Episode Transcript
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Laura Gisborne (00:00):
This is my ninth
company. After building nine
different companies, selling sixof them, we're a very
spiritually connected communityof leaders here to use their
businesses as vehicles forlegacy. Our organization has
collectively raised over$750,000 for causes they don't
(00:22):
know that I was sexuallymolested from the time I was two
till the time I was seven.
Instead of push. It can becollaboration, it can be
cooperation, it can be alistening. Leaders are smart,
they're savvy, and theirwillingness to be vulnerable is
actually one of the greatesttenets of success.
BEATE CHELETTE (00:48):
Hello and
welcome back. BEATE CHELETTE
here today with Laura Gisbornefrom limitless women, and even
if you're a man, I want you tolisten to this episode fully
today, because we will talkabout some things, about
conscious leadership, aboutstepping into who you are meant
to be, your limiting orlimitless belief systems on
whether you are a man or awoman. And one of great topics
(01:12):
we've never talked about on theshow masculinity and femininity
and how it plays out, and how touse both really successfully.
Laura, welcome to the show.
Laura Gisborne (01:22):
Thank you.
Thanks for having me. I'mthrilled to be with you.
BEATE CHELETTE (01:25):
Thank you so
much for being here. So for
somebody who is not familiarwith your work, will you please
share with us who you are andwhat problem do you solve for
your clients?
Laura Gisborne (01:36):
So I'm Laura
Gisborne, and I'm the founder of
Limitless Women. This is myninth company. I started my
first business. I kind ofmarried into a family business.
I have to give credit wherecredit is due in my early 20s.
And fast forward now, afterbuilding nine different
companies, selling six of them,the problem I solve is help
entrepreneurs move from beingself employed to being business
(01:59):
owners by helping them build, Ithink, a little bit like you do
business architecture, buildingfoundations, building structures
and systems so that the businesscan operate in an owner
independent fashion, so that thefounder can be free to do
whatever it is that turns themon.
BEATE CHELETTE (02:14):
Well, I mean,
that is the goal. Always. Is the
goal. One of the things that Ireally liked about what you said
when we first started talkingabout you coming on the show is
intricately connected to thename of your business,
limitless. Tell us. What doesthis mean for anybody? Because I
(02:35):
think limitless is sort of thisbig term that people throw
around and then they say, I cando anything, you can do
anything, and then they need tostart doing it, and then somehow
it's not happening and they'rehitting barriers. So what is the
definition of limitless in yourworld?
Laura Gisborne (02:53):
I think the
reality is that when we look at
what we're capable of, it'soften so much greater than what
we think is possible right now,if you've done a lot of personal
development work, and I talkedabout Maslow's hierarchy and
growing in personal development,then you start to see more and
more potential and more and morepossibility. We moved this brand
to limitless women, really, backin 2015 started out with
(03:17):
different names and differentiterations, but that's really
what it is. I feel like there isa whole wave of people, male and
female, who are doingextraordinary things, but we
don't always know about them,right? I mean, our work is
philanthropy first. So we're avery spiritually connected
community of leaders who arehere to use their businesses as
(03:38):
vehicles for legacy. And why Ifeel like that's limitless is
that when the body leaves, whenthe founder is no longer with
us, the business still has anopportunity to continue to
support others and carry on themission of the work. So who
knows where that goes? I don'tsee any limits in that work,
BEATE CHELETTE (03:54):
and you have a
compelling story to tell about
that when you came face to face,literally, with your own
mortality. Do you want to tellus a little bit about a bit
about this pivotal moment inyour life when you really
shifted more and more into thislegacy component of your work?
Laura Gisborne (04:11):
I'm probably,
like a lot of people at my age.
I'm almost 60 years old, so ifyou've been around for a while
and you've had a pretty robustexperience, it's probably not,
it's not one time that I wouldsay, I would say there was a car
accident that I was in fouryears ago. That might be what
you and I talked about in ourpre work, that you might be
referencing. I think that thepiece, but I had already had the
(04:33):
business in motion, and it wasdoing what it was doing. I would
say that the big catalyst for mein the car accident was really
recognizing the capacity that Ihave to really create impact in
the world. I did this workbecause I was asked to, I was
asked to, can you help us withthis? Can you help us with that?
