Nicole Laino
Hello, and welcome to the Limitless Entrepreneur Podcast. I’m your host, Nicole Laino. And I’m here with a special guest today, Miss Dominique Mulally is here. She is a profit and wealth strategist and consultant and founder of Financially Fierce Females, love that name. She helps women in business, create consistent cash flow, maximize profits, build business for scale and personal wealth and create financial independence in seven years or less, using proven strategies. It’s a really important part at the end there, using proven strategies that this is actually built on something that’s real, that you have measurable success. And that was why I am so excited that you’re here with us. Dominique, welcome. Thank you so much for being here.

Dominique Mulally
Thank you. And thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here. And yes, so as you spoke about proven strategies I um, I definitely walk my talk. I have been in the financial services industry for over 20 years, I’ve been a business owner for over 13 years, I’ve built two, multiple six figure businesses, and I also created financial independence at the age of 31. So I don’t like to say that I know everything, because, you know, that’s never the case. But I definitely know a lot that there is to know about building a profitable, sustainable business, sustainable being the key word, and one that could be leveraged to build personal wealth. So it’s a big passion of mine. And I really believe that women in business, and not just women in business, but women in general, everyone should be financially empowered, unapologetically successful. And that’s the tagline that I live by, you know, money is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s something that we should be more openly talking about. But really understanding how to build a business and utilize it to create, you know, generational legacy wealth for yourself and your families is really, really important. And it’s a big part of my mission as well.

Nicole Laino
Yeah, and, and I’m excited, because today, we’re going to be talking about Ooh, excuse me losing my voice there a little bit. It’s Halloween. And I was outside it was for a parade. So I’m losing my voice. Sorry about that. I’m excited because we’re going to talk about some mechanics of money, but we’re also going to be talking about you know, it’s the operator, it’s, it’s not so much. And this is I think the misconception, and I think, and I’m curious what your thoughts are because you work with women, your mission is women, what do you think is different for women with money than men with money? Like, why do women? Why is your mission to have to raise women up? And what challenges do you see that are unique for them?

Dominique Mulally
Well, 100% of comes down to emotion. So women are very, we’re very emotive and were driven by, we’re very heart centered, okay, so we might have, we all have the the balance of the two energies, the masculine and the feminine energy. But when it comes to building wealth, when it comes to making money when it comes to having money, and asking for money, a lot of women operate in their feminine energies. So when I was a financial advisor, because I was a financial advisor for a number of years, as well, I’ve really seen the difference in the way that men responded to some of the strategies or the proposals that I was putting forward versus how some of the women would respond. And so for women, really understanding the awareness piece of emotions, and how that shows up and presents and manifests in your life and your business is really the key to changing your financial circumstances, both in and outside of your business. So emotions is the number one thing that I would say is the difference between males and females when it comes to relationships with money.

Nicole Laino
And talking about that, we’re talking about emotions, how is it that emotions get in the way? How is it that–what is it about? Men have emotions too, so what is it though, about the relationship with money? Is it the decision making? Is it in the moment being able to manage the emotions and the stress and then not knowing? What is it that you see specifically that comes up with women versus men, and I’m only calling out the men side to just, this is that my listeners are mostly women, some are men, but mostly women, just to give them that that side by side to say, like this, this is the control group. This is what I see that it’s happening differently. And truthfully, wealth is controlled by mostly men in this world. So what are they doing right?

