What happens to your business if you disappear? Pol has actually been asked that question himself, and Lara Nieberding has spent almost two decades building the answer for other people's businesses.

Lara, known online as The Purple Lara, is a certified online business manager who has worked entirely virtually since 2007. She's run six-figure coaching and consulting operations in fields as different as financial advising and holistic healing, and she earned her OBM certification in 2011 after training with Tina Forsyth. Her credo: "proper planning prevents poor performance." In this episode, she and Pol get into what it actually takes to keep a business running when the person who built it isn't the one holding it together day to day.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• The real reason Lara deliberately gives some clients a deadline that isn't the real deadline

• How to tell whether a founder and an operator are actually a good fit, before it becomes a problem

• What happens when a launch goes sideways mid-campaign, and how to steer it without panicking the team

• Why "what happens if you die" is a real planning question, not a morbid one

• How Lara actually structures a project management system so nothing depends on one person's memory

About Lara Nieberding

Lara Nieberding is a certified online business manager who has worked entirely virtually since 2007, running Encore Online Business Management. She's a member of the International Association of Online Business Managers (certified 2011) and the International Virtual Assistants Association (member since 2007), and she calls herself a "Jane of all trades."

Connect with Lara:

• Company: Encore OBM

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/laranieberding 

Follow Mind of All Trades:

• YouTube: youtube.com/@MindofAllTrades 

• Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/4MixC1mfhhUVIOFO1mywUc 

• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mind-of-all-trades/id6807196830 

• Instagram: instagram.com/mindofalltrades 

• Amazon Music: music.amazon.com/podcasts/32ce7fa4-4473-4c53-9256-7fca60e47331/mind-of-all-trades 

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/mind-of-all-trades

Apply to be a guest here: https://mindofalltrades.com/podcast-application/ 

Theme music by Breakmaster Cylinder.

Most people are just cowards, including himself. That's Alan Lazaros' actual claim on this episode, and he means it as an invitation, not an insult: fear is usually the real reason people don't execute, not a lack of knowledge or effort.

Alan is the co-founder of Next Level University, where he offers weekly meetups and one-on-one and group coaching. He also co-hosts the Next Level University podcast, a global top 100 self-improvement show with more than 2,500 episodes and listeners in over 175 countries. He left a stable corporate path (he holds a BS in computer engineering and an MBA) to build a single podcast into a company with a 23-person global team, and says he's helped generate more than $15 million in revenue for his own coaching clients. In this episode, he walks through his Constraint Theory framework: why chasing more effort is usually the wrong move, and why the real unlock is identifying the one thing actually limiting your growth.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• Why "you are already enough" might be the worst advice you've been given
• How to actually find your constraint, instead of guessing at it
• Why most businesses aren't measuring the things that matter, and what to track instead
• How to build a leaderboard culture with real titles, roles, and accountability
• The one metric ("true north") Alan uses to guide every decision on his team
• Why courage, not competence, is usually the real thing holding people back

About Alan Lazaros

Alan is the CEO of Next Level University, a podcast about personal and professional development. He's also a business coach who helps people achieve their goals by tracking habits and making decisions based on data. If there's one thing he wants you to take away from this episode, it's the importance of habits and the compound effect in reaching your goals.

Check out Alan's own show and connect with him:

• Next Level University podcast: nextleveluniverse.com

• YouTube: youtube.com/@NextLevelUniversity

• Instagram: instagram.com/alazaros88

• Facebook: facebook.com/alan.lazaros

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alanlazarosllc

Follow Mind of All Trades:

• YouTube: youtube.com/@MindofAllTrades 

• Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/4MixC1mfhhUVIOFO1mywUc 

• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mind-of-all-trades/id6807196830 

• Instagram: instagram.com/mindofalltrades 

• Amazon Music: music.amazon.com/podcasts/32ce7fa4-4473-4c53-9256-7fca60e47331/mind-of-all-trades 

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/mind-of-all-trades 

Theme music by Breakmaster Cylinder.

When you decide to have a conversation, 99% committed is much harder than 100% committed." That's Robin Quinn Keehn, back for Part 2, and this time she's showing us exactly how to close the loops we talked about in Part 1.

