I have to be honest: launching this first season of The Digital Entrepreneur's Toolkit has not been a cake walk.

Due to some goings on on the person side of things, my energy has been low and my focus has been fuzzy. It's been a rough fall. My goal was to push this beautiful podcast baby across the finish line before the end of the year and I am really proud to have done so.

Times of struggle give us the opportunity to learn more about ourselves. For that opportunity, I am grateful but I am also really looking forward to coming to a full stop here at the end of the year.

If Season 1 is The One About Community, Season 2 will be The One About Systems.

I'm looking forward to charging up my batteries so that we can come back better than ever in 2025 and share even more inspiring entrepreneur success stories with you in the new year - and beyond!

And it comes from a deep-seated desire to support her own growth, move that learning into action, and share what she's found with others.

Whether she's teaching restorative exercises or mindset magic, Jen is an exceptional teacher. I've learned so much from her and alongside her - and for that I am so grateful.

I hope you enjoy this episode!

In discussing getting involved with volunteer work, she wanted to encourage folks to just start. To reach out and get started before it feels comfortable.

I don't know about you, but I need this reminder on the regular. I am highly allergic to failing in front of people. And I don't think I'm unique in that. Ice Queen Elsa notwithstanding, most people have a bit of an aversion to leaping into the unknown.

But if you want to share your gifts with others and use those gifts to benefit those who may be in need of what it is you have to offer, you have to step up and step out and start sharing.

But there's a little distinction that I've learned to make that has made tipping into action a bit less daunting and that is creating habits around measuring my leading inputs rather than my lagging outputs.

I hope this helps you too because - whether there's a course you'd like to launch or a book you're desperate to write or volunteer work you'd like to do - it requires you to become proactive.

Leading inputs will help support you in just that.

Aren't we both still in high school? How did this happen?

But, like beautiful grape vines, we are aging in style and getting even better and more deeply rooted each and every year.

Jo is a child sexual abuse survivor and activist. And her generous spirit and bend towards community and collaboration is awe-inspiring.

If you've never met her, I'm so thrilled to introduce you and genuinely hope that you will follow and support her work at IncestAware.org and JosephineAnne.com.

1. It's an indication that I care deeply about the issue.
2. It's time to ship it so I can invite other voices into the conversation.

When I'm stewing on a topic, I can become a bit obsessive and introverted. I tend to curl myself around the issue at hand, as though my isolated study will provide the pressure and polishing needed to turn to an amorphous chunk of mental carbon into a precisely chiseled diamond ready to be shared with the world.

But that's not really the way of things, is it?

I find my ideas become more nuanced when I engage in informed, thoughtful conversation around them with others.

So here's my request of you, friend.

Will you listen to this episode then consider joining the conversation?

If yes, please head to laurengaggioli.com. I'm turning on the comments for this episode and I will also be linking all of the resources I mention - particularly those of Amy Webb.

This topic is far too important for us not to have a chat about it. I would love to hear your position on A.I. and how you're thoughtfully deploying it or why you're opting out.

I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Join the conversation @ laurengaggioli.com/digital-entrepreneurs-toolkit/beigification-of-information-ecological-impact-ai/

Paul Gowder and I have been friends for nearly a decade now. We met through a mastermind led by this season's first guest, Lou Mongello, and have attended numerous conferences together.

We've spent more hours chatting over leisurely dinners and after-dinner bourbons than I can count.

I consider his friendship is a true treasure.

And, yet, for all that time together, we've rarely have a linear conversation! (That might've been the bourbon's fault!)

So here we are, diving into the past and learning how Paul, a dedicated civil servant by day, ended up creating PowWows.com: one of the most informative websites on the internet for anyone looking to learn more about Native American culture.

By indulging his curious nature and taking the next right step over and over again, Paul created a thriving online community and built an online business long before every entrepreneur was aiming to do just that.

I'm excited for you to listen and be inspired by one of the nicest and smartest guys you could ever hope to meet.