Dominique Mulally
Yeah, men are very analytical and very unapologetic about the decisions that they make. And a lot of that stems from society, patriarchal conditioning, you know, how women, how we have been conditioned as a sex versus how male or male counterparts have been conditioned. And so men are just unapologetic in what they ask for. And with a woman, a lot of the time it goes back to worth and deservability, and that may not be a conscious thought or awareness at the time. But you know, all of our beliefs, all of our money stories, all of our habits in relation to money, present day have come about from compounding decisions, beliefs, thoughts and actions from the past. And that all stems from our childhoods. And you know, until the ages about seven, we are in a state of almost of hypnosis where we see things literally as a child. Sorry, as a child, we see things in a literal sense. So we will interpret a situation. And we don’t have the rationing skills to think okay, well, you know, for example, you’d have two parents are fighting, okay, and that obviously happens with them divorced parents, you see people fighting over money. A child’s interpretation of that may be money is evil, it’s bad, I don’t deserve that, because they’re fighting over it, whatever it may be. And when you see these, when these scenarios and these experiences play out enough, and they compound enough, they then start to form a blueprint for your emotional response based on that subconscious belief. So it’s not an awareness, conscious awareness that you have day to day, but what happens is because it’s so embedded and it’s been there, for so long, it will be triggered by an emotional or a physiological response. So you’ll start to stutter, okay, or you’ll start to have a blank thought, for example, if you’re in a negotiation with pricing, you either sorta you have a blank thought, you’ll instantly go to discount your products or services, because all of a sudden, there’s a feeling an ill feeling that comes with that conversation. And it’s nothing to do with that conversation. It’s based on a set of beliefs, and a set of experiences that you may have had in the past, where something felt to you, feeling unsafe, undeserving, unworthy, and it’s completely illogical as an adult. But as I said, these experiences and the way that we show up in our relationship with money, a lot of it by the time we get to, you know, 15, 16, 17 has been imprinted in our early years. And so that’s why with the money mindset, and the wealthy mindset side of things, the awareness piece is the biggest part. And it comes from recognizing your emotions first. Because a lot of these subconscious, a lot of these thoughts are buried. They’re very deep. So it’s not like we have the thought first. The first awareness is this feels uncomfortable, I feel unsafe, I feel judged, I feel bad, I feel guilty, I feel shame. Those are the things that we start to feel. And when we feel that as a woman in business, especially when we’re talking about our pricing, or we’re looking to raise prices, we’re negotiating the contract with our suppliers. We need to recognize it. Um, okay, maybe there’s something that we need to work on or explore here a little bit deeper.

Nicole Laino
Yeah, and the awareness piece is, and you brought this up. And I think it’s so important to just kind of highlight here, it’s that the feeling is what you’re going to feel first, you’re not going to know that the belief is money is evil. Most of us don’t think that we have the money beliefs, because that sounds weird. You know, it’s like, okay, Jeffrey Bezos might be evil, but not everybody who has money is evil. And so like, we might be able to rationalize that. But if it’s in your guts, is kind of how I look at it like, it’s your gut reaction. It’s not your head reaction. And, you know, you’re told all the time to follow your gut, well, your gut could be pulling you away from what you want, because there is a mess of emotions and thoughts and feelings about the thing that you’re actually going after.

Dominique Mulally
Absolutely, absolutely. And also is we have to recognize that you know, for a lot of us with service based businesses, we’re heavily into personal development. So for us, you know, when someone says to us could potentially be a money block or a limiting belief, we know what that is. But if we look at the outside world, it just presents us a feeling or a habit. So the feeling is shame, guilt, uncomfortable, they don’t really know what it is. But the presenting habit may be constantly being in a cycle of paying debt. So they pay off their credit card and then all of a sudden, six months later, they’re there again, or no matter how much money they’re earning, they seem to have more month than they do money. So all of them, all of those, again, are symptomatic demonstrations of you know how your relationship with money may not be supportive of you creating a highly profitable business or creating wealth. And we see as well with a lot of female entrepreneurs is they get to a certain level in their business, and they’ll start to plateau, their revenue will start to plateau. And again, it’s because we start to bump up against certain feelings and underlying beliefs that really prevents us going to that next level. And we see it, now when he’s talking about going to six figures, for example, you see, presenting beliefs such as you know, I have to work really hard for my money. Or, you know, in order to add more money, I’m going to have to, you know, work longer hours, I’m going to have to be responsible for managing a team, and all of these responsibilities and associations, or it could be that, you know, people will start to single you out, because you’re earning that type of money. So now, money beliefs will always be there. But as I said, they don’t always present as a belief, they usually come as a feeling and a habit first.

