Laura Bennett follow up

Laura Bennett follow up

[00:00:00] This is an Undiscovered Legacy production.

I think I definitely summer slower for a lot of people. that certainly crosses a cut industries. That's one thing I've learned. I'm not the only one that might be experiencing a slight dip is there are other people where their businesses might be having a slight dip in the summer. People go on vacation.

People are starting to near the end. They're starting to get near to the end of their budget for that year. Sometimes. Maybe they want to pull back on services and, and, and want to do things a little bit more slowly.

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Hello, scuba leavers and welcome to episode number 84 of the undiscovered entrepreneur get across the start line. It's me scoob Coming at you whatever device you happen to be listening on.

Before we get into the episode [00:02:00] today I wanted to talk to you real quick about some amazing stuff that's going on for us right now , I'm this close to making it to PodFest. So I want to make sure that I take you with me. So when I do go to PodFest we're going to get some interviews in, and we're going to show you all about PodFest and how things are going there.

There's going to be videos. There's going to be probably a whole podcast about it, and I'm inviting you along with me. So make sure you stay tuned. Make sure we make it to PodFest. We're going to make it to PodFest and, , it's going to be amazing. All right. So today we're doing a,

where the heck are they now episode? Haven't done one of those in quite some time, but got together with my good friend, Laura. Now, Laura, it was another interview I had probably about a year ago and we're going to see how she's doing with her entrepreneur adventure. We're going to learn how Laura returns to share her entrepreneur journey one year after leaving her corporate job and find out the ups and downs of the experiences she had going solo. 

We're going to [00:03:00] discover the unexpected challenges of client acquisition and financial planning that every aspiring entrepreneur needs to know. Also learning why consistency and overcoming fear may be the actual keys to success and building our own businesses. And we're gonna learn all that from listening to Laura.

So let's take a listen.

 Salutations school believers. And we are here again with another entrepreneur and we are doing a, where the heck are they now episode with my good friend, Laura. Hi, Laura. Welcome back. Hi, thanks for having me. Great. It's been so great. It's great to see you. It's been, I actually been almost a year. I know we said six months, but you know, life gets in the way sometimes, but it's still, it's great to see.

I've been watching your progress and see what you're doing. So it's really great to see you again. 

Yeah. Thanks for having me. It's good to be back on your show and thanks for the follow up. 

Absolutely. So I always have one special question. I always ask, I like to ask, you know what it is. Now, [00:04:00] are you still a school believer?

I'm a school believer in you. 

Yes. All right. Thank you, Laura. I appreciate you. All right. So do us a favor and if this might be the first time we're actually hearing it. So give us kind of a reminder of what your entrepreneur adventure is. 

Yeah. My entrepreneur adventure is about a year ago. I left my corporate, the corporate safety net, so to speak.

And I've started. My own business. So I do sales consulting and then I also do coaching. Right now the sales consulting takes up the bulk of the business and then the coaching aspect is a smaller piece of the pie. 

Awesome. I've been seeing you watching you doing that. That's great. I really, really love it.

It's been about a year since we've talked. So what has been the most memorable experience between then and now you think that's been ha that's happened to you in the last time we, since the last time we talked? 

That's a great question. And I [00:05:00] think the most memorable thing is hitting the one year mark, right?

It's, most businesses fail within the first 3 to 5 years. So I've hit year 1, if I'm within the average, I have 3, I have essentially 3 more years to go or 4. So I have 3 more or 4 more years to go to see if I hit that survival threshold. Some people say it's 5 years to hit the breakthrough.

And that's what I'm hoping to get to is, is that five year kind of like break even. So I've made it to my first year almost. And that's the most memorable thing. 

Fantastic. So what, what have you like done over that last year? That helps you keep going. 

I've focused a lot on the client acquisition and nurturing process.

And it's a lot of it's through people. I know. I'm always trying to figure out ways to generate new leads. Organically, like, how do I go about that? Where do I [00:06:00] need to go? Who do I need to talk to? And that's really still very much an exploratory thing for me. But I think for me, that's the major thing is the client nurturance process is like the major thing for me.

And I think that's what really helped me to stay out on my own is I've had some leads that I've worked for over a year and then they convert to clients. But a lot of that's through my sales. Consulting practice. And now it's just how do I convert that to coaching? And, with coaching, I'm not as fettered or bound by industry.

So, it'd be nice to get some more local face to face clients. But is that the right market? So I've been experimenting more with that. Sometimes it's hard to be consistent because if I'm doing sales consulting work, I'm really Focused on that. And if I'm near full time, then it's really hard to put a lot of energy into the coaching side.

