Digital Entrepreneur's Toolkit

Gosh we love our online businesses. But do you sometimes feel like it's a little too exciting?

In my last conversation with Nick Corona, he emphasized the importance of process over recipe.

Which, because I think in movie quotes, instantly made me think of Ben Stein's character from Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Bueller. Bueller. Anyone? Bueller.

Because - let's face it - most of us are not here in the entrepreneurial world because we are methodical. We're often here because we love the dopamine rush of pulling all the levers available to us.

Social and services and conferences and products and mass emails and YouTube and masterminds and podcasts and...

I'm not alone here, am I?

It's a bitter pill to swallow, but the reality is that when we are engaging in too many activities that deliver a dopamine hit from variable rewards, we are seriously depleting ourselves and undermining our business's potential.

So let's let Nick's advice about brewing be a lesson to us all.

You want to win big? Take some time to focus on the "boring" minutae and track your results over time.

You just might find that it helps you hit the jackpot in way that shooting-from-the-hip grand gestures never did.

Free Resource To Help You Streamline Your Systems: laurengaggioli.com/toolkit

When I wanted to start a podcast for entrepreneurs, one person that I knew wanted to feature was homebrewing pal Nick Corona.

Nick is the owner and head brewer of Five Suits Brewing in Vista, CA. We initially met through our homebrewing community in San Diego, CA.

Whether we were sharing pours of homebrew at QUAFF meetings, competing against each other in the Stone Brewing Homebrew Competition, or tipping one back at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, we've always had a great time tasting incredible beer together.

Nick's the kind of guy who is curious, inventive, and relentless. When it became clear his ambitions reached beyond dominating homebrew competitions, my husband Mike and I were thrilled because, let's face it, his beer is bonkers good.

Einmal, please and thank you!

Since moving to Seattle, we've continued to follow his journey to professional brewer closely. There have been ups and downs but, through it all, Nick's commitment to quality has been readily apparent, even at a distance.

So today we're going to dive in and unpack what it takes to go from inciting sip of inspiration thanks to Avery Brewing's Maharaja to getting great beer made on the professional scale.

Cheers to Nick for joining me - and to you for listening! :)

And, if you're ready to follow Nick's sage advice in this episode and begin focusing on refining and improving your processes, I've got a free mini course just for you.

Head to laurengaggioli.com/podcast to sign up for the free course and begin leaning out your systems and refining your online business processes today.

In my last episode of The Digital Entrepreneur's Toolkit with Julie Voris, I mentioned a story in which my eldest kiddo coached me through a bit of a panic at the top of the Space Needle.

While that was a really powerful personal moment, there's another layer to this story - one that is vital for each of us as entrepreneurs to remember.

I hope you enjoy this business lesson I learned 605 feet in the air.

As business owners, our mindset is our most important asset. Explore it. Grow it. Nurture it.

Be sure to snag Jen Sincero's You Are A Badass At Making Money as a great place to start. Or, frankly, dive into any of these amazing books for entrepreneurs.

I promise, the time you invest here will help you continue to build a business and life you love - even if you're scared to death while doing it.

I'm cheering you on. You've got this!

Well - this episode of The Digital Entrepreneur's Toolkit is accidentally quite timely and relevant as this week BODi (formerly Beachbody) announced that it will be sunsetting its MLM structure in favor of an affiliate program.

And it just so happens that our guest today is Julie Voris, a BODi Diamond Coach as well as a business and mindset coach for women.

In this interview that we recorded months ago and calendared to release this week, we discuss how Julie has always followed her instincts and has built a business that leveraged the MLM model, to be sure, but also included products and offerings that were borne from a sense that Julie's impact was destined to be bigger than just BODi.

Regardless of your personal thoughts on MLMs, I highly recommend that you listen to this episode because Julie is the real deal. She genuinely believes in the transformative power of fitness - both mental and physical - and has so much wisdom to offer us.

As I shared with her yesterday, I know she will do so much more than weather this temporary storm. She's going to ride it and use it to propel her into the next iteration of her business.

I can't wait to see where the next evolution of her business leads.

This episode of the show is dedicated to my dad. He was my first business advisor and would've made a hell of an entrepreneur in his own right. I'm grateful for his business insights; however, I have to share a story that I still find quite funny but he...well...didn't.

On a trip to New York in May, I was reminded of this story when I entered the John Golden Theater to see Stereophonic. It's one of those quintessential New York buildings that feels borderline claustrophobic. If you've ever been inside this Broadway house, you know how memorable it is primarily because it has no lobby.

So when we entered, I turned to my husband and said "I'm pretty sure this is where I saw Avenue Q." He pulled out his Playbill and went to the theater's history page and, sure enough, it was.