And what I didn't realize thatwhat I was doing is what was
(04:54):
unusual when I was buildingmultiple companies and raising a
family, and, you know, living mylife, it just seemed like I was
just doing. Thing, right? Icouldn't see my own eyebrows, as
my friend Tracy says. So lookingback now that our organization
has collectively raised over$750,000 for causes since we
decided to do this work aroundphilanthropy first, I'm excited
(05:15):
to see where we're going withit, God willing. I'm well, I
just had my fifth surgery after,you know, four years, but I'm
feeling great. And I thinkagain, the the business model is
not about me. The business isabout leaders who want to create
impact with their companies,actually incorporating
philanthropy and giving back andseeing themselves as catalysts
for change. Not somebody else'sjob, not someday when I get
(05:37):
there, but what can I do now andcollectively when we come
together like that, thepossibilities are pretty
BEATE CHELETTE (05:44):
infinite. Well,
I mean, the highest form is
through me and the spiritualteachings. So when you say,
through me, can you explain thatso that we can give our audience
a framework for that? What thatmeans? Because, I think when we
start a business, we start abusiness because it's an
extension of our idea, and thenwe want to achieve certain
(06:07):
things. And that's not what I'mhearing from you, that this is
about you at all. I'm hearingsomething completely different.
Do you mind going into that alittle bit deeper?
Laura Gisborne (06:16):
Well, I think,
you know, probably my training
ground as an entrepreneur, mightbe different. I don't know what
industries that you're servingin your audience, in your
community, probably all types ofdifferent industries, right? I
think about one of my clients Iwas just speaking with, who's in
London, and she's a physician,so when she's gone through
school, she's the healer, she'sthe person who's lays hands on
she's the person who'sresponsible to partner with her
(06:39):
patients. Right? When I lookback at our our experience of
having restaurants and retailstores and real estate
operations, it wasn't reallyabout me, right? It was about
what was happening for theclient, what was happening for
the customer, and how could weserve them, but How could our
company serve them? Not? Howcould Laura Gisborne serve them?
So when I started being asked tospeak and lead, and I wasn't a
(07:00):
speaker, and I wasn't an authorat the time, I kept saying, I
kept praying to be shown. Whatis this? What is it that you
guys want from me? It was myjourney, like a lot of founders,
trying to discover what would bein the highest and best use of
my time. How could I create thegreatest impact with the least
amount of effort? And you know,so I went on a journey trying to
figure these things out. Andit's my personal belief system
(07:23):
that everything that happens nowwith this work is really in the
our desire is for it to be inthe hands of God, for it to be
something that's in the thedivine service of something
greater than any one individual.
So it's not about me. LauraGisborne is the founder. It's
about limitless women as acommunity, but a community of
women, and we have a few reallycool men that show up now and
(07:44):
again who support the work. Weso appreciate them. But those of
us who see legacy as somethingthat's happening that we get to
be a part of, I mean, it's avery privileged conversation to
even be thinking about legacyversus trying to be in survival
mode, you know. So it kind ofputs us in a different
conversation than most of thepeople in the world, fortunately
or unfortunately, that's what it
BEATE CHELETTE (08:05):
is. Yeah, I
relate to that very much. I
didn't really think about legacymuch until, literally, a couple
months ago, people were askingme and say, Hey, can you give us
all the materials that you'vecreated over the last 20 years
on how to run these strategysessions and these processes and
systems, and can we have them?
So I'm going to ask you thisquestion, because when you know
(08:26):
it sounds great to say legacy,but I think the legacy part also
means a vulnerability and aopening up and a giving things
to other people that you workedso hard to create for. How do
you reconcile that is that, wasthat ever an issue, or was it
just clear that this was goingto happen through you and you
(08:47):
were willing to share it withthe world? Yeah, are you
Laura Gisborne (08:50):
asking? Did I
ever have an ego? Yes, I did
have one, and I still have onetoday. Absolutely, absolutely,
I'm still a mere mortal in ahuman body and doing the best I
can each day. What I know isthat there's nothing that I
teach that wasn't taught to mefirst, right? What I know is
that money is not my money, thatmoney comes to me and through me
(09:14):
in service to my service toothers. And what I know is that
it's all very, very temporaryanyway. So if I can use the
little bit of time that I haveon the planet to create a
better, easier journey forsomeone else, it's my pleasure
to do that, because there werepeople who did that. For me,
it's easy for someone to look atlife from the outside of someone
(09:37):
else in social media and say,Oh, it looks like this person
has it all together. None of usreally know what someone else
has gone through. People see metoday. They don't know about my
childhood. They don't know thatI was sexually molested from the
time I was two till the time Iwas seven. They don't know about
those scars and how theyimpacted my relationship with
myself as a woman. They don'tknow about me traveling around
for decades, really being a mantrapped in a woman's body.
