’t. So. You know, it kind of brought that love that I have for running and I was able to put it into a goal, something that really, you know, you got to see your outcome doing, uh, like the end result, right, which is your end time.

And then it really stuck with me. Um, so that’s, you know, for [00:05:00] me, that’s kind of how like running really started in my life, but. It wasn’t until my early to mid 20s when I started really putting this entire mindset in alignment with this physical endurance that I was doing.

Richard Conner: I, you know, thank you for sharing that. And I love how your story began where you’re taking those walks with your mom and, you know, I’m sure that’s very nostalgic to kind of think about those memories in those times. So that that’s pretty cool. And,

so then you run your, you train for your half marathon with your friend.

And that’s actually somewhat of a common way for runners to get into running is a friend invites them to run a five K or, or a half marathon. So, you know, tell me what that’s like, cause you didn’t run cross country and tracks. You probably didn’t run that distance. Tell me what, you know, why’d you decide to do it and what was that training like for you?

Corina Burton: um, so it definitely [00:06:00] stemmed from really, truly not having any extra curricular activities for myself. So I was 19 when I got married and then I was 20 when I had my first daughter. So that’s really. You know, even though I’m not super young, but I’m still young ish, um, still for that time, that time frame, not a lot of people are having kids at that age, right?

Like, that young. it was like, that was more ideal even before then. Maybe even, like, my parents generation and so on and so forth. You know, so forth, but I felt like my generation was just not really there. They were like going to college and I got married and had kids. So, um, my husband, then, he would work all [00:07:00] day, literally, he would leave the house probably at like 5, 5am and then wouldn’t come home until like 6 or 7pm. And that was like Monday through Friday, and I was really, really incredibly lonely, um, and I felt like I had no, um, I was starting to really feel like I had no identity, um, and being a young. person in their twenties and then having two children as a responsibility. And then I had just moved to Arizona from, um, California and I was, you know, meeting new people, but really I didn’t have any friends. So I thought that if I could just focus on giving myself these like goals, that it would kind of give me a break throughout my day to be able to like, Have something to look forward to and really that was [00:08:00] for me kind of like my outlet to understanding myself or just seeing what I could do like a challenge for myself, but I think it really stemmed from being.

Really lonely and not having anything for myself to do. Cause I was stay at home mom, but, um, you know, I stayed at home. I wasn’t going to school or anything. So when my friend had asked me to do it, I thought, you know, first I was actually a little concerned, like. How would I do this with my kids while my husband was working?

Right? Like how would I juggle that? And I, I had to get really creative with how I was going to have my kids watched, or if I would go in the evening time with my girlfriend. Um, but that was kind of like another thing. Like if you want something bad enough, you will always figure out a way. To make it happen.[00:09:00]

You just will. So, you know, that was kind of like one of the beginning of like the eye openers for me was that you can feel like you have every reason to say no and you don’t have the time, the capacity, or the availability or the ability to do it. And, um, you’ll surprise yourself that you’ll figure out a way when you want to.

Enough.

Richard Conner: Completely agree. Completely agree. And that’s, you know, a message that we try to… You know, share right in terms of I love what you said about if you really want it bad enough You’ll find a way and it’s important to know because we all have responsibilities and we have commitments and we have reasons why we think we can’t do something but You know, I love what she said there about, you know, just trying to figure out a way to manage your schedule and manage your kids.

And I get this question asked a lot. Like, how do you balance all the things that you’re doing? Working nine to five podcasting, running, volunteering. [00:10:00] And, you know, my answer is, well, I don’t do all of it. Well, all the time, but I try to prioritize what’s really important. And I try to give each one of those areas that are important to me, it’s due time and my attention.

So. It takes planning. It takes work. But if you want it, like you said, if you want it bad enough, you’ll find a way.

Corina Burton: Yeah, for sure. And you know, when you start seeing, I don’t want to say like glimmers of happiness, but when you start seeing kind of these like pockets of sunshine in your life, and you, you then will like hold on to it because life’s crazy. Life’s busy. Life can be really difficult and it can really feel like we’re constantly out running or weighing through rainstorms.

And so when we find these pockets of sunshine, the things that allow us to feel like we have reprieve or [00:11:00] happiness and find that joy, um, you know, it’s so hard to then let it go. And I think that when you combine habit and you find the love for it, it becomes something that is impossible for you to shake.

And I will add this one thing is that I’ve always been a really avid, um, I love music, love music. And so it also allowed me to feel like I could totally disconnect from real life and I would just lose my thoughts in music. And when I did that, I really started to see that I was actually really a skilled or talented runner because my longevity and my endurance and even my pace was at least double the advancement [00:12:00] of my friend and then my sister ended up running with us as well.

Um, and so obviously when you start seeing like, Oh, I, I have, I have some skills in this, then it, you know, it gives you kind of even more of that ambition and that, um, ammo to want to keep doing it.

