Journey into the Coaching World: A Conversation with Laura Bennett

[00:00:00] Hello, scoop believers and welcome to the next episode of the undiscovered entrepreneur. And it's me DJ scoop.

Coming at you, whatever device you happen to be listening on today is going to be an amazing episode. But before I do anything else, I want to make sure I mentioned the scuba believer of the week. So the scooper liver of the week today is I guess it's daddy, Rob. , and I saw him, he saw me on Tik TOK.

He's an actual local former, but he has a huge, took talk, does a lot of lives. , he's amazing. And he seems to like what I'm doing. , you can find him at R Martin. So it's R M a R T I N 2 69. , thank you so much for being a school believer. I really appreciate you liking all my, , videos or whatever the heck I'm doing. And if there's any way we can support you. Please let us know. , I am going to be putting his information in the show.

Knows. Okay. So today's episode, we're talking to Laura Bennett. Now I actually met [00:01:00] Laura about a year ago in a clubhouse, and she asked me to be a guest or cohost on her clubhouse. So. A year later, things would come around again and we ran into Laura and she's just been doing some amazing stuff. So she is actually a coach. But she also does government contracts.

You're going to hear more about that here. So let's listen to Laura Bennett..

Salutations school believers. And we are here again with another amazing brand spanking new entrepreneur. Today we're here with Laura. Hey, Laura.

Hey, how you

doing? I'm fantastic. Thank you so, so much for agreeing to be in the undiscovered entrepreneur. I really appreciate you being here today and taking some time with us.

Well,

thank you for having me on your show today. All

right. So I have one kind of semi serious question to ask you. Okay, Laura, are you ready? I am ready. All right. Are you a school believer?

Why, yes, I am.

All right. Yay. We have another school believer. Thanks, Laura. I really appreciate that [00:02:00] so much. So before we get into anything, I actually want to talk a little bit about how Laura And I actually met, this is such a cool story.

So a while back I, and we're talking like a year, which is a long time in, in podcasting terms. Okay. So, uh, we met in a room where I was asked, asking to be on a guest, a guest of a podcast or anything else, Laura saw me and she asked me to be on her clubhouse meeting. So we actually did that, had a great time, and a year later, paths crossed again, and here we are, now she's on my podcast, and I'm so happy to have you here, Laura.

Great, I'm excited to be here, it's so nice to kind of have it come full circle in a year.

Yeah. Now you know what my face looks like. That's the crazy thing.

Wow. You know what my face looks like too now. Well, yeah.

True, true. Very true. All right. So we're going to go ahead and get into the [00:03:00] podcast here. So tell me a little bit about, you know, a little more about who you are, how long you've been in your entrepreneur adventure for and what your entrepreneur adventure actually is.

Yeah, I've been, um, involved in my entrepreneur adventure adventure. I would say more officially in the past year. I started, you know, dipping my toes in the water and started exploring ideas and themes and how could Laura Bennett, you know, launch out of her career and into entrepreneurship. That exploration really kind of took off about a year ago, and then I started getting more serious before I fully launched in August and I have 2 lines of business.

I do government contracting business development. Sales for small, medium, and large businesses. And I also do mindset coaching.

That sounds like two different things, but they're both very important. I mean, it sounds like you're over here and then you're over here. [00:04:00] So what sounds very official and one's like mindset.

So like, how does that work? I mean,

It's true. Uh, there are very vastly different, um, activities. I mean, one is basically like, how do you set up the engine to grow your company in federal government contracting. So a lot of people will think of the defense contractors, Boeing, Northrop, General Dynamics, all that.

But there's a whole bevy outside of that as well, where companies provide I. T. support services through contracts to the government. And the U. S. federal government is the largest contractor Purchaser in the world of goods and services and it to help supplement its mission. And then the mindset coaching piece got into it because, um, I've always wanted to help people.

I've explored a lot of ideas over the years on how can I help people? I've done it through a variety of [00:05:00] ways through, um, my job. Supporting healthcare missions, uh, volunteering a lot. I still volunteer a lot now, and now I really like to make it my living. And so this is why I'm moving into the mindset coaching as well.

That's fantastic. And us as entrepreneurs are always just looking for ways to help other people in any, any way we can, because it really makes us feel really good to be able to, you know, have that one person says, thank you for helping me or pointing me in this direction. And that's, what's really driven me too.

My entrepreneur adventure is just that one person that says. You know, remember what you said then thank you so much for saying that. Cause that's exactly what I needed to hear.

Yeah. Yeah. And it could be that one person and my, um, my, my coach, um, Susan Hobson would say it's the ripple effect. You help that one person, then that one person helps that person and then they help another person.

And then it's just, it kind of.

Yeah, it definitely makes me feel there. There is a way actually to change the world, even if it's 1 person at a time. [00:06:00]

Yeah, I agree. And it's probably the best way to change the world. And I think it starts even closer to home. And I keep reminding myself of that mission because I think sometimes it's entrepreneurs or very serious professionals.

We kind of become too much our career. And so the person we're helping 1st is ourselves. And then it's our family. And then the living makes its way into our lives. Then that's the third or fourth thing out there.

You make a really good point in helping yourself first, because if you really can't help yourself first, how are you going to be able to help anybody else out there?

