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Shaking Up Networking Sober with Laura Nelson · The Heart-Led Business Show

0:01
Speaker: Welcome to The Heart-Led Business Show, where compassion meets commerce and leaders lead with love.
0:09
Speaker: Join your host, Tom Jackobs, as he delves into the insightful conversations with visionary business leaders who defy the status quo, putting humanity first and profit second.
0:20
Speaker: From heartfelt strategies to inspiring stories, this podcast is your compass in the world of conscious capitalism.
0:29
Speaker: So buckle up and let your heart guide your business journey.
0:36
Tom Jackobs: Well, welcome, welcome fellow heart-led adventurers.
0:39
Tom Jackobs: Today on the heart-led business show, we have the amazing Laura Nelson, a co-founder of Sober Life Rocks, and the insightful author of the Inclusive Event Planner.
0:51
Tom Jackobs: Laura is a champion of creating spaces that spark connection without alcohol in sight.
0:57
Tom Jackobs: So get ready to dive into her inspiring journey as she shares how her heart centered approach is transforming the event industry.
1:05
Tom Jackobs: So let's rally together to discover the magic of inclusivity and purposeful planning.
1:10
Tom Jackobs: Laura, welcome to the show.
1:11
Laura Nelson: Thank you.
1:12
Laura Nelson: What a great intro.
1:13
Laura Nelson: Very impressive.
1:14
Tom Jackobs: Well, you are very impressive.
1:16
Tom Jackobs: I think, you know, when we first spoke, I was thinking about our conversation and I was like, that is definitely an area that people struggle with at conferences and while at networking events and all that is when all the alcohol is flowing.
1:33
Tom Jackobs: And I know I've been at events where not me a friend, um, maybe had a little bit too much and then the next day it's just like, ah, you know, the, the conference is just, you've, you've wasted, you know, half a day.
1:46
Tom Jackobs: So I love what you're doing.
1:47
Tom Jackobs: I love the purpose that you have out there.
1:51
Tom Jackobs: So excited to dive into that with you.
1:53
Tom Jackobs: But first, what's your definition of a heart-led business?
1:57
Laura Nelson: I would have to really understanding what your customers need, what your hole you're filling, what problem you're solving.
2:07
Laura Nelson: You talk about like asking, just like really, I think so many times companies or groups or coaches or whatever, they feel like they're.
2:15
Laura Nelson: They've got this great thing for the world, but does the world want it?
2:19
Laura Nelson: Or does the world need it?
2:20
Laura Nelson: Or can you put yourself in their shoes?
2:22
Laura Nelson: And so I really think, I mean, that's kinda, with Sober Life Rocks, what I sort of did is,'cause I lived in those shoes, and so it's like while I'm trying to reach out to those who are also wearing the same shoes that, that I did and do.
2:33
Laura Nelson: So really it's knowing what your audience, what your customers, what the world needs, which is hard.
2:40
Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
2:40
Laura Nelson: It's not easy.
2:41
Tom Jackobs: That's such a great definition as well because it, it puts the focus on the customer, which is where the focus should be for most businesses.
2:49
Tom Jackobs: And I know it's hard to do that when you're trying to build your own business and you're like, oh, I love my product.
2:55
Tom Jackobs: But what about the customers?
2:56
Laura Nelson: Well, and I think some of that is as a human, we have this thing called an ego that thinks that we know everything and we know the best and they should do this and that, but If your customer doesn't want it or doesn't see a value in it, that doesn't, it only is you and your ego hanging out talking about how great you are.
3:14
Laura Nelson: So, I think it really is focusing on whoever the end product is or whoever it is you're trying to serve.
3:19
Tom Jackobs: Yeah, absolutely.
3:20
Tom Jackobs: Cool.
3:21
Tom Jackobs: So tell us a little bit about your business and what makes it heart-led.
3:25
Laura Nelson: For sure.
3:25
Laura Nelson: So, I actually am in the dental industry in my day job, so I am not so I've been in the dental industry 20 plus years.
3:33
Laura Nelson: I was married, had two kids doing the everyday life.
3:37
Laura Nelson: I'm a speaker and a trainer in the dental industry.