Nicole Laino
Yeah, and sometimes these things can can start to feel like you’re doing a good thing for yourself. Some of these, even if you are aware of the thought it might be, I can’t be a good mom, if I’m making that much money, because it’s so much responsibility, it’s going to be so much time, I’m never going to see my family, I have to do the right thing for my family. Which is to back off and accept that this is as good as it gets for me, and I’m happy with it. Lies, lies, lies, lies, lies. And that gets packed into your body and you know, expect those concessions that you made to come creeping up later on, because you really didn’t feel that, you said it. And it’s it’s a good thought. It’s just, it might not be the truth.

Dominique Mulally
Absolutely.

Nicole Laino
And it doesn’t have to be that way. Because it’s a belief about how the future will be that’s holding you back in the present. Because of something that happened in the past or something that you were taught in the past. You know, I came from a corporate background, and I worked like a dog. And I said, I’ll never do that again. And then I’ll find myself working really hard, I hit an income plateau, I hit it, I call it an income ceiling. I call it my own inner glass ceiling, because you felt like you’re shattering them all the time in corporate. But then I came out and I was like, you know, now, there’s no one holding me back. Oh, except me and my stuff. Now I don’t have anyone to blame anymore. I have to look inward instead of being like, it’s that boss that didn’t appreciate me and my work.

Dominique Mulally
And that’s scary for some people, isn’t that? To take that responsibility.

Nicole Laino
And you got to own it, though, because otherwise you’ll stay where you are. So how much of it in your experience, then is–is it strategy of business building versus the inner game? And is there a time when that balance shifts? Where in the beginning, is it a certain one, in your experience? What do you find?

Dominique Mulally
So I would say it’s 80-85%, mindset, and 15% strategy, and you know, in the first, early stages of your business, that probably it’s probably even 90% of it, because you’re in that cycle of feast and famine, you’re trying to create consistent income, and you really don’t have the financial security, that gives you the compounding belief that you can generate the money that’s required to pay you a consistent income. So really creating solid foundations, and really working on your mindset in those early days is fundamentally important. And then, but the mindset blocks, you know, and the mindset limitations don’t go away, as you scale your business, you just come up against new ones. So as you get to six figures, and multi six figures, then you start to face things around investing in the team, and thinking, okay, well, I’ve got this consistent revenue coming in. But if I invest in a team, that now means I have someone on the payroll, which means…and so all of those thoughts, and those mindset blocks, limitations start to come up. So our mindset, I always say, it’s like brushing your teeth, it’s something that we’re always going to have to do, it’s something that we’re always going to have to work on. But I do think in the early stages of your business, it can be a lot more limiting in the way that you show up and do business because you don’t have the evidence just yet, to give you the confidence to really be able to move forward. So it is something you have to be really, really mindful of. But as I said, it is always going to be something that is going to be there. It’s a new level new devil or sometimes it is a new level old devil and it’s something that maybe comes up as you scale your business. We all have a, you mentioned it, an income ceiling, we all have an amount of money that we’re comfortable earning. So as we scale our business and as we begin to take more money from the business, we have to make sure that we’re comfortable receiving that as well. Because sometimes what we see happen is as businesses scale and as the revenues increase, so too do the expenses because again, there’s underlying beliefs or habits, that maybe they’re not worthy, or they feel uncomfortable. So they start to spend in ways that are not necessarily in alignment with the growth of their business, or actually in building personal wealth. So it’s, yeah, I would say it’s normally around 80-85. But in the early stages of your business, it’s heavily around mindset.

