Hello and welcome to the Limitless Entrepreneur Podcast everyone. I’m your host, Nicole Laino, and we are here for one of our short episodes this week. I’m excited to be here with you and to kind of dive into this. This is a new approach, something new I was thinking about. I was contemplating my business, my journey.  

Some of the clients that I’m working with are starting fresh. They’re kind of newer in their journey in building their business. So I was sort of taking a look from their perspective of what I would focus on if I were to start all over, if I were to wipe the slate clean or if I were to come into this brand new. What would I focus my energy on? 

And this is kind of an exercise that I do periodically where I’m not looking at it from like the very beginning, but I am looking at trying to make a conscious effort to look at my business with new eyes, to look at it with a beginner’s mind and not look at it from this, you know, from the perspective of the beliefs that I have. Can I look at this with some, with some objectivity? So this is going to be an interesting episode. It was an interesting eye-opening exercise for me to go all the way back to the beginning and be like, if I had nothing, what would I do? And so I’m excited to share this with you guys.

Before we start, I do have some announcements to make. First of all, we have a workshop, a masterclass coming up on March 8th. I’m very excited about this. I’m going to show you one of those Practical things with human design, how to up to 2X your revenue while working less. So this is all about using your energy wisely.

I’m going to give you my framework for how I use human design and some of the other modalities that I use to actually help people readjust their business. So where you don’t have to wipe the slate clean. Where you don’t have to burn your business to the ground like so many people are thinking they should.

That you don’t have to do that, that you can just make subtle tweaks and that you can shift some of the ways that you show up in the way that you are approaching things in your business and that can have massive effects and massive change for your business. So that is happening March 8th.

You can go to nicolelaino.me/masterclass and you can register for that for free. I don’t do many free masterclass anymore so this one is a treat. Please sign up for that. Go over there and register for free, and we’ll give you all the details. 

Besides that, we also have two free guides that are always available for you, nicolelaino.me/decondition for the deconditioning guide and then we also have the Flow-Ductivity guide, which you can get at nicolelaino.me/productivity. Those are kind of the precursors to this workshop. So if you liked those guides and you’ve downloaded them already, then please come to the workshop because this is going to be that next step for you. 

I’m going to go deeper into those concepts and show you how we actually use them, how I use them inside my program, how I use them with my private clients and how they use them in my own business. So, that’s going to be really exciting. We also have a contest. Contest is you can win a chance to be on this. Show. Well, you’re not winning a chance. You’re winning a spot on this show where you get to have a human design reading or human design coaching session with me.

Your choice. You can come here on the podcast and we can dive into your chart. You can ask me any questions that you want. You can get a little mini reading here with the time that we have. It’s up to you what you wanna use that for. And the way that you enter into that contest is to simply leave a review for this show on iTunes.

Take a little screenshot of that, post it into your Instagram stories and tag me @NicoleLainoofficial. That will be your entry into this month’s drawing. We’re going to do one of these every single month. So if you already put in a review or if you put it in this month and you don’t win and you want to do it next month, all you have to do then is take a screenshot of any episode of the show.

Post that in your Instagram stories. Tag me and say a little something about why you loved the episode and that will be your entry. But please do the review first, cuz that’s the first thing. And then once you do that, then you can just put, , any, any picture of an episode and that will be your entry.

Alright, so those are our announcements. Without further ado, let’s get down to the episode. Shall we? Let’s talk about this. So what would I do if I were to start over. I narrowed it down to five things and I kind of wanted to dive into them. It was really interesting because I looked at it and I was like, oh, you know, these sort of fall into the categories of the things that I used to teach in the beginning of my business when I used to teach more strategic branding and strategic business building.

They fall into the same categories. I just look at them differently now. I’ve shifted sort of my perspective on some of these, so that was an interesting little finding for me, how things come full circle. That it’s not, the things themselves didn’t change, but the order that I would put them in, what I would do first, and then also just the way that I would approach it, the perspective that I have is different now than it was back then.

