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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.

Tob Jackobs: 0:37

Lollipop of logic, the Duchess of doing it all, Lauren Glynn, crafting the clocks of fortune five hundreds and funneling that wisdom into wrangling your frenzied schedule. She's given the gobbledygook a goodbye. So strap in folks, as we dive into the enticing world of the heartled businesses with a sprinkle of jovial jargon, as we unpack Lauren's labyrinth of experience. No spoons needed. We'll be serving this scoop up of success straight to you. Welcome Lauren to the show.

Lauren Glynn: 1:10

Thanks so much for having me here, Tom. I'm so excited. And I really love that little intro you gave me.

Tob Jackobs: 1:17

You're welcome. I'm really excited to really unpack just, your business and how you are still a heartled business and are able to make a profit and all that good stuff. That. Is the point of the show today, but first, what is your definition of a heart led business?

Lauren Glynn: 1:35

I think for me, a heart led business is a business where you're focusing on serving people. You're focusing on the service of others. And I like to tell people that I am almost aggressively helpful the way that I want to help people sometimes. When they even don't want the help and don't ask for it. But for me, my business is all around how can I help you? How much can I help you? Almost to the point where you're like, all right, I got it now. I'll take a step back. But yeah, it's for me all about that leading from the heart, that serving from the heart and that not being so much focused on profit, but focused on how can I provide the service that I need? that I know that you need and I know that I can help you with in the best way possible.

Tob Jackobs: 2:19

Yeah, that's awesome. I really like that too. The service of others and, value comes into that as well. Quite a bit. If you're adding value to other people's lives, I think who just said that Steven Covey, I think, or somebody like that, or Zig Ziglar that it's good. It's going to come right back over and over again. So tell us a little bit about your business.

Lauren Glynn: 2:39

Yeah, so I help online business owners basically reclaim their time. If you sit down in the morning and you don't know what it is that you should be focused on, what it is that you should be paying attention to and putting your effort into, Because there's just so much of it, then that's what I help you figure out. We sit down and we figure out what your priorities are, what your bigger vision is for your business so that we could work towards those things. And then we work backwards to figure out, okay, if that's your bigger vision, what's your priority right now? And then work backwards from that and say, okay, if that's your priority right now, how do we have to build your schedule around that? And actually get into the weeds of creating your schedule with you to figure out or to plan out how you're actually going to be spending your time, whether that's. It depends on how people, different people work, right? Some people want time blocking, they want specific time set aside for specific activities. Some people really just need a priority list for the week and they just kind of go through it as they go. So however my clients work best is how I help them. Get their time organized. And that could also include things like implementing systems. If you don't have a project management system, if you don't have like a calendar system, those are things that we can work on together. If you don't have, maybe you need a VA, maybe you need more help in your business. Those are things that we can also work on together to figure out where it makes sense to take things off your plate so that you can focus on the things that are important to you, on the things that are actually priorities to you. So it's Coming at it from a time management perspective, but looking at the whole picture around what's impacting your ability to manage your own time and how can we fix the whole ecosystem.

Tob Jackobs: 4:10

Okay. So that's cool. So organizing somebody's day so that they're more productive. Is that good summary or

Lauren Glynn: 4:19

in a very small nutshell, yes.

Tob Jackobs: 4:22

Especially for online businesses? Okay. I imagine they're all working from home or a co working space, or they don't have, a supervisor necessarily, or shareholders are telling them what to do. I know personally working out of the house. There's oftentimes that I'll do laundry when I probably shouldn't be doing laundry or dishes, just doing those distractions when there really needs to be more business stuff done during that time.

Lauren Glynn: 4:48

Call those negative because you're also giving your brain a break. Like you need to sometimes you just need to step away. Sometimes you just need to and that's kind of when the creative juices sometimes start flowing is when you stop thinking about it so hard. So I actually encourage my clients like if you're feeling like I just can't do this, I'm not focusing, I'm not paying attention, I'm not being productive, get up and do something else. Like totally change your location, change your focus, and then the productivity will probably come back to you. I do that in the afternoon. I usually, I had brain surgery Five years ago. So I get brain fog really bad in the afternoons. I get really tired. And I realized that I need to stop working at two or three in the afternoon. I just have to like, I can't work any longer than that. But what I have found is if I walk away at two or three, sometimes after dinner, I have a burst of productivity. I'm just, I'm excited to get back to it. I'm excited to get back. And so I'll let myself do that. And not everybody works that way, but I try to. And I try to teach my clients to lean in to how your body is feeling, how your brain is feeling. And so if you feel like you want to step away and do laundry, step away and do dishes, and just kind of reset, then I would lean into that and go for it. Because you probably feel better when you come back after doing those things, if I had to guess correctly.