Nicole Laino
Yeah. And, I always say, 80/20. And you, you even went higher than I did. Because I think it gets–especially in the beginning, you think you need to be a technician, and you can get, and that’s a crutch, like the strategy, the skills, that’s all a crutch. That’s the stuff you can hire out. You do have to understand the jobs that you’re hiring out for so you know who to hire. And I’ve made that very expensive mistake before where I’ve hired people and been like, they’ll just take care of it, and then getting really crummy stuff back because I didn’t know enough about what I was asking for. I wasn’t far enough along, you know, you hear something is the answer. So beware of the crazy testimonial of the strategy that instantly worked for someone, you are not privy to that journey they had before they signed up with that coach with that strategy. I guarantee you they tried 80 of them before that went somewhat well, they had some success. I mean, and I’ve seen that with, with all sorts of things, programs I’ve been a part of where I’ve had great success. And I’ve seen a lot of people having it and everyone thinks that will, that will be me. And that’s it’s wonderful. But it might not be you, you have to assess your own business. But the mindset part is the part that nobody feels like they should be investing in in the beginning.

Dominique Mulally
It’s, it’s everything, everything. Like I said, I’ve been in business for 13 years, you know, and, you know, sustainability is the most important part, you cannot negate the failures, you know, all of the down moments that you will have, being an entrepreneur and being a business owner is really about building resilience. And it’s a constant muscle, you have to flex over and over and over again. So this nonsense about, you know, build a business and make 90k in 90 days. Yeah, that might be great as a one off, but sustainable, intended of sustainability, unless you have the parameters, and that’s where the strategy component comes into it to have built that business out, then that’s not something that happens overnight. And that’s where the mindset piece comes into it. Because guess what, in the early stages, no one’s interested in what you’ve got to say, That’s the truth. You’ve got to do whatever you need to do to get people to pay attention to you. Yeah? So we have to keep showing up over and over again, we have to fail. And we have to be prepared to fail. Because the faster we fail, the quicker we learn. And it’s from those learnings, that one of my friends says the money is in the mistakes. And it really is true from the mistakes and the lessons come the biggest learnings in terms of really learning how to leverage and grow your business in the future. And that is a journey, that is a step by step process. It’s not something that you can accelerate your way to and just hope that you can bypass all of that. And I think, you know, especially being in the online space, a lot of people need to be a lot more transparent about the struggles, not just the successes, because the struggles come before the successes. Before the sweet spots, or being in a place where you can show up and create $90,000 in 90 days, for example. And we know that businesses can do that. But they’ve built out the systems and the foundational core elements of building a sustainable business first that then allows for that. And I think that’s really important, because I think, especially with obviously everything that’s happened with COVID, we’ve seen a lot of new entrepreneurs come into the online space. And I think there’s this glamorization that is going on because people make it look so easy. And being a business is not easy. As I said it is the best form of personal development you could ever get being in business. Because we have to negate all kinds of stresses that being in a corporate role and being paid a consistent guaranteed salary every single month doesn’t come when you’re a business owner, you’ve got to go out and hunt and gather and earn your bread and butter. That’s the only way that you get paid. And as we build as you have to build your brand, and that takes time. Building an audience takes time, building that credibility and that trust and that know trust and light factor takes time. So I think we just need to be a little bit more honest about what it actually takes to create success, sustainability and profitability in your business. And what I will say on that point as well as sustainability comes before profitability because a lot of people, they just want the quick wins and they want the business that they can pull the money out of without actually building up the supportive framework to ensure that their business is still standing in five years time. And that’s really what is most important.