But I've had clients come and go on the coaching side and the sales has been more consistent, but coaching's [00:07:00] fluctuated up and up and down. 

Yeah. The delegation of time to be able to do one thing to the other. Sometimes it can be difficult. You got to put your priority here, but we got to put some priority over here at the same time.

So, I could see how that can be an issue and a challenge. 

Yeah, it definitely can be. I mean, it's like you have to earn money to make money or you have to earn money to pay the bills. And, and that's where I spend the majority of my time is earning the money to pay the majority of the bills.

And it got a little slow in between June and I would say June and now and my goal was to focus more on the coaching, but I just, I just didn't quite get over that hump, consistency. Yeah. struggle for any entrepreneur. And so it's like brushing your teeth. You just have to keep showing up and then you start to show up and do a little more and then you show up, you do a little more and do a little more.

And then it just starts to expand. So it's first [00:08:00] okay, I got to get on the gym shoes and then walk out the door and I got to start doing that first. And so I've tried to approach it. I approach it from that perspective. And that's how I first started off my entrepreneurial journey. That's what kind of, that's what gave me the, the chutzpah, the energy to go out on my own was starting that year, basically a year ahead of time to start just doing a little bit, even if it's 10, 15 minutes, that's the goal.

It's like, all right, so right now for my coaching thing, I'm in a course, so it's watch one video per day. And it's. That's, that's the thing is, I'm, I'm, I've invested in a program to help me get over the finish line and teaches me the whole soup to nuts, right? So it's not just this mindset stuff.

I'm also going to learn the technology and how this one person did it. They have a whole soup to nuts program, but it's, they, they put a lot into [00:09:00] that. So I have to go through the content and the way they put it. So I can have a successful program. So it's like just showing up and doing a little bit each day.

And that's how we get across the starlight. And a lot of what we do is even if it's only 15, 20 minutes a day, maybe you, Go to bed half an hour later. Maybe you wake up a little bit earlier. Just take that extra time to start learning, educate yourself. Cause that's, that's really all it takes to even just get started.

Yeah. And then we got to do social media content. You also have to do self learning. Like I'm, I'm reading some books right now. I'm experimenting with my Instagram page where I'm taking people on a journey through Machiavelli's The Prince. And seeing if they like it. I don't even know if they like it.

They won't. So, I, I'm going through those and then it's what's, what's one way I can stay consistent with a social media posting? So, I've started a new thing where I'll [00:10:00] go on and I'll create a tile and I'll put the idea into the tile. Right? So, I've started doing that this weekend.

Um, and it's like, how do you be consistent across all of these fronts? Cause it's almost like you have to be 24 seven to start your business. And a lot of people say, well, you should invest and go hire that person. Well, some people just don't frankly have the money to start off with all, all these hirings.

I love to hire all these people to help me get through the finish line. But, I have to put all of what I earned back into us, maintaining what we have. 

Yeah, yeah, I say that to money seems to be a lot of what people come up against when they want to start something and they have a lot of things going at once.

So I could see how that could be an issue for a lot of people. I mean, obviously, that's that's 1 of the main things that we come across is, okay, we got to make money, but we have to have the money to start with. So it becomes an issue. So [00:11:00] yeah, I could see where that could be an issue. 

Yeah. And I think there's privilege to a lot of people, I know they've been able to become consultants and their spouses are working full time.

And so there's levels of privilege. Like I'm certainly a lot more privileged than a lot of people that want to start their businesses. But I really thought about it. Cause it put it into perspective to me is that I know a lot of people who've started their own businesses and they are way more privileged.

Then I am, but even I'm ahead of other people. So I keep, that has really helped me have a different perspective on this journey. First we have to earn the money, pay the bills, and then we can do the entrepreneurial thing. 

Yeah, exactly. And we got to keep in mind too, that there's always somebody like a little bit behind you, like 10 percent behind you that can learn what you've already learned.

That's how I've gotten this far as to know that there's somebody a little bit behind me that wants to know what I've learned up to this point that I can. I can help and, and nurture and move them, help them move along too. And in turn, eventually they will [00:12:00] help me. And it just turns into this big mush of help, I guess you could say, or something along those lines.

But yeah, eventually it does come around. 

Yeah. And there's a lot of bad advice out there. Everybody's like trying to do this therapeutic therapy, mind coaching, entrepreneur thing, which I think is really. It's really short changing a lot of people, but a lot of people want it. So if they're willing to buy it that's on them.

And then there's these people out there who put it out there, but I've seen people on advertise these entrepreneurial programs. It really it's like this new age quasi. therapy programs and I just I don't need to go to a program like that to learn how to do a podcast if i'm going to go to a podcast I'm going to call you up and say hey Do you have a podcast course and I will buy it from you?