Which brought to mind a story in which, one cold November night, my dad made a series of not-so-wise decisions.

Here are the takeaways that his experience holds for us...

1. Plan well for your journey.

Dad was not dressed for walking blocks upon blocks up windy avenues on a crisp fall evening.

How many of us are guilty in doing this in our businesses?

We favor motion over strategic action. We leap, then figure it all out in a panic as we try to juggle too much and end up dropping balls.

Take a step back and take the long view of the next year, quarter, month, and week.

What's coming up in your calendar? What will give your future self more ease or peace of mind? What systems can you put in place or safety nets can you set up now to alleviate future stress?

2. Get the support you need.

No man is an island. Olympic gold medalists have coaches. High performing executives have mentors.

Are you thinking you're supposed to just do it all yourself based on instinct? Reinvent the wheel much?

One of my favorite quotes from Mr. Rogers reads “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

While this is true in crises (and thank goodness for those people - Helpers with a capital H!), there are more everyday helpers that we tend to overlook.

Books can mentor us. Podcasts can guide us. Attending entrepreneurial conferences can introduce us to our next online business coach or virtual mastermind group.

There is so. much. support.

Find folks you trust and let them help you. Just like an MTA worker can open up a much warmer way to navigate Manhattan, these helpers who hold knowledge you don't yet have can provide less harrowing journey to your goals.

3. Maintain margin for when things go sideways.

Things rarely go to plan. If you insist on continually skidding to the finish line with zero wiggle room in your deadline and your gas tank empty light on, you're living life in the Danger Zone friend.

And that kind of stress is a distraction, not an asset.

So give yourself more space to genuinely enjoy your work and pad your deadlines and temper your expectations a bit. Not overly so, but enough so that, when you inevitably find you've taken a wrong turn, your blood pressure doesn't spike to hazardous levels.

If you were the captain of your own ship - and you are - you wouldn't pack your vessel with provisions for a course you charted counting on only the very best conditions with the bare minimum of food, water, and crew for that trip.

Chart your business adventures with equal care.

And if you want to talk through any challenges you're currently facing, I'm here to help! You can sign up for your first mastermind session for just $25 by heading to laurengaggioli.com/mastermind and using the discount code FRIEND at checkout.

Hope to connect with you there soon!

You know when you meet someone for the first time and things just click? It's like you've known them for forever and - within minutes - are finishing each other's sentences?

That's what it was like when I first met our guest today - Kyra Mitchell Lewis.

I was on her podcast, Glow Up Gyrl, as a guest and knew before we stopped recording that I would absolutely be inviting her to be on my entrepreneurial podcast right after we were done.

It's really easy to con ourselves into thinking making friends is hard. But if you're clear about who you are - what you value and what gifts you bring to the world - and approach each new meeting with lightness and openness, you might be surprised who you find.

I'm so grateful to have met Kyra and can't wait to share her entrepreneurial journey with you in this episode of The Digital Entrepreneur's Toolkit Podcast.

And, if you'd like to learn more about the practical, tactical steps I encourage folks to take as they name their purpose, be sure to check out my episode on the Glow Up Gyrl Podcast.

Today we're taking a walk down memory lane personally and jettisoning off to a galaxy far, far away in an effort to bring more lightness and joy to our every day work.

The origin story of this connection that I made about a misconception about Luke Skywalker's hero-making trench run was borne from a question posed to a panel that I was invited to be part of at Social Media Marketing World in 2016.

The panel was about the power of podcasting as part of an overall marketing strategy. I was there to provide small-potatoes-ballast while on stage with podcasting legends Lou Mongello, Chris Ducker, Pat Flynn. (It would've been intimidating if these talented guys weren't such kind and classy gents.)

Now, that amazing memory aside, I also walked away from that experience with a realization that has helped me reclaim joy in my work in a way that no other story has quite been able to prod me towards.

And the realization is that Luke was not *lucky* to have been the guy who blew up the Death Star. He had something else going for him.

Practice.

And, more than just practice, he had practiced the precise skill he needed to become a future hero by doing something relatively frivolous and just-for-funsies: bulls-eying womprats in his T16 back on Tatooine.

There is absolutely something to be said for friends who give you a lift too. After all, Luke would've been toast without Han's timely return. But the practice that allowed him to even be a candidate for glory was what got him into the X-Wing in the first place.

You do need both. But the piece you have control over is inviting play that doubles as practice - even when you're not sure what you're practicing for.

After all, I wouldn't have been on that panel had I not launched my ACT & SAT prep company 2 years prior and met Lou at my very first Social Media Marketing World that same year.