And this should come as no surprise because, if you know me, you probably also know that I adore the Steph(v)ens: King and Spielberg, of course.

My dad read me Firestarter when I was 10 and gifted me his copy of The Gunslinger, all 7 tomes, that sit beside my first edition Harry Potters on my bookshelf. My mom took me to see Hook in the theaters when I was 7 and brought Duel home from Blockbuster when I was home sick in middle school.

When we took a family vacation to Nantucket, we took the ferry to Martha's Vineyard for a day just to do the Jaws tour.

I have spent countless hours under the Steph(v)ens' spell. I feel like their storytelling magic is baked into my DNA at this point.

So why on earth did it take 3 full viewings of Stranger Things to pinpoint one particular moment very early on that set the stage for Steven fans everywhere to feel as cozy in Hawkins as they are on Amity Island?

(Let's be honest: Stephen fans were hooked from the jump by the font, the music, and episodes being titled "Chapters".)

The answer is, of course, that the Duffer Brothers are masters of the art of honoring.

And there's a very important Easter egg in here for all of us who are looking for a takeaway to apply to our businesses. It's one that can shift our owner's mindset profoundly and give us permission to custom tailor how we do business to fit into the larger vision of how we wish to live our lives.

We can get waylaid by all the shoulds and good ideas around us. We can end up feeling small and unworthy, constantly behind the 8 ball of all the things we feel we're supposed to be doing.

But the truth is that you don't need a bigger boat. You can do whatever you want because you're the chief of...well, probably not the police...but definitely your own company.

The Duffer Brothers offer us a masterclass in homage and a permission slip to buck the trends and cultivate your own originality while still standing on the shoulders of giants.

I hope the lesson here helps you root deep into what matters most to you and create your business on your own terms.

And meet we did, after the entrepreneurial conference, on a Zoom call and it was instant admiration from my side.

As an accidental, serial entrepreneur, Amy runs a tight ship. And, if you've been in the online entrepreneurship space for any amount of time, you know what a rarity that can be.

I myself am in the I-deliver-on-the-deliverables-for-my-clients-but-please-don't-look-at-my-internal-processes camp, so I say this without malice for those of us who feel a bit...shall we say...underbaked. I can always use an extra 15 minutes in the oven. ;)

But the thing I really love about Amy is, even with pragmatism and organization on her side, she hasn't cut off her intuition.

It's a balancing act. And Amy is an exemplary fellow entrepreneur for us to learn from.

Enjoy!

When he nearly kills the fern through a complete lack of attention, she goes into over-the-top theatrical hysterics, asking "Are you gonna let us die?"

How many of us entrepreneurs are letting parts of ourselves die in (alleged) service of our businesses? How many of us put our most joyful and restorative past times on a shelf so that we can focus on our online business or side hustle?

::sheepishly raises hand::

I am 100% guilty of having done this.

• Launching a business is hard work.
• Maintaining flow in an existing business is hard work.
• Finding time to do all the things that just plain old adulting requires is (you guessed it!) hard work.

But I also know that, if I don't carve out time for me, literally nobody else is going to do that. Life and work will gobble up any time I'm hoping to have left over for myself.

As Oliver Burkeman reminds us in one of my all-time favorite books, 4,000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals: “The day will never arrive when you finally have everything under control—when the flood of emails has been contained; when your to-do lists have stopped getting longer; when you’re meeting all your obligations at work and in your home life; when nobody’s angry with you for missing a deadline or dropping the ball; and when the fully optimized person you’ve become can turn, at long last, to the things life is really supposed to be about. Let’s start by admitting defeat: none of this is ever going to happen.”

Our full selves deserve better than leftover shreds of time and settling for slivers of ever-shrinking margins.

The real win is that, when we take time to roll around in something that is genuinely restorative, our lives and our work become infinitely better.

So consider the hobby or activity that you've shelved in an effort towards streamlined productivity and pull it back down off the shelf today.