3:39
Laura Nelson: But woke up multiple times over the years, like you've said, going, oh my God, I drank one too many, or I stayed out too late with coworkers or at events or whatever, and was really questioning my relationship with alcohol, but never thought about stopping drinking because that just didn't seem fun.
3:57
Laura Nelson: It didn't seem like you could do that.
3:59
Laura Nelson: I didn't have any role models in that space until I woke up one day at a conference in 2020 and was like, this has got to stop.
4:06
Laura Nelson: Like, it wasn't that I was, the drunk mess in the corner and everybody knew it was that I was functioning really well.
4:12
Laura Nelson: But still second guessing my relationship with alcohol because it was just, I couldn't function as well the next day.
4:19
Laura Nelson: And I didn't remember a lot of the in-depth conversations the way I should have in the networking.
4:25
Laura Nelson: So I stopped drinking in 2020.
4:27
Laura Nelson: I didn't tell anyone in my industry because I thought that needs to be a private thing, but I went on TikTok instead and I made a TikTok channel and started talking about it over there.
4:35
Laura Nelson: With everybody else.
4:36
Laura Nelson: Right.
4:37
Laura Nelson: And then in 2023 I had an opportunity to speak on a wellness panel about wellness.
4:44
Laura Nelson: And my part of wellness was that I stopped drinking.
4:47
Laura Nelson: And we were in a room of 125 women and I said, how many people in here super Sober ish, sober, curious, and like a quarter of the room raise their hand.
4:57
Laura Nelson: Which made me realize I felt very alone in my journey, like my personal life people knew, but not my business life yet there was a huge percentage of women who also were trying not to drink or not drinking, and we didn't know about each other.
5:11
Laura Nelson: And in the evening, all the events had champagne and wine.
5:15
Laura Nelson: And so that's really where Sober Life Rocks launched.
5:17
Laura Nelson: My business partner now was there, and she's 20 years sober.
5:21
Laura Nelson: And she hadn't told anybody either for 20, well, at the time it was like 17 years, and we were like, this really has to change because there's so many people trying not to drink or drinking less or not drinking at all.
5:34
Laura Nelson: And yet we feel very alone in this journey.
5:38
Laura Nelson: we started Sober Life Rocks as a way to not help people get sober.
5:42
Laura Nelson: There's plenty of coaches and stuff to do that, but really to honor and celebrate those who've made sober choices or are trying to make sober choices, at industry events because you can choose who you hang out with in your personal life, but it's very hard when you go to work events and wine and dine and networking and all of that.
5:59
Laura Nelson: So we're really trying to help change the industry around that.
6:02
Tom Jackobs: Yeah, and what a great mission as well.
6:05
Tom Jackobs: So just on a personal note, what did you find was the biggest benefit of stopping drinking for you personally?
6:12
Laura Nelson: I honestly, it didn't come right away.
6:15
Laura Nelson: At first you feel good and you're excited and you wake up in the morning.
6:19
Laura Nelson: I mean, I still wake up in the morning.
6:20
Laura Nelson: I'm like, oh, thank goodness.
6:21
Laura Nelson: Right?
6:21
Laura Nelson: So it was that, but really it came maybe a year or two in when I realized I put down the bottle.
6:27
Laura Nelson: But I still had to deal with me.
6:29
Laura Nelson: And so many times I think we use alcohol to numb things, to deal with things, to whatever, and I had to learn how to do all of those things.
6:42
Laura Nelson: And maybe even like kind of work on me a little bit more because I still had to wake up with me and deal with me and all the stuff of life.
6:49
Laura Nelson: So I think the overall benefit for me was I really am, feel like I'm still discovering who I am because not that I had an alcohol problem in high school and college yet, but we've used alcohol or I've used alcohol for.
7:02
Laura Nelson: Concerts and parties and deaths and stress, and now I learn how to, just be me.
7:09
Laura Nelson: So I really feel like I'm really discovering more of just really who I am.
7:12
Tom Jackobs: Wow that, that's great.
7:13
Tom Jackobs: That's a great side benefit of it as well.