Like I I would want to support the friends that I have or the people i've worked with before and i'd rather go that route and then there's [00:13:00] like the nuts and bolts of it like the not pretty stuff like There's barely anything out there teaching you the finance, the financial, like rigor you need to have in starting your business.

I'm still winging it. I have an idea of what's going on, but I'm still winging it. But you know, as you mature, you need to set up more mature financial practices. How do you set up a payroll? Should you set up an LLC or should you, do it on your own text? ID first. I mean, people have different thoughts.

I think in coaching, though, I would, at least for me, because coaching can't guarantee anything and then people, let's say you do a program for a couple thousand dollars. That's a significant investment. So if people don't get what they want out of it. An LLC could protect you, right?

Cause all of your, your, your shielding, essentially your personal assets. So, there's a lot that I've learned and. I've also struggled with energy in the evening because that's usually when people [00:14:00] work on their businesses. Right? And so, and then I also have family. And so, in the evenings, I would really hit this energy wall and I just wouldn't want to, I just can't literally do any more.

I need to start to wind down. So there's that too, and I think and everybody has their own experience. So I'm covering a lot of topics, but I think. One of the things I've learned is there's a lot of crap out there and you really have to wade through it and a lot of people focus on these new agey therapy ish programs.

A lot of people just teach marketing and it's not enough to get you over the hump. You have to have something more comprehensive to get you. Over the hump, 

right? And it differs for every for everybody. That hump is a different level for everybody. So, it's, it's hard to pinpoint exactly what that hump is going to be from 1 person to another to be able to help them along.[00:15:00]

I agree with that. I agree with that, but you could also do. You well, you could do some pre work. I think the 1st thing is, is can I do what I want to do and still make enough money to pay the bills to have. Just a little bit left over. That's the first thing you have to figure out. But it wasn't until I really was out on my own that I really got a taste of what it meant. Cause I did all this pre work, pre work. So I had an idea, but after I got out and then I'm like paying taxes, I'm like, Whoa. 

Yeah. 

That taxes is just, it's just unbelievable. So sometimes you have to, you have to have an idea, but sometimes you just have to go out and experience it too. That's another thing about this entrepreneurial journey is, is get an idea so that you know it might work, but then you have to go out and do it.

Yeah, the experience is always going to be different for, for yourself than the next person. So just [00:16:00] getting out there to do it, to know that you're accomplishing it yourself has a lot to do with you being able to get over that hump. 

Yeah, very true. And, and having a podcast like your podcast and doing these follow ups can teach people that I do participate in an entrepreneurial group.

And one of the things I did for the group was a live on financial readiness. So I got ourselves ready and then we had stuff happen. And then I wasn't really financially, we weren't really financially ready, but I still went ahead and did it because it's I could wait, I could do, I could have delayed another two years.

I could be like this happened and this happened. I need to really focus on paying that, that thing or paying whatever thing that is. Be what it may, and then I'll be financially ready. So I could have delayed another whole two years if I wanted, but at some point, sometimes you just need to bite it.

You just need to go out and do it. 

We really can't sit and wait for the perfect time for, to make a [00:17:00] move, cause a lot of times if you do that, the, the time never shows. I mean, you could have waited to two years and then those two years, something could have happened where you can't do it at all.

So instead of waiting those two years to first for this perfect moment to happen. You just did it. 

That's true. And it's not necessarily, I was waiting for the perfect moment, but sometimes you want to have that little extra security. So, if you can make it work, then make it work, right? If, if you think you can still do it and you have enough flexibility, then go do it and, and just start to experience it.

Cause there's nothing like, actually doing the thing. You can learn about it, but actually going out and doing the thing is like the major thing, right? 

Exactly. All right. So I like this question. This is one of my favorite questions, especially for my followups, but on a personal level, what kind of [00:18:00] changes have you experienced from when we had the last interview to today? 

We're spending a lot less money for sure. I mean, we would order takeout every Friday, so that was always a tradition. So we've stopped that for a while. And I used to, so we've had to do those kinds of cutbacks. I think in any entrepreneurial journey, you'll have that.

But certainly when people first said I was so brave for doing this, I got, I didn't really understand that I think until the summer, cause things have slowed down and it's only in the past week or two that I really have been able to increase my service with one of my clients, which is going to enable me to.

Continue to stay out and do this because we're if you can't maintain consistent work, it can have a very negative impact. So we had the dip and now we're, going back up. So, certainly getting a sense of why it can be so scary at times. When [00:19:00] you're a consultant contracts can end for any reason whatsoever at any point in time. You can't expect the work to be very consistent. And so that's why I like the idea of the coaching program is that I can run ads on it. If I create a good enough evergreen material, I can run ads on it. It can always be perpetually. Running and then I participate at the points where there's that group or personal interaction.