Yeah, and I agree with that. And that's part of why you started this, this blog, this... Podcast too. And that's why I started my clubhouse room is like, we're trying to explore and, and, and network and kind of learn things, but we also want to draw an audience. And so it's, it's kind of cool. This niche you have where you're focusing on like first time entrepreneurs, because so often we feel like we're so alone and what a way to build community with [00:07:00] your, with your podcast.

Absolutely. And that's really my whole thing is as getting those basics down first and not just having somebody paying somebody thousands upon thousands just to get the basics down first. That's why I want people to come to me and realize that I will, I am willing to help you get those basics down.

Yeah. And I agree with you too, because I see a lot of Instagram coaches out there and they they're talking about how they're going to help people grow their businesses, but I'm not hearing a lot about concrete. Deliverables like, what, what, what are you measuring? Like, what are we measuring and what am I buying and what am I going to get out of it?

Right? And you think about it. The federal government has a lot of free information out there. I mean, I could start my own business doing the research and the homework, which will take me a long time to do. But I could do all of that for free and start my own IT company to pursue federal government contracts.[00:08:00]

It's all out there. There's, you just gotta know where to look.

Yeah, and you gotta have a passion for federal government stuff because I would be like way out there. I'd have no idea what I was doing.

I know. That's true. It's true. But I mean, the SBA does have free information for entrepreneurs, too. I mean, some people want to start commercial companies and, um, you know, doing I.

T. services for a commercial company versus the federal government. The types of contracting in the sales cycle are just different, but there is information to support entrepreneurs that want to work and just do commercial or B to B or business to consumer type of businesses.

Is there a place you know of that we can go to quickly to get some of that information?

I think you could start with SBA. gov, but you just got to kind of start to know where to look. I mean, there's, there's a lot of programs out there. And I think Chase. com has a business, uh, has a Uh, some pages, webpages, uh, dedicated to [00:09:00] that as well. I feel like I sound like a boomer here just saying that, um, You know, I think if you can google like free business services, you can find resources.

Um, you'll always have the ads kind of filtering in the paid crap, but you can find it. So I would start with sba. gov. Every state probably has a small business development center. They're called S. B. D. C. small business development center. And you can contact these people and learn more about what's the, like, how do I start a coffee shop?

They're supposed to help you answer that question score. Mentors, it's basically a retired network. It's a, it's basically a network of retired experts that can help you solve a business problem. Um, but you got to be kind of to some kind of certain business maturity and you got to have a specific ask for them to match make you, you know, with the, [00:10:00] with a mentor, uh, they do a lot of free trainings.

How do you start a business without capital? Um, how do you register your business in your state? Uh, the other thing I think is a good resource is Chamber of Commerce, every state, every kind of biggish. Small town in America has a chamber of commerce. I can think of at least four different chamber commerce like organizations in my own counting.

We have less than a million people. So we have a lot of people that are very dedicated to economic growth. So I think if you can start looking at what's available and everybody's always looking online. So everything I said is available online and offline, but you got SBDC. You got score. You can start with SBA.

gov and then your local chamber of commerce is, you know, contact the office, sign up for a membership and say, Hey, I want to start a business and X, where do I go? And they'll give you resources. They should be able to point you to government [00:11:00] resources, which will then open up the coffers. So you can start getting into the weeds a little bit.

And getting into your Chamber of Commerce is a really good idea, because not only do you have that information that you're talking about, but you have different, uh, different companies, different small business owners that you're, that are more than willing to help you with information about how to do things.

They want to reach out to you. Um, I've joined my local Chamber of Commerce on here, and since I'm a solopreneur where I'm only by myself, It was very, very inexpensive and they constantly have network mixers and, and greetings, uh, red ribbon cuttings, all kinds of things you can get involved with for other people.

You don't have to be on this computer looking at one person's screen. You can actually go out to live people and shake real hands to be able to get your name out there and then score. Score. org has actually been mentioned several times in my podcast, including Esperidevor, who I had on my podcast a while back, but she was the first one that actually, uh, mentioned that.

[00:12:00] I'll link her podcast in the show notes. Okay. All right. So what I really like to know is what actually got you started? I mean, what was the catalyst that got you going saying this is actually what I, where I want to go? What was the one thing that got you started?

I mean, that's a great question. I've, um, I would say my story kind of well, it goes back away.

I, as a kid, I wanted to be like a psychologist or a therapist, right? But then I started researching schools, like, God forbid, why am I researching schools and that kind of stuff at that age? You know, 8, 9. But somehow I found out it was super expensive. And oftentimes people spent decades in debt. And I was like, I don't want to be in debt that long.

So I was like, okay, I'm going to put that aside. So then I went off and wanted to be other things. Right? Um, but it, it kind of came back and resurfaced in my mid to late 30s. I think a lot of people think [00:13:00] you have like a midlife crisis. I think some people might, but I do feel like people kind of hit a point in their thirties and it's not just our generation, the boomers, or even older.

I've, I've read about it and it can. Go back. It goes back years. I think it's kind of like a human cultural phenomena is that once we kind of get out of our twenties, we kind of, um, uh, exit that phase of idealism, wanting to improve the world, thinking the best of everybody and and that kind of thing. And, um, I definitely hit that wall, um, in my mid to late thirties, and I.

