66 - The Entrepreneur Journey With Laurel Staples

Laurel has an incredible story of final breaking free from the corporate world.  After designing color laser printers and not feeling the corporate world was for her, she spent time trying to figure out what was next.  She had always dreamed of owning her own retail store, and so that became her next step.  She saved up her money and started looking for a space, and finally found the perfect one.

She loved being an entrepreneur, and loved having the story.  However, as she got into the business, she really discovered that it wasn't the business owner side she loved so much, but the freedom that it would provide.  Even though it was a bit romantic, it didn't fit the vision that she wanted.

So how did you move from retail store to health coach?  She liked it, but realized that even though she was growing, it just wasn't in the direction she had hoped.  She found health coaching that would allow her to provide a way to share her passions with the world.   She was reading a magazine one day that talked about holistic health coaching, and saw that it was alignment with what she wanted to bring in the world.  Now she could help people get more healthy.

What's one lesson that you learned from your first business that you applied to the second one?  Laurel really applied the lesson of knowing the difference between busy work and productive work.  In the retail store she felt like she was working all of the time.  However, when she took a step back later on, she realized so much of it was busy work.  Although it seemed like a lot of work, nothing was really brining clients in the door.

How did you then move from health coach to business coach?  After helping people grow their health coaching businesses fast, she realized that was what her next passion was going to be.  She felt that if she did business coaching, she could use the skills that she had built, she could help make that next transition.

Do you ever feel scattered going from one business to the other?  I loved Laurel's answer of really not expecting people to understand where she's coming from.  She has found that when she does reach out to people to let them know what she's doing now, people have been receptive.  The norm may be to stick with a job for a really long time, so it's not the norm for someone to go on a journey in their careers.

Now how did the skin care line come about?  It all goes back to Laurel's passion of bringing more natural products into the world.  She met a friend, Kate Mason, and had told the story about how she threw away all her make-up.  She then went on a journey to find more sustainable products.  After creating this line and business with her friend, they came together to bring this product to the market.  Laurel loves it because she's able to do what she really loves on the business side versus having to do everything.

What has made the Kickstarter Campaign Successful (so far)?  Laurel really made it a mission to work on better copy writing.  She was able to bring that to the table in really talking about the skin care line.  Now she really needs to work on promoting.  When she had her retail store, she was promoted all of the time, so she can now apply those principles.

What's one thing you wish you would have known before going into entrepreneurship?  That she had to get really good at marketing at the get go.  At first, she felt that if she built something great, that people would just come.  You have to realize that although you may have a business, that you are always a marketer.

What's one thing marketing wise that you've done that was a game changer?  For service based businesses, Laurel found giving live workshops to be an instrumental part to her business.  People tend to want to just hide within social media.  You really need to see if you're getting customers from social media, and then repeat what's working. Encourage people to get out from behind the computer, and add value to the world.

You can find her at: http://redpodcast.com

Or

Check out her KickStarter Campaign!  http://lyface.com/kickstarter

More About Laurel:  Laurel Staples is a respected business coach and advisor who specializes in helping small business owners across the country increase both freedom and flexibility in their lives while growing their profits. She is currently launching a line of minimalist, all-natural skincare products for women called Love Your Face.