Build a Business You Love

Speaker 1: hi I'm Melanie bar welcome to the she builted experience with Melanie you're here because you want to experience the life and business that you crave join me as I talk to women who have successfully built it a career and business that they love we dive into the topic of how they built it and talk about everything from Having the courage to make career leaps to the details of how to lead effectively create successful teams Implement strategies for growth and Infuse Tech innovation magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy so let's dive in Nicole Leno is a startup founder brand strategist Peak Performance coach and the host of the Limitless entrepreneur podcast she spent six years in corporate at a Fortune 500 company before leaving her career for entrepreneurship affectionately referring to herself as a type hippie a free spirit who can grow a business and meet a deadline Nicole has found and understands that to be truly successful in business you have to be both strategic and spiritual thank you so much for joining me today Nicole please tell us more about who you are thanks for having me I'm excited to be here I'm Nicole Leno I am a business strategist and energy coach I like to say that I take I make the woo a little bit less woo and I help you actually apply it to your business that sort of came about because I am what I call a type a hippie I am a process driven female who really really likes organization and I have an analytical mind and I love step-by-step processes however I'm also very creative I had a corporate career and I grew up an actress so I'm very creative and acting is really the study of human behavior and I I love that side it's actually my zone of Genius to bring these two things together and it helps to bridge that gap for the longest time I had energy coaches and mindset coaches that could help me on a certain part of my journey and then I had had a business coach that could help me on another part of my journey and I always felt like I had to become that bridge between those two people where I I like this is really great this was a breakthrough but how do I apply it here how do I make that work here and I never could really get that answer I never could really create that Synergy there so that's what I do for my people and that's what I love to do it's it's honestly it's like my greatest joy in the world is is helping people see their purpose but also have a plan to how to make a profit with it I know on your site you say I thought I had to be one way or the other I thought the path was split I had to choose to either go the way of process and ambition or personal growth and peace yep that was a realization I I had I was an actor then I was a corporate girl I went from literally from one end one end of the spectrum to the other and then I started to get closer to the middle and I started playing in those spaces and I was like wait I can actually actually play on both sides of this field and I can make my own field if I start looking at it differently and that was what opened up a whole world to me it's really interesting because my background is incorporate to Marriott Hotels AT&T the Los Angeles Dodgers and I'm also a member of Screen Actors Guild but what was your leap like to become an entrepreneur the short story is I was working on Wall Street I burned out I literally like went into I was diagnosed clinically depressed which in the moment I still was able to look at it which I think is just sort of how I'm built but that this is a gift there's something in this for me I was offered medication and I was like no I believe that I'm supposed to be fully present for this journey and for everything that I'm feeling right now and the answerers somehow lie in me walking this path so thank you but I'll do this with therapy and and on my own and that Journey led me to taking a leap I said I don't know what what is next but I know I need to move and I know that this isn't this isn't right for me my soul's calling out for something different and luckily my husband was like I agree and we packed up left New York moved out to Los Angeles and I was like I'm going to go back to the only thing that I know is connected to me and my soul and that's acting I don't know what that looks like but I'm just going to go do something with that and connect to who I am through that process and this is one of those things where when they say leap and the net will appear the leap was just saying something new and being open to all of the ways that that could be delivered to me and having kind of a loose idea of what I wanted to create what did I want was it the acting career I wanted something that made me feel alive again I wanted something that could exercise my creativity I wanted to make money I wanted to feel unlimited I wanted to use my gift gifts those were that was that was like the loose outline that I had for what I wanted to create and when you have that loose outline I was able to be open to and seeing when those opportunities dropped in so I got an opportunity I joined a network marketing company that was the first I call it the gateway drug and within a few months I recognized that I I saw a way to blend all of my skills and Gifts took my project management back background from corporate what I did there and my knowledge of software and I built a software for entrepreneurs doing work like network marketing and other personal sales and personal branding I built a software a CRM for those people I project Managed IT I bootstrapped the entire software program I put it out to Market and and did all of that work I didn't code it myself but I put it out and birthed it out into the world so that was the first step and that started the trajectory from there so that software led to me working with people and helping to train them on the system and then as I trained them on the system I was like you actually need more help with running the business side and started to ask good questions and give them some advice from there and that's how coaching evolved from there so it was all very organic um albeit a windy road that I don't think anyone could have planned yes isn't it interesting when we need to make a shift after a leap sometime the world helps us make that leap for us and nudges us in the right direction and it it had to take so much strength to say I'm not going to take medication I'm just going to do this on my own thank you for saying that at the