Nicole Laino
I mean, there was there was so much in there, I was like yes, yes, yes. Well, I think one thing that I want to add to that 90k and 90 days analogy that you gave there, that example of someone who can do that, if you haven’t done the mindset work, you won’t be able to keep the 90 grand that you made in 90 days, it’ll go away, you won’t know where it went, it’ll disappear. It happened to me, I get it. And that was–do yourself a favor and start doing the money work before. This should be ongoing thing. Can’t invest a big amount right now? Buy a book. There’s lots of them. Buy Dominique’s book, the money code and how to crack it. There are cheap, very, very affordable ways for you to start learning about this. Listen to lots of episodes of this podcast. Listen to Dominique’s podcast, there’s a lot that you can be doing and take these messages to heart. Because the reason that you’re not hearing them out in the world with your friends who have corporate jobs, is I call it that they still live in the paycheck paradigm. They look at you as insane. And as long as you, you need to shift over into the creation paradigm. You go from the, I trade time for money, I show up, I do a thing, someone says yep, she was here, pay you. There’s that paradigm. And it’s wonderful for lots of people. But if you’re choosing to shift over, you have to start shifting the way that you look at money, the way your relationship to it. And you say, I create money, I’m a channel for money, I open channels and money flows to me. And that’s the energy you’ve got to be in. You can’t look at your clients as the the employer that pays you, or that will start to screw up your energy around the way you’re able to believe in your ability to earn.

Dominique Mulally
Yes, absolutely. Because that world is very transactional. And being a business owner is all about providing value. And, you know, and so we get paid in accordance with the value that we provide. And, you know, so the other thing that I see as well as is this whole challenge your worth notion, and I think it’s very dangerous, because I, you know, my worth is limitless as is yours, as is everyone’s, you know. I could say, well, I think I’m worth you know, a million pounds a year. But that doesn’t mean that the market demand is there. And so what we need to do is make sure that we’re we’re charging in accordance with the value that we’re providing. And that can be demonstrated. But that other world, like you mentioned about the corporate and your friends and family that with, you know, in the paychecks paradigm, their relationship with money is very transactional, because as you said they’re ticking a box. They show up, they spent eight hours in an office, you know, five days a week, and they get paid at the end of the month. It’s not like that for an entrepreneur. And you know, in the early stages of your business, you’re going to have to put in hard time, you’re going to have to put in hard graft, and you may not see the financial rewards of that, you have to believe and you have to stay in that abundant mindset of knowing that money is in infinite supply. It is all around us. The universe is abundant in the way in which it syncs and the way it communicates. It’s always there for us, you know, it’s true. Gabrielle Bernstein wrote the book, if you haven’t read it, called The Universe Has Your Back, or always has your back. And it’s true, it’s so so true, you know, the universe is always conspiring for our greater good. But we have been conditioned to live in a system that limits us and limits our capabilities and the value that we provide, and the value that we can give and all we have to offer. And that’s what entrepreneurship offers us as an individual, as a creative. So yeah, it’s a really important distinction to understand that you know. And that’s why communities as well and people like myself, and Nicole are so important is you know, you need to surround yourself with people who are like minded and speak the same language you know, and have the same, come up against the same challenges and obstacles that we as business owners face. Because unless you live in this world, where as I said the first couple of years, you know can be very up and down and you’re living in the cycles of feast and famine, it can be quite hard to keep going and be motivated and still remain high vibe as well.