7:16
Tom Jackobs: I know I went through I think it was January, somewhere January and it I felt amazing and just the energy level and not that I drank a lot, but it was just yeah, the energy, the cognition was going great.
7:31
Tom Jackobs: And of course, I lost weight,
7:32
Laura Nelson: Yeah, right.
7:33
Laura Nelson: There's that too.
7:35
Tom Jackobs: When your liver isn't processing alcohol, it can actually metabolize fat, which is it's supposed to do.
7:41
Laura Nelson: The other thing I thought had of it is I started wearing the aura ring, the sleep ring at nighttime, and the last few weeks that I was drinking, I thought I was sleeping alcohol off, right?
7:51
Laura Nelson: If I got enough sleep, I could just, and when I started to see what it was doing to my body at nighttime and then I really wasn't sleeping because your body's processing the alcohol.
8:00
Laura Nelson: That's when I, the very last night I drank, I didn't even wear my aura ring'cause I didn't wanna know.
8:04
Laura Nelson: I was just like, which I was like, okay, right there, there's a problem.
8:07
Laura Nelson: Like if you're not wearing it and you're trying to be healthy and I sleep is my superpower, I just, I love sleep.
8:14
Laura Nelson: So to realize what it was doing to my sleep, I was like, this is, I've gotta give, something's gonna give.
8:20
Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
8:21
Tom Jackobs: Yeah that's great.
8:22
Tom Jackobs: So, so tell us how are you transitioning people or helping people at conferences be sober when the, there's five bars open and it's all open pouring, and you go up to the bartender and you ask for a club soda with lime, and everybody's like, what are you
8:38
Laura Nelson: Uhhuh.
8:38
Tom Jackobs: doing?
8:39
Laura Nelson: Yeah.
8:40
Tom Jackobs: So how are we doing that?
8:41
Laura Nelson: So there's two prongs.
8:42
Laura Nelson: So we have Sober Life Rocks, which is we'll talk, we can talk about it in a bit.
8:46
Laura Nelson: That's where we're really trying to help amplify sober voices.
8:50
Laura Nelson: But for me personally, going into this space, what I first did was wrote a book, and the reason I wrote the book about it is because it's more, a lot of times it the event planners meeting.
8:59
Laura Nelson: Conference planners think that it really has to do with just have a mocktail or have a have soda, which what people who don't drink want is, they wanna feel, first of all, they don't want attention on themselves.
9:11
Laura Nelson: They don't want you to, don't ask me 14 questions of why I'm not drinking.
9:15
Laura Nelson: They wanna be able to have drinks that others are having just without the alcohol.
9:20
Laura Nelson: And we wanna feel included and we wanna be able to stay.
9:23
Laura Nelson: And so like,'cause a lot of times we go, if you're not drinking and people are all, you feel like everyone's drinking around you and people are getting sloppy later in the evening, you go back to your room or you just kind of disconnect.
9:34
Laura Nelson: So I wrote the book to try to explain to meeting planners that first of all, we need connection people we use alcohol as a way to network and connect and lower inhibitions, and so we need to set up our meetings better so that there's easier ways to connect.
9:51
Laura Nelson: Because it's not easy for anyone really.
9:53
Laura Nelson: I mean, a few extroverts, I guess to walk up and be like, hi, I am Laura.
9:57
Laura Nelson: What's your name?
9:58
Laura Nelson: So even, and before they even come to make sure they know it's a safe space.
10:02
Laura Nelson: There's gonna be mocktails, there's gonna be na drinks, there's gonna be other things there, and there's gonna be other things to do.
10:08
Laura Nelson: Because so much of the conferences, the focus is around rolling up the black bars in the conference rooms, and we stand around and drink.
10:15
Laura Nelson: So my call is not to get rid of alcohol.
10:18
Laura Nelson: It's not going anywhere.
10:18
Laura Nelson: But let's make the focus around the event.
10:21
Laura Nelson: What are we doing?
10:23
Laura Nelson: Is there a scavenger hunt, a band, a dj?
10:26
Laura Nelson: Is there networking games, something?
10:30
Laura Nelson: Have the alcohol still there?