Tob Jackobs: 5:59

That, that is very true. Especially if I go to the gym or something like that, for sure, feel a lot better about that. So what inspired you to go into business for yourself and do this particular line of business?

Lauren Glynn: 6:12

It was partially the brain surgery. Brain surgery can really really reframe things. And I was very fortunate. It was a benign tumor. It wasn't, any, anything cancerous or anything. But it was impacting my hearing, impacting my balance. So, we decided to get it out after I'd had it for quite a while. after that, going back to work and then COVID happened actually immediately right after that, cause surgery was in August of 2019. And then as I was back from medical leave, COVID happened. And I was just like, I don't want to answer to anyone else. Like I, my body is different. My brain is different. I can't do the same things that I used to be able to do. I was very big into doing presentations and talking on my feed. And, I could do a presentation with a slide deck full of pictures and talk on any, pretty much any topic that I felt comfortable with without a ton of notes. after the surgery, my brain just wasn't that fast anymore and it just wasn't enjoyable anymore. And so I figured I don't want to be working for someone else. I don't want to, I don't want to have to answer this. Like I want to do what I want to do. I want to help people who actually want my help. Cause I was an agile coach for the federal government at the time.

Tob Jackobs: 7:14

Okay.

Lauren Glynn: 7:15

Yes. So trying to implement transformation and change in the federal government frustrating for anyone, right? Exactly. And my role was literally like, we're going to send you to this team because we think they need help, whether they want your help or not. And that just wasn't enjoyable or fulfilling for me as a coach. And it's just, people didn't want me there and they was, they were offended that I was there. They thought that meant they were being spied on. And so I. Slowly built up my business outside of work. I actually ended up moving out of the country, which facilitated me having to leave my job at the federal government. Cause surprise, I don't want you working for the federal government outside the country, even though I was already remote. And so that all inspired me to be like, all right, what's the business that I want to be running? How do I want to be helping people who actually want my help? And. In what capacity. And so I started as a leadership coach cause that felt like a natural transition from what I was already doing, but realized that wasn't really what my passion was and flowed into systems, but realized systems are really a tool to help with time management. And so that's how I ended up where I am right now is focusing on time management with a little dash of systems in there as people need it.

Tob Jackobs: 8:19

Let's unpack a little bit. The transition from the job to owning your own heart led business. What was that transition like for you?

Lauren Glynn: 8:29

So I actually transitioned from being a federal, I wasn't a federal employee. I was a, I was an employee of a company who contracted with the federal government. So I transitioned from being an employee of that company to actually being a contractor. And I was actually a contractor of that same company because we found a little loophole that I could work for if I was a contractor and not an employee. So I was on the DL and then they caught on and they were like, you can't actually do that. But by that point, I was also contracting for other companies. So it worked out. So I started as a. Coach and freelancing and trading that off. And it worked out cause I was out of the country. And so it was easier to do that. And then, so I did contracting work for about a year after leaving my job. And once I eventually moved back to Texas. And then slowly started transitioning into taking on individual clients. Cause I really wanted to help small businesses. I wanted to help people who wanted my help. And even as a contractor, I was working with Pfizer at the time and working on their marketing team for the COVID vaccines, which was really cool. But it was still kind of a place where. They may or may not have actually wanted me to be there. They may or may not have actually wanted my help. And so it was still kind of discouraging in that role, even as like a freelancer, I didn't really have total control over who I was working with. And so I slowly started making the transition into working with individuals and business owners. And so it moved away from the freelancing at the beginning of this year, actually.

Tob Jackobs: 9:51

Okay, cool. And how's that been for you so far in terms of balancing that heart led, always wanting to give, but also knowing that you need to make a profit.