So the first thing that I would focus on, the first thing that I would do is I would prioritize mindset, energetic alignment. I would prioritize me as the CEO. In the very beginning, I did not prioritize the mindset. I was strategy all the way, and it wasn’t until I burned out on all of the strategy, until I ran it into the ground and couldn’t progress beyond it, you know, just by hustling more.

It wasn’t until I got to that point of burning out and being like, oh my God, I don’t know what else to do that I started asking myself the question like, how am I in my own way? How am I not approaching this correctly? How am I the problem here? Because I’m the operator of all of these strategies and they’re working for other people. Why aren’t they working for me? 

So instead of waiting until I got to that, you know, that dead end, I would start the mindset work from day one. I would start the energetic work from day one and knowing what I know now, if I knew it, then I would start with human design because it gives you a strategic practice. 

It gives you a way to get into energetic alignment. It gets you understanding yourself and it gets you to the point where you are trusting yourself that you are your own inner authority. And that is huge. That is something that when, even when I built a business that was successful and I plateaued there, it was human design that got me beyond that where I was able to use the skills in a new way, where I could really step into my power with full confidence.

And you’ll see as I go through this list, it’s going to come back to this, if I had human design, then if I had done that first, some of these other things that were a problem for me or that I didn’t prioritize or that I didn’t do well, wouldn’t have been a problem and I would’ve been able to bring a different energy to them.

So that’s the first thing I would prioritize. I would prioritize making sure that I was doing the identity work that I needed to do and that’s why, human Design gives you this 360 degree , coverage of the energetic embodiment of being the next you. It gives you the tools for that. It gives you basically the operating manual for yourself , and then I would also be doing deep clearing work and trauma work because clearing out my emotions and dealing with the feelings that I had, the fears that I had, I was paralyzed by fear. I would make sure that I was not carrying any of that into my business.

Because it cost me a lot of money and it cost me a lot of time. If I had done that first, I would’ve been able to bring a very different energy to my business and I would’ve been able to do some of these things without as much resistance, and it would’ve just gone a lot faster. And I would’ve saved myself a lot of money and a lot of time. So that’s the first thing. It would be that embodiment work I would do. 

The second thing I would do is I would determine my specialty. I would get very, very clear. I would get clarity on what it is that I am great at, what I really bring to the table and the problem that a lot of entrepreneurs have is, you know, we’re taught to look at the market and see where the gap is, and then insert yourself in there. Figure out what offer can I create that would suit this need? 

And that’s a great strategy. If you’re first leading with, this is what I do now, what’s the gap in the market with what is aligned with my gifts, but many entrepreneurs are getting pulled off course, or they’re too broad with what they do, and they’re not specialized enough to be seen as an expert in, in that space.

Or they get pulled off into doing something because they think that they should or they think there’s a need and it’s not necessarily in alignment with their highest gifts or the way that they could serve best. So that has to come first. So I would figure out exactly what I was an expert in and I would have the courage to stick with it.

 I knew I was an expert in mindset. I knew that, and this is just an example from my life. I knew that I was an expert in this. That I, somehow, could change the way that people thought I could help them with their message. I could help them with their confidence. I could help them build themselves up.

I just didn’t think that there was any money in it, so I didn’t really put all of my eggs in that basket. I thought that it would make more sense if I sold to this other gap. That wasn’t really aligned for me. It wasn’t really correct for me. And when I did realize that I could create a market here that I could, or be part of this market that existed, I didn’t have the courage to really step into it and to really own it.

So really going in on the expertise and really diving in and becoming a true expert in whatever it is that you choose to do, really go deep and go. I don’t wanna say that you have to go narrow like you have to niche, niche, niche down, but it does help when you are seen very clearly as an expert in a narrower space.

So for me, there’s mindset, there’s energy work, but human design is a more specific area that I can own My little, my little side of the pool over here, of the mindset, energy world. I do other things, but human design is my expertise now, and it’s given me such focus. Number three, I would, I would focus on list building

I would focus on building an audience and I, and, and building my message and really fine tuning my message and being strategic. This is where strategy would come in, as I would be working on pulling people off of social media, not just putting energy into social media all the time. I would, I would be building my list.

