Speaker: 0:01

Welcome to the Heart Led Business Show, where compassion meets commerce and leaders lead with love. Join your host, Tom Jackobs, as he delves into the insightful conversations with visionary business leaders who defy the status quo, putting humanity first and profit second. From heartfelt strategies to inspiring stories, this podcast is your compass in the world of conscious capitalism. So buckle up and let's go. Let your heart guide your business journey.

Tom: 0:36

Well, welcome back again. Buckle up for an epic episode of the Heart-Led Business Show. Lean in and listen lively. We've got the brave healer herself, Laura DeFranco, leaping and bounding onto our show. This dynamo darnlingly merges physical therapy with the power of prose, and karate kicks wellness into a new dimension. Hailing from a hallowed heart-led business, we'll delve into her daring journey. So welcome to the show, Laura.

Laura Di Franco: 1:08

You, you had me at the alliteration. I love it. Thank you for that intro. So happy to be here. This is my favorite topic ever, Tom.

Tom: 1:16

Yes, I love heart-led businesses. So what would be your definition of a heart-led business?

Laura Di Franco: 1:22

Okay. So I dive into my body for this because a body awareness means that I'm coming from my heart, which I can actually feel as joy. And when I drive from my heart I'm feeling aligned with that joy and we could go deep in that topic, but that is where I come from as a foundation. So rather than this overthinking, overanalyzing mind coming into my heart, feeling that, feeling that alignment with the joy that gives me the goosebumps.

Tom: 1:58

Awesome. I like that analogy. The, the, the goosebumps when it comes, when it comes to business of all things to like, we don't always think about the goosebumps. But so what inspired you to get into to have your own heart-led business? What was your journey like?

Laura Di Franco: 2:13

Well, so my first 30 year career was as a holistic physical therapist. So I've really kind of signed up to be a healer and devote myself to understanding even what that means. But that could have been a traditional medicine path, but it turned alternative and holistic pretty fast because of your topic, because I knew that I didn't want to follow all the rules that everyone else had about what that meant, I was interested in mind, body, soul, spirit, healing. I was interested in something different. I was interested in feeling that feeling in my heart and driving from there. So when I opened up business number two, founded Brave Healer Productions, I knew for sure that I was going to be doing business differently. And that was kind of the place that I jumped from was being a healer and really devoting my life to understanding what that even means for me and then for other people. And then just trying to help people with all the things they were doing in terms of healing and their businesses and getting their magic out into the world in a bigger way.

Tom: 3:26

Okay. Well, that's cool. So talk to us a little bit about what your current business is and why that's a heart-led business now.

Laura Di Franco: 3:34

Brave Healer Productions is an award winning publisher for health and wellness professionals and those that serve them. We publish books in holistic health and wellness. We have brave business books now, and we also have Brave kids books. So we have three publishing imprints and the business is, is publishing, but it is so much more than that. And that's, I think where this heart-led thing comes in is I, we do publishing differently. We understand that writing, publishing, and then promoting yourself and your book is a healing journey. That's a self development journey. Anyone who's an entrepreneur who raised their hand for that, whether they knew it or not, is jumping onto a self development journey, like some small, medium and big ways, right? We run into these struggles, but I knew I wanted to help people with a certain kind of expression of their brave words. Those vulnerable stories are healing. For the writer and also for the reader. So that, that I think is a short answer to that question. This is big potatoes stuff to me. Like, you know, this books is legacy work. And so when somebody comes into our world to write, their legacy is my legacy. That's like a big ripple. This matters to me, how they're coming. From that heart-led place to write the words that the world are, you know, is going to read.

Tom: 5:07

That's great. What a great platform that you're allowing for other healers to get the, get the word out and to spread what they're doing. So thinking about the business side. What's the difference between having a profit led business or I guess a better way of asking that was how would your business be different if all you're looking for is the profit?

Laura Di Franco: 5:29

You know, money is a funny topic, isn't And especially it's a funny topic for heart-led entrepreneurs and business owners. There is some money work that we all need to do that it seems like other people don't have a problem with, right? But when we start to talk about this, I want to say one thing about it. I love having enough money, time, energy, and resources to generously take care of myself and everyone I love and serve. That is my mantra. It's my money mantra.