Lauren Glynn: 10:01

Yeah it's funny because I find that you think that giving things away for free would stop people from paying you. But I find that the more that I give, the more people actually want to pay me because they see that I'm genuine about it. They see that I genuinely want to help and they see that I do know what I'm talking about most of the time. And so they see that, oh, she's giving this away for free. What could I get if I paid her? So I don't even think that it's been a challenge to balance it because. I'm so naturally, like I said, aggressively helpful that people then don't hesitate to pay me for that help because they see that, what value I can bring and that I'm genuine and things like that. So I haven't even really had to balance leading the heart led business with. actually getting paid for it because people want, find out then they want to pay me for it.

Tob Jackobs: 10:52

Did that come naturally to you or was that a skill that you had to learn the give to get type of philosophy?

Lauren Glynn: 10:59

It came pretty naturally, honestly. It's the, like I said, I've always been aggressively helpful. I don't know if it was being raised as a woman or if it's my astrological sign of being an Aries or what it is, but I've just always been aggressively helpful. I've always tried to help people sometimes to my detriment, even when they don't want help, but it came pretty naturally to me. It wasn't really even something that I had to. feel like I was forcing to.

Tob Jackobs: 11:21

Oh, that's good. Because a lot of heartled business owners that I speak to they struggle with the, giving too much and then the profit kind of, they don't look at the business side of it so much. And so that falters or you have the profit only person that's only looking at the profit and then the business suffers because there's no heart and there's no service and it, so it's finding that balance. How are you finding that balance?

Lauren Glynn: 11:48

It's, it can be challenging some seasons, I always want to give. I always want to give first. I always want to help first. And then if the profit comes, it comes. But I will say that sometimes the profit doesn't come, so I can understand that being a challenge, but I don't think that if I were less helpful, the profit would come more easily. I don't feel like that's the trade off that I have to make more profit. I think that. More marketing would be the trade off. I think that more collaboration would be the trade off, but never giving less because I don't think that giving less would lead to making more money. So it's never, I've never felt that particular. Out of whack.

Tob Jackobs: 12:27

Yeah. Yeah. I always, the same philosophy. So when I was doing personal training, I would put out, and give away workout exercise or workout routines for people. And I would have my trainer friends are like, why are you giving all that information away? The people should pay you for that. I was like, they're not going to do it anyway. So the fact that I'm giving it to them, they feel good about that. And it, I've always found that the more you give, the more always comes back. It might not be instantaneous, which is one of those things that really discourages a lot of heartled business owners is that they want that profit fairly quick. But it doesn't always happen that quick and it takes time for, and it's a long haul. You have to have that long vision. Was, were there any particular stories that you can share about some of the initial struggles that may have come up for you during that transition and building up your business?

Lauren Glynn: 13:25

I would say that I'm also still in that phase of building up my business. still happening, but I would say the biggest struggle is the volume. It's, once I can talk to people and they see who I am and they see that I know what I'm talking about, then. They're much more likely to want to work with me. They can see the value that I provide and the knowledge that I have. And so that's part of the reason that I like giving away so much is because it helps people to see who I am and that I'm genuine and that I can actually help them. But it's getting in front of enough people to make that The profit that I want to make that way, I think, without compromising who I am and what I want out of my business and what I want my business to look like. I could go out and do a bunch of ads and bring in a bunch of people that aren't really the right fit and then provide a product for them. That's maybe not the right, fit for them, but it's something that I could convince them to buy. But that's not who I want to be. That's not who I want my business to be. And that's not how I want to present myself to the world. So I think the volume of the right people finding me at the right time is the challenge that I'm still navigating and figuring out how I get in front of those people I know that I can aggressively help actually want my help. And are ready for my help is that challenge that I'm still figuring out at this point.

Tob Jackobs: 14:44

And just to put yourself at ease, that's an ongoing struggle.

Lauren Glynn: 14:49

I don't know if that's at ease or not though.

Tob Jackobs: 14:53

It constantly cheat them in the market changes and buying behaviors do change over time. So it's all about being agile to a little bit. And

Lauren Glynn: 15:02

lot of experience with that.

Tob Jackobs: 15:05

yeah, I mean, the giving to get is probably the best thing that a heart led business owner can do with a lot of patience as well. It's it does take, I've always been amazed that, you see some of these folks that are on Instagram and they're like, Oh, I just launched this one ad and I got a hundred thousand dollars in my first launch. I was like but was it your first launch? How long did it take? To build up to that point. And I think a lot of,

Lauren Glynn: 15:34

pay for those ads also?