time I think I just I I knew and this is what I teach and this is what I I put out into the world because it's been profound for me and it is something that some of us do naturally that at times I could really tap into my knowing my deep deep knowing and that is a moment there are certain times in my life where I'm like nope I just knew that was a moment where I was offered the medication and it was just an immediate no I was like no I don't see the situation as dire I mean I was not suicidal I was not in any way like wasn't thinking about hurting myself I know that there are people in those positions and I don't mean to to make light of that that was not the case for me there was something about me where I said I know this is a moment I'm moving through and for me to move through it I feel like medication would almost be hitting pause and I don't want to do that I know this is a moment in time and I can do what I want with it so I had help a professional help through every step of that Journey which allowed me I think to have that strength and knowing that I would come out on the other side of it not just okay but better going back to your CRM and the fact that you enjoy process what advice do you have for someone who has an online business for how they can convert clients relationships are key if you're building a business online what I try to instill in my people and I bring everybody back to is if you're rooted in your message if you're rooted in how you help people and then you're out there cultivating relationships either that's speaking with people live or putting out content online or putting up a website with great SEO either way being able to communicate what you do and how you help is going to be essential like that is the whole game that's the key to conversion is being able to communicate your message and who you are and what you do in a powerful way quickly and in a way that speaks to the results and change that people want to make and want to get for themselves and you say quickly I mean our attention span with tech and social these days yeah it's not very not very long well and that can come from you know again it's it's really having a deep sense of of knowing who you are and what you offer and putting it in a way that's not you giving a sales pitch it's really how can I make them curious from the first couple of words so there are certain things with me like when I say that I'm a type a hippie people are sort of self-identifying they either get that and they say oh me too or that sounds like something that I want to hear more about or they're going nope that's not me and that's okay I want people to be bucketing themselves and choosing the paths for themselves so that I'm only ending up talking to people at the end who really resonate with who I am and what I do and that's that's the work that comes from time of understanding the person you're talking to is is key you don't need to know their eye color you don't need to know their favorite bedtime story to read their kid but you do need to know what makes them tick only so you understand what it is about you and what you do that relates to them and what's going to resonate with them and you say that as I'm sitting here and what could technically be defined as like a bell bottom jean exactly yeah literally yeah I know what my person roughly looks like it's not exactly but but I know your avatar and I know what she wants so I can choose the story I tell carefully and that one story could change everything about how she sees our relationship the steps that we could take together her purpose her possibilities and how can I do it in a way that's not pressing the fear button but leaning more into her desires of what she wants to create because that's going to create a whole lot more possibility for both of us if they're leaning that way rather than running away from something right and how to help her get there exactly someone once said to me people don't buy programs they don't buy that they're not buying into your process what's going to sell them is ultimately that they believe you understand their problem better than they do and if you can show them though then if you understand that the calculation they're making in their mind is if she understands it to this degree then she must understand the way out because she found her way out so maybe she can show me so true we are all thinking about how we can gain more clients and sell more products you mentioned three steps for turning social media into a sales funnel what are those three steps well it's understanding the different stages that your people are at so understanding that your social media can be used like a sales funnel if you're thinking about well there are people who are just coming in to your world just coming into their you know you're entering their awareness so

Speaker 1: with someone and showing them who you really are and you're motivating me I've taken a step back from social you know how we go through es and flows sometime we love doing it and other times I just said to someone I've been too busy living life to actually post I have 8-year-old twins at the end of the day I'm like oh I really should post something kind of personal about me that needs to be written in my voice and I think oh I'll do that tomorrow but this conversation is is motivating me again to want to go back but you're right it's it's about showing your authentic self and being who you are because I truly think that that will attract the right people to you that's the thing too like and and I was just saying this to someone that I I had a discovery call with this morning where we were talking about the quantity and feeling like I should be posting I should be more consistent and if you focus on consistency in one area let go of the quantity and the posting every day and how much you're posting instead Focus on on consistency in who you're showing up as and the level of power that you bring to it because the the impact is so much greater because first of all if you're posting every day and you're phoning it in people are going to start tuning you out so true that's why at times I just step away whatever I put out is not going to be my best energy it's a little bit feeding the beast but we also I think need to understand okay I need to just step away for a day or two until I feel like I want to show my energy and myself again and the focus that I have shifted completely and and I'm all about taking the breaks