10:31
Laura Nelson: That's fine, but just don't make it the focal point.
10:34
Laura Nelson: And then really it's about the, helping people walk in connected.
10:38
Laura Nelson: Because many times when you don't drink, you feel very alone.
10:42
Laura Nelson: And when you know there's other people there that also aren't drinking, you're no longer the only one in the room.
10:47
Laura Nelson: And so if everyone else is drinking and you and I aren't drinking and we're talking, I might stay longer because we're connecting because we've got this in common.
10:56
Laura Nelson: And then lastly, it's about the bar and the bar.
10:59
Laura Nelson: Does need to.
11:00
Laura Nelson: And this is the biggest challenge that we're having honestly with meeting planners, is that the bar needs to represent having drinks similar to those that you're serving with alcohol, but serve the versions without alcohol and make it obvious for people to order it.
11:14
Laura Nelson: 'cause the reason that meeting planners don't know about this issue is because we're putting the lime in our club soda and we're walking around.
11:22
Laura Nelson: Everybody's assuming everybody got alcohol.
11:24
Laura Nelson: And so I had a actual event.
11:26
Laura Nelson: I had my first breakthrough at a really big event recently, and they had non-alcoholic beer and they had mocktails and they couldn't keep the conference I was at two weeks ago.
11:36
Laura Nelson: They couldn't keep'em in stop.
11:37
Laura Nelson: They were running out in the bar because it was a three day conference.
11:41
Laura Nelson: And even people who do drink, this was day one.
11:45
Laura Nelson: They were like, I can't do three-day binge.
11:47
Laura Nelson: Right.
11:47
Laura Nelson: So, there is a need, but we just need to give it to them.
11:51
Tom Jackobs: Yeah, that's great too.
11:53
Tom Jackobs: So how hard is it for the bar, the event planners and the host sites to come up with the mocktails and to kind of create that experience for people?
12:06
Laura Nelson: It's harder than I thought it would be, honestly.
12:08
Laura Nelson: And it's not.
12:10
Laura Nelson: Okay.
12:10
Laura Nelson: So in most cases, a hotel has a restaurant and they have mocktails because they have a bartender who knows how to make drinks.
12:19
Laura Nelson: And so if they're trained well, they can make drinks without alcohol.
12:21
Laura Nelson: So in the restaurant space, this is really moving forward.
12:24
Laura Nelson: But in the catering and food and beverage space, it's a little harder because first of all, the people who stand behind the bars are usually not trained bartenders.
12:32
Laura Nelson: They're usually someone that works for catering or food and beverage, so they don't.
12:36
Laura Nelson: They pour alcohol and drinks in a cup and they hand it to you.
12:39
Laura Nelson: So having mocktails are a little harder there.
12:43
Laura Nelson: The second thing is they're not trained in this area and so they don't think about the repercussions.
12:50
Laura Nelson: It might be to accidentally hand somebody a glass of alcohol, somebody who might be counting days, somebody who might be pregnant, somebody who might be religious reasons, right?
12:58
Laura Nelson: So there needs to be better training with it.
13:01
Laura Nelson: And then the third issue that we're having is the meeting planners are seeing this.
13:06
Laura Nelson: They're, I mean, the new study just came out.
13:08
Laura Nelson: 50% of Americans are not drinking now, trying not to drink or drinking.
13:14
Laura Nelson: And so the meeting planners are seeing this, but they're going to the hotels or the conference centers and trying to get the right, stuff at the bar.
13:22
Laura Nelson: But there's big alcohol involved.
13:24
Laura Nelson: There's contracts, and so food and beverage, they're kind of stuck catering because they have contracts with the big alcohol.
13:32
Laura Nelson: And so we're having to kind of get through that of pushing the element.
13:36
Laura Nelson: And until the.
13:38
Laura Nelson: The entity bigger than them can see the value in this.
13:42
Laura Nelson: It's a, it's kind of an uphill battle which it will change, but it's gonna take enough people pushing and spotlighting and showing that this is an issue for the, because there's money to be made in non-alcoholic options.
13:56
Laura Nelson: It's just how they change their, the way they're thinking about it.
