IAM1627 – Coach Helps Corporate Women Become Entrepreneurs

Laura Tynan Teaser 00:00

Then finally the action stage, which is actually so interesting because a lot of the corporate women I work with as I would've been, we live in our masculine energy to survive in these corporate like male-dominated worlds. And so we're very action oriented. And so action sometimes is like the first place we wanna go to. But realizing that, you have to align, get aware of your mindset, and then the action becomes inspired action. And it's so much easier to move forward. And that's the kind of step when we start to work on things together.

Intro 00:26

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I am CEO podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:53

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I am CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Laura Tynan of lauratynan.com. Laura, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Laura Tynan 01:01

I'm pleased to be here. Thanks, Gresh.

Gresham Harkless 01:03

No problem. Super excited to have you on and what I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about Laura so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Laura's a business coach and mentor to corporate women who are ready to turn their entrepreneurial ideas into reality. She's an international award-winning speaker and has spoken on stages across Europe including at Forbes under 30. Laura has also been recognized by the Financial Times and Yahoo Finance as a global role model for women in business, for the work she has done in empowering women to rise to become their own CEO. Laura, are you ready to speak to the I am CEO community?

Laura Tynan 01:34

Yes, absolutely. Very excited.

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Gresham Harkless 01:36

Awesome. Let's do it. So to kick everything off, I wanted to hear how everything got started. I wanted to hear your CEO's story and what led you to kind of get started with all the awesome things you're working on.

Laura Tynan 01:45

Yeah, absolutely. So for me it started about three or four years ago actually when I was back working in Dublin. At the time I was kind of doing a normal corporate job, kind of coming in at night, checking out at seven but it was just kind of very uninspiring, unsatisfying work for me at the time. But then there was this transition point and I came across an amazing leader in personal development and I decided to fly to Canada on a whim and go train with him. For me, it was like a crazy decision because I had never actually even really known what personal development was at the time, which sounds amazingly weird now thinking about it. But it was really new for me. This guy was telling me about, the universe and like the power of the energies and the power of your mindset and how you can really control your reality and create it. And I was just totally blown away. So I came back a bit on a mission and I was like burn the boats, I'm quitting this job, I have nothing lined up. People thought I was crazy. But I came to London and using what I had learned and kind of more on ever since completely transformed my career. So I created this new career that I was traveling around the world, like Dubai, Delhi, Sydney, and Singapore kind of thing.

I was working with CEOs of companies and heads of states, and I was going to these big events of celebrities and royalty and looking back over such a short period of time, I had created this massive transformation in my career, but the thing was, when I was looking around, there weren't many other women in the room ever with me doing the same. So at that point, I really began to invest back in, how can I mentor and coach other women? Like what initiatives can I get involved with to really uplift women within the corporate world and work my different leadership teams and different networks and things like that? And honestly Gresh, the more I began to lean into that world, the more I realized that this work of supporting other women and actually creating transformations for them was more satisfying, more fulfilling, more enriching than any paycheck or any piece of work I had ever done to that date. I don't know if you've ever had this moment in yourself, but it was like an awakening or a realization of this is what I'm actually here to do. And so bring the boat again, and decided to start my own business, focusing specifically on that.

Gresham Harkless 03:55

Yeah, I absolutely love that. And, you know, I have had that experience where sometimes in my job experience, I bounced around to a bunch of different jobs trying to find my place, trying to find where I belong. And then sometimes the light just flicks and then everything just starts to align. And sometimes, I think when we look back, we start to appreciate those even dark times or the frustrations because they led us to where we are now. Now we appreciate where we are so much more.

Laura Tynan 04:21

Oh yeah. Beautifully said. I mean, the dark times sometimes are like, where you have those moments of like waking up to what you should be doing. Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 04:29

Yeah, exactly. So if it wasn't as dark and wasn't as frustrating, sometimes we would be comfortable exactly where we are. But because it's not the greatest, that's what pushes us towards our destiny and what we should be doing.

Laura Tynan 04:41

It's so true, and I think it's actually a bit like a pitfall that many people fall into. That when you're in that place of comfort, you almost settle and you're thinking, okay, maybe I have this idea that I'm really passionate about. Maybe I'd love to start my business, but things aren't so bad where I am and, maybe I'm successful on paper and maybe I'm really good at my job. And so we just settle, without ever pushing ourselves to see what we could create if we actually got uncomfortable for a moment.

Gresham Harkless 05:09

Yeah, absolutely. And once we find that alignment, then that's when things start to take off.

Laura Tynan 05:13

Yes. Because I mean, I believe we all have a life curriculum that's specifically here. Like we're both here for a very clear reason on this earth. There's no like extra people created.