because you'll come back fresher and where you've actually been able to formulate some thoughts and really think about how do I want to show up what is it that I want to share how do I want people to react and there's so many ways Tony Robbins says um the quality of a life is is determined by the quality of questions that you ask and so when we when we ask a question or when we put up a wall like I haven't posted in this long so I need to post now or we could say instead I sit there and I say well am I being visible am I showing my worth somewhere it doesn't have to be on social media all the time if that's not where my energy is best spent if I'm like you know what I'm having a really great time connecting with people in person or because sometimes we're not looking at all the other things that we're doing and we're focused on the social media we're focused on that aspect and don't get me wrong social media is a chance to scale and have your message seen by a lot of people and I I run my business with it of course but I also I do other things that sometimes if I'm just focused on the social media part if I'm only looking at that it doesn't seem like I'm doing much but when I look around I'm like oh I'm actually doing a ton I'm doing summits I am speaking in people's groups I'm networking I'm having meetings with people people are referring me and I'm having calls with people where it's taking up more of my time it's also resulting in Greater revenue and I use social media then as a different tool it's not the way that I'm getting all of my message out there and my only uh window of visibility it's one of many and I get to shift and I get to do what feels fun and good to me at the time and you get so much more juice out of the fruit when working that way that's so true and it's go with the social media and the platforms that bring you Joy and that resonate with you because that's where you're going to want to show up the most that's where you're going to want to be the most present exactly where do you think the Law of Attraction gets it wrong so the law of attraction I love the Law of Attraction and it does work but normally I believe it's overly simplified The Law of Attraction for anyone who doesn't who doesn't isn't like super well versed in it but the law of attraction in its simplest form is that good thoughts bring good things bad thoughts bring bad things that we are attracting all the time and we're either attracting what we don't want or what we want now that is absolutely true we are manifesting all the time we are attracting all the time and we are attracting things that we don't want and things that we want so it is better to be aligned with the things that we want however that can end up being forced that can end up we don't attract with our thoughts actually we're attracting with the feelings that are created by those thoughts so if you can have a thought like I have a million dollars and you believe that thought and it makes you feel like you can fly and like your energy just expanded a million times and you you've just become bigger energetically then do that all day but most of us the thought of I have a million dollars says no you're not and then if you maybe you're in debt maybe you don't have any money in the bank maybe you only have a little bit of money in the bank and you don't know how the next round of cash is coming the truth is is that money is probably more connected to fear and you feel the gap between where you are and the million dollars more than you feel the million dollars that feeling is what you should be concentrating on and you want to just you want to Edge your feelings up not your thoughts you can choose a better thought because it leads to a better feeling but the end result should be the feeling and that's what we should be focusing on so that's what needs to be dealt with first then you can start laying good thoughts on then you can start focusing on the law attraction until then you need to clear out and clean the energy around the way that you feel about things that trigger you and that's the easiest way to do it is pay attention to the things in your life that trigger you I that triggers are gifts so a bad thing that happens I'm paying way more attention to the bad thing in a way that and I always say to my people I say come at every challenge with curiosity instead of criticism in instead of why did this happen it's why did this happen H if you can come at it from that place you will find answers things will be opened up to you because that creates space that creates openness for an answer to come through when we lean into the thing that triggered us and the feeling that was triggered you end up in fight flight or freeze and that's how a a pattern is able to continue because we're not able to access a better answer you can't access the better thought that attracts something better when we believe in abundance and we just allow ourselves and we give ourselves permission to let go of negative feelings if we put down those goals and the things that we really want it frees our mind to help us get there to help us get to the things that we we truly want yeah 100% And I will say that that the other thing with the The Law of Attraction just because it was brought up and we talk about like letting things go um as long as we're really letting it go and we're not pushing it down because if we're ignoring we're doing the like it's not worth getting angry it isn't worth it the energy that that would take they're not worth it the truth is is that you are really angry and so it's it's acceptance of it and not making the anger mean anything not making the anger mean because maybe we were told that being angry was not a good thing where it's not really looked at as a as a you know a positive trait in our society that to be angry is is a good thing um but it is something that fuels us it is something that can sometimes spur us into action so look at it again with curiosity and not criticism don't don't stuff it away because you just compound it that way sit with it see what it has to offer you it it came with a message message every trigger is delivered as a message to us to let us know something that needs to be truly released so letting let go of and released from our energy because if we don't release it it's just going to come back it's just going to come back over and over and over again like Carl Young said when a situation is not made conscious it appears in our life