The Human Connection Behind Exceptional Leadership with Laura Simms

n this episode of Success Leaves Clues Podcast, our guest is Laura Sims, founder of Your Career Homecoming, who shares her remarkable journey from pursuing a career as a professional actor in Hollywood to helping high achievers find work that aligns with their purpose, strengths, and values. Laura reveals how questioning her own definition of success led her to create the Homecoming Career Framework, guiding professionals who appear successful on paper but feel deeply unfulfilled. She discusses overcoming identity shifts, niching her coaching business, attracting ideal clients through education-first marketing, building a high-ticket coaching offer with confidence, and creating sustainable business growth without chasing trends. Laura also explains why mindset is the foundation of meaningful career transitions, how client transformations reshaped her perspective on pricing, and why slow, intentional growth has been one of her greatest competitive advantages. Whether you're considering a career change, building a coaching business, or looking to create a life with greater purpose and freedom, this episode is packed with practical insights and inspiring lessons.

You can find her on:
https://yourcareerhomecoming.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurasimms/
https://www.instagram.com/yourcareerhomecoming/
https://www.youtube.com/@YourCareerHomecoming

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Early on, and still to this day, after I work with clients, I always send them, you know, a feedback form. Anything that could have been better. How did this go for you? What are your results? And I started to really pay attention to the results of the work because I thought the big shiny object, big trophy of all this work was people choose the right career.

Davis Nguyen 0:24

Welcome to Success Leaves Clues, the podcast where we interview business owners on how they built their businesses and the hard lessons they learned along the way. My name is David Swin, and I'm a business coach and a founder of Purple Circle, where we help business owners achieve their first six-figure, seven-figure, and eight-figure year, all without sacrificing their quality of life. Before becoming a business coach and before founding Purple Circle, I started and scaled several seven and eight-figure coaching businesses and have been a consultant at several businesses doing over $100 million each, including some that are publicly listed and doing over a billion dollars each. In every episode of the podcast, you're gonna learn lessons that took our guests years to learn, and you'll be able to learn that in minutes. No matter if you're a new business owner or an established business owner, every episode is gonna give you the clues in order to elevate your business.

Pedro Stein 1:09

Welcome to Success Leave Schools Podcast. I'm Pedro, and today I'm joined by Laura Sims, founder of Your Career Homecoming. Laura spent the last 15 years helping high achievers who look successful on paper but feel like something's missing, guiding them toward work that actually fits who they are. She has built her homecoming career framework around contribution, money, strengths, work-life balance, and belonging. And she's been featured talking about burnout versus misalignment and biz women and so many more. Welcome to the show, Laura.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Hi, thank you. I'm so glad to be here.

Pedro Stein 1:49

Great to have you. Okay. Now, Laura, I gotta admit to you, I'm kind of a comic book nerd myself, you know. So I am a huge fan of the first edition, you know, the origin story. So let's rewind a bit because every coach has that moment when they look at their life and say, Yeah, I guess this is what I'm doing now, right, Laura? So when was that for you?

SPEAKER_00 2:09

Yeah, so my first career was as an actor. I went real hard on follow your passion. I went to graduate school, I got my MFA at a top program, I moved to Los Angeles, agent, manager, pounding the paperwork, the whole thing, was doing some voiceover, was doing some television gigs. And when I am telling you, like I was all in, I was all in to the point where I was like, I'm not gonna be one of these people who hits their 30s and 40s and goes back to the piddly little state they came from. Like, I'm gonna be the person who makes it to the end. You know, I had such an ego and identity thing around it. But I was really going above and beyond, you know. My manager at one point was like, are you gonna let me get any work for you? Or are you gonna get all these jobs yourself? And I said, I you keep up with me. I'm gonna go out and I'm gonna meet casting directors and I'm gonna try to get myself in the room because I this is what I really want to do. I love this so much. And I really loved it until I didn't. And you know, like a lot of things, it was this slow erosion of is this feeling worth it? Is this really how I want to be spending my time? But there was a moment where I had just wrapped a day on set. I was doing a co-star on a television show. Great day, wonderful, you know, actors, great director, craft services, you know, all that stuff. But I was walking home to my car, and I just had the thought, is how I spent my day make anyone's life better? And did it make my life better? And that just, I mean, it didn't come out of nowhere, but it felt like such a potent zinger of a question, and it really rattled me. But it was one of those that once you start asking and honestly entertaining truthful answers, that I couldn't, I tried to deny it and pretend like that wasn't happening for quite a while. But it just kept the questions kept coming. And I knew that I was really ready to start thinking about moving away from this thing that had been such a it had been a career driver and an ambition and motivator, but it was such a sense of identity. It's where my community came from. It's how I met my husband, it's what I put on my, you know, government forums. It's like Laura Sims actor. And to think about shifting away from that was really, you know, it felt like a betrayal of so many things. But that's kind of where the seeds of wanting to do something more service-oriented started to burble up and think about what's really gonna feel worth my time at the end of the day. And if I'm looking back over decades at the end of my life, what's really gonna feel worth it for me?