A counterintuitive cosmic wonder is that you just might find that your work becomes more joyful and productive for the respite your reclaimed hobby gives you - in spite of the extra time it takes to really enjoy it.

A Few Resources Mentioned

Here's the article I mentioned: My Brain Is Itchy & There's No Cream For That

Here's the episode in which my friend Erik Fisher and I discuss taking restorative action: Practical Productivity For The Modern Parent

And here's the free mini course about naming your values: laurengaggioli.com/values

As is true of so many entrepreneurs, Ben is no one trick pony. He is highly motivated, incredibly productive, and juggles a lot across his myriad businesses.

(Did I mention he's also my voice teacher? There's nothing this guy doesn't do.)

I find people like Ben incredibly inspiring. They make me feel less alone in the chaos and I hope his wisdom that he shares from the trenches of his many businesses helps you on your journey as well.

And - remember - if you need support as you traverse the tricky landscape of the online business world, I'm just a phone call away!

With my Phone-A-Friend Business Mastermind, you can schedule time for us to check in and work on your entrepreneurial mindset and online business strategy @ laurengaggioli.com/mastermind.

We meet most Mondays and Thursdays. Each 60-minute call is limited to just 4 entrepreneurs, so you're guaranteed plenty of time to talk through your challenges and receive feedback. Plus, there's no long-term commitment required and your first session is just $25 when you use the discount code FRIEND at checkout.

Click here to register for your first virtual mastermind call today.

See ya real soon!

In my last conversation with Nick Corona, he emphasized the importance of process over recipe.

Which, because I think in movie quotes, instantly made me think of Ben Stein's character from Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Bueller. Bueller. Anyone? Bueller.

Because - let's face it - most of us are not here in the entrepreneurial world because we are methodical. We're often here because we love the dopamine rush of pulling all the levers available to us.

Social and services and conferences and products and mass emails and YouTube and masterminds and podcasts and...

I'm not alone here, am I?

It's a bitter pill to swallow, but the reality is that when we are engaging in too many activities that deliver a dopamine hit from variable rewards, we are seriously depleting ourselves and undermining our business's potential.

So let's let Nick's advice about brewing be a lesson to us all.

You want to win big? Take some time to focus on the "boring" minutae and track your results over time.

You just might find that it helps you hit the jackpot in way that shooting-from-the-hip grand gestures never did.

Free Resource To Help You Streamline Your Systems: laurengaggioli.com/toolkit

Nick is the owner and head brewer of Five Suits Brewing in Vista, CA. We initially met through our homebrewing community in San Diego, CA.

Whether we were sharing pours of homebrew at QUAFF meetings, competing against each other in the Stone Brewing Homebrew Competition, or tipping one back at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, we've always had a great time tasting incredible beer together.

Nick's the kind of guy who is curious, inventive, and relentless. When it became clear his ambitions reached beyond dominating homebrew competitions, my husband Mike and I were thrilled because, let's face it, his beer is bonkers good.

Einmal, please and thank you!

Since moving to Seattle, we've continued to follow his journey to professional brewer closely. There have been ups and downs but, through it all, Nick's commitment to quality has been readily apparent, even at a distance.

So today we're going to dive in and unpack what it takes to go from inciting sip of inspiration thanks to Avery Brewing's Maharaja to getting great beer made on the professional scale.

Cheers to Nick for joining me - and to you for listening! :)

And, if you're ready to follow Nick's sage advice in this episode and begin focusing on refining and improving your processes, I've got a free mini course just for you.

Head to laurengaggioli.com/podcast to sign up for the free course and begin leaning out your systems and refining your online business processes today.

While that was a really powerful personal moment, there's another layer to this story - one that is vital for each of us as entrepreneurs to remember.

I hope you enjoy this business lesson I learned 605 feet in the air.

As business owners, our mindset is our most important asset. Explore it. Grow it. Nurture it.