Richard Conner: for sure. So, you know, actually, I had this conversation with somebody a couple of months ago. They were like, you know, when you start something like this, like with running. It’s hard. It’s hard when you get started at first and you’re going to want to quit and you got to keep moving. But, you know, once you start to get better, you’re going to start to enjoy it and you’re going to start to like want to do it even more.

So I can totally understand what you’re saying there. Having that, you know, having that confidence and getting, you know, having more enjoyment in what you’re doing.

Corina Burton: Yeah. , and it, you know, honestly it like really evolutionized my life. [00:13:00] Which I’m sure we’re going to get into more of and how, like, at the time, that’s where I really, it was my own support system in, in, in this really hectic and crazy time in my life, and I didn’t realize how much I needed it, but it was more than what I thought it was.

thought, right? Like what did I say at the beginning of it is that it made me feel good. It gave me something to do. It gave me something to look forward to. I was able to just get lost in the music and enjoy because I love like I love all kinds of music, but really I love house music. I’m like one of those people.

I’m like, sure. Give me some more dead mouse and adventure club. but what running did for me was so much bigger and so much greater than what I initially thought it was doing for me, which is what and why I hold like [00:14:00] you know, the talent and the desire of, you know, running so close to my heart.

Richard Conner: Well, let’s talk about that. Let’s get right into that because I know that you, you know, you’ve had some challenges in your life and You know, let’s hear and you changed your mindset. You have a really strong mindset. And, uh, we talked a little bit about the four pillars of becoming unstoppable. So, you know, let’s hear a little bit about what was going on in your life during that time.

Corina Burton: Yeah. So I continued running. That was really my basis of my foundation of the things that I looked forward to because, um, by Child three, I started to really have some inner conflict and struggles about where I was at in my life and the support system that I had around me and I had to really take an inward look and Think to [00:15:00] myself, you know, is this the life that I w that I want, not just for me, but also the example that I wanted to lead for my children.

And it was an example that, you know, I always came not second. I would say like fourth, I w I came fourth and in the family line and, or fifth, I guess, cause by that time I had three kids and I. Wasn’t being the person that I knew I could be because I was putting excuses ahead and I was becoming the parent of do as I say, not as I do, and it wasn’t that I was doing.

anything inappropriate or bad or anything like that, that was a bad example for my children. It was that I wasn’t doing anything at all. Right? So if I’m telling my children, you need to give yourself a chance. You need to put yourself out there. You need [00:16:00] to, uh, challenge yourself and take risks. But yet I wasn’t doing it.

As a parent, because I was saying, well, how do I do this? If I have no money, how do I do this? If I’m at home with the kids, how do I do this? If I have no talents, how do I do this? If I’ve not even graduated from college, how do I do any of this? You know, and I could say, well. It’s because of my circumstances and when I had this epiphany and this realization that I no longer wanted to be this person I this no longer served me as an individual and even in my evolutionary, you know, growth.

I, if I wasn’t gonna have the support, I was gonna have to then choose to be my own support system. And throughout this time, I started, you know, as I, I was still running, I’m still continuously training for half marathons. One of my favorite half marathon, um, was [00:17:00] the La Jolla half, which I, you know, that was like, My first love, and so it will always have a really special place in my heart, but you know, at the time I was really still thinking that running was just this physical endurance, this way to like, um, run away from my reality.

and have a moment to have like reprieve. But what was really happening was that

when I would go on these long runs and you would, you know, you’re like, Oh, I’m training for a half marathon and you’re getting closer and you’re like, okay, I’m doing 10 miles a day. I’m doing 12 miles a day. And you’re getting close to race day and you’re thinking, I mean, and I lived, I now live in Oregon, but I lived in, in Arizona during this time. [00:18:00] And there are some really hot days, you do not want to go running and even not, not even hot days, but there’s a lot of very. Dusty days where you don’t even want to go outside because you don’t want to breathe in the mess and then the next day you feel like crap and all this stuff. So you have to really, like, motivate your mind.

But I started to realize that there is this really beautiful synergy between your experience and running and physically. Pushing yourself to go beyond what your body is telling you. And so I had the ability. I knew, unlike other people, struggle with being able to say, well, no, I’m going to give you another goal.

I’m going to run to that stop sign, right? I’m giving, I’m thinking in my mind, [00:19:00] I want to quit right now. I can’t do this. I’m exhausted. I’m thirsty. I’m tired of the dust, whatever. Um, or I’m not feeling it right now. I would say, okay, I’m going to give myself up to this stop sign. And if I really feel like I can’t make it, I’ll give myself a break.

And then I would get to that stop sign and I’m like, well, there’s a little juice left in me. I’m going to give myself another, um, goal. And then I kept finding that every time I would give myself these goals, I wasn’t putting this exorbitant amount of pressure that I was able to continue. To progress and eventually I’m like, well, shit, I’m done, you know, I, I completed my goal and I survived it.