So there's that as well. And, and I think that can provide more of the, the consistency. So you can see, I'm still working through what does this mean? And then it's, it's also I'm going to have to continue to nurture clients. I'm going to to acquire leads. What does that look like?

And at times I've found the process frustrating because it's you, you have sales as a sales and growth is based on math and probability. And so you have to beat the probability game in order to grow, which means. [00:20:00] Let's say a win rate is 50 percent well, 50 percent of the time I'm going to lose.

I'm going to have to do more of the thing to beat that win rate. So I have a higher probability of winning. And then I also need to improve my win rate over time. So it's two activities concurrently. So how am I going to get better at sales or growth? And how am I going to do enough of it to make sure I'm growing?

And that's where I've, I've struggled a little bit is having is, is having those leads. And I, I would conclude now where I conclude now that you have to be doing a little bit of nurturing all the time. Right. And for a while I stopped for about 4 or 5 months because I was just so fully booked. I still did it, you know, a little bit at any time you're networking, you know, I'm going out telling people what I do.

I just have [00:21:00] these networking conversations or I go to networking events. I give them a card that is. Lead generation, right? That's going out and making that connection. But it's, it's also like following up and just nurturing them a little bit more or going back to an old lead and checking in on them.

And so one of the things I think anybody can learn is you have to be doing some kind of lead generation all the time. It could be through ads, could be through funnels. It could be through networking. It could be picking up the phone and calling people. You know, it could just be continuing to do like generic.

Networking chats, um, I think those are a good way of just keeping in touch with people that you might want to sell to 1 day, especially if you have. A decent relationship with them, but doing something like that all the time, if you can. What could really be beneficial? So, you know, I think podcasts are a great avenue [00:22:00] for Potential lead generation.

Not only will you learn a lot, but you can go back and nurture those leads And you know reach out and touch those people again Um, so there's that too, but that's a major thing for me is, you know, i've gotten a lot more confidence I know what it's like to be An entrepreneur and having those scary moments and then some type of lead generation, some type of sales activity all the time, even if it's just one thing you can do that week, go do it.

Exactly. That's all good stuff. So that actually answers. My next question was what on a professional level of what changes have you experienced? And it sounds like what you've explained to me just now, we're all professional. I'm more, yeah, but I mean, uh, on a personal level in here, what has changed? 

Oh yeah.

[00:23:00] Well, I mean, definitely feeling the fear of entrepreneurship, right? We have some of those scary moments, right? We go out, we do the thing, we start our business. We have the highs and lows. I've had some lows. Um, so there's certainly that, you know, I had almost signed a major client right before this other client said yes to something.

Um, I had signed a major client. Well, I almost signed a major client. I sent them the contract. I waited a couple of weeks cause they said, well, we want to do this then. And I was like, okay. So, you know, despite my time and then I get back in touch with them. They're like, Oh no, I'm so sorry, Laura, we had this thing happen.

We can't work for another three to six months. Bye. That was a very scary moment. So, I mean, feeling the emotions entrepreneurship brings you, for sure. Um, sometimes feeling that uncertainty, like, am I doing the right thing? Um, the other thing could be, [00:24:00] well, definitely a lot more confidence. I do feel a lot more confident now, being an entrepreneur.

I wouldn't. I definitely think it's increased. So there's more of a trust in my ability to do something like this, but I've always faced the unknown a lot in my life. So it's not as scary to me, I think, as it might be to other people. But one thing I've learned is that there are some people who just don't want to do entrepreneurship and it is really not for them.

And I got to experience that. So that's another personal thing is really understanding that for some people. Entrepreneurship's not the right thing and it's totally okay.

Yeah. Some people, some people are okay with what they're doing. They're okay with their nine to five and that kind of thing. And good for them that they've found some kind of some peace, love, and happiness.

In what they're doing. Some people love their job and what they want to do. [00:25:00] Uh, people like us though, we wanna kind of go on our own merit, and that's just kind of how we, we, we control ourselves and what we do and how we do things. So it's better for me, uh, and most entrepreneurs that we go out our own and say we accomplish this on our own and we're proud of ourselves for it, 

and we should be.

Uh, we, we should definitely have those moments. But then after that, it's like, get back to the grind. You have to keep working. You have to keep doing something of the thing at all points in time. So there's that too. 

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. All right. So since, since we spoke last, What kind of new pitfalls or problems have you experienced?

I mean, we talked about a little bit about them. I mean, has there been anything else that maybe you learned from those pitfalls and problems? 