New, if I'm not motivated to do my job, it's going to impact my performance. And I took my job very seriously and I wanted to work on that before I just burned out. So I hired a coach, uh, Susan Hobson and I started coaching with her and I really [00:14:00] loved her methods and what she was teaching. She, um, studied, um, the great, you know, kind of like the latest and.

Not neurology, but kind of like the brain mind techniques like that are coming out of Harvard and those types of institutions. Um, she's. Practice and learned NLP and and she kind of combined and created a lot of these methodologies that she teaches in her course, but she even uses with her clients and even on herself and it really did have a positive impact for me.

I was able to stop these, like, panic, anxiety events I was having. I don't know if I could call it an attack or, you know, kind of like what we would use as a clinical term, but I would have these anxiety events that could last days. And I was able to really shorten the window of that experience with coaching with her, almost to the point where I've eliminated it.

Um, So, so that really [00:15:00] was like the proof and evidence I needed. I was like, wow, there is really something to what she's teaching here. And just over time, I knew that I wanted to go out and help people. I wanted to coach people. I like working one on one with people. I'm very much a one on one person. I've always thought of myself as an extrovert because I've been in sales.

But now I realize I like going to the lunch and I like going to the coffee more than the networking event. I like quiet networking events. I don't really like loud networking events. So I think coaching is a good fit for me. And who knows? I mean, maybe the path will evolve over a course of time, but I know that it really motivates me and it inspires me to help people.

And when I can see that I'm working with somebody and they say, Laura, this really helps me. That fires me up. And then the fact that these techniques have made me a better person. So it's helping not only me, like I'm putting on my oxygen mask, but it's also [00:16:00] helping my family. So it's going to improve my relationships if they're going to see me be a better person.

So then they will adopt maybe some of these characteristics or our relationship will change. It'll be more positive. So that's really Set me on the trajectory. I'm very entrepreneurial. I've always been like that. I've always, I've wanted to start my own thing for years. But now's the time to do it life is too short and I got to do it before I start getting gray hair.

Oh, yeah. I'm way too late for that. But anyway, so you probably can't see it in a thing. But anyway, yeah, at least you started something though. And that's that's 1 of the things that always impresses me about entrepreneurs is you could start 1 thing, but you don't have to stay in that 1 thing. If you have something else that that gives you more spark that that gives you that fire, you can always pivot into something else.

That's. You know, the next level of the next thing that you want to try, you're not always caught as much as people say that you really shouldn't niche down and what you're talking [00:17:00] about. You don't always have to pigeonhole yourself. You always have that capability of moving into something else that might be, you know, even better than what you're doing now.

Or that's a little bit different

yeah, I don't want to comment on the niche part. It's like, yeah, I do think you need a niche. But don't limit your don't feel like you have to have the exact niche when you start I would say start and then play with it and figure out what your niche is you don't want to I just it doesn't that doesn't work for me I need to start now.

Right, I have a client now actually I have a one coaching client. Um, yeah, yes and I'm working the call plan but, um, You know, you've got to start working it now because you've got to figure out who you are as a business owner and an entrepreneur. And that's where you're going to kind of refine the niche.

But yes, you've got to understand your audience, your market, what you're selling, and what they're going to buy.

Exactly, exactly. As long as you start something that goes right into my actual, uh, what I like to say, I can, I am, [00:18:00] I will, and I'm doing it today. Start something. Even if it's just reading a simple book, even if it's just, you know, just talking to somebody that's in a field that you're interested in, as long as you're making that progress forward, you turn those progress, little progress steps into snowflakes.

So snowflakes, you get enough of those snowflakes together, you get them a snowball and you get enough of those snowballs together. You're either throwing them at each other or you make a snowman, one of the two. So that's just kind of the way I think about it. When I hear somebody say, let's start. And that's what a lot of my podcasts are about is just.

Getting started getting across that start line is what I like to call that. Um, and what I was going to get into here is, um, it's nice that Susan was able to help you have that mind shift where you can actually kind of concentrate on what you're doing. Have a lot less of those things because you're, uh, lots of those problems because you're actually understanding what's going on, why you're having these shifts in your mind.

And it's not so scary anymore because you know what's happening and you know why it's happening. And, um, I, [00:19:00] I, what I, you, you touched on midlife crisis. I gotta tell you, I, I've never had a midlife crisis. People keep telling me, Hey, are you in your second childhood yet? I said, no, I haven't finished my first one yet.

So, but that's kind of, that's kind of like, yeah, but that's kind of the, that's why I do what I do. I like having the energy you have because mentally I'm in my twenties still, you know, even though I'm double that now. So

I, I hear you. I hear you.

All right. So thank you for that. That's actually great. Some information.

Um, maybe we can, uh, get Susan's information, have her information in the show notes too. Is that possible?

Yes, I can give you her information for

sure. We'll do that. If anybody's curious about how Susan helped, helped Laura or see if there's anything, we'll look into the show notes and see if we can figure that out.

All right. So when we all start our entrepreneur adventure, we always have some kind of [00:20:00] pitfalls or problems or hurdles that we have to go through. When you were just getting started, was there a few that you had to overcome?