Tom: 6:05

I love that.

Laura Di Franco: 6:06

So there's nothing wrong with having a profit led business that fills my cup to overflowing so that I can then give back to all of the people I serve from this healthy place that is abundant with health, wealth, again, time, money, energy, right? It's, it's, it's profit that allows me to actually have a business that gives back to the world. And so we're doing a lot of things around here besides making money in my business. We're actually giving back to nonprofits and charities. We're partnering with people so that we can do this stuff in a much bigger world changing way. So, you know, if it was profit only and I wasn't coming from that other place of bigger vision, that would kind of suck to me. Like it would, it would be stressful and it would be, oh, I, I almost said it, I guess I'll say it, selfish, but some, you know, you have to be selfish and how you're running your business to do that bigger vision anyway.

Tom: 7:13

Right.

Laura Di Franco: 7:13

So none of it is selfish. Your self care is never selfish. And that includes money and profit.

Tom: 7:19

Yup. Yup. Tell us again, your mantra, because I want to just kind of emphasize that

Laura Di Franco: 7:24

I love.

Tom: 7:24

for people.

Laura Di Franco: 7:26

Yeah. And this is worded very purposefully. So you're hearing me slow down on this. Cause I, I want to say it the way that I want to say it. I love having enough time, money, energy, and resources to generously take care of myself and everyone I love and serve. And I love this mantra because it captures all the things that I am and that I'm doing with my business and my life.

Tom: 7:53

Yeah, no, that's beautiful. And, you know, it's refreshing to hear that a business owner and a heart-led business owner is putting themselves first because as the flight attendant tells us, every time we take a flight, put your oxygen mask on first before assisting others, and we do that because well, if we don't take care of ourselves, then we can't take care of anybody else. So I think that that's a really great lesson. And I want all the listeners to write that mantra down or make it, make it your own, because that's everything, you know, the time, time and money. Like those are the two things that so many people struggle with.

Laura Di Franco: 8:30

Energy is the health standpoint of that. Like I have to be energized every day also. And then I have to have the resources, right? And resources could be time and money and all the things, right? So I kind of tried to income and yes, you all should totally steal it. Write that one down and, and say it out loud because when it's out loud, it's real. Anything else that's in your head that you're not writing out loud or saying out loud, you're not taking advantage of that opportunity to make it real. So when I get to say it to you, Tom, and everyone else who's listening, it's like, yeah, I'm living it right this moment when I get to say that out loud. So I love being able to create my life in the moment like that.

Tom: 9:13

Yeah. So, has it always been this way in terms of putting yourself first, having all the time, money, energy to do what you're doing?

Laura Di Franco: 9:21

Well, of course not. I think everybody has this experience. journey where they come from this place and they realize they're miserable and they need to change something and then they do it. And, you know, you said, that whole oxygen mask thing. Yeah, if you don't fill yourself first, you can still serve, but you're going to be serving sick.

Tom: 9:44

Hmm.

Laura Di Franco: 9:44

Or exhausted, or depleted, or all the other ways we, we try to strive and hustle and do the things literally from exhaustion. I'm watching some of my friends and I've learned that to kind of do a 180 and turn in the other direction for me means basking in some alone time some sitting in the sun and doing nothing time, you know having the moments like that, this beautiful thing happens. I get all the inspired ideas moving through me when I can open up to that ease and flow So, I don't know if you're a law of attraction or manifestation type of guy, but I love going there in terms of the behaviors we are creating, we're doing every day. We're, we're inhabit that close that down. So that's, it's one of the reasons I love that mantra that I said to you. It's because it opens me up to the, yeah, to the abundance and, but to the behaviors and habits we need really good habits here and not taking care of yourself as the worst bad habit to have, right? So what's the opposite of that? Well, more time to chill, more time to relax, more time to dream, more time to vision the big vision for my business. So you can tell I get excited about topic, right? I love this one.

Tom: 11:08

Which is great. And you know, what, which, which one of those, like the vision being open to opportunities, setting those goals, what do you think is the game changer for you specifically in terms of driving your business forward?