Pedro Stein 4:44

So you have skin in the game for career pivoting, it sounds like okay. Interesting. I also love the fact that you mentioned something that I love to dive in, which is the identity shift. Like I worked in corporate, right? Here in Brazil, I worked in banking, then I moved to Ernest and Young consulting firm. Eventually, when I was at birthday parties, I was like, Hey, what do you do for a living? And I'm like, X, Y, and Z. This is what I'm doing. I'm in banking, blah, blah, blah. That not even a thought comes to mind. It's just automatic, right? This is my identity, this is who I am. Life's gonna life eventually, and that happened to me as well. What I'm curious about, how that transition occurred to you. For example, you're at a birthday party, you open chop, right? Backy asks, Hey, Laura, what do you do for a living? You're caught off guard, right? You're so used to say, Hey, I'm an actor, and blah blah blah. And then you're starting your own business. So, first of all, when did you felt like that identity really shifted to coach, to business owner? Was it like the first paying client, the first invoice, you know? Just walk us through that feeling, right? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Absolutely. You know, I was very, I would say not just private, secretive about the fact that I was wanting to leave acting because there is this, I think one of the hardest parts of career change is when you're in this valley of I know this is not it, but I don't know what the next thing is. So now you're completely identity-less in that work. I've been this, but I don't know what's next. So that I think was the hardest part. But once I started to figure out, okay, I think the coaching route is where I want to go. You know, I got into a coaching training program that helped because I'm around other people who are wanting the same thing. I'm developing skills, I'm getting more comfortable with myself, calling myself a coach because I'm working with these free clients, you know, who are volunteering for coaching. So, like I'm starting to do the work a bit. And I think that really helped was to get out of the conceptual and to get in an actual coaching, a supervised coaching relationship with someone, because now I'm now I'm doing the work. It's like writers who want to be writers but aren't writing. It's like, well, put the pen down, touch the keys, write something. And so that really helped. And then I feel like when I kind of launched my website and announced, here's my new thing, it still felt awkward as hell after that to be like, I'm a I'm a coach. But I think for a while I held both. Like I was still going on acting auditions while I started the coaching business because I just wasn't really ready to let go of the acting piece. But having a foot in both worlds for a little while made it easier to move towards the new thing and let go of the old thing.

Pedro Stein 7:30

It's interesting, right? Like, for example, I buried my it's almost like a foot funeral, right? I buried my past Pedro banking story, and later now I was like almost like ashamed of what happened because nothing really happened. It's just 2008, you know, subprime crisis, whatever, like total external. But the thing is, it's almost like at the time I felt like I failed, but down the road I became a career coach, right? And I'm like, no, that is part of my story, that is part of who I am. So I had to go full circle to understand that I shouldn't be ashamed of what happened because first of all, it was none of my fault at all, right? But acknowledging that is also part of who I am. But for a certain period of time, I was like, oh, I fail that. I don't want people to know and ask me what's happened. My question for you right now is like at the start, right? For coaches in the early days, we're just trying to make hands meet sometimes. We're trying to help everyone and all that, but eventually we sharpen the blade, we attract a certain type of people. So, can you walk us through the evolution of that, your ideal client profile, right? How did it start? And who do you serve now?