(10:00):
Reality. And what I mean by thatis that all of my business in my
early years, it was like pushand drive. And you and I talked
about that, right? What I wouldconsider are the masculine
components that are reallypositive, that I love, around
focus and willingness to reallystay on track. I think those are
beautiful masculine attributes.
I think that masculineattributes sometimes a push is
not so good. It's not so goodfor women. So finding my way in
(10:22):
my own dance and being a wholehuman and doing the best I can
with what I have, nothing givesme greater opportunity for
expansion than to stop thinkingabout myself.
BEATE CHELETTE (10:35):
I find this a
powerful piece, because there's
so many teaching students, Iwant to unpack a couple of this.
So you talked about masculinityand femininity, I think
specifically being a woman and awoman in business and society
being what society is, and thebusiness systems, having been
set up by men, for men, had towork for men. They don't really
work for men so much anyway,either, but they really don't
(10:59):
work for the most part forwomen. So to talk to us about,
how do you recognize if you'rein masculine or feminine energy,
and is that a good thing or abad thing?
Laura Gisborne (11:11):
Well, there's a
lot of conversation today about
the patriarchy and this andthat, and here's the reality, we
don't move forward together as aspecies when we're trying to be
just the women doing somethingor just the men doing something,
it's when men and women cometogether. At this current point
in time, it takes an egg and asperm to create a human being,
right? So there's actually adivine dance of masculine and
(11:33):
feminine, and we're gonna referto the power, the value of that.
I think, as we as women arefinding our voices and finding
our way and creating our ownsystems, right, not judging or
criticizing or putting somebodyelse's system down. But in this
conversation is where theconversation of
entrepreneurship, it is aprivilege to have that
conversation. It is a luxury.
When I am working with a womanon the continent of Africa and
(11:56):
we're doing some funding to helpher get started. She's really
looking at how can she feed herfamily, and she's looking at
entrepreneurship as thisopportunity to be a mother, to
take care of her children, toprovide education for them that
they wouldn't have otherwise,because education is not free in
much of most of Africa. So Iwill say this piece for me,
(12:19):
around the evolution of being ahuman, I believe that my male
counterparts, my husband, mysons, my business partners, who
are men, are also in anevolution. How are we finding a
dance of how to be more human,how to be more kind, and to look
at that strength can be seen ina different way, instead of
(12:39):
push, it can be collaboration,it can be cooperation, it can be
a listening. I lead leaders, somy business is a little
different than leadingfollowers. I can tell you that
leaders are smart, they'resavvy, and their willingness to
be vulnerable is actually one ofthe greatest tenets of success.
Instead of trying to be the lonewolf, and I'll just do it
(13:00):
myself. The more they realizethat the capacity to allow
yourself to be supported,whether you happen to be in a
male body or a few female body,your willingness to organize
humans around you thatcomplement your own strengths
and weaknesses, will create amore thriving organization.
BEATE CHELETTE (13:21):
Are you finding
that this consciousness is
really changing right now? Is itincreasing? Is is it something
that you see become more popularthan when you first started
doing this?
Laura Gisborne (13:31):
I think it
depends on what playground you
hang out in, right? You live inLos Angeles, if I remember that
correctly, yeah. Okay, so welived in Sedona, Arizona for 17
years, and it's an interestingthing, because Sedona is one of
those places where people comefrom all over the world, because
they're feeling spirituallycalled to be there. They're
feeling inspired to be there. Ifeel like I was called to be
there to raise my children. Iwasn't nearly as new agey or far
(13:54):
out, whoo, probably, as I amtoday. I mean, today I pray to
lead a lead life. Almosteverything I do is is on
intuition and guidance, becauseI have the systems and structure
around me to support my freedom.