Yeah, I definitely think there was a focus problem. Like I spent a lot of time networking and just trying to throw a lot of stuff at the wall.

I think it was still a necessary phase. It was like when I was doing a lot of the clubhouse rooms, right? And you joined and we were just talking about entrepreneurial. Stuff and just trying to figure it out and I felt like that was necessary. But then after six months of like that, I was like, this is not working.

I really got to buckle down and do something. What is going to help me be an entrepreneur? And the thing was, I need clients. I need clients that are going to support. You know, that are going to pay for my services. So then I switched focuses and I, and that's why I haven't, you know, done the clubhouse stuff.

That's why I haven't like started the podcast. That's why I'm still using, you know, some of these free, you know, [00:21:00] email services that are out there. You know, people are like, well, what's your website? I'm like, I'm working on it, you know? Cause I want to, I want to start building the clientele. That's like my top priority.

And once I did that, things started to change.

So is that, was that the main, uh, focus and difference between the, you know, the time then and the time now was just mainly focusing on, on clients?

Yeah, I mean, I developed kind of like a little prospect, um, group you could say, and then I started networking a little bit more, um, And that did help it definitely gave me the courage to leave and know, well, I know I can do this right?

This, this can happen and it will happen. And so, um, once I got a little bit of that proof, then I. 1 out.

Okay. That's good. That's good. Getting some of that proof together. Some of that things where other people could see what you're doing and actually produce something that you could either [00:22:00] show that you've produced or changed in yourself.

Then you can actually people can actually see the changes that's in store for them if they decide to go with you. So that's good. That's good stuff. You really should think about doing some kind of like. I don't know podcast. I, I think I really do want to do a podcast.

I love, well, if you look at my bio, half of it is my podcast appearances,

you know, sometimes that's a strategy though.

Sometimes there's a strategy. So having your own podcast, you go out to different podcasts to be on. So people can understand who you are. Yeah.

And, and, and, and, well, here I am on your podcast and part of it is that. Yeah. And I do have other leads I want to follow up on, but again, it's kind of like, I got to qualify it too.

I've got, I've got to do my call plan and that takes up a lot of time and energy. That's where I spend the most of my time is networking or focused on my call plan.

Well, at least [00:23:00] you got a plan in there somewhere something plan plan was it is.

Yeah, and I'm moving like a snail, but there is a plan and I'm executing on it.

Hey, snails still move too.

It's true. They cross

roads. That's right. To get to the side. Oh, that's a different joke. Sorry. Okay. So, all right. So, you talked about Susan a little bit. I like to talk about other influences that you've had in your life to get you kind of moving forward the kind of like, Oh, I like what he's doing.

Maybe I should do something. Do you have any influences or anybody that helps you move forward besides Susan? Because we've already talked about her a little

bit. Yeah, we did. I mean, she was a good motivating factor. Um, I am in one of her training coach coaching cohorts now. So there's that. Um, what else?

I, I like Brian Tracy a lot. I think he's a very good kind of like mindset type of leader in the Zig Ziglar kind of, um, [00:24:00] realm, but he's still alive, right? He's still alive. He does a lot around sales, entrepreneurship, productivity, how to be a speaker, how to write a book. Uh, so, so, so there's him. I like Adam Grant a lot.

I think, uh, he's a psychologist. I think he's at Wharton, one of the Ivy League schools, and I like him from a mindset perspective. Lately, I've been getting into Alex Hormozy. He's an entrepreneur, and he talks about entrepreneurial stuff. Today, he kind of made a, he made like a tweet or something where he said, Self care isn't always like going to the spa or drinking a glass of red wine.

It's also holding yourself to a higher standard and living in accordance with that. And that's what a lot of this coaching is about. And you know, when I work with people, I want them to see, I'm going to help them get themselves to that higher standard for themselves and then help [00:25:00] them match themselves to that higher standard.

That's where, that's where we take our clients.

Exactly, and all great people. And you know, the one thing all these people have in common and something you school believers need to think about too, is these are all virtual mentors. These aren't people that, at least not that I'm aware of, that Laura has actually gone and shook their hand and say, Hello, it's nice to meet you, Mr.

Brian Tracy, I'm Laura. It's people that we've studied, it's people that we've listened to, it's people's writings that we've read, you know, that inspire us to be people. With these people, These people that inspire us don't have to be people. We physically can touch. Um, I got to say, Brian Tracy was my very 1st entrepreneur that I followed.

I got his book from the library. It was, and, uh. And, uh, 21 ways, 21 ways to, uh, be more, I forget the name of it. I'll put it in the show notes, but yeah, that was my very first book. So I always had kind of the epiphany with [00:26:00] Brian Tracy. Zig Ziglar was really big when I was a car salesman. I followed a lot of his workings when I was selling cars.

So that's where I get a lot of that. Um, yeah. So you actually have some great virtual mentors, a lot of great people to follow, to get good words from. And, uh, just like you said before, it was a good point. Uh, what, uh, what he's the gentleman you just talked about my brain stopped. Who was it? Alex Hormozy.

Alex. Yes. Alex. Yeah. That was a great point. We're going to be clipping that out for people to listen to.

Yeah. That's a good point. I mean, it's a really good point. I read that and I was like, you know, that's really makes a lot of sense. It's like that self care, everybody kind of glorifies like the easy stuff.