SPEAKER_00 8:38

I think like a lot of coaches, I started out pretty vague and generic and just happy, you know, happy to help and happy to happy to be there and have clients. And in the early days, I was working with, I guess, primarily two profiles of people. I was working with people who were navigating transition, just having navigated a big transition. I thought, I've got something to say here. And then I was working with creatives on the business side of what they do. Having been an actor, that was something where, yeah, I had had to learn not just the craft of acting, but the business of acting and picked up some helpful marketing stuff there. So I was working with both of those groups. And I got to a point where I thought, uh, this transition thing, I don't really want to be helping these career people. I'm just, I'm gonna, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna focus on, you know, the business coaching thing. But what I'll do is I'll write a ebooks were big in that day. I'll write an ebook so that when people are coming to me for career coaching, I can at least have some little thing to sell them and give them some starter hope and advice. And I started to write this ebook, and I thought, I actually have a lot more to say here that is mine to say, that I'm not seeing anyone else say, that's developed out of my experience. And the process of trying to write this ebook really shifted my focus to, no, I think I should go all in on this career change direction. I'd certainly have more compassion for this group of people. I think my most unique contribution can come here. So I I really fairly early on started to niche towards the career piece. And then over the years, just really paying attention to who's showing up, who's the most joyful to work with, who gets the best results. I've really focused more and more and more on this high achiever profile, the people who have an experience with success. They have this, you know, kind of the outer metrics of success, but inwardly there's a big disconnect with fulfillment. And now let's bridge the gap.

Pedro Stein 10:28

So you've got meaning and now let's pretend a little bit of game pretend here. Let's pretend I'm that person. I am a high achiever. I have experienced like a bit of success, but I'm heal I'm feeling like there's a disconnection, almost like a void inside. That's I just want to feel I don't even understand what's happening. I'm hitting, you know, I'm spinning my wheels and all that, but I hit a ceiling, as it sounds like. I'm your ICP. So how would I be able to find you? Okay, marketing-wise first.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Maybe you'd find me from a referral. Although I, you know, high achievers are a little less likely to broadcast to their entire network that they've had some kind of crisis of purpose and are hiring a coach. I find they tend to be a little more keeping the cards close to the chest. But you know, we have some SEO efforts, blog posts, things like that. The majority of our clients now are finding us through ads. You know, the algorithm is picking up on what they're searching for. A lot of people that find us from ads say, I never click on ads, but I saw yours because it was saying something different, and they kind of enter our world that way.

Pedro Stein 11:30

Okay. So referral ads, let's say I'm like, I could be referred to you. They're like, hey, you gotta talk with her, or you gotta talk with her business, or you should look at this. And I look at what you have out there, maybe it's even one of those ads, right? That resonated with me. And I reached out, okay. Let's say we can speed up the sales process or not, really up to you. Uh, we could say there is alignment, you know, you can help me, I know you can help me. What I really want to know is like a little peek behind a curtain, you know, of how does it look like to work with you and uh the outcomes I can expect, you know.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

So I guess in terms of that first piece of how we're finding each other and deciding is this the right match, you know, there's no buy now button on our website. We work from invitation only. So the first thing we ask someone to do is watch a masterclass is about 40 minutes long. And I think for my offer in particular, this is really a requirement, truly, because there's so many different misconceptions about career change, career coaching, what order you do what in, what is the real problem that it requires a good bit of client education up front for them to even properly frame what are the challenges and what are the appropriate solutions to these challenges. Because oftentimes folks are having no foundation of what is going to be fulfilling for them or what they need from their work, and they're skipping to resume, interview, job search strategy. So they end up getting interviews for jobs they don't even want. They kind of half-ass their way through it, they get this offer, maybe, and then if they get the offer, they don't even want it. And if they get it, usually within the first 60 to 90 days, they're like, What have I done? So helping people understand, first of all, through that masterclass, here's the problem that needs to be addressed first, and here's what it's going to take to address it instead of these surface things or things that come later in the timeline. From there, folks are invited to a 30-minute kind of assessment call with us where we're figuring out, do you have the problem that we solve? What are the main challenges? Is this the right time for you? That kind of thing. From there, we'll send them off to check out some of our case studies, book a second call with us that is really, hey, let's make a decision about each other call. And then we're telling them much more about our offer, but we're still learning a lot from them about challenges, goals. What is it gonna take to get from here to there in terms of the strategy piece? But like you talked about the identity piece, I think that is the hardest part for people to understand and then raise their hand to say, yeah, I'm gonna take on that part of the work. But by the time someone is coming to work with us, they understand, yes, we're gonna go through this strategy where we are gathering the criteria for what they need in order to be fulfilled. Rather than starting with job titles, rather than brainstorming business ideas, we're gonna start with criteria. From that, we're gonna come up with options that are custom tailored to them, whether that's entrepreneurial or start a business or some of both, depending on their needs and preferences. Then we're gonna help them whittle those down and choose between them based on their priorities. And then once they've made their choice, help them create that transition plan. Here's how we get from here to there. But the underlying thing that really hydrates and allow this entire process to work, it is mindset, it is frame of mind, it is the perspective through which that you're making all of these decisions. So that's a big part of this too. If you know, a high achiever is in this problem because they've just always done what they uh were told would create success and was safe and practical. If they're bringing that mode of decision making to a new list of options, it doesn't change that much. So part of what we got to do is help them learn how to make decisions in a different way so that they can actually have a different experience at the end of all of this.