Nicole Laino
And I kind of want to bring up the fact that you know, that’s what holding space is. When you’re, when you have a coach, when you have somebody, you know, it could be a peer that you have in your world, but just make sure they’re a little bit further along than you because you’re going to vibe with the vibe that you’re around. If there’s somebody who’s like, yeah, that sounds terrible, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry. And they just start apologizing to you, instead of holding the space for you to feel everything that you’re feeling. And then remind you that you have the choice to choose better. Remind you that it’s all around you, and remind you that it could be one email away, and you say I only have so many people on my list. What if nobody buys? And you go, but what if they do? But what if they do, because it really does come down to that, it comes down to you probably have a million ideas a day about how to create money, and you don’t move on any of them? Or maybe one? What if you moved on three? What if you didn’t make them such a big deal? What if you thought it through enough that you felt good about what you were doing. But you just, it’s your ability to move on inspiration is going to be, and the energy that you hold as you do it, is going to determine your results. And that sounds like something that–it sounds fake to people who are just probably jumping into this world. And to people that are even familiar with the concepts. If you haven’t fully experienced it yet, I guarantee you have somewhere and you probably didn’t notice it, you probably brushed it off as a coincidence. Or you’ve hustled your way through things. And you’ve convinced yourself that it was the hustle. And you can certainly hustle your way to money, for sure, to a certain degree. But you’ll then beat yourself up about, you know, your ability to do it again. Because God that was so much work, I don’t think I could do it again, I don’t know if this is for me. And you go through your mental gymnastics around all of that stuff. But, if you, I promise you that this is true. And I try to highlight people like Dominique and other people in this space, who have made this work, and who understand it in their bones. And this is their experience. And this is what they teach, because when you start understanding this, this is how you get to dance with life, this is when your business becomes play. This is how, you might have a little breakdown in the morning because you got to feel all the feels. But then you’re right back to leading yourself through it. And you have the best idea that’s ever come to you. And you turn that into a five grand day a 10 grand day when you thought it was going to be a disaster when the day started. That’s what we’re talking about here. And in the last couple of minutes that we have here, I just, you brought this up in the beginning. And I don’t want this episode to end without us talking about this. I want to talk about women asking for money. I want to talk about women asking for money. I want to talk about that. And–what is your experience with that, with asking, with charging, you know, if you roll the two together, like can we talk just a little bit about women asking for money?

Yeah. How long have we got? We’ll need the the whole rest of the day.

I know right? I know, I’m like, there’s not enough time but I really don’t want this conversation to end without touching on this at least.

Dominique Mulally
Yeah, it’s the biggest thing that women in business struggle with is asking for money, asking for the sale, charging in accordance with the value they’re providing without discounting for their services or feeling guilty. And so you know, this is one of the biggest and quickest things that we have to get over as a woman in business, because it’s the quickest way to burn yourself out. And, you know, have yourself feeling resentful and demotivated and just capped at full capacity because you’re unable to create space, which is what money does. When you have money, it brings choice, it brings freedom. And so it’s really important that we get into a mindset of understanding that we’re running a business, and we are there to make money. You know, yes, we want to create impact. But we first need to make sure that we’re creating an income. And we have to be unapologetic about that. And that is a real mindset shift and understand that your business is there to provide you with a lifestyle, but we need to make sure that we’re charging in accordance with pricing to profit to make sure that the business is profitable first. And a lot of women don’t understand that because they’re afraid to look at their numbers, or they tell themselves I’m not good with money or I’m not good with maths. So with getting into the mindset of understanding that people want to pay you for what it is that you have to offer, and there will be people who are not willing to pay and that’s fine. That’s where some of your other services you know, like free podcasts, or books, or whatever it is that you have in terms your value ladder come into that. But when it comes to pricing for your premium services, for example, or the courses you’re putting out, there are people who will be willing to pay for what it is that you have, because they see the value in what it is that you’re providing. But aligning that with our belief is sometimes where the disconnect comes in. Because if you don’t believe in yourself, and the transformational value that you’re offering, whether it be a product or a service, whatever it may be, then why the hell would anyone else believe in that? So self belief is the biggest component being a woman in business, we have to believe in what it is that we’re promoting, we have to believe in the value that we’re providing. And we have to be unapologetic about the prices that we are charging as well.

Nicole Laino
Yeah, and is there anything that you advise your people to do to make sure that they are asking? Is it just about sticking to the price? Is it about being out there a certain amount? Like, what do you see as like, ways for people so someone who’s listening to this, they can take this away and and I can use this to get better at asking?

