Meet Dr. Laura the Exclusive Internet Traffic Interview
When did you first establish your company or brand?
I lived in Germany about 15 years ago. I was a personal trainer. My side hustle was Fitness Fusion. My phrasing was: The mind is the map. The body is the vehicle. Emotions are the fuel, unifying them as one is wisdom. I took a hiatus when I moved back to the States and had a kid. I was off work for a while. I thought, “You know what? I’m going to go and work for myself.” So I thought mental fitness fit. I was always a mental health professional; a Nationally Certified and Licensed Professional Counselor. It made sense–the mind works at mental fitness just like the body works at physical fitness. We go to the gym to keep our muscles fit. They’ll atrophy otherwise. You can’t go one time or else you’ll be too sore or not develop at all. You’ll likely hurt yourself. It’s the same with the mind. We don’t use it one time. Our physical fitness and mental fitness develops consistently, overtime is when strength happens. That brings resilience. And so when our mind is challenged, enduring challenging experiences, that we strengthen our mind
Did you ever get sleep building your brand?
I don’t sleep, period. I don’t think my brand has ever fully developed. I think that it’s an ongoing process. Because the more I know and the more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know. The only way I grow is by experiencing more through deep connections with others. I build relationships. I’m always in the process of growing, developing, evolving.
What advice do you have for someone just starting their entrepreneur career?
Fail first. Fail hard and fast. Take chances. Have faith, not hope. Hope sits on the side waiting for things to happen. Faith pushes forward knowing that things will happen. Don’t fall back on anything. I’d rather fail forward that fall back. At least if you fail forward you know where you’re going to land. Failure is required. It’s First Attempt in Learning. We don’t chastise babies when they fall on their ass trying to walk. We give them a finger to hold onto or a table to lean on. What’s the difference with adults? I’d rather be like Rocky–he didn’t come in first in that first fight with Apollo, but we won. The key is that he didn’t quit. I’d rather fail and rise than quit and tap out.
How did you get into your niche?
Well, my niche is, I help high achieving professional women take center stage with the tools and techniques to be fully present and authentic, so they share their transformational stories of moving through trauma to live in triumph. They need to first break through mental sabotage to discover their own untapped talents and infinite potential. who experience moments of self sabotage; they keep doing the same thing over and over again realizing it’s not working anymore and there’s something getting in the way of them changing. How did I get into it? I am my ideal client–recovered. I work with these competent, confident, capable women; they know what they’re doing. This is not impostor syndrome. It’s just that they’re not fully showing up in their lives. So I help them to share their stories of how they transformed the trauma in their lives into triumph so they can inspire others to do the same. And it could be something as simple as a paperclip. It’s all contextual based on how we experience it in the moment compared to the past. The challenge is how they deal with it today. There’s something holding them back from sharing. I help them break free from that.
Was it hard to start your business?
Definitely. I’m an academic who worked with the government. I wasn’t a soldier; I don’t take orders well. My ex husband was active duty. After 12 years in college, I got married and moved to Germany and worked for the Pentagon and the US Army. I was the European Family Advocacy Program Manager for the European footprint-5 countries, 22 army installations and over 200,000 Soldiers and civilians to help educate, prevent and implent a domestic violence, child abuse and sexual assault program. My clients were either students, who lost money if they didn’t come to class, or soldiers, who got fired if they didn’t come to the briefings. I never had to worry about developing a business plan, marketing strategy or finding clients. Everything was provided. So when I decided to do this, I was clueless. It was humbling. I knew a little about a lot and a lot about a little bit. What I did know what how to create and cultivate relationships. I’m an excellent communicator. I know how to establish rapport and create a sense of safety. Simple, not easy.
hat were some of the trials you went through when you first started?
Oh, just like I said– not feeling confident about the business side of everything. The degrees and certifications don’t mean anything in industry when starting. It’s the experience–and experience in business was not what I had. I mean, a school is a building. Education is what is taught there (usually based on who has the power to dictate what’s taught there and who gets to learn it — white men historically). What I learned is knowledge. Wisdom is the cultivation of experience and careful discernment of the relevance to one’s life. Once I had some separation between those two institutions and things got quiet did I start to learn about life. I really felt confused, kind of lost in a way. After 16 years of marriage, I was divorced, homeless and without custody of my son. Once I got on my feet and started this endeavor, I spent at least $75–maybe $100,000 trusting people because I didn’t know. I thought, “Well, they’re telling me that they know what they’re doing.” So, I trusted them and was duped numerous times. I was ignorant, not stupid. I just didn’t know.
I thought, well, what’s the lowest common denominator? So, I’m the contributing factor. And then I thought that it was always me. So the trials were that to say, okay, sometimes people do take advantage but that doesn’t mean it’s everyone and that’s not me. So hope having cautious, careful discernment, some mental clarity, that slowing down while aligning myself with those who have my best interests at heart. And I got to say, though, once my name became more available in the community, that through networking and really just showing up and being vulnerable, some folks did take advantage of that and spread lies and rumors that weren’t true. But even when haters hate and true colors show I refuse to bring myself down to that level, because eventually colors show through.
What’s my goal for the next 10 years in business?
My goal in business is to help a million women share their stories so that it’s a trickle effect. I don’t know what my legacy is gonna be. I just know that my mission is to align with others in joint ventures and collaboration, such that women’s voices can be heard on stages, and their words can be read on pages; that their stories are witnessed by those who need it–they become an inspiration. So it’s a trickle down effect.
Did my friends support my business when I when I launched it? If not, why do you think not?
Well, I didn’t really have friends outside of business. After coming back from Germany, my world revolved around my son and my family. And then, to be quite candid, my ex husband divorced me, I ended up homeless without custody of my son. So my first few years after that really involved around getting my life back together. And allowing myself to be alone long enough so that I could stand on my own two feet. I know what it’s like to have a million dollars. I know what it’s like to sleep with the rats in the middle of winter on the streets of Chicago. A lot of money was spent on lawyers. Thank God for state aid and food pantries. The point is, when things get really quiet, do you have the wherewithal to say, “It’s okay if I stand alone.” Because braving the wilderness is one thing. Becoming the wilderness is another. Being alone doesn’t mean being lonely. Maintaining my values, my morals and my ethics alone is far better than feeling inauthentically lonely just to fit in around wolves, who don’t have my best interests at heart. I’d rather be alone than lonely.
What’s something you haven’t done in your career that you’ve always wanted to accomplish?
I want to say, to stand next to Lisa Nichols or to be with Oprah on stage or something like that, but that’s really not so much what it’s about. To be part of a collective effort; to witness a radical change, a movement and maybe not even radical change, something that has momentum to create a cultural shift, such that lives are changed for the better. To see someone rise when I extend my hand out to them so that they’re never silent again. When they sit in silent fear, who’s going to listen when they stand to speak? So when they see me coming and I offer my hand that they’ll know it’s safe. That the next day they feel better about themselves because of something I may have offered and then they then pass it forward. It’s like Glenda, the Good Witch of the North from The Wizard of Oz. I see the potential in others. I help them see the potential in themselves so that they can tap into their own vessel so that they can leave the nest and fly and soar. Knowing that they can always return for a tune up just like a mechanic or a dentist or doctor so they don’t need me to survive because they can do it on their own. Although when they need to, they want to come home to see Mama. Mama bird will always protect them. But at a certain point they got to get out of the nest and go fly because I want to see them soar.