My body’s still intact. I didn’t keel over and die from the exhaustion or whatever my mind was telling me. And so the more that I started [00:20:00] dissecting that and realizing that. It’s all in my mind that I have the power to change my life. I have the power to endure the difficulties.

I have the power to do what is necessary to take my life from over here. to a totally different area. That is the unknown. That’s scary. That’s where there is no financial support. And now I have to be able to be the person to make it happen. And it allowed me to really kind of resonate and think in my mind, well, what are all the things that you’ve been able to accomplish that you would have potentially thought otherwise, but yet.

You wanted it so bad. You made it happen, right? And there’s that law of manifestation, but without action There is no manifestation because the universe is not gonna just miraculously plop something [00:21:00] into your lap and that’s you know, even with running or any of the stories that we hear about our physical bodies and Healing itself.

It’s not that it just happened randomly, it’s because we’ve put our mind, our energy, our, like, every singular cell is so focused on the desire that it manifests itself. It then draws in there and it’s not in a way of like begging the universe. It’s like this powerful, like gratitude. Thank you. I can do this.

I appreciate the universe. I appreciate God. I appreciate, um, what I have. I appreciate my lungs, my legs, my skills and That’s when you’re able to go from what you think you can to another level, to another level, to another level. And then you look back and you’re like, Oh [00:22:00] my gosh, I’m miles and miles and miles and miles ahead of what I thought I could do. Um, and that’s where like running for me became really powerful because every time I would utilize it as An opportunity to grow my mind, to focus on the things that I wanted, the things that I wanted to change and how I was going to do it. It was like, I had no fear, fear had no power over me. And I was able to change and transform my life from being a single mom with having no money, no financial support, family, leaving me completely friends, no longer being my friend.

And I was the bad guy. because I no longer wanted my life to look like this to then transforming it to who I am today and not only [00:23:00] in a professional level or financial level, but also in a spiritual level. And, you know, ultimately I did find the person that resonates with me. We, you know, I’m married, I remarried.

Um, and. You know, we have together, we have five beautiful children and I really don’t believe that A person can evolutionize in that way without the experience, without the physical experience of what it feels like to stretch yourself so far past what you think you can physically do. Because sometimes spiritual exhaustion.

Is it’s easy to quit, right? And so is your your physical exhaustion. But the thing about spirituality is that you don’t see your gains necessarily as easy as, you know, physical, right? And, [00:24:00] um, it takes a lot more thought. It takes a lot more patience and ability to be able to dissect in and really focus on it. Where is this coming from? Who am I? What are the desires that I want in my life? And how am I going to achieve them? And then when you implement them and saying like, Well, my physical body that I thought couldn’t do this has done all these things. I know that in my mind, spiritually, I can then achieve all of these things over here.

And I have the endurance to withstand the struggle and the pain and the unknown. because I was able to do this and, you know, running for me ultimately taught that to me. , and I did end up having a point in my life where Uh, this is probably five years ago. I [00:25:00] used to think I’m like, I don’t know if I could ever live life if I, if I couldn’t run, right, because I put a lot of my emphasis, a lot of my stresses or just my belief system in running.

And of course I ended up having this pivotal moment in my life where, um, my body, uh, just could not do it. And, you know, it was so heartbreaking for me to, to kind of have this acceptance. Of almost a closure of being able to do these massive long distance runnings, but, um, it then made me realize that like everything comes in seasons for me.

Now, I focus on other things that help, um, expand my talent things that I never thought that I could do. And, um, you know, of course, I still love running. I just love it in a very different way than the way that I used to.

Richard Conner: For sure. For sure. You have an incredible story. [00:26:00] And I was just going to say, it’s so wonderful to hear how running was there for you in your time of need. Kind of like, as you said, during that season. And I love how running, there’s that parallel between the physical aspect of running and then how you move through your everyday life and your mindset and your philosophy about running Achieving things that you never thought you could achieve and just kind of taking that one mile at a time and another mile and another mile.

So I love the parallel between, you know, the physical aspect of running, but also in your life and, you know, overcoming those limiting beliefs. We all think, well, I can only go here, but in reality. We can go here, but we have to believe that we can and we have to take action, which is something else that you said, which is completely true.

You have to take that first step. And you know, that’s something that we talk about here in terms of the, um, the three pillars here on inspired to run podcast, mindset, movement and motivation. You know, first you have to believe and make that decision. But [00:27:00] second for movement, you have to take the first step.

You have to actually get moving. And then three, if you want to see those longterm results, you got to be consistent, you got to stick with it and you got to keep moving. So, you know, really love this, you know, what you shared about your story and your journey. And I think that’s really inspiring for, for people to hear that you really changed your life and running was a big part of that, you know, both physically and, uh, mentally.