And again, I don't take thatlightly. I think that that's a
really blessing and a gift in mylife. I don't know that people
are more conscious or lessconscious, because I think that
(14:16):
there's lots of ways to checkout, as we all know, we can use
drugs, alcohol, work, socialmedia, sex, whatever it turns
you on, right? There's lots ofways to check out, but those of
us who feel who are spiritualseekers, who feel called to have
a conversation about somethinggreater than ourselves, which is
in the work of legacy, that'swhere we play all the time. I
(14:37):
just hang out with cool people,really. It's, it's not difficult
for me to to be in theseconversations because of the
people I choose to surroundmyself with. Again, I'm very
aware of what a luxury that is.
BEATE CHELETTE (14:49):
All right, I
love that, Laura. What stands
out in the conversation so far,for me is that you seem to have
this trust in you. Uh, theguidance system that you've
created. So you shared a littlebit of information about your
intuition and how you steppedinto that. So if we have this,
(15:11):
the spiritual part of you andthe consciousness that you
develop, but then you talk aboutthe ecosystem. So I want people
to visually see that, on how youbuilt that, and how you move
between the two.
Laura Gisborne (15:21):
So when I refer
to the ecosystem of limitless
women as a community that'sreally connected to our legacy,
our mature, well establishedbusinesses that are mentoring
and nurturing the nextgeneration of emerging leaders
into legacy, right? So hopefullythe whole thing works well then
as the emerging younger leadersgrow into being mature legacy
(15:44):
leaders, they will reach backand support future generations.
Should they still be here insome kind of form or fashion?
Right? That's the ecosystem oflimitless women, my own personal
ecosystem. I what I think you'rekind of asking me, if I'm
hearing it correctly, is, howdoes it work to to to marry and
to partner, the inner game andthe outer game, like, what is it
(16:06):
to be in the world of successand systems and structure and
support and financial freedomand time freedom, and then also
be in a conversation with God ona regular basis? I think that
that piece for me is that weare, as humans, multifaceted.
We're not just a physical being.
And I think that a lot of pain,a lot of disconnection, a lot of
mental anguish, is caused bypeople not being connected to
(16:30):
themselves as spiritual beings.
I feel like there's more to usthan just our physical selves.
That's just my own beliefsystem. I'm a person who walks
with a lot of faith. I believethat all traditions deserve
reverence and appreciation.
There's so many ways for someoneto find themselves listening to
that still small voice,listening to their inner
(16:50):
guidance, and it is a practice,building businesses, building
systems, building success. AndI'm going to say this to take it
lightly, because, again, it'seasy for me to say this, now
that I'm almost 60, is not thehard work, in my opinion, in my
experience. In my opinion, thehard work is the inner work.
It's the places that we take.
(17:11):
It's the conditioning in ourbrain, if we want to go, from a
neuroscience perspective, it'sthe conditioning of our
experiences, the conditioning ofour childhoods. How do we re
pattern those things and choosea new reality, and if so, how do
we validate that and have itbecome stronger? How do we
create new neuropaths and havethose become smoother and freer
(17:31):
for us, if we want to live in aplace that's very different than
where we came from?
BEATE CHELETTE (17:36):
How did you how
did you recognize your own
limits? I think that's a very,actually challenging question
for most people. I mean, we'veheard you don't know what you
don't know in blind spots, yadayada yada, but when you're in
it, I don't think most peopleeven in know, know of the
existence. I mean, it's like ahunch, right? But, but you want
(17:59):
to defend what you know, becauseyou want to be knowledgeable and
you want to be the authority andyou want to look good, right?
How did you even get to thispoint to say I'm good, but I'm
missing something and actuallybe okay with that? Yeah?
