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Women Innovating Networking Growing Scaling – that’s WINGS … I’m Melinda Wittstock, my mission is to help women take flight to soar to the success of our dreams in business and in life– and create and grow businesses in alignment with our passion and purpose.

On our Mentoring Minisode of Wings of Inspired Business … we talk about the power of the divine feminine … that is, the magic that happens when we women step into that authentic archetypal feminine power we all have. We talk today about what feminine leadership means, why it is impacting ALL businesses. Its about empathy, vulnerability, patience, nurturing and collaboration … and it’s changing the game of business

Here with us today to provide her insights and inspiration about feminine leadership and more is …

Angela Lauria.

Angela has been helping people free their inner Author since 1994, helping over 1,000 authors-in transformation write, publish, and promote their books.  Her clients have been seen everywhere from Vanity Fair to O Magazine to the Today Show, and her books have been responsible for over $100 million cumulative revenue.

She’s the founder of The Author Incubator™ and creator of the Difference Process™ for writing a book that matters. In 2018, The Author Incubator was ranked #275 on the Inc. 500 fastest growing companies and #87 on Entrepreneur Magazine’s Entrepreneur 360. Angela program, The Author’s Way, was named Coaching Program of the Year, and Angela was named by Entrepreneur Magazine, as one of the top 10 most inspiring entrepreneurs to watch

Angela Lauria will be here with her advice in just a moment on our Mentoring Minisode and first …

Is this the year you finally launch that podcast of yours? I believe your voice IS your value … and I believe your voice is your passport to engage the world in your true purpose and mission … and that when you do leverage your voice as a podcaster miracles manifest for you and your business and the impact you want to have in the world. That’s why I’m sharing with you my complimentary 7 Step Guide to engaging your tribe with a magnetic podcast that makes you money. Sound good? Go to wingspodcast.com/liftoff.

And now to the inspiring Angela Lauria – CEO and founder of the Author Incubator … the place you go right now if you want that book of yours finally written and in the hands of your target customers..

Angela is also the author of several books including Make ‘Em Beg to Be YourClient: The Nonfiction Authors’ Guide to Selling, Serving, and Funding a Movement, Make’Em Beg to Publish Your Book: How To Reach A Larger Audience & Make A Full-Time Income In The Extremely Overcrowded World of Personal Development, The Incubated Author: 10 Steps to Start a Movement with Your Message, and The Difference: 10 Steps To Writing A Book That Matters.

Angela has grown her company to hit 8 figures in just 5 years. Today she shares her secrets for failing, learning and scaling– and why it’s important to do the opposite, dare to be a contrarian, and how to be the person who is getting the result you want.

Melinda Wittstock:         Angela, welcome to Wings.

Angela Lauria:                  Hey, thanks for having me.

Melinda Wittstock:         I’m so excited to talk to you about what’s inspiring you in this magical new year of 2020.

Angela Lauria:                  Well, I have a crazy story about what’s inspiring me. Last year, I went to Hawaii and I had a visitation from Mary Magdalen. I know. It’s a little woo, but I know this audience can handle it because I am a Wings listener and I’ve really been inspired by just how the divine feminine is rising in all of our institutions. So whether it’s government or [inaudible 00:00:50]. I’m watching the qualities of feminine leadership, not having anything to do with gender specifically, and not saying women are better than men. I’m a mom of a boy, I love men. But the qualities of feminine leadership are winning everywhere. And then-

Melinda Wittstock:         They are. Oh, I believe that’s true.

Angela Lauria:                  Isn’t it cool?

Melinda Wittstock:         Yeah.

Angela Lauria:                  And when I realized this, Mary Magdalene’s message to me was about the divine feminine in publishing. And I saw all of the ways that traditional publishing, which is my industry, is crumbling under the weight of the patriarchy and just how beautiful that is and that this is really the moment for women leaders and for the divine feminine to rise. And I love being a part of that and being guided by that.

Melinda Wittstock:         I believe that’s true. And I think that’s happening in every industry where. It’s such an opportunity for women right enhance the whole idea of Wings to really be able to soar with that. And so what does feminine leadership mean to you? I mean what is it? What makes it different?