Be sure to snag Jen Sincero's You Are A Badass At Making Money as a great place to start. Or, frankly, dive into any of these amazing books for entrepreneurs.

I promise, the time you invest here will help you continue to build a business and life you love - even if you're scared to death while doing it.

I'm cheering you on. You've got this!

And it just so happens that our guest today is Julie Voris, a BODi Diamond Coach as well as a business and mindset coach for women.

In this interview that we recorded months ago and calendared to release this week, we discuss how Julie has always followed her instincts and has built a business that leveraged the MLM model, to be sure, but also included products and offerings that were borne from a sense that Julie's impact was destined to be bigger than just BODi.

Regardless of your personal thoughts on MLMs, I highly recommend that you listen to this episode because Julie is the real deal. She genuinely believes in the transformative power of fitness - both mental and physical - and has so much wisdom to offer us.

As I shared with her yesterday, I know she will do so much more than weather this temporary storm. She's going to ride it and use it to propel her into the next iteration of her business.

I can't wait to see where the next evolution of her business leads.

On a trip to New York in May, I was reminded of this story when I entered the John Golden Theater to see Stereophonic. It's one of those quintessential New York buildings that feels borderline claustrophobic. If you've ever been inside this Broadway house, you know how memorable it is primarily because it has no lobby.

So when we entered, I turned to my husband and said "I'm pretty sure this is where I saw Avenue Q." He pulled out his Playbill and went to the theater's history page and, sure enough, it was.

Which brought to mind a story in which, one cold November night, my dad made a series of not-so-wise decisions.

Here are the takeaways that his experience holds for us...

1. Plan well for your journey.

Dad was not dressed for walking blocks upon blocks up windy avenues on a crisp fall evening.

How many of us are guilty in doing this in our businesses?

We favor motion over strategic action. We leap, then figure it all out in a panic as we try to juggle too much and end up dropping balls.

Take a step back and take the long view of the next year, quarter, month, and week.

What's coming up in your calendar? What will give your future self more ease or peace of mind? What systems can you put in place or safety nets can you set up now to alleviate future stress?

2. Get the support you need.

No man is an island. Olympic gold medalists have coaches. High performing executives have mentors.

Are you thinking you're supposed to just do it all yourself based on instinct? Reinvent the wheel much?

One of my favorite quotes from Mr. Rogers reads “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

While this is true in crises (and thank goodness for those people - Helpers with a capital H!), there are more everyday helpers that we tend to overlook.

Books can mentor us. Podcasts can guide us. Attending entrepreneurial conferences can introduce us to our next online business coach or virtual mastermind group.

There is so. much. support.

Find folks you trust and let them help you. Just like an MTA worker can open up a much warmer way to navigate Manhattan, these helpers who hold knowledge you don't yet have can provide less harrowing journey to your goals.

3. Maintain margin for when things go sideways.

Things rarely go to plan. If you insist on continually skidding to the finish line with zero wiggle room in your deadline and your gas tank empty light on, you're living life in the Danger Zone friend.

And that kind of stress is a distraction, not an asset.

So give yourself more space to genuinely enjoy your work and pad your deadlines and temper your expectations a bit. Not overly so, but enough so that, when you inevitably find you've taken a wrong turn, your blood pressure doesn't spike to hazardous levels.

If you were the captain of your own ship - and you are - you wouldn't pack your vessel with provisions for a course you charted counting on only the very best conditions with the bare minimum of food, water, and crew for that trip.

Chart your business adventures with equal care.

And if you want to...]]>This episode of the show is dedicated to my dad. He was my first business advisor and would've made a hell of an entrepreneur in his own right. I'm grateful for his business insights; however, I have to share a story that I still find quite funny but he...well...didn't.

On a trip to New York in May, I was reminded of this story when I entered the John Golden Theater to see Stereophonic. It's one of those quintessential New York buildings that feels borderline claustrophobic. If you've ever been inside this Broadway house, you know how memorable it is primarily because it has no lobby.