Laura Di Franco: 11:22

Well, I think I'll get to a piece of it that I know other people will understand. It's really just been delegating all of the stuff off my plate that I don't need to be doing anymore and opening up my calendar time to whatever I need to have the space to do that thinking. And maybe not, maybe just sitting and watching my dog walk around the lawn for a few minutes. I mean, so the delegating was key and I don't know, you know, there's so many wonderful books about this, but the who not how book really changed the way I thought about how I was going to grow the company. I would need some important who's in my life if I was going to clear that plate. And I think for most business owners, this is an ongoing struggle to keep clearing the plate so you can have the time to do the dreaming and the visioning. So I'm not perfect at this, but I'm pretty good, better at it. Right. You said, was it always this way? No, like, I was tired and I got, and I got myself exhausted and there were some moments where I was just like, oh, this isn't going to work. And I think this is why a lot of businesses don't survive is we don't pay attention to this most important person that needs to drive everything. If you are the visionary of your company. That's a pretty important role. You need to take, you need to protect him or her at all costs. And for me, it meant getting into my business mind and maybe not being such the nice guy every single day with how I was working delegation. I'll just say that the D word for now is my turning point.

Tom: 13:09

Yeah. How was that for you? Like what was the trigger or the impact moment, if you will, where you decided you needed to delegate, you needed to take this off your plate and give it to somebody else?

Laura Di Franco: 13:22

So I'm an early bird and I get up probably between five and six every morning without an alarm clock. I have a lot of energy, but you know, I get up early. I do the thing. And I'm very productive in the morning, but it was one of the days in the business when the business was exploding. So that was a good problem to have. But I was there at 10:30 at night, still going. And I really wanted to cry. I was tired. And so that awesome inspired early bird self was there at the other end of that clock time going, what are you still doing awake? And you know, I could feel it in me and I was just like, all right, I can't do another day like this. I have to set some boundaries around my schedule, around my time. And the only way I was going to be able to do that was to get some of the stuff off my plate. I think. Business owners are notorious for thinking they have to do everything. So I created my A list and my B list, A, only Laura can do, teach, speak, you know, create, write, and the B list was basically everything else. But there was a lot more on that A list that I needed to let go of control of. And that's all, I mean, I think that's a struggle for a lot of people.

Tom: 14:45

Yeah, absolutely. My, myself included. I have to do payroll. I have to do accounting. Nobody else can do all that, that, that type of work in, in the world, right?

Laura Di Franco: 14:57

Exactly.

Tom: 14:58

How do you think that shift for you impacted your business once you started to delegate and get that stuff off your, off your plate?

Laura Di Franco: 15:08

Well, it was a miracle. It felt like a miracle. Once I started to do that and I had the space open up on my calendar and I realized I actually had a, a two or three hour chunk of time to dream and feel inspired. I mean, even to write, you know, so we publish, but I'm also a pretty prolific writer. I've written and published 13 of my own books. There's hundreds and hundreds of blogs. I have words, poems, I don't know, hundreds of poems at this point. Five books worth, probably more than that now. So that's what, that's what happened is if I had that chunk of time on my calendar and I just sat, and relaxed. And I had my notebook and pen, the channel opens up. Finally, Laura, you're sitting and relaxing and getting still and not doing all that crazy little busy work that, that just clogs the pipes. So I opened up and then boom, an entire poem will move through me. A business idea will channel through me. People could talk about this and I, you know, I speak healer speak. So when I say channel or download, it's just opening up to that bigger thing. And then I could allow that stuff to move through me. Now that is exciting when that starts to happen. But if you're so in the nitty gritty of all those little things in your business, and you never give yourself a chance, to quiet down a little and let that bigger thing move through, you are missing out, man. Like, and so I started to realize what was happening when I gave myself that gift, and it, that's why I say it felt like a little miracle. Like, whoa, okay, I need to do this more often, you know?

Tom: 16:56

Yeah, I love the word they use here to clog the pipes because I mean, that's, there's so many different things just in the world that happen when, when you clog the pipes. I think, you know, your heart, right? If you have excess cholesterol, it's going to get clogged. The arteries are going to get clogged a little bit at a time. It keeps, you know, it's like a death by a thousand little cuts. And then all of a sudden you have a clogged artery, you have a heart attack. And the same thing for business. You don't allow yourself to vision for the future. You're letting all that what you call busy work, which is a good, good term for it. It is busy work. You love that to clog the pipes and you're going to have a heart attack in your business. You know, the business is going to suffer. So I like that, you know, using the heart-led business to take care of ourselves first, and then that will enable us to take care of other people and our customers and, and the people that we, we support and love.