How am I going to get people off of social media and I would really be focusing on one core piece of content. And I would let that feed the rest of the content that I’m creating. So like with this podcast, this is like my core piece of content, and then I break it up and I put it onto social media.

I send it out in emails, I do other things with it. So I’m keeping in touch with everybody. But this is the one thing that I’m putting a lot of energy into creating, and then I let that be how the rest of the things kind of come about. But my focus would be creating things like lead magnets.

What am I doing to pull these people into my own personal world? So this podcast is great, but do I have lead magnets that are strong, that are totally aligned with my offers that I’m pulling people off of the podcast and onto my email list with? That is a core piece.  

I was doing workshops. I did a lot of other things, but it wasn’t necessarily built with a ton of intention. It was built with the intention of speed. and I did grow where I made money quickly. It wasn’t a machine. I was always reinventing the wheel in the beginning. So having where you have a process for list building and having something that’s working for you where your content machine is working, where it’s not draining you.

That’s a huge thing, particularly in the beginning when you’re a team of one usually. How, how can you do it where you keep it simple, you keep it moving and you’re consistently building your list? You get really very clear on your messaging there. You’re testing your messaging all the time. If you’re doing this,  then you’re growing a group of people who are bought into your message and making sure that you have it optimized for monetization to do that.

That would be the third thing that I did. I did not focus on that in the beginning. I focused on workshops and doing all of these other things, but I really wasn’t strategically moving people through a funnel. I moved them through a funnel on social media, and I didn’t always own them. It was like a DM funnel and then, but I didn’t really get those people off of social media, and that was a mistake. That was a mistake because then you’re a slave to that algorithm. 

Number four is I would find a high touch program or coach and that would be my real investment.  I would invest in one and I would force myself to stay with it. I would invest with one mentor. I would find something where I definitely got personalized time with that mentor.

Not an underling, but I actually could speak to them – unmute myself, not submit a question in a Facebook group. That is just not how I learn. In the beginning you need to be able to talk through your problems. You need to be able to iterate things with somebody who actually is an expert.

So whatever it is that you feel you need, make sure that you’re getting, I would make sure that you’re getting into a program that has a lot of connections where you have the ability to talk with somebody that’s often missing. Or we’re investing in digital courses, which are wonderful.

They’re a great low-cost way to learn a skill, but for building a business, for the mindset work, for the energetic work, you need to be able to talk through your problems and there’s honestly, there’s another level of showing up that’s required when you’re doing that. So I would invest in that high level mentorship.

For years, I was in programs where I never, ever talked to, and I mean like years and years and thousands and thousands of dollars that I invested, and I never spoke to the person who actually sold me the program other than the time when they sold it to me. That is something I would never make the mistake to do again.

I wouldn’t join these gigantic programs. I would find somebody, we think that these people that have these huge programs are necessarily the ones who have all the answers or they’ll somehow deliver something better. I found that the information is typically the same, it’s not the content, but it’s the connection that’s needed.

And that’s what changes you is you get to come with your problem, have it heard by somebody, bounce it off of them, and have their feedback truly come back to you. And then you get to ask another question and follow up with it and have a conversation with them on a regular basis, not a hot seat. in the six months that you’re in the program because there’s so many people in it that that’s the only one that you could get if you got that, and that would make you lucky.

So that is another thing I would invest in, in higher level mentorship. I mean high touch. I would not be dropping 20 or 30 grand on a program at that stage of my business, but I would invest more with somebody I trusted who I felt had exactly what I was looking for, who had the next step that I needed and I would make sure that I had connection with them. 

Then the last piece, the last thing that I would focus on is I would get in the right rooms. And I would do that by investing time, and I would do that by investing money. So once I was established as an expert, once I was building my list and I was starting to bring money, I would also be focusing on one-on-one clients.

In the beginning, there’s often this push to get people to go into a group because it’s scalable and leverageable, but in the beginning, you’re not focused on scaling, do what will get you the best data the quickest and get you paid to get the data one-on-one clients will help you. Sorry, I’m digressing here.