Corina Burton: Yeah, there are so many experiences in life that you can, you know, have the desire to want to re experience it again, but it’s like I said, you know, I’ve learned that life is really in seasons. And we can still hold things very close to us and that we can have a lot of love and admiration for what we experienced.

And we may experience it differently. But 1 of the things that I am a very, like, I’m an advocate about is. Never say never, and you [00:28:00] have to allow yourself to go through the ebbs and flows of life. It’s kind of like, the more you resist something, the more difficult it’s going to feel.

You’re going to find yourself to be much happier and much more pliable when life changes. You know, I used to say this was prior to my mindset changes. I would say I would never do that. I will never be this. I would never experience this, all this stuff. And then my life totally went completely different.

And, um, I used to say, I will never do yoga. I will never do yoga. Like that’s not for me. I like high endurance. I like that feeling. I like to listen to my music. And now here I am like in this season of my life where yoga for me is exactly what I need. And it’s a totally different, totally different mind frame and it’s, you know, [00:29:00] it’s very controlled.

It’s very slow and it’s very concise while running is very high impact, very high energy, high adrenaline. And it’s funny because at that time in my life, I needed that. And now I need something else, but yet sometimes your body and life will have to kind of dictate you and, and lead you down the path that you need to go down.

So like, I guess my Advice to people is try not to be too resistant, you know, we don’t have life figured out and if we allow life to help us through as we’re doing the work, but to follow through with the ebbs and flows of life and like, like a river, you know, runs its course, you’re going to find yourself to feel not only happier, more satisfied, but that you’re going to be able to, when you do [00:30:00] accomplish the things that you do, they’re going to feel so much more satisfactory.

You’re not going to feel like, Oh, I didn’t do that time. Good enough. I didn’t do this good enough. Oh, I, you know, you end up being so hard on yourself because you have these incredible expectations, but You know, not to be morbid, but you think, well, what if I don’t ever do this again? Just enjoy the moment that do enjoy what you’re doing today.

Because tomorrow and then, you know, next week or a year from now, you don’t know where you’ll be. You won’t know what season you’re in. Um, so just enjoy it. Enjoy what you’re doing today. Every single day.

Richard Conner: Love it. Love it. Thank you so much, Karina. I love hearing about your journey and, you know, what you’re sharing here. And, you know, I’d love to hear, you know, one of the questions I normally ask is, you know, as we wind down here, what would be the one thing you would say to inspire our community to run? But I think I’ll change that for this conversation.

My question would [00:31:00] be, what is the one thing you would say to inspire our community to take that first step to do something that they’re afraid to do or do something that They don’t think that they can do

Corina Burton: I love this question if you have a burning desire in your heart to try something, just ask yourself, what is it going to hurt? To just try, just do one day, put yourself out there. It’s not going to change. It’s not going to make or break your life. So why don’t you just give yourself that one moment where you’re, you don’t, you’re, you’re not thinking so hard about the outcome.

You’re not thinking, well, what if I don’t continue? What if I give up? What if I’m not consistent? Check all that at the door, do the thing that you desire, whether it’s running or any other physical activity, which is so extremely important for our bodies and our minds. [00:32:00] Just. Try one time and give yourself that one goal and you’ll surprise yourself that if you go in without judgment, without expectations.

that it’s going to feel a thousand times easier to go to the gym, to lift weights, to get a trainer, to go play soccer, to go just outside and run because you don’t have expectations of what it’s supposed to look like, how it’s supposed to feel, and then what do you do after that? Just do it. And You’ll then know if that’s something that resonates with you, you’re going to find another opportunity.

You’re going to say, that’s not that bad. That wasn’t that scary. That was much easier than I thought. And before you know it, it’s going to be something that you continually give yourself as a goal to, um, attain weekly.

Richard Conner: 100% Karina. Thank you so much. Thank you again for sharing all this with us and thank you for [00:33:00] your words of wisdom there. So how can our community find you and follow your journey online?

Corina Burton: So you can find me. I, I utilize, uh, LinkedIn quite a bit. I don’t know if you and I are connected on LinkedIn, Richard, but I do know we’re connected on Instagram, but you can find me. Um, I have several like business platforms, but you can find my personal page. Um, just Corina Burton. And then on Instagram, Corina Burton.

It is unstoppable with Corina, you can find me there and then also I, I do have a website where you can find all my information, which is unstoppable media, LLC. com

Richard Conner: . So, um, say the name of your podcast again.

Corina Burton: It’s unstoppable with Karina very, you know, very like my Instagram, my

Richard Conner: Okay. Awesome. All right. Perfect. So I’ll put all that in the show notes to make it easy for our listeners to find you again. [00:34:00] Thank you so much, Karina, for, for coming on the show and sharing your story. And with that, have a great day.

Corina Burton: Thank you so much, Richard.