Gresham Harkless: 05:21

Yeah.

Laura Tynan 05:22

But I also think there's this pressure from society. It's certain that I felt of, you know, go to school, get good grades, go to university, and then get a good job. And when you get a good job and you're not happy, Like, oh my God, I felt so selfish. My parents had supported me and sent me to good education and now I have this great job and if I'm not happy, then what's wrong with me? Right. And there's this shame and this feeling of maybe I'm just being selfish, I'm not being grateful enough, you know. So actually realizing that it's not, it's this calling towards to do more. That's the kind of waking up point for me that many people either have to go through or, or have gone through in order to start their own businesses.

Gresham Harkless 05:57

Yeah, absolutely. That's why I love all the work that you're doing because you're helping people to basically create what is their calling and follow those things and set the world on fire and do so many awesome things. So I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper. Could you take us through how you work with clients and how you get to, through like, I guess some of those, I don't know if I wanna call them limiting beliefs, but you could just take us through exactly like how that experience works with you.

Laura Tynan 06:26

Yeah. And I think limiting beliefs is like the perfect term to use.

Gresham Harkless 06:29

Alright. Alright.

Laura Tynan 06:29

Yeah, I offer, at the moment like private one-to-one coaching with corporate women specifically, although there are other types of clients that come, but specifically with corporate women and we go on this journey together. I think the starting point is always understanding, you know, Why do you wanna start your own business? Like what is that, that's calling you? Because I'm sure you know this for sure as the I am CEO nation. But that clarity really is your power in knowing why you want to do something. Because, for any entrepreneur, it's not an easier road and staying in a job can sometimes feel so much easier. There will be struggles and challenges that come up, so always coming back to, why am I here? why do I wanna do this and why is this important for me? when we can get that real clarity from the very get-go, it just makes the entire journey so much easier because you have something that you're being pulled towards even though things may be tough. That's the kind of first starting point that I always work with clients on is like, why do you want this? And then from there, actually creating and building out the picture of what do you want your business to look like? how do you wanna serve your clients? What does your ideal client look like? and taking them through that whole journey. And so I'd like to also look at my coaching style as broken down almost into like three pillars. So we have alignment, awareness, and action. Alignment is very much working on the energy side, on the law of attraction, on the universal energies. This greater power, whatever we can call it, that is working for us and realizing that nothing really has to be done. It's more like alignment is always your first stage.

Then there's awareness which is more, I suppose, traditionally run the kind of Tony Robbins side of the world, like the N L P and the mindset training and new psychology and why we get in our way. This is where limiting beliefs definitely come in. So what stories have we been telling ourselves and what reasons are we giving ourselves that we're not starting our business or we're not moving forward and actually uncovering those and, and replacing them with something that's more empowering. Then finally, the action stage, which is actually so interesting because a lot of the corporate women I work with as I would've been, we live in our masculine energy to survive in these corporate like male-dominated worlds and so we're very action oriented. And so action sometimes is like the first place we wanna go to. But realizing that you have to align, get aware of your mindset, and then the action becomes inspired action and it's so much easier to move forward. And that's the kind of step then when we start to work on things together. So that's the approach I like to take and I find it has like the biggest impact and transformation for women.

Gresham Harkless 08:57

Yeah. It makes so much sense and I appreciate you for breaking that down because I think so many times, as you said, we just jump into action. We just jump into trying to get things done. But I think that if you don't do that work before you just end up taking action. But as you said, it's not, I don't know if I wanna say fulfilled action, but it doesn't feel as powerful as when you're able to get those things in alignment. And the aaa, I don't know if you call it that, but I'll call it the aaa and be able to get those steps in place to be able to have and create the world and life that you wanna have.

Laura Tynan 09:34

Yeah, it's like getting in the flow, right? We all know that moment when we just feel things are just easy versus when we're really pushing and it's a struggle which, is understandable because we live in an age of the hustle mentality, right? Like work every hour of the day and hustle, hustle, hustle. But that also doesn't necessarily give us the best results that we could be creating.