I'm going to go lay on a massage table. I'm going to go get my nails done. I mean, that is very important, but like holding yourself, figuring out what your higher standard is, writing that down, holding yourself accountable to that standard. That higher standard, that's the ultimate self care.

Yeah, and there's a big [00:27:00] difference between physical self care and mental health care.

Yes. I mean, huge, huge difference. Yes, and it's hard work. Yeah, both, one can be a little harder than the other. I mean, physical, if you go give somebody a hundred bucks, they'll do your nails, okay, whatever. But mental hard work isn't just work, it's work on yourself. And it really, you really have to open up to yourself and understand who you are as a person.

And what you do with that information makes you who you are.

That's so true. And, and I did a lot of that work. So all of the coaching I'm going to do, I eat my own dog food. I use all this stuff on myself. And I think that's where people kind of get lost in the hype. With maybe some of these Instagram coaches, or just maybe thinking about buying a service.

Well, do these people do this themselves? And how tried and true is it, right?

Ezekiel, you really have to walk the walk before you can talk the talk. That's, I think that's how that goes. So, but yeah, I mean, you really have to be able to [00:28:00] understand that. You need to, it's like my episode zero. If you listen all the way back to my episode zero, that's a lot.

Two years ago. Can believe it two years ago, I started my episode zero. Um, I asked myself the questions that I asked my entrepreneurs, my very first episode, because I wouldn't expect. Them to ask, you know, answer questions that I wouldn't be able to answer for myself. And that I kept that same mindset the whole time too.

I, I wouldn't do it myself. I, you know, if I'm going to expect somebody else to do it. So that's a great

point. I love that. I love that. Holding yourself accountable first.

Yeah, at very first,

all right. So I, I like asking you this question. Can I can make some think a little bit, but I mean, you have been doing this for very, very long, about a year, but when will you know, you've made it? When will you've gotten to that point where you say, this is exactly where I wanted to be at this time. This is, this was my goal.

When, when will you know you've made it, Laura?[00:29:00]

I

think.

I mean, that's a very good question. There are certain milestones I definitely want to meet. Um, I think I could say I made it at certain points, right? And one of them will be, I have enough business to maintain our lives, right? I mean, that's going to be definite. That's going to be the first one where I'll say I've made it.

Another one will probably be, I'm going to go away for a month to some beach and lay on that beach for an entire month and the ocean is going to be crystal clear, that's going to be another point. And then the other one is going to be setting up my family a little bit more strongly for generational wealth where I bring my family into participate in that more because it's not just [00:30:00] about me, it's about what I'm showing.

What I'm teaching and what I'm setting up for the future and that involves like custodial accounts that involves like, um, thing and doing you're seeing me start a business and running it. What does that look like, you know, what, what is mommy doing? Right? So that's going to be another moment.

Those are great moments and, you know, looking back at those things.

I mean, I've asked that question before and that people will say, oh, when I have the big house or when I have the car, but there's a lot of other things in life besides those physical things that we have to think about when we're thinking about when we get to that point, uh, maintaining your lives. I mean, just being able to say, I could work and do this.

Sit in my zone of genius anytime and every time that I want to. That's a great moment to have and when you can actually do that, not have to worry about the boss looking over your shoulder and saying, Hey, what are you doing over there? Are you progressing the way you're supposed to be progressing [00:31:00] when you could be your own boss and not have to worry about that?

That is amazing to be able to, to maintain your own life and to be able to go away for a month or whatever and not have to worry about. You know, is my, is my business progressing? Is it still doing what it's supposed to be doing? If I'm gone, if I'm the one piece of the puzzle, that's not there anymore, is it going to keep going the way it's going?

Having that as a goal is amazing too. Um, we need to find some clear water for you so we can get you on that. Yeah,

we're going to

work on that. Yeah, but I think the one that fit that really sets with me the best. is setting a family legacy for what for the future. Um, that, I mean, that's how you're going to live on after you, after your time has come is to have that legacy that goes on with your family, that goes on with what you're doing with, it goes on with your courting, where your name still goes on with, you can even go on with your business, setting yourself up for that legacy for the future is probably one of the most important things we can do, not just [00:32:00] for ourselves, but for our families and for our families, families.

Yeah. And it's not like, Oh, you have to. And it's the legacy of teaching the skill, right? You don't have to go out and get a job, but you can start your own business and you're going to have way more leverage. If you start your own business and here's the things you need to do to, to do it. And I, I got to tell you, it was about a week ago, there was like a little career fair and I was like, okay, I'm going to go and be a business owner at a career fair.

And I'm like, okay, I'm going to be there with plumbers, cops and firemen and zoo people and they can show something tangible. What do you show that's tangible to owning a business? So. Now it's going to be kind of like my first leap into it, but we've had massive illness in the family, so I wasn't able to do that, um, but it kind of gets you thinking about like, how do you show children that kind of skill, you know, something so abstract, [00:33:00]

it's something that it's something that you can't like, Here is this box.

This is a business, you know, it's something you could physically show somebody. It's something that you really have to be able to tell somebody what it's about and how it actually works. When you're comparing it to the fireman that's wearing the hat and has the fire hose and whatever, or the police officer that has, you know, the badge and that kind of thing, you know, it's a little different.