So when we entered, I turned to my husband and said "I'm pretty sure this is where I saw Avenue Q." He pulled out his Playbill and went to the theater's history page and, sure enough, it was.

Which brought to mind a story in which, one cold November night, my dad made a series of not-so-wise decisions.

Here are the takeaways that his experience holds for us...

1. Plan well for your journey.

Dad was not dressed for walking blocks upon blocks up windy avenues on a crisp fall evening.

How many of us are guilty in doing this in our businesses?

We favor motion over strategic action. We leap, then figure it all out in a panic as we try to juggle too much and end up dropping balls.

Take a step back and take the long view of the next year, quarter, month, and week.

What's coming up in your calendar? What will give your future self more ease or peace of mind? What systems can you put in place or safety nets can you set up now to alleviate future stress?

2. Get the support you need.

No man is an island. Olympic gold medalists have coaches. High performing executives have mentors.

Are you thinking you're supposed to just do it all yourself based on instinct? Reinvent the wheel much?

One of my favorite quotes from Mr. Rogers reads “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

While this is true in crises (and thank goodness for those people - Helpers with a capital H!), there are more everyday helpers that we tend to overlook.

Books can mentor us. Podcasts can guide us. Attending entrepreneurial conferences can introduce us to our next online business coach or virtual mastermind group.

There is so. much. support.

Find folks you trust and let them help you. Just like an MTA worker can open up a much warmer way to navigate Manhattan, these helpers who hold knowledge you don't yet have can provide less harrowing journey to your goals.

3. Maintain margin for when things go sideways.

Things rarely go to plan. If you insist on continually skidding to the finish line with zero wiggle room in your deadline and your gas tank empty light on, you're living life in the Danger Zone friend.

And that kind of stress is a distraction, not an asset.

So give yourself more space to genuinely enjoy your work and pad your deadlines and temper your expectations a bit. Not overly so, but enough so that, when you inevitably find you've taken a wrong turn, your blood pressure doesn't spike to hazardous levels.

If you were the captain of your own ship - and you are - you wouldn't pack your vessel with provisions for a course you charted counting on only the very best conditions with the bare minimum of food, water, and crew for that trip.

Chart your business adventures with equal care.

And if you want to talk through any challenges you're currently facing, I'm here to help! You can sign up for your first mastermind session for just $25 by heading to laurengaggioli.com/mastermind and using the discount code FRIEND at checkout.

Hope to connect with you there soon!

That's what it was like when I first met our guest today - Kyra Mitchell Lewis.

I was on her podcast, Glow Up Gyrl, as a guest and knew before we stopped recording that I would absolutely be inviting her to be on my entrepreneurial podcast right after we were done.

It's really easy to con ourselves into thinking making friends is hard. But if you're clear about who you are - what you value and what gifts you bring to the world - and approach each new meeting with lightness and openness, you might be surprised who you find.

I'm so grateful to have met Kyra and can't wait to share her entrepreneurial journey with you in this episode of The Digital Entrepreneur's Toolkit Podcast.

And, if you'd like to learn more about the practical, tactical steps I encourage folks to take as they name their purpose, be sure to check out my episode on the Glow Up Gyrl Podcast.

The origin story of this connection that I made about a misconception about Luke Skywalker's hero-making trench run was borne from a question posed to a panel that I was invited to be part of at Social Media Marketing World in 2016.

The panel was about the power of podcasting as part of an overall marketing strategy. I was there to provide small-potatoes-ballast while on stage with podcasting legends Lou Mongello, Chris Ducker, Pat Flynn. (It would've been intimidating if these talented guys weren't such kind and classy gents.)

Now, that amazing memory aside, I also walked away from that experience with a realization that has helped me reclaim joy in my work in a way that no other story has quite been able to prod me towards.

And the realization is that Luke was not *lucky* to have been the guy who blew up the Death Star. He had something else going for him.