Pedro Stein 15:21

Inevitably, I would have to join a any masterclass, right? That is like mandatory. Have you ever got friction? For example, if I'm like someone like I'm not calling myself a bad apple, okay, but I'm kind of am right now a little bit of a bad patrol here, but someone that like, hey man, I know what you guys do. Can I just get into a stall with someone from the team? Have ever that happened with you?

SPEAKER_00 15:44

Um, rarely. I think those people don't bother to reach out, probably, and we just we just lose them. And I'm fine with that. You know, like I think you've gotta draw some lines somewhere. There's a certain amount of how can I cater to, you know, my client? And there's a certain point of saying, if you want to come work with me, you need to be willing to do it my way.

Pedro Stein 16:06

You want to serve them, it's only fair and they they follow the structure, right? Or this is not gonna work.

SPEAKER_00 16:12

Yeah, I mean, I think I'm very confident in being able to get clients' results as long as I can handpick my clients, you know? And so, like part of that is are you willing to think about this in a new way? Are you willing to be inconvenienced before the work even starts? This thing is going to be inconvenient. Changing your life is inconvenient. If you can't watch a 40-minute video to kick it off, then we're probably not the right fit.

Pedro Stein 16:40

Okay. Now, from a business perspective, I'm very curious, right? Because it didn't start like that. I imagine, right? With the master class on day one. So was it scary to create that filter first? Like when you were implementing the masterclass, the 40-minute because sometimes there are coaches out there, they're like, dude, I need calls, right? And I'm like, I'm not gonna add that. But I I get it, it's a balance of scarcity mindset with people you really want to talk to. But can you walk us through how that felt when you started?

SPEAKER_00 17:14

I felt so excited. I'll tell you, I felt so excited to put this in because I felt like what should have been an enrollment conversation of are you in the right place, like moving someone towards a decision, yes or no, either way. So much of that education was having to happen on those calls. It was like I'm saying the same thing over and over again. People are having the same misconception over and over again. I'm spending all this time on something that should just be blanket knowledge for everybody. You know, like I think if I was a doctor who worked on metabolic diseases, I would want all of my patients to watch something or read a pamphlet so we understand what is a metabolic disease, how is it operating on your body? Here are the predictable outcomes of being like I would just want a baseline vocabulary and understanding before we're talking about treatment options. So this really helps give us a baseline understanding so that we can have, they can have a really informed conversation with me. They can ask better questions, they can make I think it rather they whether they work with us or not, I think it makes them a more informed buyer of coaching and support services.

Pedro Stein 18:33

Right. So you're it also works as a filter, right? Because I'm thinking about people just hopping on calls with a career coach and thinking, hey, you're gonna help me get a job, you know, that type of mentality. So you're avoiding that. You're at the exposure of the master class, you're like, this is how we do things, this is how we work. So you're avoiding almost like an awakening process through the sales call, as it sounds like, right?

SPEAKER_00 18:57

I love, I'm maybe the weirdo who loves having sales calls, like I really enjoy talking with people and learning about them. And everybody has there's similarities you hear again and again, but every story and every person is different. So I really enjoy those conversations, but I want to have high-level conversations with people who come prepared knowing what we're talking about. And I think the longer, because I have been doing this 15 years to your point, the longer I do it. I just I want to have those higher level conversations. If we can move base camp, you know, a few feet up, then it's gonna be easier to get to the summit.

Pedro Stein 19:33

Oh, love the analogy of base camp. I'm gonna steal that.

unknown 19:38

Okay.