You can't just walk in there with a suit and tie and say, Hey, I'm a businessman. It's just, that's

true. I mean, I think. So, so the idea I had was I was going to open up a lemonade stand and kind of talk about what's your first act of entrepreneurship. Um, the other thing you could do is like, there's a lot of MLMs out there.

I'm not a huge fan of them, but that's kind of something tangible that children can see. Oh, I'm selling makeup. Well, makeup's fun. Um, and it's a way to kind of get kids to think about something that's kind of abstract. You're [00:34:00] planning for the future. You don't know when and where and how, but it does show you something about entrepreneurship.

That's a great idea. Anybody that's doing a career for you could clip that out and have some ideas from Laura there.

I hope they don't steal my ideas. I'm thinking about taking my lemonade stand on the road here. Oh,

mobile lemonade stand. Hey, there's an idea. All right. That's awesome. All right. So if you were to actually meet someone on the road or however, in your entrepreneur adventure, and they want to have a similar or the same entrepreneur adventure as you're having right now, what kind of advice would you have for them?

What kind of steps would you have them take?

Um, Well, that's a great question. I think, I think I would say, spend some time figuring it out, you know, like, and I did, um, and I, and I would also say, you know, don't spend all your money right away on something you think is going to solve [00:35:00] a problem for you.

Maybe you spend some money for a shortcut, right? Like, I'm going to give bad advice here, but I paid for my CPA to register my business. Now, every government person you're going to go talk to at an, at a, at a small business development center, right? I'm, I'm eating my own words, but they're going to tell you that it's so easy.

You can do it yourself. Well, I just couldn't get over that hump. I don't know. For some reason, it was a mental roadblock. I went through the demo. There was still enough foreign stuff in there. I didn't, it would take me months to figure it out. So I just paid my CPA to do it. Right? So maybe spend some money on a shortcut.

And then you got to start doing it. You got to figure out and start doing and I would say getting your client first is the top numero uno priority. Go out there and get your first client, even if it's for free, but go out there and get a client and start working your, [00:36:00] your business. Methodology, start working your products, whatever it is you're selling.

Right, and that

goes right back to what we started, what we talked about earlier in the podcast, was just to start something, you know, anything at that particular point. I'm not going to go over that whole thing again, but yeah, at least start. Even if, like you said, even if it's for free, at least you're learning.

At least you're, you're learning what your, you know, faults are, or your failures, or anything like that. It's all a learning process.

Well, and that's how I got my first coaching client is I started mentoring him for about three to six months. And then I said, Hey, I'm going out. I'm going to start coaching, you know, to get paid for this.

Do you want to still continue? And by then I already had him, you know, it was, it was a longer sales cycle. It was, you know, took more energy and time from me, but you know, I was, I wanted to do it to see what would happen. And that's why you got [00:37:00] to go out there and start doing something.

Yeah, exactly. I mean, you got to see what happens because you never know what happens until you actually do it.

If you don't do it, you never know. Yeah, I agree with that. Yeah. So, and then don't feel too bad about having your CPA do it. I'm going to be honest with you. Um, just because if it's, the thing I feel about that though is if it's not in my zone of genius, I don't want to do it. If I don't feel comfortable doing it, I'm going to spend a lot of time, a lot of energy and possibly a lot of my own money to do something that could be done in just a few minutes with very little expense.

That's true. So like, if it's not in your zone of genius, it's, it's, it's not worth doing. If it's somebody else can do it for you and you have the capability, have them do it for you, just, just do it and save yourself the time and the energy and save that time and energy for something else that's in your zone of genius that you can actually progress with.

Yeah, I do agree with that. [00:38:00]

All right. All right. So, uh, you're, you're doing coaching right now. So I'm going to talk that talk about that a little bit. So if I wanted coaching from you, but I have 2 other coaches that have the same qualifications are charging me the same or similar to money that you are, what would actually set you apart from these other 2 coaches?

Um, I would, I would tell you, I eat my own dog food. I mean, I use the techniques on myself. I eat my own dog food and I'm living proof, right? I would tell you my story about what I shared at the beginning, you know, I needed help. So I went and got it. And then I saw results within 6 months of doing the work.

And it really did help me a lot and it helped me to keep going and to find different layers to, to improve [00:39:00] more and more. And so I think. That would be what would set me apart and then I might offer, I might give you an offer you couldn't refuse. I would see what the other coaches are offering you and then I would make my offer better.

Right? So, oh, you're, you're, you're with them for six sessions. Well, I'll give you a session free. Why don't you come coach with me for a couple sessions and see what you think. So, um, I would say the proof is in the pudding. Come work with me and then you can make the choice. That's if you want to.

Yeah, yeah, give them the choice, but you know, we don't have to like, it doesn't always have to be about money to you'd make a good point.

They were just give them an extra session or, uh, or something. That's a little more of a perk than anything else. We don't necessarily want to just drop our price down to something better than them because now we're just racing to the bottom. That's true. We want to have something out there. That's more tangible.

That doesn't necessarily mean money. [00:40:00] Yeah,

and I think the thing is, is you're going to have results within weeks or months, depending on how much you do the work and how bad you want it. Um, that's the other thing I would talk about is the results that you could get out of coaching. What techniques are you being taught?