Dominique Mulally
So the first thing is to really understand there’s no getting away from the strategy side of things, which is knowing your numbers. You need to understand what your baseline costs are in your business first to understand, okay, where am I bringing the baseline and then what’s the profit on top of that? Because the data removes the emotions from the decisions that you’re making. So once you have the clarity of that, you know that okay, well, actually, if I start to discount on this, that means that I’m actually no longer going to be profitable. And that means that that impacts on the consistent salary that I can take home, and investing in your business. So getting to know your numbers is the first thing. The second thing, and this is a really good technique that I was taught in my early years when I you know, first went into sales is state the price and then say nothing. So say, just exactly create the space, just say nothing. If they have a question, don’t worry, they will ask. But what we as women tend to do is we state the price, and then we almost talk ourselves out of the sale. Because we start before we’ve they’ve even had a chance to respond or think about the proposal, we give them all these reasons why they should be investing. And sometimes that can actually detract and can actually cause you to lose the sale. So again, it comes back to confidence, you know, courage comes before confidence. So you have to have the courage to state your prices, and then the confidence to just stay silent, and allow them to ask any additional questions that they may have. And as I said, just know that you’re not going to win every client. There will be clients that will say no, but nine times out of 10, it has nothing to do with your pricing, and everything to do with the value. Either the perceived value, or the articulated value. So either again, your confidence coming into that, and they don’t maybe believe that you can provide the value to them, or for them, or it’s that you maybe you haven’t articulated that well enough for them to really understand what it is that they’re getting. But it’s important as well, to know that in business, we’re going to get no’s, we’re going to get rejected, and we just can’t take it personally. It is what it is. It just is what it is.

Nicole Laino
Exactly what you touched me like you just hit on it right there. It’s not personal. No, it’s not personal. And I think that that, you know, coming full circle to the beginning of this episode where I said, you know, what’s different about men and women? I think women take it personally. And men don’t do that as much. They have a different separation. So it’s it’s not so much, actually, I see a lot of times that once we harness our emotions, women are incredibly powerful. When you learn to use it. That’s what stepping into the feminine energy is. It’s not that you don’t have it. It’s you don’t have control over it yet. You haven’t tamed your goddess yet. You haven’t let her out and learned how to communicate with her and flow with her. And when you do. That’s when those emotions coming through you are power. Not a hindrance and not something that shakes your ground and throws you off balance. It’s what shakes everyone else. And they feel that shit.

Dominique Mulally
Yes. I love that. I’m just as you’re talking, I’m like, yes, yes, yes. Because, you know, the truth is, is that we as females, we are the most powerful beings on earth. And it’s the reason why the patriarchal system exists. Because if you go back 1000s of years, women were the dominant sex. Because of all these things you spoke about women are actually such powerful creators and manifestors and, you know, when we tap into our intuition, and when we dance, and we play with life and all of the amazing, abundant space that we have in the universe. That’s when magic happens. And so, you know, we’ve just got to get out of our heads and fall back into our hearts and that is an energetic thing, but that is a strength and definitely not a weakness. That’s where we have an upper hand against the opposite sex, shall we say?

Nicole Laino
And when you start looking at it that way when you start embracing it. And particularly, you know, I came from the corporate world, where, that is a masculine place. And you know, you have a background in sales, too. That is bro culture. I was on Wall Street like, bro. So, I can tend to lean that way because I think when you’re an intelligent woman, I think when you’re good at things, I love to learn, I love to fix problems, you can lean into those skill sets, those more masculine skill sets. But when you start dancing with the other side of you, when you start to listen to what she’s telling you and play, you are unstoppable. That is an untapped resource for you that you want to learn how to harness and let out. And it does not mean that you need to be naked on Instagram. Harnessing your feminine energy, and that is totally fine, if that’s your vibe. But I find for myself included, I would look sometimes and I’d be like, do I have to be either like super masculine energy or like a priestess? If those are the only two options I don’t really fit into either of these worlds. And, just recognize that there’s a community out there of very strong, vibrant women who don’t travel, like, I have friends that do that. And I think they’re amazing. It’s just that that would feel very inauthentic to me to show up that way. And trust that, trust that you know who you are. And follow your voice.