Pedro Stein 19:39

And so I'm thinking about business structure-wise right now. Like, as it sounds like you do take some sales calls still, or am I too off here? Okay, you do. But we're talking about a masterclass. Are you involved in delivery too? And I'll get to my point. The thing is, I see a lot of coaches out there, they're advocating against burnout, and sometimes the business relies so much on them, they're wearing a lot of hats. I'm not saying it's your case. Uh, this is the reason I ask. So, how do you think about capacity? And I don't, I do know you do have a team of supporting you, but the idea is to not stretch yourself too thin. You know what I mean? To don't burn yourself.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

Yeah. So I, you know, if I think about how Davis talks about the different stages of business, I I would say I'm, you know, I'm past the pioneer stage. I'm definitely in that stage two pacer stage where I do have a small team. I'm not doing everything, but I still do a little of most things. I do sales calls, I do our marketing, I still coach. I have a support coach who does almost all of our one-on-ones, and I'm leading the group coaching calls. So that has freed up an enormous amount of my time. And she's excellent. So I don't feel like coaches are our clients are getting a lesser, you know, experience as the result of that. I guess going back to my acting days, I love the craft. I would say a multi-passionate creative. I like that in my week I'm gonna have to work on my writing and do some better copywriting. I'm gonna be coaching in a in a room full of maybe, you know, six to twelve clients. I'm gonna be doing those sales calls. I like doing a variety of things. And I think my frustration at this stage in the business is really craving more opportunity for deep work in these areas rather than like do a thing, do a thing, do a thing. You know, it's the end of the day, and I've done five things, but I haven't gone deep on any one thing. So I think that's where, you know, the business is at this bottleneck stage of for me to get that depth that I'm craving, I'm gonna have to choose what to loosen, you know, the grip on a little bit and who to invite in who can do it better than me.

Pedro Stein 21:50

Oh, that's perfectly aligned with what you said before, right? On having those meaningful conversations. You you need to have those top tier. And in involvements, as it sounds like you want to have sales call, yes, but I want with the right people, and and they're they have they start the call with a great question, for example, they're like, 'Oh, that's the type of people I want to talk to, right?' Got it. Interesting. Now, let me ask you this. This is a very hot topic in the space, which is pricing, right? But not necessarily like hard numbers or anything like that. It's more about the mindset behind it, right? Because service-based industries over it's a very self-worth path. Sometimes you're trading your time, X, Y, and Z amount of money. I see like great coaches doing pro bono, but they're like undervalued people no showdown. I've seen like terrible coaches making a lot of money because they're great at selling, right? So, how do you think about it today? That the topic, pricing, and were there any lessons along the way that shape how you landed where you are?

SPEAKER_00 22:51

I think this is one of the biggest, you know, places that I had a lot to learn. And I definitely started with scarcity mindset coming in as this kind of starving artist type where, you know, like you're just lucky if you get hired and you know, patching together temp work and all of this. I think past me from you know 15 years ago would have majorly judged current me for sure. I mean, I would have had a list of critiques about I didn't want a big business. I didn't, you know, I just I thought it's just gonna be like me at the computer and sitting in the room with clients. I didn't ever think about scaling when I started. I was doing, you know, $100 an hour sessions here and there. The thought that I would have a high-ticket offer was just, I mean, I think I would have recoiled in disgust in all likelihood. So there's been a lot of change to get here. But I'll tell you what I think made one of the things that that really made a difference. One, it's just being in rooms and communities of people who I think are doing business ethically, are just thinking more expansively than myself, you know, because I've really had to get through some discomfort of talking about money and raising the rate and all of that stuff. So being in rooms with with people that I admire and think are doing it ethically, just to hear how they think is one thing that has really helped. So I definitely believe in the power of coaching, mentorship, community, and that. But I will say the other thing is early on, and still to this day, after I work with clients, I always send them, you know, a feedback form. Anything that could have been better, how did this go for you? What are your results? And I started to really pay attention to the results of the work because I thought the big shiny object, big trophy of all this work was people choose the right career. And that was happening consistently, but it's what people would say after that. They'd be like, I got a new job and I love it and I'm in my new career. And I moved out of the shitty apartment I was in to this beautiful space because I realized I deserved it. I broke up with my horrible boyfriend, or I started dating for the first time in years because I had the energy, because I wasn't so drained by my work. And I have just met the love of my life and P.S. were expecting a baby. I sold my house because I realized I was paying for all this bloat and appearances of something that I didn't really want anymore. And I bought an RV and I traveled across the country. When I realized that the ripple effect of getting this enormous weight out of their lives, was that they were loving and living and reinvigorated and their creative lives were coming back. That's when I felt like we can raise the price. This is worth more than like, here's my new job.