I think I definitely some are slower for a lot of people. I, that certainly crosses a cut [00:26:00] industries. That's one thing I've learned. I'm not the only one that might be experiencing a slight dip is.

There are other people where their businesses might be having a slight dip in the summer. People go on vacation. People are starting to near the end. They're starting to get near to the end of their budget for that year. Sometimes, maybe they want to pull back on services and and and want to do things a little bit more slowly.

It depends on when the clients, fiscal year starts. So there's certainly that is, the summer is a dip for a lot of people, a lot of industries, and it goes across many industries and experiencing it like in real time, experiencing it with others certainly is an eye open, I can hear about it.

But experiencing it and knowing other people who are going through it has certainly been interesting. There are certain skills that are more in demand too. [00:27:00] So, proposal writers, that's a very high end demand skill. People need proposal writers. If I had that as a skill, I could probably have a lot more consistent work.

People, sometimes people will wanna hire their own sales team and it makes sense. It's hard to have sales consultants really bought into your mission and your company. If you hire people, they're going to be just by proxy of being your employee will be more committed and more focused on your mission because they spend all of their full time on that. Understanding your client's budget cycle. So I think that's another important thing is understanding your client's budget cycle, understanding when they start their fiscal year, especially if they're at a company. That could help you potentially with planning. Sometimes the project you really want, you're not going to get it.

Unexpected things can happen. So I had something like super unexpected happen, and I would [00:28:00] love to work with these guys. Like they're, I have a couple of people I really want to work with. They're just not there yet. They've had things happen. They just haven't had the growth that they want just yet and they want to work with me too.

And I've nurtured, I've done a great job nurturing them. So, so it's like also focusing on who do you nurture as well? And, and where do you advertise? And, and that could be important too, is where do you advertise? So I think I've, I've certainly touched on these things and some of my earlier answers, but the depth of the income certainly is very important. That's a, that's a big thing people will have to learn about and plan for. Is the dips in and client engagement, 

yeah, it's not a straight line for us And it's not like the 95 where we have that paycheck We know how much a paycheck is going to be and when it's going to [00:29:00] show So we just have to prepare and be ready for those kind of things too that the income is going to be up here And then it's going to be down here then it's going to be up here a little bit Then it's going to be down there a little bit As long as we're mentally prepared for those things, we can move past him, but we have to be ready for him.

Yes, and expect that it will happen. I mean, it's not a chance of if, it's just a matter of when. And planning for it. And, you're going to have your financial highs and lows. I mean, a couple of years ago, we were great financial position right now. It's well, I wouldn't certainly not doing that right now.

But, that's happened. That comes with the territory of being an entrepreneur. You're, you're going to be on that shoestring budget. For the first couple of years. So, it's also, how do you plan out like that fun time with the family too? And, I'm looking at stuff on, on Groupon, right?

So, and, and doing a lot more [00:30:00] nature y things and doing doing those day trips as opposed to overnights, stuff like that. When I was working full time, we could do more of those Trips out of state and, go get the hotel and kind of do those things spontaneously. Now, it's not, it's not as we don't have that ability to do that as much.

I remember. When I was going through a similar situation where money was really tight, but we wanted to get out and do something with the family, we found out about geocaching. Have you heard of that before? 

I have, I haven't looked into it too much. 

I did it with my family for about a year. And we would go every two weeks we'd go out geocaching.

Look it up y'all. If you want something fun to do with your family, it doesn't cost anything. Just an app on your phone. It's fun because it's like doing a treasure hunt with your family. Okay. 

And 

yeah, it's really neat. It's really, really neat. Look into it. But it's the, it's the little things like that, that we could do with our families that still create memories and, and get shot and to [00:31:00] do something, get you out in the sun, not be cooked up inside playing video games or whatever to do something fun with your family and create memories.

So I just wanted to throw that in there. 

Yeah. There's a lot of stuff and a lot of people do like these markets and like festivals and there's a lot of free festivals out there, low costs and Going out and hiking like this morning, I went out to a little town that we like to visit and I just walked around a lot, revisited some spots and old haunts that I really enjoy.

And it was such a fulfilling morning for me. So I really enjoyed that. 

Yeah, that's great. Yeah. All right. So here's, here's a good question for you. If you were able to sit to speak to yourself, it says six months ago, but it was almost a year ago and tell you something that tell yourself something that you learn now, what would you say to yourself?

Your, your six month or a year ago self? 

Log into that program every day that coaching [00:32:00] training program. You're doing log into that every day and just spend 5 minutes there. Just start with that and then gradually increase over time. So, I think consistency kills a lot of businesses and, do that. And then there's that icky back office stuff.