Tob Jackobs: 15:37

Exactly. It was, I made made a hundred thousand, but I spent 99, 000 on. Yeah. I mean, looking at all of that. But it's having that heart and that patience, it sounds like is the perfect combination of building a business that you can really be proud of and that people will be attracted to.

Lauren Glynn: 15:59

Yeah. And it just, like you said, it takes time and it takes patience. And your landlord doesn't always have time and patience, so you have to sometimes balance that out, but I think. With time and patience and like you said, that sort of giving just to give, it will come. It just, it might take a minute.

Tob Jackobs: 16:19

And not compromising by taking those clients that would be a bad fit. I know I've been in that situation where it's yeah, I need to make payroll. So yeah we'll sign this person up, but I know it's not going to be a good fit. And it always turns out disastrously, it's views, it's just bad energy all around. And. It's just a constant reminder that, stay true to your heart, stay true to who your business who it really serves and how you want to show up to your clients.

Lauren Glynn: 16:52

Yeah. Yeah.

Tob Jackobs: 16:53

How are you navigating that kind of that balance between finding the right people and all that?

Lauren Glynn: 16:58

My business is still fairly new, I've only been in business about two years. I'm still navigating that who is the right fit. And so still willing to try clients that may not be the perfect fit because they may help me figure out, actually, this is where I want to go. And this is who I want to help with some caveats. If there's a bunch of red flags and that's a different story, but if they're just not quite the right person or their same person I've always worked with, then I will definitely investigate more. So for example, I started this year thinking I wanted to do systems and thinking I wanted to help business owners build their systems and build out, client onboarding and things like that. But in the process of that, I also kind of got into talking about productivity a little bit, thinking it would lead into systems, but then I got a client, Denise, who was like, I have the system. I have a VA, actually, I already have a business coach, but I need time management help. Like I need someone to help me. figure out where I should be spending my time and what I should be spending my time doing. And in working with her, she wasn't initially an ideal client because she didn't need systems help. But in working with her, I realized actually, I really like doing this part. This is the part I think that people, this is the pain that I think people feel that tells them, you They need help as opposed to systems, as opposed to them realizing like, Oh, client onboarding, I can just do it manually, whatever. But in time management, if you're sitting down in the morning and you're like, my, my calendar is overflowing. I haven't finished the thing that I started yesterday. I still have all these other things on my list and I just don't know where I should be spending my time. That is a really good pain point, an indicator of needing my help that I can provide. And I don't think that I would have realized that if I had said, Oh, Denise doesn't need help with systems, I'm not going to help her. And so for me, problematic clients are a different story, but clients that don't necessarily fit the exact mold are not. concern for me, because I'm always open to seeing where can I go with this. I know that I can help them. It's not normally what I do, but it's something I've done in the past, so it's something I can help them with. So maybe this is a different path that I wasn't really planning.

Tob Jackobs: 19:01

Yeah. I mean, that's pretty good market research too, in terms of, I mean, what you're advertising, you're marketing how that's bringing in people and how people are resonating with that. Cause I know for me, like you talk system, I love systems and automation and things like that. So that totally lights me up. But most people, I think I'm like systems processes, they're not really tuned into that, but you talk about, Hey, would you like five additional hours a day or a week to play with your kids or be with your partner? I think that totally resonates with the overworked, entrepreneur.

Lauren Glynn: 19:38

Yeah. And I think that for red flag clients, it's hard to say no when you're up against the wall and you need the money and Sometimes you just have to do it. I will totally be honest with people, especially at the start of your business. Sometimes you just have to take those red flag clients because you have to pay the bills and you don't have the luxury of saying no. And it's a learning opportunity. Just like those good clients are a learning opportunity, the bad clients are a learning opportunity too. What are your boundaries? How are you setting your boundaries? How are you making them really clear to your clients? How are you setting your whole relationship up for success at the beginning you? So that in the future when you have a surprise red flag client or a surprise terrible client that you didn't see was terrible before you started with them, you have all those systems and boundaries in place to handle it because you've experienced it already. So I think especially when you're starting your business and you have to take those red flag clients you just still have to, you can use it as a learning opportunity to still get something out of it rather than just grinning and baring it and getting through it. You can at least take something positive from it.