Gresham Harkless 09:51

Awesome. Awesome, awesome. So I wanted to ask you now for what I call your secret sauce. And it could be for you personally or your business, and you might have already touched on this, but is it that vulnerability, the courage to be able to do that is what you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

Laura Tynan 10:05

Yeah. I think the willingness to be seen is actually something that in today's society is quite rare and it's something I realized, which was surprising at the same time. And it's also why I work a lot with women. I do public speaking workshops and different things like that because the ability to use your voice to be heard, to have your message heard, which is so important not just as a vanity thing, but as progressive evolution of our world, having your voice heard, and having a message shared is so key. So I think being authentic and being visible and being vulnerable enough to be seen for you and for your gifts and your talents and have the courage to say, this is what I want to do can be so important. I love working with people on that side of things as well, because for so long we've been taught what we should be doing, you know, this is what success should look like for you. This is the type of stage in life you should be at if you get to this age and this age and this age. And it's quite nice to come back and free yourself at that and say, actually this is who I am. This is what I want, this is how I wanna define myself and how I wanna define my life.

Gresham Harkless 11:08

Yeah, I love that. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Laura Tynan 11:20

This is probably not the first time you've heard this, but my morning routine is like my thing that I rely on so much. So I love getting up early in the morning. I go to boxing and then I like to meditate, do a bit of journaling, something like that is my kind of go-to, to set me up for the day.

Gresham Harkless 11:35

Yeah. I appreciate you breaking that down. So, now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. So that could be like a word of wisdom or piece of advice, or if you could hop into a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Laura Tynan 11:47

My younger business self, you know, the biggest change for me was when I actually started, investing back in myself and just realizing the power of our minds really. I think growing up I never quite understood that I was the creator of my own life. I thought life was something that was happening and I was on the journey with it. . So realizing that you actually have the control to create your own destiny regardless of your past, regardless of what your current circumstances are, that you don't have to just look at people on social media with envy if they're doing what you wanna do, that you can also create that for yourself.

Gresham Harkless 12:18

Love that. Now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different CEOs on this show. So, Laura, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Laura Tynan 12:26

So two things for me, and the first is freedom, and the second is having a positive impact. So freedom is you get to create your life in a new way of, set it up how you want it to be. Positive impact is like I chose to do work that I'm not only passionate about, but that has a massive impact positively on the lives of the people that I work with and that I can touch. And that is just such a blessing and a gift for me and, it allows me to use my business in new ways to give back in terms of like philanthropy or like financial contribution or giving my services to different like organizations, schools, charities, things like that. So the freedom and the ability to positively contribute is, really what a CEO definitely is all about.

Gresham Harkless 13:08

Yeah, I would definitely echo that and I appreciate that definition. I always sometimes say, it's like you're, an artist and you know, you have a canvas in front of you and get to paint that canvas. You get to make those decisions, those opportunities, figure out what colors to use, where to use them and things like that. I think when you start to have that mentality, that CEO mentality, that mindset, it starts to open up the world and open up all the possibilities within it.

Laura Tynan 13:31

Yeah. Oh, I love that. The artist and the canvas. Yes. Yes. That's how it is.

Gresham Harkless 13:36

It sounds like a plan. Well, Laura, I truly appreciate all the awesome work that you're doing. I appreciate your time today. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and listeners know, and then of course, how best they can get ahold of you and find out about all the awesome things you're working on.

Laura Tynan 13:52

Yeah, I mean, for anyone listening who's interested or has an idea to start their own business or maybe is in the process and it's not working out, it's just to realize that, this idea and this dream that you have, you never would've been given it if you already didn't have the ability to create it and to make this a reality for yourself. So whatever you're going through, whatever hurdles or challenges you might be facing, just realize that they're temporary and they're only there for you to grow and to become more resilient, and to teach you the skills that you need to go on and really fulfill this image and this dream you have in your mind. So to keep persisting, to never give up, and to really believe in yourself. That would be my last kind of comment to make and yeah, lauratynan.com is where I'm online and then on social media. It's just, I amLauraTynan, I'm on LinkedIn and Instagram. Probably the two best places to connect. So specifically if there are any women out there listening that would like some support and moving forward, then I would definitely love to hear from them.

Gresham Harkless 14:45

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, thank you so much again, Laura. We will definitely have the links and information in the show notes, but definitely, again, appreciate all the awesome work you're doing and the reminder as well too, that a lot of times that hope and dream that we have, that is in you is there for a reason, is to see that you should cultivate, you should help sprout. You shouldn't push it aside. Because I think so many times, there's really awesome projects and really awesome organizations or businesses that people have. But sometimes they get pushed aside. So I appreciate you for reminding us, of cultivating that.

Laura Tynan 15:15

And I appreciate you for this great opportunity to speak with you. It's been great.

Gresham Harkless 15:19

Yes, it's been awesome. So I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Outro 15:22

Thank you for listening to the I am CEO podcast, powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I am CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and everywhere you listen to podcasts, subscribe and leave us a five-star rating. Grab CEO gear at www.ceo gear.co. This has been the I am CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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