Laura Gisborne (18:14):
So I don't know
what I missed today. I can tell
you what I've been aware ofmissing in the past. And I talk
about this in my first book,about, like, kind of the Wake Up
Calls, right? So, death,divorce, disease, we had covid,
disaster, these things thathappen, right? So in the in the
day, as my own evolution wasgoing, I had expectations. I set
(18:34):
things up. I thought things weregonna go a certain way, and when
it fell apart. I'll just usedivorce as an example of my
first marriage. It shookeverything. Shook everything
that I thought I was doingright. Shook everything that I
thought I had done well, and itwasn't, it wasn't the case. So I
had to really look at myself andsay, Where was I personally
responsible for that? To getsome help, to get a lot of
counseling, did some personaldevelopment trainings, and I
(18:57):
just think, if we're alive andbreathing, God's not done with
us yet. There's more to learn.
There's more to grow. It's oneof the great gifts of life to be
a student, right? To be able togrow and learn, and looking
around, because I have this isso cute. We just stayed at this
great hotel at Alabama calledthe graduate hotel, and on the
back of this, it says, We areall students. Yeah, how cool was
it? Really cool hotel, yeah. SoI don't, I don't have the
(19:21):
fallacy in my brain that I knoweverything I think as I get
older, I'm aware of how little Iknow. I also know that every
lifetime has a cycle, right? Imean, I think I've never felt
stronger. I had my spine fused.
Man, went through a lot ofstuff, physically and somehow,
(19:45):
For the grace of God, had a lotof great medicine and and help.
Here I am today, standing here,being able to stand here and
speak with you. I mean, what aluxury. It's pretty cool stuff.
So I'd say I am wildly humbleand humbled by opportunity. I. I
am fascinated by what'shappening in the world for the
next generation. I'm hopefulmost days. Some days I'm
(20:08):
pessimistic. Most days I'mreally hopeful and I'm just I
just really work on remainingcurious. What would
BEATE CHELETTE (20:15):
you say to
somebody who who says to you,
that's all nice and good, butlook, I've been doing this for
many, many, many years. I justwant to, I just want to take a
break. I just want to sit here,and I just want to be okay with
where I'm at right now.
Laura Gisborne (20:29):
I say, take a
break. Sounds like you already
know what you want to do. Youknow, have a friend who is a as
a mama of a little boy who's, Ithink he's eight now, and she
and I met, and she's had ahugely successful company for
many, many years, and she said,I'm tired and I feel like I'm
missing out. I said, don't do itlike just stop now. I think it's
(20:49):
easy again to say, here's aperson who's got support. She's
done well financially. But whatabout all the people that don't
have that, right? What about thetimes that somebody just needs a
break and they don't feel likethey can because they don't feel
financially that they can. Youknow, I invite you to figure
out, what can you let go of?
What's eating up your time,what's in the way of you having
(21:10):
a break and taking care ofyourself if we don't care for
our bodies, our bodies can'tcarry our souls. So it's really
important that we stay focusedon our sleep and our movement
and letting go of the thingsthat don't serve us, you know,
which is as easy that kind ofgoes back to that there's lots
of things we like to do that mayfeel good in the moment, but
will they really feel good forthe long term results we want?
(21:32):
I'm a big advocate of prayer,meditation, yoga. These are the
practices that work really wellfor me, and when I'm in my daily
practice, not a once a weekpractice, remember my daily
practice. My body is stronger,my mind is stronger, my heart is
larger, right? There's I havemore generosity. I have more to
give when I take care of myselffirst. So it doesn't have to
(21:55):
take a lot of time. But ifsomebody's tired, they need a
break, I encourage them to takea break, take some time off
BEATE CHELETTE (22:03):
on Maslow's
hierarchy in poverty
consciousness or povertythinking. So a lot of people are
struggling right now. You know,I've heard quite a few stories
of people closing theirbusinesses, giving up, having
issues with the external factorsthat we are seeing in the world
that are concerning for for mostof us. How do I how do I have
(22:28):
that humbleness, the mindset andthe gratitude, if I'm insecure
about my basic needs, what do Ido?
Laura Gisborne (22:37):
Yeah, I think
that the piece that I would say
that was a big game changer forme personally, because I was
born in the United States,right? I was born white. I was
born with access to things likefree education. It's easy to be
where you are and to feel yourproblems and feel that no one
understands or that yourproblems are the worst. It
doesn't take much to lookoutside yourself and try to see
(23:02):
what's going on. Now, I've hadthe luxury of traveling and
being in having my work take meall over the world, where I see
people who don't have access tofresh water, they don't have
access to a roof over theirheads, they don't have access to
education. So right off the bat,that puts me in a totally
different state of mind when Ican see the luxury of my life.