Pedro Stein 25:44

They just trapped themselves in encouraging you to raise prices, as it sounds like.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

Also, I am someone who has invested heavily in myself and continue to do so. And I truly believe there is no greater investment than in yourself and in your future. And any money I've invested in myself, I'm not looking back three months or three years later and going, where's that money? I'm looking at my awesome life and going, thank goodness, past me figured it out and invested in herself so that I can enjoy all this right here.

Pedro Stein 26:23

I love the fact that future you loves past you, but past you hates future you. You know what? It's right, it's not working. It's like misaligned. They're like, what are you doing, girl? Right? It's like charging so much. No, I'm just kidding. Now I'm gonna jump on that boat, Laura. You're mentioning future. I'm curious about your career homecoming and what's next for you, you know. Looking ahead, where do you see the business going?

SPEAKER_00 26:47

It's not terribly, you know, different from what's happening today. I I enjoy so much of what's happening now. I would like to find a way to keep more of the money that the business is generating because as your team grows and you know, like going into that pacer territory, it's a different beast. So that is one thing I'm doing between working with a business coach and my financial advisor is to see like how we can do this more efficiently so that more of the money stays with me. But aside from that, I think what we talked about earlier is creating more space for me. Not because I need more time outside of work. I mean, I I really love working a standard workday. I don't necessarily want to be, you know, working three days a week or anything like that at this stage in my career, but I want time to do more deep work. I want to create more long form content. I want to create more things for alumni of our program to help support them in their own businesses and in their new careers, get out of some of the day-to-day, some of the operational things and into more of those creative, generative places.

Pedro Stein 27:53

Sounds like you want to hang out in your zone of genius, right? That's what what they call is the these days what we love to do. Okay, what we're good at doing too. Now, let I gotta do this. Let's tap into um sci-fi territory. I'm getting us a time machine, okay? I have to do it, and uh but chill, we're gonna talk to past Laura, non-past Laura talking to future Laura. It's just future Laura talking to past Laura, and we're gonna have two stops, okay. First stop, you can go back in time 15 years ago, and you can give yourself a piece of business advice. You wish you knew back then, okay, that you know now. Why would that be?

SPEAKER_00 28:38

I mean, if I could give myself business advice, I would rip up that first website because it was not so vague. Definitely, I would say focus, focus your language, focus your business. What I teach our clients now, if they're creating an offer, is think in terms of one person, one problem, one solution. Who's the person you're creating for? What is the problem you're helping them solve? What is your one solution to get there? I think the sooner you can create a solid one of those, the faster the business can snowball. So that would be just like coaching thing. But I think one of the things that I I would also tell myself is to really trust my pacing. I spent a lot of years feeling behind, really comparing myself to other people who it just seemed like their business was growing so much faster. I have always done slow and steady growth. It does not make a great story on a podcast because there's no like, and then I had my million-dollar launch. Like there's there's been no enormous, you know, breakthroughs like that. And for a long time, I thought that was a problem. 15 years in, I really see it as one of my strengths is that I'm not easily swayed by a fad of the moment. I don't chase something new just because I've seen it work for someone else. I'm really keyed into what am I creating? It has to work for me, it has to work for clients. How can I iterate on what I've been doing to do it better? And I think that slow and steady growth has allowed me longevity when I've seen some of those fast flame businesses hit a point where it catches up with them and they really struggle. I'm not risk averse, but I am chaos averse for someone with that kind of template. I think this serves me really well.

Pedro Stein 30:29

It always brings back to me when we're talking about social media. Like sometimes we're comparing our inner selves to people's outer selves, right? Like it looks like great success, but you don't know how much that person nets, if they're going yonder in six months, if they're like swimming on that. So that is always enough comparison to make, at least on my book. I mean, great that you you're pretty aware of that. I love that. Okay, but it's hard sometimes, right? We we compare ourselves that and sometimes I'm gonna hold back on doing so. Now, second stop. I know we talked previously, uh, the recording on the podcast about your background, though, right? So, and those who are just listening to us, there are multiple messages in uh Laura's background, they're almost like her cornerstone, right? And to anchor herself, success stories from clients, real life success stories, not just made up, right? So, my question to you is if you had to pick one moment in those 15 years that you felt the most fulfilled, I know you have plenty, okay? I can tell by your background, but top of mind, one that made you think, dude, this is why I'm doing this.