Dominique Mulally
Yeah. And that’s so important. And I’m just I’m so glad that you brought that up, because I think it’s really important. So I mean, I’ll share just a little bit about my journey, I went full circle with that I was, you know, as you said, I was also in financial services. And I was a financial advisor, ego driven industry, male, it’s very male dominated, I’d walk into a room of 100 advisors, I’d be one of two female advisors. And there was plenty of times where it was assumed that I was the coffee girl, right. And so I constantly felt like I was having to prove my worth, you know, and I was very masculine in my energy, I was very assertive, very aggressive, very dominant. And, you know, probably out of my personality, I’m probably more masculine than I am feminine. But that burnt me out because I was chasing the hustle and the money and trying to keep up with all of that. And then I came out of corporate world, and then went the complete opposite way and, and then had this shame about being assertive. And you know, being direct, because I’ve been told to round my edges. That’s the way I’ve been conditioned as a female in, you know, because men can be aggressive, not aggressive, can be assertive, but if you’re a female, you’re a bitch. And so I went the complete opposite way. And so it’s taken me probably, I’d, let’s say, the best part of like the last seven or eight years, to really find that balance between the masculine and the feminine energies, and be unapologetic about it. And know that in order to run a successful business, and in order to create and have all the things that we desire, you have to have both energies, and at one time, you’ll be more masculine, then you’ll be feminine. And other times you’ll be more feminine, but then you’ll be masculine. But there’s nothing wrong with that, you know, we need to be more open, again, about that. Because I think some people think that, well, if you’re masculine in your energy at a certain time, then that means that you can’t be feminine and you can’t be a goddess. And listen, I love traveling. I’m a massive, you know, I love boho, I, you know, I walk around with bangles, and gypsy skirts and all the rest of it. That’s the goddess side of me. But when it comes to running a business and making decisions, I’m very masculine. And so I think it’s really important that we recognize that that’s okay, too.

Nicole Laino
It’s owning your energy. And once you’re feeling authentic, like back to a word you brought up in the beginning was feeling authentic and unapologetic about who you are. That’s, you know, men were never taught to not be unapologetic. They’re, like you said, they are assertive, they get rewarded for that. He knows what he wants. He knows how to get it. And women it’s like, she’s such a bitch. I don’t know. There’s something about her. I don’t like Who does she think she is? And if you think that that’s not in your body, if you grew up hearing that, even on television, like I heard it all over, I did a whole thing about like, you know, the worst thing that you could be called growing up was conceited. Which is full of yourself. And boys weren’t called that. Boys weren’t called that. Just girls. And so that seeps into all of it. And yeah, just trusting your authenticity. Trusting you. Is the underlying thing. Well, I love this darn episode so much. This was so fun. I’m so excited that you’re here and that we got to do this. We talked a while ago and I’ve been excited to have you on and I’m so happy that you are here today. And you share just so beautifully and openly and I thank you for that. I’m so grateful to you for that. Is there anything you want to leave the listeners with before we wrap up?

Dominique Mulally
No, maybe just touching on what you said, which was you know a bit about being authentic. I think no matter where you are in your business or in your life, that is the most important thing is just do you. Be authentic to who you are, be authentic to your values, and what’s important. Because it’s very easy, especially in this day and age with social media, to get caught up in everyone else’s busyness and definition of success and happiness. And, you know, we can often veer off course, and that’s where we become unhappy, and you know, be unmotivated and all those things. So just stay true to who you are, don’t change for anyone, and lean into all of those good parts of you, all those strengths you have double down on all of that and the successes and everything else will come.

Nicole Laino
Beautiful. I love it. And I love you listener who’s still here with us at the end. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for being a part of this conversation with us. We appreciate you. 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. That’s what we want for you. So go out there and be limitless people. I will see you next time.