Do that too. You have to do it, no matter what. Even if it's at 8 o'clock at night, you gotta do it. 

That's right. That's right. You gotta, I know it's rough. I know it's terrible. But you know what? It's all part of the process. It's all part of what we do. It has to be done. Because we can really, it really can bite you in the rear end later on.

They can, and it's, it's putting me in the rear end. And so the back office stuff and I don't like that kind of stuff. I'd rather go out and network and meet people. I mean, as strange as that sounds, 

That could be a, that could be rough, but at the same time, it's the same thing. I say almost the exact [00:33:00] same thing.

It's, it's something that we have to do as entrepreneurs, especially if we want to get the word out about there, about what we're doing and what we're trying to accomplish 

for sure. That's very true. I mean, you have to keep getting yourself out there. And then even engaging people, I've I've seen some people do that in their entrepreneurial journey.

And they, they've, they've had a lot of success for that. And it's very, it's great to see people get out there and engage people they know to grow their businesses. 

Exactly. Yeah. That's a lot of, that's a lot of fun. And then you, if you can form a relationship with them, you could follow them in the process and maybe switch clients or something, getting those relationships in the very end really are definitely amazing.

It's so true. And, and Certain relationships could pay off, right? So you have to build those [00:34:00] relationships that will help you pay off. I do know a digital marketer. Her, her schtick is focusing on introverted entrepreneurs and I've really liked what she's doing. So at some point I will support her, but you know, I've made the certain investments that I've made and I need to really see that through.

To the end here, and I think sometimes we imagine ourselves further out and we have to come back and be like this is really where I am. And so I need to start here and just take 1 step at a time and focus on that little step 

exactly 1 step at a time. Really? We don't want to take 2. I mean, it's good to get leaps in that kind of thing, but if we get too far ahead of ourselves.

We, we could find ourself ourselves, like wondering, how did I get here? And what's the, how do I get out of this? And that kind of thing. So 

very true. Very [00:35:00] true. 

All right. So do you do you remember what your, what your goal was last time you were on the, on the podcast? 

You so graciously reminded me, but I, I I mean, for me, the real goal was getting the clients.

So I really remembered that cause that was the commitment I was really making to you then. And that was to get four to five clients. And at one point in time, I did have five clients, four to five clients. And that includes the coaching client. Now I've had some of these coaching clients have had changes.

So I've had, a couple of cancellations, but you know, a few of them do want to get started up in the near future, and then, from a sales consulting business. I have two very consistent clients and the goal is I get to grow with them too. So one of them is very small, but this person continues to make the investment in my services.

So the, [00:36:00] the, the payoff here is that the business will grow and expand and I can grow and expand with them. And then, now I'm getting into the future, but the goal for me. Was getting the clients and maintaining that and I really did meet that because I had to do that. There was like, nothing else I could not do.

So, and then it reminded me it's like, working on the coaching program. And even then, I knew. Like it was, it was not as a firm of, of a goal, but it was to have that signature coaching program together. And I still don't have it together. I have a better idea of what I want to do, but it's still not together.

That's okay. You know what, when we make these goals, it's their goals. And if we don't meet them, we, what do we learn from it? Okay, let's move on and, and either keep that goal and move on forward or change it up and pivot a little bit to make it even better. So there's nothing wrong with not meeting that [00:37:00] goal, as long as you learn something from it on the way to trying to achieve that goal.

Yes. And, and for me, it's consistency, right? I think again, consistency, in my opinion, and the lack of focus on client acquisition, that whole process are the, to me, the major things that would kill a business. So. Even if let's say I view that course, which I do, as helping me to get from point A to point B, log into that course every single day and spend five minutes there.

Start with that. It's like applying that to fitness, right? We always hear these fitness coaches saying just get on your shoes and go to the gym. That's all you got to do. Start off doing that for the next month. And then you're already. You're more than halfway there, right? Cause he showed up at the gym for 30 days straight.

Now go inside and exercise for five minutes. 

That's right. Oh man, I gotta work now. [00:38:00] No, that's 

well, it's like losing weight. I'm working on losing weight, but if I keep eating inconsistently, I'm not going to lose the weight. And I've had my first week where I've been super consistent with what I ate.

Oh, good. Keep it up. 

Keep. I know if I can keep applying that I should see some results. 

Good. I've actually done something very similar to I've changed my diet a little bit. And cut out a lot of sugars and that kind of thing. And I'm already seeing a difference. So yeah, good luck to you on that. I really hope I hope that works out.

I 

hope so too. I mean, I've had my first super consistent week and again, I know my Achilles heel, so I have to show up first. 