is fate but when a when a situation is not made conscious so when we when we subconsciously feel something and we don't face it it will just keep coming back to show us it's like it's pointing to a wound that needs to be healed so where do we need to heal you're so right I always give myself a certain amount of time to marinate on something depending on how large or small it is I'll say okay I'm giving myself this time to marinate on it and then at this at this time I'm going to let it go because then you're right you're not shoving things down you're giving yourself time to to process and to heal and to work through whatever it is whatever experience you're thinking through exactly give your human a chance to to feel all the things that it's supposed to feel Let It Go through the feeling cycle of the emotion and then allow it to go and then choose better what is one thing that your business has done for you or taught you and your clients that you didn't realize would happen my clients open me up to so much they they sort of have shown me my path I honestly I thought that I would teach more business I didn't think I would be in the finding your purpose area like I started out with process I started out with just like let me show you the process here this is how you figure out your Niche I had a very step-by-step process and it was my clients and that Journey that that showed me what else was needed that there was so much in the developing the self so that they could that they could expand in other ways and that has become much more of what I teach the process is all still there but that's not usually where you need help like we Implement some things and then it's more of a crisis of well how can I how can I put it out there how can I say the thing in power how can I tweak my message in a way that that connects with people and usually there's something daring that we have to accept about our so I didn't see that coming I thought I was going to be a very black and white here's what you do kind of teacher and I teach like human design and tapping and NLP and all of these ways of like rewiring your brain did not see that coming that has to be fun for you it's super fun I I love it and I I love that transformation is much greater and has is much more far-reaching because that touches every aspect of your life that's my favorite thing that I've heard multiple people that gave separate testimonials totally independent of each other where they all said the same thing several people were just like working with Nicole didn't just change my business it changed my life it changed my relationship with my husband changed my relationship with my kids it changed and that I can't ask for a better a better review than that that's great magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy what is one tip that you can leave with us today about how you find and live your Joy so in the morning I choose my first thought and as I've started as I've done this over the years those thoughts just get better and better they start off with again we can be tuned into what we don't want or what we want we can be tuned into lack or we can tuned into abundance tune into frustration or happiness every single thought has two ways to go has has two paths and we get to choose them and it can start with your very first thought so it can be as you lay in bed and the alarm goes off it can be I don't want to wake up yet I'm so tired I can't believe it's time already uh that frustration and and whininess that can sometimes find us in the morning um or it can be I don't want to get up yet because I'm so comfy and this bed is so cozy and all this pillow and I can lean into the things that I do like and the things that I do get joy from and you know like oh my is snuggling next to me and it starts out with those simple thoughts of just what's happening now and then they start to bloom and grow where my I no longer have to effort that and you get new thoughts and one that popped up the other day was and just came to me as I laid in bed the first thought I had was I wonder what gifts will be revealed to me today and when you can wake up with that kind of thought anything feels possible through the day and it's so easy to be joyful because I'm almost I'm expecting things to un unfold I'm expecting great things and when you start expecting great things you're finding it in the smallest things you're so right that's an actionable tip that you can just start with that first thought of the day choose it don't let it choose you until you've cultivated such a practice around it the ones that choose you turn out to be ones that are more beautiful than you could have come up with on your own so true one thing I've started doing is I'll email myself three things I'm grateful for at night right before I go to bed and then when I wake up it's in my inbox first thing in the morning so it's just that little it's just that little reminder right it's how we can start the day in the right frame of mind I love that that's a great tip I'm gonna steal that yeah I just did a podcast on it so that's awesome thank you so much for joining me today can you tell our listeners how and where they can reach out to you how they can connect with you and find you thank you this was so fun and if if you're still listening thank you so much thank you for still being here you can find me on Instagram at Nicole Leno official I'm also the host of the Limitless entrepreneur podcast so if you want to hear a little bit longer form of me and interviews with some awesome people you can join us over there and then um you can find me on Facebook too Nicole loo labar is my my Facebook personal I I like to just connect with people as friends rather than the business page so come on over say hi send me a message say I heard you on melan's podcast if you are new to she built it we'd love for you to join us we offer a community memberships masterminds Innovative virtual events and meaningful connections to entrepreneurs and corporate leaders please also check out our sheb built it shop curated products from women-owned businesses who put their heart and soul into their F and Innovative products we offer Sheil tip business Consulting and the Sheil tip blog thank you to everyone around the world who joined today thank you to my editor Rich stalino please download And subscribe wherever you get your podcast and until next time together let's let nothing stop us from experiencing the life that We crave