Angela Lauria:                  Yeah. For me, the divine feminine is all about iteration, and you don’t have to get it right. I don’t know if you know this, but the word testify comes from the same root as the word testes. The idea is the truth is black and white. It’s on or off. It’s by an airy. It’s solid. It’s unchanging. I can testify it won’t change. But female leadership is so much more about empathy and vulnerability and patience and collaboration and nurturing and sharing, and iterating. You don’t have to get it right. That’s what’s so amazing, is together we rise. We actually commissioned a song for our business called Together We Rise. And so we can figure it out together as we go. We don’t actually have to get it right to succeed. We can be more creative, inclusive and collaborative.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yes, absolutely true. My own little bit of woo, and this download for me, came in the middle of the Amazon Rainforest, lying on a banana leaf, looking up at millions of stars. And it struck me that the Amazon Rainforest had this beautiful balance between the masculine and the feminine and the divine or sacred sense. And I felt that calling there as well. And I think what’s so interesting is how many women are having this download at this time. It’s really a call to play bigger and just really lean into it. So how beautiful? Gosh!

Angela Lauria:                  And a call to receive. For me, I’m actually a little more naturally masculine. I’m all about getting it done and being logical and achieving. I naturally have a lot of masculine traits. So for me being open to receive and be more flexible and flowing, that is the next evolution for me. That’s stepping up and not naturally comfortable, but something I’m actually learning and leaning into.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yeah, I think that’s great. What I find so interesting about that is that a lot of female entrepreneurs do tend towards the masculine a little bit more. I know that’s been true of me, that kind of get it done and it works until it doesn’t work anymore.

Angela Lauria:                  Yes.

Melinda Wittstock:         And so then the next step is to really approach this. And I think of my… God! As my fifth business really gets going, this podcast network and I think about how that is organized in this more divine feminine way. So this is the great topic that I know is a big theme. It’s going to be a big theme all through 2020 and beyond. And so, I guess to segue here, what are the challenges in that? Or what other challenges do you have in your business and your life? Because we all have them at whatever stage of growth. We are in a company, I know yours has grown a pace. You’re well into what? The nine figures now? Are you in the nine figures yet or?

Angela Lauria:                  We’re doing between a million. Our lowest month in 2019 was a million and our highest month was 1.7. so we ended the year around 15 million, which is a pretty good run, but still definitely eight figures.

Melinda Wittstock:         Okay. So with that-

Angela Lauria:                  I’m figuring that.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yes. With that that divine feminine, you’ll get to nine. So what are some of the-

Angela Lauria:                  Excellent, I love that. But here is the things. No much changes. I still feel five years ago, I was just a girl with a laptop on a couch trying to get clients. And in five years to go to an organization with an ad budget over a hundred thousand a month, a sales team, a marketing team, 40 employees, that’s a lot of really fast growth. Most of my growth I attribute to my network, programs that I’ve been in, coaches I’ve hired, masterminds I’ve been in. And I think my biggest challenge is, I just got too full. I just have too much, too many ideas, too much time out of the office, not enough time to implement.

Angela Lauria:                  So this is really an integration year for me. Just really accepting it’s a pretty big deal to go from zero to 15 million in six years. I’m taking some time to integrate that before I move on to the next level.

Melinda Wittstock:         We’ve to take time to announce.

Angela Lauria:                  I just want give you myself fix.

Melinda Wittstock:         Well, I guess it goes back to your point about taking time to receive or taking time to feel that like, wow, I finished that. That’s completed. And you can just breath and move on. But what a beautiful thing? I think that’s amazing. I’m sure there are so many lessons in that five years and what came before in your life. And if you were to think back to advice you wish you’d had at different phases of the growth of your business, and you boiled it down to the top three pieces of advice you’d give another woman on a laptop, or say someone even in like you into, the eight figures. In that scaling, what would be the top three pieces of advice you would give?