Practice.

And, more than just practice, he had practiced the precise skill he needed to become a future hero by doing something relatively frivolous and just-for-funsies: bulls-eying womprats in his T16 back on Tatooine.

There is absolutely something to be said for friends who give you a lift too. After all, Luke would've been toast without Han's timely return. But the practice that allowed him to even be a candidate for glory was what got him into the X-Wing in the first place.

You do need both. But the piece you have control over is inviting play that doubles as practice - even when you're not sure what you're practicing for.

After all, I wouldn't have been on that panel had I not launched my ACT & SAT prep company 2 years prior and met Lou at my very first Social Media Marketing World that same year.

I also couldn't have told you when I got my degree in theater that the skills I learned there would be put to good use by helping me narrate an audio book in the future. But they were thanks to a hand up from my friend from the last episode, Jody Maberry.

If you go even further back, I used to dream up full restaurants like the Kids' Korner Kafe, complete with menus and popcorn soup that included a little of everything from my mom's spice drawer and place settings for our "guests" - aka my cat, Arthur.

Branding, collateral, and workflows being practiced from age 9.

The thing that's so beautifully enticing about entrepreneurship is that we get to bring our whole selves to work and celebrate every nuance and quirk that makes us us.

So here's the invitation for you today: take a moment and think about the stuff you do just for the joy of doing it.

1. Reflect about how you feel when you're in the zone with that not-work-related activity.
2. Consider some of the tangible skills you're honing while you're doing it.
3. See if you can weave some of that skill set and bring that sense of flow and joyful ease to your day-to-day work.

Or, ya know, just use the Force. Whatever floats your boat. ;)

Need help taking the next steps in your business? Let's hop on a all! Head to laurengaggioli.com/mastermind to get your first group coaching session for just $25.

Today's interview is no exception. Not only is he one of the very best podcast hosts in the business with a ridiculous number of episodes under his belt, Jody Maberry is also one of the kindest gents you'll ever hope to meet.

We met many years ago at a conference for entrepreneurs. I've appeared on a few podcast episodes of his to talk about SEO for solopreneurs, hassle him about his unfinished books, and - most recently - to share my experience of narrating an audiobook - a project I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to be part of and was only able to work on due to Jody's generous recommendation.

I cannot wait for you to hear Jody's story. We had a good time on this one and I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed recording it.

Need a helping hand as you build the online business of your dreams? I've got you with my virtual mastermind for entrepreneurs.

You can get your first session for just $25 by using the discount code FRIEND at checkout.

Head to laurengaggioli.com/mastermind to schedule your first session today!

ASK ME HOW I KNOW. ;)

Listen: 2 things are true.

1. There is nothing in the world I'd rather do to make a living than build online courses and record podcasts.
2. Some days the lift is so heavy that it feels like a curse to be entrepreneurially minded.

And, to make matters more confusing, I sometimes feel this at the exact same time.

It can be crazy making. But what makes it uncrazy are the people I'm lucky enough to call my entrepreneurial friends. I love that I don't have to contextualize everything for them. I don't have to explain what I mean in the way I do for folks who don't work for themselves.

And - here's the reality - the way I've met most of them is by attending entrepreneurial conferences. Or, in the case of Teri Holland, our second guest here on The Digital Entrepreneur's Toolkit Podcast, by guesting on other folks' podcasts via the matchmaking service PodMatch*.

So if you'd like to start expanding your community to include a few people with whom you don't have to translate everything into something that makes sense to folks who have never wrestled with Zapier API integrations or double-opt-in configurations, I highly recommend carving out some time to attend a conference for entrepreneurs or heading to PodMatch* to share your expertise on someone else's platform.

Who knows! You just might make a new friend in the process.

*This is my PodMatch affiliate link. You will not be charged extra by using it but I will receive a small commission should you choose to sign up for the PodMatch service.