I also couldn't have told you when I got my degree in theater that the skills I learned there would be put to good use by helping me narrate an audio book in the future. But they were thanks to a hand up from my friend from the last episode, Jody Maberry.

If you go even further back, I used to dream up full restaurants like the Kids' Korner Kafe, complete with menus and popcorn soup that included a little of everything from my mom's spice drawer and place settings for our "guests" - aka my cat, Arthur.

Branding, collateral, and workflows being practiced from age 9.

The thing that's so beautifully enticing about entrepreneurship is that we get to bring our whole selves to work and celebrate every nuance and quirk that makes us us.

So here's the invitation for you today: take a moment and think about the stuff you do just for the joy of doing it.

1. Reflect about how you feel when you're in the zone with that not-work-related activity.
2. Consider some of the tangible skills you're honing while you're doing it.
3. See if you can weave some of that skill set and bring that sense of flow and joyful ease to your day-to-day work.

Or, ya know, just use the Force. Whatever floats your boat. ;)

Need help taking the next steps in your business? Let's hop on a all! Head to laurengaggioli.com/mastermind to get your first group coaching session for just $25.

It's no secret that of my favorite parts of hosting a podcast for entrepreneurs is hearing all the twists and turns that others' entrepreneurial paths have taken. But what's surprised me to no end are the stories my friends have shared that I had no idea were part of their journey.

Today's interview is no exception. Not only is he one of the very best podcast hosts in the business with a ridiculous number of episodes under his belt, Jody Maberry is also one of the kindest gents you'll ever hope to meet.

We met many years ago at a conference for entrepreneurs. I've appeared on a few podcast episodes of his to talk about SEO for solopreneurs, hassle him about his unfinished books, and - most recently - to share my experience of narrating an audiobook - a project I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to be part of and was only able to work on due to Jody's generous recommendation.

I cannot wait for you to hear Jody's story. We had a good time on this one and I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed recording it.

Need a helping hand as you build the online business of your dreams? I've got you with my virtual mastermind for entrepreneurs.

You can get your first session for just $25 by using the discount code FRIEND at checkout.

Head to laurengaggioli.com/mastermind to schedule your first session today!

You might be a lonely entrepreneur if you sometimes hear opening strains of "The Sound Of Silence" start to play as you head to the corner of your guest room to start working on your business after everyone else in your home has gone to bed.

ASK ME HOW I KNOW. ;)

Listen: 2 things are true.

1. There is nothing in the world I'd rather do to make a living than build online courses and record podcasts.
2. Some days the lift is so heavy that it feels like a curse to be entrepreneurially minded.

And, to make matters more confusing, I sometimes feel this at the exact same time.

It can be crazy making. But what makes it uncrazy are the people I'm lucky enough to call my entrepreneurial friends. I love that I don't have to contextualize everything for them. I don't have to explain what I mean in the way I do for folks who don't work for themselves.

And - here's the reality - the way I've met most of them is by attending entrepreneurial conferences. Or, in the case of Teri Holland, our second guest here on The Digital Entrepreneur's Toolkit Podcast, by guesting on other folks' podcasts via the matchmaking service PodMatch*.

So if you'd like to start expanding your community to include a few people with whom you don't have to translate everything into something that makes sense to folks who have never wrestled with Zapier API integrations or double-opt-in configurations, I highly recommend carving out some time to attend a conference for entrepreneurs or heading to PodMatch* to share your expertise on someone else's platform.

Who knows! You just might make a new friend in the process.

*This is my PodMatch affiliate link. You will not be charged extra by using it but I will receive a small commission should you choose to sign up for the PodMatch service.

Today's episode of The Digital Entrepreneur's Toolkit, we have an incredible conversation with entrepreneur. podcast host, and NLP expert, Teri Holland.

Teri is an incredibly agile entrepreneur who has tapped into her intuition as much as she's developed her skillset over the years. She's done some incredibly impressive things in her career - like founding a profitable theater company and launched her podcast Success In Mind in one week - all while learning to honor her body's need for rest.

If anyone tells you success in the online business world necessarily comes at a personal cost, Teri is here to shine a light on how we can create more balance in our businesses so we can thrive while building a business and life we love.

Also, apologies for my sound on this one. Unbeknownst to me, my computer switched up my microphone settings between interviews. Ever so grateful to my talented podcast producer Jeff Sieh for cleaning it up as much as possible!

Curious to know more about the tools I use to run my online business as a solopreneur? Head to laurengaggioli.com/toolkit to get my free mini-course - The Digital Entrepreneur's Toolkit - and a downloadable list of my favorite online business tools.