I would want to understand what my competitors are doing. So I could tell you if what I have is better. Um. And then we would take it from there, but it's also like a fit of personalities. Right? So I would want to feel like I could relate to the person. They could relate to me. Um. If they're in sales, I could offer them the exclusivity as well.

I'm in sales and I can help you with that. So it just depends on the situation and the person.

Fantastic. That's good. That's good that you have that set for yourself. You're hired. No, I'm just kidding. That's all right. So

that's great.

All right, so this is actually one of my most favorite questions, but I did steal this from another podcast.

So I apologize to whoever's listening here. [00:41:00] But what is the 1 question you West? I, you wish I would have asked you, but didn't. I always have 1 question that I always miss out on that. Everybody's waiting for, but I never asked that question. Well, what do you think that question is that I didn't ask you?

Oh,

um,

That is a very good question. Maybe I would make that a question you wouldn't ask me. What's the one question you wouldn't want me to ask, Laura? I would say that's one of them. That's the one, right? Yeah, that's the one. But I, I think, you know, um, you've asked me about my story and I've shared it. I've asked about, you've asked me about how I got started.

I've shared that you asked me what motivated me to go out and do this. And I've shared all that. Um, I think, you know, oh, Laura, what's a coaching tip for our audience? Maybe that is a question you can ask me. Oh, that's a good one. answer, right? [00:42:00] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I would say, what, what is something somebody could do today to start working on self change, maybe something like that?

Okay, well, why don't you just go ahead and give her the answer to that question then?

Yeah, well, I think the first thing you got to start with is emotional awareness. You know, first you got to start tapping into who you are and, and what's going on underneath the covers, so to speak. What's going on behind the scenes?

What's going on behind the gate? So my first recommendation is to get a little journal. You can get a journal app on your phone. You can buy a little book and then just start checking in with yourself three times a day, once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and then once before your bed and just start logging how you feel.

And what's it in regards to and how it feels in your body and just start taking notes.

So I just pick up where you left off. Do you remember where you're at? Okay. Yeah, I

would say, okay, I might repeat myself here a little bit. So the way, the way I [00:43:00] would close it is, you know, you want to tap into your, your emotional state because when you start understanding what emotional state you are, then you can manage your emotions better.

So the first step is learning where you are emotionally. Multiple times throughout the day. It could be positive or negative or neutral. Just start understanding where you are mentally and then you can take steps to change what's going on in your mind.

You know, it's, and this is actually, you hit really close to home for me.

Um, before I started everything else, I was not in a good place mentally, um, before I started my podcast, once I started realizing that and I started doing my podcast and realizing that I had to have this mind shift to be able to do what I'm going to do, it turned everything around for me. It really did.

And then learning to be able to communicate with people properly [00:44:00] and actually sit and listen to people, um, made a big mind shift for me too. So you make a great point of, of having that, that mental stability, having understanding where you are. And how to get where you want to go and not just outside here in the entrepreneurial world, but inside yourself, as you talked about earlier.

So, um, that's amazing. Thank you so much. I'm glad I didn't ask that question,

but it's so true. I mean, turning that light in words and starting to kind of uncover, it can be really painful and trust me, I know I had to do that work and it was so painful and I wasn't seeing results. For what felt like a long time for me, but then I started to see the results and I was like, holy shit, might need to bleep me out there, but I was like, holy.

And then I got back to my coach. I was like, this is working and she's like, keep going. And I was [00:45:00] like, okay, and I was ready. I have that fuel to go further and, and, and you're right. And look at you now you're like on, you're like two years into your podcast. And now you've set your date. I am so happy for you that you've set your date and I think that really means a lot.

Oh, uh, the way I'm going to quit both my jobs. You saw that, did you?

Yes, and I fully support you on that.

Yeah, it's, it's tough when you have two full time jobs podcasting, on top of entrepreneur coaching. So it's like, those are the things that are definitely going to have to go first, is the jobs. But yeah, thank you.

Thank you for your support on that, but you make some great points. So I really appreciate that. All right. So let's see, where am I here? Okay. So, um, what I'd like to do with all my guests on my podcast is to have come up with a six month goal. So I'd like to know is what goals do you have for yourself and your [00:46:00] company in the next six months?

Um,

Well, that's a good question, because I think March is six months from now. Um, I would say it's definitely churning in my business. And I think at that point, I would want to be figuring out my group program. What is, what does a group program look like for Laura? And I'm going to write that down. Quick, write it down.

I hold myself accountable to that, you know.

You always have the recording here, Laura.

Oh, that's not like I'm on a conference call and I can just write it down and you're just waiting for me. Right. We're in the middle of a podcast.

That's great. That's funny. Okay. Yeah. So, okay. So you, you want to have a set what your group is, anything else that you want to have done in the next six months?

I think that's going to be [00:47:00] an, I want a certain number of clients like coaching clients. I mean, it could be anywhere between three and six, so a certain number of coaching clients and then figuring out.

It's starting to figure out the coaching program.

Give me a number, Laura

of

people. Give me a number.