Teri is an incredibly agile entrepreneur who has tapped into her intuition as much as she's developed her skillset over the years. She's done some incredibly impressive things in her career - like founding a profitable theater company and launched her podcast Success In Mind in one week - all while learning to honor her body's need for rest.

If anyone tells you success in the online business world necessarily comes at a personal cost, Teri is here to shine a light on how we can create more balance in our businesses so we can thrive while building a business and life we love.

Also, apologies for my sound on this one. Unbeknownst to me, my computer switched up my microphone settings between interviews. Ever so grateful to my talented podcast producer Jeff Sieh for cleaning it up as much as possible!

Curious to know more about the tools I use to run my online business as a solopreneur? Head to laurengaggioli.com/toolkit to get my free mini-course - The Digital Entrepreneur's Toolkit - and a downloadable list of my favorite online business tools.

It should come as no surprise to you after my interview with Lou Mongello that I am a big Disney fan. And while I love Disney parks and movies (yes, even as an adult), it's the history of the House That Walt Built that really gets me.

Because it would have been so much easier for the Disney empire to simply not exist.

It would've been a lot easier for Walt to have given up entirely and very early on. He faced devastating setbacks. A lot of them. But he didn't give up. He persisted. And, more than just persist, he innovated.

Walt Disney collected a team of geniuses around him and pioneered new technology that would bring his visions to life - the multiplane camera, audio-animatronics, and the tubular rollercoaster to name a few.

When others laughed at Walt's ideas or refused to give him funding, he stuck to his guns...and sent Roy to collect.

Say what you want about the Disney empire, there is also something really inspiring about Walt's level of commitment to his vision in the face of naysayers.

But here's the thing: you don't get to do the impossible if you don't do the hard, heavy, uncomfortable first repetition.

While Snow White, the world's first feature-length animated film, is beautiful and charming, it's also clunky when you set it alongside today's animation.

But we can't to today's level of digital animation without that first stepping stone.

In fact, without Walt, who knows if some of the advances in computer animation that we so casually enjoy today in our movies and video games would've ever been developed at all.

We entrepreneurs can sometimes stop ourselves before we start or judge our first steps too harshly. But the truth is that we never really know where our work might lead.

So if you're struggling right now or judging your first draft against the polished, perfect vision in your head, I'm here to remind you that you can't get to where you want to go by thinking yourself to the finish line.

Take the big leap. Share your heart. It's going to feel awkward and difficult.

That's good. It means you're doing something new. It means you're growing.

Fight inertia. Take your next hard, right step.

I'm cheering you on.

Now - if you're really stuck in your head and want a little extra support and guidance, you're always welcome in my stop-by-when-you-have-time online mastermind for entrepreneurs.

Your first group coaching session is just $25 when you use the discount code FRIEND.

Just head to laurengaggioli.com/mastermind to learn more.

(Believe me. I've seen his calendar and it nearly gave me a heart attack.)

Our conversation explores the big leaps of faith he's taken throughout the years to saying yes and branching out into new and interesting lines of business.

I am so grateful for Lou's friendship and mentorship over the past decade and can't wait to see where the years ahead take him and his business. And I'm honored to be sharing his story with you today.

I hope you have as much fun listening to it as we had recording it.

Curious to know more about the tools I use to run my online business as a solopreneur? Head to laurengaggioli.com/toolkit to get my free mini-course - The Digital Entrepreneur's Toolkit - and a downloadable list of my favorite online business tools.

Thank you so much for being here.

The Digital Entrepreneur's Toolkit is here to help inspire and motivate you to take hellbent for glory action in your online business each and every day by sharing the good, the bad, and the honest from other entrepreneur's business journeys.

I am beyond grateful for the folks who have joined me in this first season and cannot wait to share their stories.

Their candor, kindness, humility, and humor is going to knock your socks off.

To learn make sure you don't miss an episode and to receive my free mini course in which I share the tools I use to run my online business, head to laurengaggioli.com/toolkit.