That's right. That's right. 

Yeah. 

So on my podcast, my new rebranded podcast we talk a lot about the four pillars of stop. Now the four pillars of stop are imposter syndrome, fear, perfection, and failure.

So [00:39:00] which one of these four things do you think stops entrepreneurs from getting across the starting line? Most 

failure, fear and failure, because it's I can invest in all the courses. Do all the learning and never get over the finish line. And, and I did spend a lot of time doing that. And I spent a lot of time like, okay, I have to create passive income.

How do I get there? And then I realized how much work it is like a YouTube channel. And if I want to quickly monetize YouTube channels, like a news channel, I don't want to do news, it just get really can be so Debbie downer. So it's once I focused on what it is that I'm selling and to whom That's when things started to pivot.

I started, I actually got a client or two. I had an interested one and then I got a client before I left, before I left. And I left the corporate environment and fear. So I'm like, how in the hell am I going to sell what [00:40:00] I'm selling to people? I have to convince them to buy it. So my client acquisition process might be longer, but if I can, and I have to say this course, could be better organized. Like I have a whole module on like mindset and I still have to get through that. I'm like, I don't want to learn about effing mindset right now. I want to, I want to learn how to set up my niche, which is the first thing they take you through. So, it's fear and failure in my opinion.

Yeah, and it's, it's amazing to me how close those are together in pretty much any conversation because if you have failure, you have fear.

If you have fear, it's fear of failure. They seem to always seem to go coincide with each other. 

That's true. That's true. So, people will get scared of doing the thing. And then they will feel failure and they think there'll be this big audience booing them. I can tell you, [00:41:00] people don't give a, they don't give a shh, 

beep, 

right?

Yeah. They don't 

give a beep. I just want to make sure if you're posting this on YouTube, it doesn't get taken down, but they literally are so caught up in their journeys. For, for most people, you just have to go out and do it. And then, a lot of people talk about branding and voice, and I think there's a lot of fear around posting on social media.

But, I mean, it's a real valid fear. I mean, people are really vicious on these platforms, and I have A lot of fear around posting because people are so mean and they're so vicious and I think they set up these burner accounts and that they can go out and I'm going to be, I'm going to be like a rebel today and I'm going to take down these people and feel great about it.

And, and so people don't even post at all, but that's part of advertising your business. And so [00:42:00] there's like a fear of putting yourself out there and I've that's taken me a long time to get over. I'm not so worried about the social media piece though, because you can set up the basics. And then advertise, right?

So I can get over that social media fear with just doing a couple of good posts and then advertising to start getting people into the funnel. So I'm not so worried about that, but I do think inconsistent is important and it's like brushing your teeth. But for me it's fear and failure. And then that leads to procrastination and, it does kill a lot of dreams and then people lack focus.

Like I said, all these entrepreneurs are probably investing in social media and they want, they think they're going to get clients that way. If you're not selling to these people, if you're not like getting people to a discovery call, you're probably not going to even really grow your business.

You have to get people on the phone and then talk about their [00:43:00] challenges. And then if what you have to offer them is a fit. So if you're not even getting there, how do you expect your business to grow? Bet. I think, a lot of people can sit in this purgatory, right? Because they might be living off of somebody else's income.

They might be living off of retirement. They maybe maybe their stay at home parent. And they have all these, they have children to take care of, or they have another way to make income so they can always delay and put it off and not really learn what they really need to do. 

Yeah. My brain stopped. 

Your brain stopped.

Nothing 

happened there. 

Did you blank out? 

Something happened there. I don't 

know. 

But yeah, that's a lot of that is, is exactly what happens. And any of those things that we talk about, but fear and failure, once again, are, just, it just starts from there and then it just collides into a lot of other things that we [00:44:00] really don't need to go down.

As long as we're prepared for those things to happen, we know that failure is going to happen. If failure is going to happen, then it's a lot less, it's a lot less evasive. Here it comes. Okay, here it is. Yep. There it is. I was expecting it. Okay, I'm ready for it. Instead of, hitting like a brick wall.

So well, that's 

true. You can expect certain amounts of failure, but sometimes identifying it, you won't be able to identify it. And that can be a real shocker. 

Yeah. All right. All right. So what I'd like to do here now is get a 12 month goal from you. Cause it seems like the year's the thing lately. Yes. So what I'd like to do is the 

thing I'll come back on in a year, come 

back on in a year.

I'd like to know what your goals are for this next year coming up. 

Continue the sales consulting. Cause that really does feed everything else. Definitely have the coaching program and at least one coaching client. That's consistent. 

There you go. All about [00:45:00] consistency. I can commit to 

that. 