Angela Lauria:                  I think I’m going to start with most important one first, and this is the reason why I’ve had the growth that I’ve had. It’s a piece of advice that I got from my coach Brooke Castillo, who runs the Life Coach School. And the advice she gave me was be willing to suck. I think this is the biggest advantage I have in business is, I’m willing to suck. I’m willing to fail. I’m willing to get it wrong. I’m willing to be embarrassed. I’m willing to suck.

Melinda Wittstock:         I love that. It’s important-

Angela Lauria:                  That that’s my number one.

Melinda Wittstock:         Right. And to that point, can you think of any time in your life or business where you’ve learned a lot by succeeding as opposed to failing?

Angela Lauria:                  Failing by sacking… Oh no! I learned every… I mean I’ve learned so much from failing.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yeah, me too.

Angela Lauria:                  And then everything succeed is nice, but a lot of times, succeeding feels like you’re already there. It’s succeeding feels inevitable, right? It’s like I’ve already done all the work. So obviously, I knew going into 2019, I knew it would be pretty hard for us to do less than a million dollars a month. So even though anyone would say $1 million a month is succeeding, it kind of… It was hard to pat myself on the back for that. Because it was like, well obviously. The 2 million a month would have counted as success, but…

Angela Lauria:                  So I think we discount success. It’s hard to really acknowledge success. But I think where my greatest lessons have come is from failing and staying conscious, plugged in, aware, not running away from my feelings and just observing and being curious.

Melinda Wittstock:         Beautiful. So what’s advice number two?

Angela Lauria:                  Advice number two was opposite advice. My dad used to always say, I don’t pay people to think. And he would always complain about his employees. I grew up in an entrepreneurial home and he’s just like, “I don’t know why he did that. I didn’t pay him to think. I pay him to do.” And so, when I started my business, I had the same mentality. I thought I was going to come up with what they were going to do. Then I would give people money and then they would do it exactly how I thought it out in my head. And my greatest success has come as an entrepreneur by paying people to think. So this is anti-dad advice. Pay people that think, get them enrolled in your vision and then get out of their way and let them do it their way and pay them. And it will be completely different than you would have done it.

Angela Lauria:                  But as long as you’re on the same page about the end point, don’t worry about how they get there, trust them to do it their way. To the point where I put myself on media blackout, I don’t want to know how my team is doing things. I want to know what the result is that we’re agreeing, the date I’ll see the results, and then I don’t want to see the drafts. I don’t want to see how we get there. I don’t want them to just show their work. I pay them to think

Melinda Wittstock:         wonderful. So what would be advice number three? Number three I think-

Angela Lauria:                  [inaudible 00:11:37]. Hold on a second. My son shut the dog in here and he wants to get out there. I’m going to let him out so he doesn’t disturb us again. There you go Augie. Okay, sorry about that. Hold on a second.

Melinda Wittstock:         All right, so what would be advice number three?

Angela Lauria:                  Advice number three, I think is Esther Hicks Abraham advice. Though, I’m not even sure where I heard it, but it’s how I live my life. Which is, be the person who has the result you want before you get that result.

Melinda Wittstock:         Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Angela Lauria:                  And so, I do this in everything. I identify what I want, and then I identify how I would act if I have that thing. And then I just start acting that way even though I don’t have that thing. And that’s how I manifest so quickly.

Melinda Wittstock:         Ah, wonderful. So, Angela, how can people find you, work with you, finally get that book that they’ve been thinking about writing done, published and in a buy for 2020?

Angela Lauria:                  Yeah, I love it. So the best way to actually learn about our secrets… We’ve helped over 800 authors get their books done. We’ve published over a thousand books. Lots of people come back and write a second book with us. And I’ve put some of my best tools and tricks and secrets in a masterclass I teach. So if you go to the authorincubator.com/masterclass, it’s about a two hour training. So buckle in for the ride. I will teach you what our authors do to get their book done. So that is definitely the best way to learn about how we get books done at the Author Incubator.

Melinda Wittstock:         Fantastic. Thank you so much Angela for putting on your wings and flying with us.

Angela Lauria:                  Thanks for having me.