If you haven't heard Part 1 yet, that's where Robin introduced the idea of open loops: the tasks, decisions, promises, and conversations we leave unfinished, and what that quietly costs us. In this part, she walks through the actual method for having the conversation you've been avoiding, then introduces the tool she built to help you practice it first.

In Part 2, you'll hear:

• The exact steps Robin uses to open a hard conversation, including the one line she says almost every time

• What to do when the other person gets defensive, and why that's not a sign to stop

• Why a boundary you don't enforce isn't really a boundary at all

• Inside People Skillz, the app Robin built to let you rehearse a hard conversation before you have it for real, including the personal reason Pol started using it himself

• What actually changes when people track their progress, real numbers from real teams

This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. If you missed Part 1, go back and start there first.

About Robin Quinn Keehn:

Robin is the founder of People Skillz Education & Consulting. Her new book, Stop Stealing From Yourself: Close the Open Loops That Quietly Drain Your Time, Energy, and Peace, is out now.

Try the app Robin talks about in this episode:

People Skillz is a "difficult conversation simulator" where you can rehearse a hard conversation (with a partner, a boss, a parent) safely, before you ever have to have it for real. It's free to try.

• App: try.pplskillz.com

• Website: pplskillz.com

• Community: skool.com/peopleskillz

• YouTube: @therobinquinnkeehn

• Instagram: @robinquinnkeehn

• Facebook: robinquinnkeehnsparks

Follow Mind of All Trades:

• YouTube: youtube.com/@MindofAllTrades 

• Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/4MixC1mfhhUVIOFO1mywUc 

• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mind-of-all-trades/id6807196830 

• Instagram: instagram.com/mindofalltrades 

• Amazon Music: music.amazon.com/podcasts/32ce7fa4-4473-4c53-9256-7fca60e47331/mind-of-all-trades 

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/mind-of-all-trades 

You're not overwhelmed, you're unclosed. Robin Quinn Keehn joins Pol to explain why the exhaustion most of us feel isn't from doing too much. It's from everything we've left unfinished and unsaid: the avoided conversation, the unset boundary, the decision we keep dodging.

Robin built Aspire Academy of Expressive Arts from 15 students to over 500 a year, then walked away from it to focus on what she'd actually learned building it. In this episode, she introduces her framework for "open loops," the small unclosed threads in our tasks, our decisions, our promises to ourselves, and our relationships, that quietly drain our energy long after we've stopped noticing them.

In Part 1, you'll hear:

• The real story behind what Robin calls "the beautiful monster," and what scaling a business that fast actually cost her
• The four kinds of open loops, and why the task-based ones are the easiest to spot and the hardest to fully close
• A more honest take on imposter syndrome. Sometimes the fear isn't irrational
• The moment on a beach in Oregon that became the actual inspiration for her book

This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation. Part 2, where Robin walks through exactly how to have the conversation you've been avoiding (and the tool she built to help you practice it first), is coming soon.

About Robin Quinn KeehnRobin is the founder of People Skillz Education & Consulting. Her new book, Stop Stealing From Yourself: Close the Open Loops That Quietly Drain Your Time, Energy, and Peace, is out now.

Robin also wants you to know:She's built something she's genuinely excited about: People Skillz, a "difficult conversation simulator" where you can rehearse a hard conversation (with a partner, a boss, a parent) safely, before you ever have to have it for real. It's free to try.

• App: try.pplskillz.com

• Website: pplskillz.com

• Community: skool.com/peopleskillz

• YouTube: @therobinquinnkeehn

• Instagram: @robinquinnkeehn

• Facebook: robinquinnkeehnsparks

Follow Mind of All Trades:

• YouTube: youtube.com/@MindofAllTrades 

• Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/4MixC1mfhhUVIOFO1mywUc 

• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mind-of-all-trades/id6807196830 

• Instagram: instagram.com/mindofalltrades 

• Amazon Music: music.amazon.com/podcasts/32ce7fa4-4473-4c53-9256-7fca60e47331/mind-of-all-trades 

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/mind-of-all-trades