Tob Jackobs: 20:45

Yeah. What a great outlook too. I love that. That's yeah, everything I think is a learning experience and definitely those red flag clients offer a lot of learning sometimes. That's awesome. What other piece of advice could you offer the listeners in terms of those that are wanting to start a heart led business? Maybe they're in a job now and they want to transition to a heart led business. What would you tell them?

Lauren Glynn: 21:09

I would say find what you really enjoy helping people do because that's going to lead you to your heartled business. I started out with leadership coaching, but didn't enjoy that and didn't take my own advice. And it just felt okay, this is what I was doing in corporate. This is a natural extension of it. And this is who I can help. it was really hard to find clients. Cause I was working with new leaders and new leaders don't always recognize that they need help. But if they do need help, they don't always have the budget. And then even when I did work with them, it was extremely frustrating and it wasn't something that I enjoyed and it wasn't something that I was getting enjoyment out of, so figure out what you enjoy helping people do. And the thing that. Figured it out for me as my business coach at the time said what do you help? What do you enjoy doing? What do you enjoy helping people with? That was the question she asked me. I'm like duh. And I had just helped a friend set up her website and I had just helped her, do all of her backend. And I had figured out this wholesaling set of her. And I was like I like helping people with systems. And she's then why don't you do that? And it just felt so obvious after she said it. And I was like, Oh yeah, I'm coach. Obviously. And so I would, the, Advice, to wind it all down, the advice that I would give would be figure out what you actually enjoy helping people do, because then it won't seem like a chore, and then it will, you'll be happy to give for free, you'll be happy to lead with that value that you're providing to people that you may probably won't get paid for in the beginning, and it will probably take a while so make sure that whatever it is that you should, and also understand that it's okay to change. Just because this is what you've chosen doesn't mean that's what you have to do forever. I've chosen, I've changed mine several times already. It's totally fine to change up and change your mind and we are all humans and you can only do you can only learn so much until you start doing it and then realize what it actually feels like and then pivot from there if necessary.

Tob Jackobs: 22:57

Absolutely. And that's really good advice to be open to change over time because we all evolve the market evolves. Our desires are wants or needs to evolve as well. And the one thing that, when I'm working with clients as well no, I have to like stick with this niche forever. I was like, no, you don't just let's use that for a little bit and figure out, if it works for you or not. Yeah that's really cool. So Laura, this has been absolutely fantastic conversation. Just learning more about you and your journey and the advice that you're giving. How can people learn more about you and your coaching?

Lauren Glynn: 23:35

So I am most active on threads. I'm at Lauren G consulting on threads. I know it's really blown up the last six months or so. I'm really enjoying the conversations over there. Dare I say it, it feels like early days of Twitter before it was not as fun. So I'm really enjoying that. I'm also on Instagram with that same handle if you are prefer Instagram, but I'm much more active and and participatory in threads. And then I would love to offer your listeners a discount, if I may. If you want to sign up for my VIP day, which is where we sit down, we plan out all of the work that you have in front of you, and we actually create a schedule for you, whatever that looks like, whether it's time blocking, whether, like I said before, it's that sort of list of priorities every week, that's what we figure out in that VIP day, and your listeners can get 250 off with the code HEARTLEAD one word, no dash.

Tob Jackobs: 24:25

Nice. Cool. We'll definitely link all that up into the show notes. Lauren, thank you again so much for being on the show. I certainly appreciate it. I know our listeners appreciate it as well. So thank you so much.

Lauren Glynn: 24:37

Thank you again for having me. I really had a great time.

Tob Jackobs: 24:39

Awesome. Thank you. And thank you listeners for listening or watching the show today, depending on what platform you're on. I certainly appreciate it. I know Lauren does as well. And everything that Lauren is doing is going to be in the show notes. So make sure you're checking that out and take advantage of that discount. I think that VIP day sounds like an amazing, get that schedule structured so you're more productive. And if you could do me a really solid favor as well, as you work through your productivity, just block out five minutes and give the show a rating and review. Cause that really does help other listeners find the show and to get some of the advice shared on the show today. And until next time lead with your heart.

Outro: 25:23

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.