I’m going off my own script, but this is what I do. One-on-one clients will be paid market research for you. It’s an opportunity for you to flex your skills to put out what you think is the best content that you have to refine your method to get you testimonials. It is the best and fastest way for you to understand what your messaging should be and you’re not in it to get rich right away. 

So another thing that you might be thinking about is, how is it that I can, I can support myself without feeling the desperation constantly of having to bring in all of this money. That can be so much pressure that can actually energetically mess with your business from the very beginning.

The fact that you’re desperate for money from the beginning and you’re not at a point where you can charge a premium or you know how to, you haven’t perfected your sales process, all of that stuff is just not there. You’re building a list and you’re wondering, how can I make $10,000 a month? That might be hard in the beginning, depending on your skillset and what you’re offering and, you know, what, what level of service you’re offering and what you can charge.

Typically. In the beginning though, we’re not charging super high ticket, so one-on-one gives you a chance to actually charge more for what you do. So if you’re a life coach or something like that, one-on-one time is certainly at a premium. , but you get to refine your process by doing it that way. And then you’re also learning what the problems are, what the actual problems are, cuz you’re going to come in with ideas of what you think they are and they’re going to be different or they’re going to be slightly to the left or to the right of what you thought they would be, and it’s going to be, so it’s going to, those are the ahas. That’s the goal that you’re looking for. So that’s the way that you can be paid for doing really targeted, you know, working with an ideal client. And that’s something that ideal client can evolve from you marketing your gifts and marketing your skills, and see who responds to that.

So getting in the right rooms is the fifth and final, or the five and a half since I added, I just kind of threw another one in there. Getting in the right rooms. I would prioritize connection. And I didn’t do that. And I’m just going to speak from my experience here, I didn’t prioritize connections.

Some people are natural connectors and they’re like, of course, will I do that anyway? That’s my life. That’s not my life. And one of the things that was really apparent to me now is if I had done that from the beginning, if I had made collaboration and connection a priority, and I wanted it, but I was terrified of it.

I did not have the confidence in myself and I did not trust people. Part of this, again, if I knew my human design, if I understood myself more, this is why that’s number one. This is why I would prioritize that above everything, learning my human design, learning who I am because I would’ve known about my five line and how the projection field, why I’m so afraid of why I was so afraid of people, why I didn’t trust people with my heart, why I’ve was afraid of judgment.

That’s really inherent. There’s a very high probability that if you’re a five line, you’re probably hiding a bit and you’re not stepping into your gifts fully. because you’ve had experiences in your past where people have treated you unfairly, or it happens with fives more than anyone. please go back and listen to my episode on the projection field.

I think it’s episode 76 or something like that. Go back and listen to that episode where I explain a little bit more about what that concept is. It’s a little strange, but the five line basically, we’re leaders, but there can be some unjust judgment on us and it can cause us to protect ourselves.

It can cause us to hide. It can cause us to not really step out and own the stage, not own our gifts, not own what we want, and not trust people. Right? So if I had known that about myself, I would’ve had more confidence in myself. I would’ve understood my past. I would’ve understood some of the things that were happening. I would’ve understood myself better. I would’ve been able to step into my gifts more, and I would’ve had my own authority. 

I would have my relationship with my authority, which is my emotions. I would’ve understood my emotional wave, which would’ve made me have much more consistency. Even in the inconsistency of emotional waves, I have a much more consistent way of operating because I understand how my emotions are behaving all the time and how they’re affecting me and I don’t let them get in my head and I let them be there and we’re friends because my emotions are my greatest source of wisdom.

So just that relationship alone, it has made my ability to open my heart so much greater. And by opening my heart, I’ve been able to step in and give to others and to make connections and through connections and collaborations, my business has skyrocketed. And when I think about if I had done that years ago and I wouldn’t have been able to do it years ago, but if I were starting over and I had prioritized all the things that I said, and then I made getting in the right rooms and connecting with the right people and building relationships that were close and making them a real priority, then I know my business would probably be three times the size that it is now.