Uh, four, four. Okay. Four, four. Start

with four. All right. Four is good. I like four. So for coaching clients and then the group,

the group, so here's what call me up in

six months. I am going to actually, a matter of fact, I am.

So what I do with all my guests in six months, we're going to have a follow up just like this. We're going to see if you've actually reached those goals. Is that okay, Laura? Okay. Yeah. You're so worried about being held accountable. Now you're holding held accountable by my entire audience

and I'll be a bigger audience by then.

I'm sure. Oh

yes. Everybody's going to know who exactly who you are, what you're supposed to be doing.

Well, [00:48:00] don't worry. I'm going to post about it on my socials too. Oh good. All right.

Okay. All right. So Laura, this is your time to shine. Uh, I want you to talk about once again, who you are, what your entrepreneur adventure is and how we get ahold of you.

If we want to be one of the four,

that's great. Well, I am Laura Bennett. I am a business development consulting. Expert in how to go win millions in the federal government, largest purchaser of IT services and goods in the world. And I'm also a mindset coach because I had this journey through corporate America, working in some very tough environments, getting close to burnout, but seeing that I needed to turn the ship around.

And so coaching was that for me, it's fulfilling a childhood dream. And probably one of the best ways you can find me is on LinkedIn. Um, so you can type in my name, Laura [00:49:00] Bennett, um, Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland. I'm in that area. You can come find me there. I'm also Laura D. Bennett on Instagram, and then I do have a Facebook group if you want to get a taste of micro coaching called the Corporate Executive Club.

So feel free to join and you'll see me post in the group and trying to gauge folks in some of these mindset hacks, some of these habits, um, to help kind of bring about more positive results.

Awesome. I am actually a part of that group school believers, just so you know, I'm in there too. All right. That's amazing.

Thank you so much. A lot of that stuff. You're actually going to be able to see in my guest page or in my show notes, Laura, thank you so much for being on the undiscovered. It's been an actual play. It was just a blast. I actually had a lot of fun with, uh, having you on my show today.

I'm going to use you as a reference on my next podcast tour.

Thank you for having

me. [00:50:00] All right, school believers. Thank you so much and stay tuned for the wrap up. All right, everybody. Have a good evening. Bye bye.

All right. School believers. That was Laura. What a fountain of information from Laura. Thank you so much, Laura. Um, if you want to hear about a lot of the resources that she had for us, uh, go back to the beginning of the podcast, because she just basically listed them all out for you. It was amazing. Um, so thank you so much, Laura, for that.

Uh, it was so amazing to get together with Laura again, even though it's been a year. Since I was actually on her clubhouse meeting, uh, it was fate that just kind of put us back together again, to be able to put this podcast out for you with all the amazing information that Laura had for you. So use that information, please do something to start with that information.

If you got to thank you so much, Laura, for being on the undiscovered entrepreneur, you were awesome.

All right. A little bit more about what I'm doing and what's going on in my life. Uh, the undiscovered [00:51:00] entrepreneur is now a part of pod, nation, TV, and blind knowledge networks. And both of these are actually on Roku TV. So undiscovered our entrepreneur as now, officially on the television. That's right.

You couldn't actually watch me on Roku, TV and pod nation TV, and a blind knowledge.

Look for that anywhere you have Roku TV, find those stations, then you'll find me. All right. Uh, another thing that's going on right now, too. I'm really happy to announce I'm doing kind of a percentage off thing of coaching. So if you need a coach or you just want to get the basics down, just like I talked about in this episode.

I am doing. 85% off my normal price for three. Sessions. I have two hours worth of coaching for you. To get you across that start line. So that's 85% off my normal price. And on top of that, I'm giving [00:52:00] you an opportunity to give one session to somebody else as a gift, or if you want to give for Christmas or however you want to do it. I'm giving you one session to give away as a gift.

So that's one, two hour session to anybody you think that might need help getting across that start line.

Also, I want you all to stay tuned to the undiscovered entrepreneur. I am going to start giving way a bunch of free stuff over the next few weeks. Um, and that's basically to help you get across the start line for you have any questions. Some information, it's new things that I'm working on, that I want you to take advantage of.

So stay tuned for the next couple of weeks. Make sure you listen. So you know what stuff I am actually going to give away. It's going to be amazing. I can't wait to do it. Now starting January 5th. Pay attention, January 5th, I am starting a new segment of the undiscovered entrepreneur called undiscovered advice.

And this is a very short segment that gets right to the point, [00:53:00] getting the best advice from all the entrepreneurs that I've talked to and new ones to that you could listen to. And giving their best advice in his short form podcast. So if you want to cut through all the fluff and all the talk, and you just want to get that advice, listen to undiscovered advice. It'll definitely make a difference for you.

If you wish to contribute to the undiscovered advice episodes. You can go to T E podcast.net backslash advice that goes to a speak pipe. We will, you'll have five minutes up to five minutes to give me your best advice to new entrepreneurs. So we can get that advice out there, be on my podcast and it only takes five minutes. You don't have to schedule anything.

We don't have to do any editing. We don't have to do what new this and that. Just five minutes of you recording your best advice for new entrepreneurs. All right, everybody. Thank you so much for another great episode and make sure you stay tuned for next week for my next coaching. Make your everybody have a great evening.

Bye.[00:54:00]