Laura Di Franco: 17:54

In ways you don't even know. In ways you can't even dream about until you give yourself that chance to do it. Yeah, it's funny, when you started to talk about pipes being heart related, I was like, oh yeah, there we go. So like, you know, we want to keep things clear. And I often say about my writing, I write to feng shui my soul first. In other words, to clear the pipes, to clear a space. I want a feng shui in there because then it makes room for something to move in or through. So yeah, the heart too. We want that strong pumping heart, don't we?

Tom: 18:30

Yes. No, no heart attacks for sure.

Laura Di Franco: 18:33

Exactly. No, please.

Tom: 18:35

So what, what kind of pleasant surprises have come about for you when you've shifted or sounds like you've always been a heart-led business, but when, when you've really dove into that heart-led business, what, what kind of pleasant surprises have come up for you?

Laura Di Franco: 18:51

I think one of the things that's coming to me when you ask is really awesome business partnerships with other heart-led aligned people. So I would have told you that I had a lot of those great kinds of relationships through the business building and networking is one of those things. You know, it's one of my jams, but this, it got to a whole nother level here. So when I could just be real with people from that heart-led place in those conversations, we could call them networking conversations. Our missions were aligned, our visions were aligned, but also our practices of awareness and heart-led entrepreneurship were aligned. Then all of a sudden, perfect business partnerships were, were coming in. And that was surprising, I guess, you know, you said what was surprising. It was like, I think it was the depth of alignment. You think it's good until it's better. And then when it's better, you're like, Oh, now I know what's possible. So I'm constantly asking myself and living in the question, what else is possible? You think it's great, but you don't know what's possible. Maybe outstanding is waiting for you, right? And you're thinking it's great. Like you'll tell people it's great. These relationships are great. But I met a few that took it all to another level. And I guess that, that surprised me. So it helped me live back in that. What else is possible? Mindset live in wonder every day, live in the awe of this life and the universe and what it might bring you, you know, it's a fun life to live.

Tom: 20:29

Mm hmm. Yeah, for sure. And I like that idea of just thinking about what else is possible because that enables us to create that vision and refine that vision and see where we want to take the business into the future while still being, you know, true to ourselves, true to our heart and kind of true to the people that we serve as well.

Laura Di Franco: 20:52

It takes boundaries and that's the place I think that we get uncomfortable a little, but we don't realize it's what's going to bring us to that next level of freedom and vision. And so when your heart-led, we're having a discussion today that feels very positive and light and fun and free. But then when we get to the thing that we need to set the boundaries, I think we kind of close down and tighten up a little bit. It's like,"Ooh, boundaries. Am I going to be able to set those boundaries for myself in a way that continues the journey of freedom?", that I want the, the, all the, the, from the mantra, right? The time, the energy, the money, the resources. And I'm not sure why that came up just now, but I think that's maybe because it's been a challenge I've had to be more firm in my boundaries to get that vision. And the letting go and the stillness and the clearing the calendar, right? It's like these two things that need to happen. Give myself more space actually means I have to set a firmer boundary with people I work with, with colleagues, with networking, with all the things.

Tom: 22:02

Yeah. Yeah. I would think that would be one of the top struggles for heart-led people in general as well. So money, number one, and then two is boundaries. I, you know, you just reminded me of that, that tends to be a common theme among other heart-led business owners.

Laura Di Franco: 22:20

We come from that heart-led place. We are open hearted, open minded, kind, aware with a capital A, conscious, world changing people and the, the boundary thing is part of the self development journey. If, and if you want to come over here to this success place where wherever that is for you, that's the harder work, I think if we want to call it work, right? But that's the place where when you get uncomfortable about that, you have to pause for a minute and you know, here comes all my decades of healing work. You got to pause there. You can't ignore it. You can't brush it off, ignore it, or think it's going to go away. That is going to come up in you over and over and over until you realize you got to face whatever that discomfort is. And nothing good happens in your comfort zone anyway. Like we should all be cannonballing into our discomfort zone because all the miracles happen over there. Right.