And it's not about needingmillions of dollars to do this.
(23:24):
It's often walking down thestreet and seeing somebody who
is homeless, seeing someone whois really struggling, and what
they have is the shirt on theback or what they have in their
little shopping cart. Right?
Perspective is a big teacher. Ithink that's the thing to say,
is that when we feel like wedon't have enough. I did this
with my kids when they werelittle. I we would take them and
I would say, Okay, this week,we're going to go figure out
(23:46):
what we can do for someone else.
We're going to go work as a foodkitchen. We're going to do
something that's different thanwhat you're doing your day to
day operations. You canremember, how could you have it?
The thing I'll tell you is, andI think is so many
entrepreneurs, just by thenature that you're an
entrepreneur, let's say you havea business that isn't thriving.
People always hear that I've hadnine companies and sold six of
(24:09):
them, and then I currently havetwo companies. Nobody ever asked
me about the company that didn'twork out. I get it and the ones
that did work didn't alwayswork. For big exponential
numbers, it might have beensmall businesses, small retail
operations. Sometimes thingshave a season, right? You may be
in a business. It may haveserved its season. It may be
time to close it or pay itforward. We gifted one of our
(24:31):
companies to one of ouremployees. We're like, we're
moving. You're in it, take itand be free. Go have fun. She
worked for us for years. Was apleasure to be able to do that,
right? I think that this placearound you take yourself
wherever you go. So if you're aperson who remembers how far
you've come, you don't even haveto play the comparison game with
someone else. You can compare, Idon't have the money of the
(24:52):
Kardashians. Or you can compare,I got more money than the guy
who's living out of a shoppingcart. You can play the game
however you want to. But. Inyour own experience, go look
back and see how far you'vecome. If you start doing that,
you start comparing backwards tohow far you've come. What you'll
remember is how you overcameadversity when it looked like it
couldn't be done, how youactually found resources when
(25:14):
you thought you were broke orbroken, how somehow someone came
through and took care of youwhen you didn't know how to take
care of yourself. You know,these are the lessons to
remember in life, to be awareof. These are the blessings of
life that are sometimes easy totake for granted. But if you
look back at that, all of that'sstill with you. Now, what are
(25:35):
you going to do with it? Youknow, if you shut down a
business, great, go and dosomething else, get a job.
There's all kinds ofopportunities in the world. I
don't think it's the sameeverywhere, but I do feel like
in this country, it's a greatcountry to live in. There's a
lot to be offered. It doesn'tmean it's perfect.
BEATE CHELETTE (25:50):
Yeah, and we
have it yeah and much to be
grateful for Laura, for somebodywho now would like to find out a
little bit more about how to belimitless, especially if they
are a limitless woman. Whereshould we send them?
Laura Gisborne (26:01):
Thank you. You
can send them to our website.
Limitlesswomen.com through easypeasy. We've got we do free
gifts on Fridays. We've beenjoining since 2016 so there's
eight years of trainings ondifferent business development,
modalities, inner game, outergame, systems, hiring
operations, all the sexy stuffthat you love. We do that in
addition to all this beautiful,spiritual work, yes, exactly. I
(26:24):
think sexy that was the firstthing I did. People said, How do
you do it? I'm like, I startedat McDonald's. Got out a plan,
right? So, sexy systems, I loveit.
BEATE CHELETTE (26:31):
Yeah. Sexy
systems, that's it, Laura, thank
you so much for being here. It'sbeen a pleasure to have
connected with you today. Thankyou for asking me, and that's it
for us, for today. There youhave. It limitless. Is really an
inside game, and be grateful forwhat you have. I don't really
like the notion of saying itcould be worse, because it
always could be worse, but toreally look at what you have and
(26:54):
recognize all the things thatyou had to activate to get here,
because that gives you the toolto go to the next step and to go
in further. And with that, I saygoodbye until next time. That's
it for this episode of theBusiness Growth Architect Show,
founders of the future. Ifyou're done playing small and
ready to build the future onyour terms, subscribe, share and
help us reach more Trailblazerslike you. And if you're serious
(27:17):
about creating, growing andscaling a business that's
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