There you go.

All right, that's good. By the next 

time we talk, it might be partially in construction. 

Hey, as long as there's movement forward, that's all I'm asking for, right? That's 

true. I'll be like, Scoob, I logged into the site every day for 90 days. I'm so proud of myself. 

That's the way to do it. I'll follow up with you.

I'll ask you, did you log in today? No, no, no, 

but I did yesterday yesterday and I listened to 10 minutes of that mindset module the person had. And I was like, I have two more hours of this. It just, 

you could do it. As long as you're putting a little bit in every day, you're doing, you're going to be just fine. 

I've done all, yes, you're right. Got to do it. You 

got to do it. Got 

to do it the way the person ordered it. I hope they put out a survey. I'm going to tell them exactly how I think, but. Kind of muscle through those parts. 

There you go. So Laura, this is your time to shine again. Just like last time. I want you to be able to advertise [00:46:00] yourself and how we can get ahold of you.

Okay. Ready? Sure. Go. 

Thank you. So I am a sales consultant. If you. Need help with understanding who your client is, what you're selling to them. If you need to understand like the basics of lead generation, are you bringing in enough leads to start nurturing them? Contact me. Do you have enough in your pipeline?

Do you have enough throughput to output? Are you winning well or are you winning like not enough? Are you bidding For your client, if you need any help with that, I'm your salesperson. And then on the other side, I do work with high performance entrepreneurs and business executives. on navigating the business and corporate jungle and breaking through their own glass ceiling for greater revenue and profit and growth.

So again, a little bit [00:47:00] of a sales focus, but I'm your mindset guru. So you can find me on LinkedIn, look up Laura Bennett, Maryland area. You can find me there. I do a fair amount of posting there. You can also find me on Instagram on Instagram at I am Laura D Bennett. And those are probably the two main areas you'll find me.

Fantastic. And we'll have all that in the show notes as well, too. Okay. Laura. Great. Thank you for giving me that space. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for rejoining us on the Undiscovered Entrepreneur. It's great to see you again. It's great to see your progress. I'm really looking forward to see what the future holds for you.

Thank you so much. And thank you for having me on your platform. 

All right. All right. School believers. Make sure you stay tuned for the wrap up. All right, everybody. Thank you. Bye bye. 

All right, ladies and gentlemen, that was Laura Bennett. So great to be able to catch up with her and see where she's going on her entrepreneur adventure. She's [00:48:00] done so much in between the times from the last time we talked to her to this time, I'm really looking forward to seeing where she goes from here on out.

We're going to be definitely be following up with Laura, watching her. Continue in her entrepreneur adventure, you know, a couple of things that actually came up for me while I was listening to Laura talk Laura's journey proves the entrepreneurship is possible even without perfect financial readiness or I mean, . She took the big leap. She took the leap. Despite unexpected setbacks and it's still going strong after a year later. One thing that really kind of stood out to me too. Consistency. Consistency is definitely the secret weapon of any business. Laura emphasizes doing just five minutes of work On our goals, every single day can make the difference between thriving or failing as an entrepreneur.

So consistency is paramount when we're doing [00:49:00] anything and not just in entrepreneurship, but in everything that we do, it gets us ready for those things that we aren't ready for how could you go wrong? How could you not have five minutes a day to do something? Towards your entrepreneur adventure, towards your goals every day if you can't find five minutes out of a 24 hour day, there's something going on, some adjustment that you need to take. Let's make that adjustment so we can actually have that five minutes to make that dream come true, to make that entrepreneur adventure work, to make that thing that you want to happen, happen. To improve your life. And just one real quick thing. Don't forget my talk on October 22nd at 4 p. m. Central time is coming up We're going to be putting out invites out there. I want you to be present to hear me speak on my very first stage So make sure you join for that and please subscribe do anything you can to keep Listening to this podcast because [00:50:00] we are going to be talking about some amazing things over the next So stay tuned.

All right, everybody. Thank you so much. Have a great day. I love you all. Bye. Bye 

And there you have it, future entrepreneurs. We've taken another step towards our journey to get across that start line. Remember, every great business starts with a single idea and the courage to pursue it. You've already shown that courage by joining us here today. As we wrap up this episode of the Undiscovered Entrepreneur, I want to remind you that the start line isn't as far away as you might think with each bit of knowledge you gain, each fear you face.

You're getting closer to launching your dream until our next episode together. Keep pushing, keep dreaming, and most importantly, keep taking those steps across the start line. They'll all add up to big strides in your entrepreneur adventure. This is Scoob, your guide across the starlight. Remember [00:51:00] your future is waiting.

I can, I am, I will, and I'm doing it today.