Tom: 23:23

Exactly. Yeah.

Laura Di Franco: 23:25

But, but it's hard, isn't it? It's like you, we feel the feeling. It does not feel good. It feels like a squeeze, feels like we can't breathe. It feels not good. And so we're like, no, I don't want to, that boundary can wait till tomorrow, you know?

Tom: 23:40

No, that's, that's good. So would that be your main piece of advice that you'd like to give to people in terms of having that balance, the boundaries and being taken, taking care of themselves? Or what would be your biggest piece of advice that you'd give to other business owners?

Laura Di Franco: 23:56

Oh gosh. I'm going to go for the grab hands one. Aside from all these amazing things that we've been talking about, you're never alone. And if you try to do it alone, you're missing an opportunity of really what's possible. So that's my biggest advice is that you grab hands on the self development journey piece, the vulnerability piece. The profit piece, the, all the, everything. I mean, honestly, you're, if you sit in your office alone and you're feeling all that stuff and you're not grabbing hands, either friendships, business partnerships, communities. Then you really don't know what's possible yet. And it's a lot.

Tom: 24:39

Yeah, that's that's beautiful. Yeah. I mean, that's definitely a struggle for, for myself and I know for a lot of other heartled business owners and entrepreneurs, I think in general, like we can do everything ourselves and doing that, letting go, holding hands. That's a beautiful analogy as well. Like that grabbing hands. Thank you for that. That's great. And how can people learn a little bit more about what you're doing and potentially working with you? I know a lot of listeners are heart-led business owners, obviously, and probably have a book inside them. So like how can they get in touch with you and what can you do for them?

Laura Di Franco: 25:13

Oh, thank you. Everyone has a book inside of them and we specialize in an expert collaboration. So we're publishing books with multiple authors on a topic, a theme, and we're doing that in holistic health and wellness business because we're not doing business as usual around here and we have our kids books line. So if you're wanting to write and publish, I'd be happy to chat with you about your idea about how to really leap onto that healing journey of writing your brave words and getting them out into the world in a much bigger way. And I really want people to understand that we get it, that it's not just your book is out there. So, okay, we checked that off the list. It's so much bigger than that. And your book is your legacy. And we're behind that all the way. So bravehealer.com, come on over and check us out and connect with me. And I can't wait to talk to you about all your book ideas.

Tom: 26:17

Awesome. That's great. Yeah. And having the collaborative book that type of format of a book is, is an easy way of getting into having your own book. You don't have to worry about writing the entire 200 page book or whatever it ends up being. I think that's, that can be daunting for, for people.

Laura Di Franco: 26:35

There I say that it is the easy button and I make it easy for you to not only get that out, but then we're launching with a community. So you're dropped into a business building community. In addition to publishing your beautiful chapter, that is a part of the expert collaboration. I say expert collaboration on purpose, because we have experts talking about what they do and teaching practical experiences and tools. And your business owners are all master teachers with, with what they're doing, right? So we're going to do storytelling and we're going to teach and yeah, I hope to be the best collaborative book experience on the planet.

Tom: 27:24

That's awesome. That's very good. Awesome. Well, I encourage all the, the listeners to check that out. And like, like Laura said, everybody does have a book inside them. So let let your words shine. So, Laura, thank you so much for coming on the show today. This was a great conversation. And you know, the journey that you've had as well, and the advice that you shared was invaluable. So thank you so much for, for being here.

Laura Di Franco: 27:48

Thank you, Tom. Thanks for the passion and thank you for the topic. It is, it's outstanding. I loved being here. Thank you.

Tom: 27:56

Awesome. And to our show listeners and those watching on YouTube as well. Thank you so much for tuning in today and make sure that you're checking out what Laura's doing. We're going to put all the links down in the show notes. I know our guests love to hear from listeners and, and seeing what, what they're doing. They can do to help you out as well. So make sure you're checking all that out. And also, if you could do us a favor and share the show with a friend or family member that could use the advice that we've shared on the show today I certainly would appreciate that. And I'm sure your friend would appreciate that as well. And so until next time, lead with your heart.

Speaker 2: 28:32

You've been listening to the Heart Led Business Show, hosted by Tom Jackobs. Join us next time for another inspiring journey into the heart of business.