SPEAKER_00 31:38

I'm torn because there's immediately all these clients, I see all these client faces, you know, in my head. I'm like, should I tell about this person? So, so definitely, you know, one client that pops into mind. Her name is Claire. When she joined us, she was a copywriter for some corporate, you know, gobbledygoop she didn't want to be doing. She got fired while she was in the program. And today she is an award-winning author with multiple six-figure business deals. And she is writing books really from her lived experience, a lot of which speak to young adults around there, just aren't messages for the for the, you know, like the way the characters that she's writing. I think she's really tapped into creating something meaningful for the reader. So stories like that flood my mind. I also think about funding my own maternity leave and being able to go into being a parent, knowing that I have work that I enjoy, that is flexible, that is scalable, that if I want to work more, I can work more. But if I want to scale back, I can scale back. And I think one of the best things I've done as a parent is have work that fuels me because at the end of the day, there's stuff left in the tank for him.

Pedro Stein 32:50

I love the fact that you mentioned something. One of the reasons most people forget when they uh start a business is about freedom, right? Not just the flexibility, but the ability to, you know, being able to say no at 8 a.m. in the morning of uh next Monday because you gotta take care of your kid, dude. I think that's one of the most powerful things in the entrepreneurship journey. However, not easy, as we all know, right? You gotta work hard to get to that level. Now, if someone listening wants to connect with you or follow your work, Laura. And we're gonna have all the links in the description, by the way. But where can people find you and connect with you best? You know, the one place to go.

SPEAKER_00 33:30

Pedro, they should watch the master class. Truly, I mean, it's the like it's the most comprehensive free thing I offer. You know, it's you can find it from our main site, your careerhomecoming.com. It lives at ychworkshop.com. You get into our world, like that's gonna be the place to really level set what is this place about? How do I need to think about choosing a career that's gonna have meaning and money and joy?

Pedro Stein 33:56

You know, a few moments from this chat today that I feel the urge to highlight. Okay, let's go back to the origin story, Laura, the identity shift. I love that, you know, that really hits home. I had to bury a part of me on that, and realizing later down the road that is still part of me. But also when we were talking about pricing, say it because I was like, I'm not sure. But you're like past Laura would be surprised with what your offers are right now, right? We're talking about high ticket. The reason I didn't say at the moment is because I'm not in the space, right? But actors, as it sounds like, and I've heard about they're like sometimes serving tables, they're like just trying to make ends meet to get to their passion project, to get to to the next thing, just to you know, land uh a gig or something like that. So realizing you've been through so much, right? And looking back, it's so cool to watch a lot of that resonated with me in a way. Okay, so that's one thing. Another thing that I felt it was very important to share right now and remind us is about the ICV doesn't always advertise their struggles, you know what I mean? It's like sometimes I see a lot of coaches out there getting, you know, depressed because nobody engaged with their content, and that's one thing, but sometimes they're just in silent, you know, and watching because it's not like they're gonna raise their hands and say, Yay, Laura, yeah, my life sucks. You know, can you help me with everyone watching? Right? I know it's kind of obvious, but sometimes people are like just diving into metrics, but those metrics of engagement is like sometimes they're they're they're looking at you're nurturing them, even if you don't know, right? So they're out there, so there's one great powerful reminder. And I would say, last but not least, creating awareness through the master class, right? Not allowing a scarcely mindset hold you back the way you did, right? You didn't actually like just going with uh the the way you think it feels right, so you're gonna provide value, but not just value, you're gonna create awareness. You not have to explain yourself so much during a sales call for people that don't get it. So you're gonna talk to people that usually get it, right? Now, this is just my long-winded way of saying that. I appreciate what you do, Laura, and I appreciate you being here and sharing so openly today. You know, it was great having you on.

SPEAKER_00 36:13

Thank you so much. You're such an incredible listener, and it's been really interesting to see what pieces you pick up on and are curious about. So this has been a treat. Thank you.

Pedro Stein 36:22

I appreciate you.

Davis Nguyen 36:23

That's it for this episode. This episode, as well as this podcast, was brought to you by Purple Circle, where we help business owners elevate their business to six, seven, and eight figured years all without burning out. If you're looking to grow your business, as well as get the time freedom that you are looking for, visit us at join purplecircle.com and see what we can do to help you and your business.