I see how quickly it grows, just from that. So these are the areas that I would focus on. I would focus on energetic alignment, human design particularly, but understanding myself, understanding my gifts, and self mastery would be number one. And my tool of choice would be to learn human design, because I don’t think there’s anything better out there for learning how to master yourself, then human design. Because it actually gives you a mechanical process to follow. If this, then do that very handy, particularly in the beginning. And then you can go deeper and deeper and deeper with contemplation on your gifts and all the other things like that, the possibilities are just endless with it.

So I would start with that. self mastery and through human design , then I would become an expert in something. Some field, I’d be like, this is the corner I’m going to own, and I’m really going to own it. Not a niche like, this is my person. This is a different.  It’s not, oh, well this is my ideal client. They’re from 25 to 35 and they’re soccer moms and she wears Lululemon and she loves going to juiceland. Like, that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about being an expert in a field. And then letting the niche appear because they want what I am, what they want, what I sell. I’d become an expert, make that a real focus. 

I’d focus on list building and building a monetization funnel. So that would start with just getting people onto my list. I would have a low ticket offer. I would have a one-on-one offer to be get doing market research and getting paid to understand the people who were coming to me, who needed what I did to understand them more and to get paid to do that and then I would start building out that value ladder. I would start building out that value ladder to get people in. So I would have, I’d prioritize probably the two of those at the same time. One-on-one and then a low ticket offer and then I would get into a high touch program with a coach.

It doesn’t have to be one-on-one, but it would need to have one-on-one time so that I could come with my beginner problems. I could come with my mindset problems. I could come with all the things I could come with, whatever it was that was not making sense to me. I would look for mentorship. I’d look for mentorship in as cost effective a way as I could. That might be a group program that’s really high touch, but I would make sure that I had actual time with the person who was an expert that I hired, not just support coaches the whole time, unless they were very, very qualified support coaches.

And then the last one I would get in the right rooms. I would get in the right rooms, I would make connections and I would make them a priority and I would make them deep and I would collaborate and I’d come up with really creative ways for us to work together. So that’s what I would do.

I hope you found this helpful. I hope that this was definitely longer than our normal Monday episode, but I hope that you found it useful. I hope it was worth it. Thank you for staying till the end. Thank you for making it all the way through this conversation. I hope that you found it helpful. I hope it gave you a perspective for the building blocks for a business.

And even if you’re not starting out, even if you’re not at the beginning, you can still be looking at your business and saying, am I doing these things and am I doing them well? Is there one of these areas that I mentioned in this episode that you feel is really a focus for you or something that you feel is off if you’re like, I know that I get in my own way.

Then go back to that first one, that energetic alignment, human design, understanding yourself, self mastery. That is the cornerstone of the whole thing. Cuz you run the business. If it’s list building, go back and, and look at that and say like, how can I start this process? All of that. And that’s all stuff that we teach inside the Limitless Entrepreneur, my flagship program.

If you’re interested in hearing more about that, just send me a DM on Instagram. I’m happy to send you any information or, or talk or hop on a call with you to talk to you about it, see if it’s right for you. , but please remember we have the contest running. If you want to win a spot on this show to have a human design reading with me just leave a review on iTunes and then put it in your Instagram stories and tag me or take a snapshot of this episode, write why you loved it, and put it in your Instagram stories and tag me and please remember, come to the How to 2X Your Revenue While Working Less Masterclass where I’m going to teach you my whole human design framework for how you can actually do more while working less, you can earn more while working less.

And use your human design and leverage your energy rather than just your effort. It’s going to be awesome. I’m super excited about that. That’s on March 8th, and there will be replays available, so join us and it’s Free. Go to nicolelaino.me/masterclass to sign up for that and we’ll link all of it up in the show notes for you.

So hop on over there if you didn’t get to write that down. And remember, you are only limited by the limitations that you accept. And when you stop accepting those limitations, that is when you become limitless. So go out there and be limitless everyone. I will see you in the next episode.