13:59
Tom Jackobs: If they charge the same amount as they would a alcoholic drink, the margin's gonna be double probably.
14:05
Laura Nelson: Exactly.
14:06
Laura Nelson: Exactly.
14:06
Laura Nelson: And if people will buy it more, like if they know it's there and it's an option, like I don't necessarily like go outta my way to go find non-alcoholic beer, but I did at that event because I'm hanging out with friends and I'm like, this is fun.
14:18
Laura Nelson: I can stay and drink and people will buy it, or pay for it.
14:22
Laura Nelson: So they just have to change the mindset.
14:24
Tom Jackobs: I ran into a on Instagram.
14:26
Tom Jackobs: I don't know how it came up on my feed, but it's a guy, a 19-year-old, he calls himself the teenage bartender.
14:33
Tom Jackobs: And he wrote a book on all mocktails and he, his Instagram reels, it's all about making all these mocktails and it's, it looks great.
14:43
Tom Jackobs: Like what he does is it looks.
14:46
Tom Jackobs: Absolutely amazing.
14:47
Tom Jackobs: So that might be a good resource as well.
14:50
Laura Nelson: Actually, I'm looking at it right now.
14:51
Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
14:52
Tom Jackobs: So talking about the business side of running a heart-led business, what kind of cool surprises have come up from being a heart-led business versus just focused on the profit side?
15:07
Laura Nelson: That's a good question.
15:08
Laura Nelson: Because it's not easy every day to get up and do this.
15:11
Laura Nelson: Right.
15:12
Laura Nelson: I would say that for me it's.
15:15
Laura Nelson: The surprises that come out of the woodwork.
15:17
Laura Nelson: You sit behind the computer, you do these interviews, you call the people, you're, doing all the steps.
15:23
Laura Nelson: And it's when I go out like to a conference.
15:27
Laura Nelson: And somebody comes up and says, I feel seen because of what you're doing.
15:31
Laura Nelson: Or I had an example where we were at a conference and they let me get up and speak about what we're doing, and then that night there was an event, and the next morning some lady who I didn't know came up to me and she said, I have to thank you.
15:45
Laura Nelson: She said, because of you, I didn't drink last night.
15:48
Laura Nelson: Now if you think about that's I don't know her.
15:50
Laura Nelson: She has every, she's an adult.
15:52
Laura Nelson: She can decide if she drinks or not, but because I spoke on stage, she didn't even talk to me, but she knew there were other people in the room who were not drinking.
16:00
Laura Nelson: She chose not to drink and she felt better the next day.
16:03
Laura Nelson: That's the kinda wins that me.
16:06
Laura Nelson: It's just like, okay, because when I said, put yourself in your customer's shoes or your, or whoever you're serving.
16:13
Laura Nelson: I secretly was suffering with, am I, do I drink too much?
16:17
Laura Nelson: Do I not drink too much?
16:18
Laura Nelson: Do I have a problem?
16:19
Laura Nelson: Do I, but I didn't.
16:20
Laura Nelson: I didn't talk to anybody about it.
16:22
Laura Nelson: I kept that to myself because it seemed like everybody else around me was fine and I was the only one with a problem.
16:28
Laura Nelson: I do believe that there are people who are secretly suffering and there are people who are secretly sober, right?
16:34
Laura Nelson: Because there's a lot of us.
16:35
Laura Nelson: I just met a guy recently.
16:36
Laura Nelson: He said his sponsor is 10 years sober and he had never put it out in like his business world until he just turned 10 years and he put it all over LinkedIn and he was like, you go finally.
16:48
Laura Nelson: Because in the professional world, we kind of keep our sobriety quiet.
16:53
Laura Nelson: It's getting more so, but it's one of those things that you keep private and it's like, why?
16:58
Laura Nelson: That's one of the things I'm most proud of.
17:00
Laura Nelson: Hard to overcome, issues with, it's an addictive substance.
17:03
Laura Nelson: It's hard to overcome that.
17:04
Laura Nelson: It's hard to go against societal norms.
17:08
Laura Nelson: I should, I'm very proud of it.
17:09
Laura Nelson: So I love hearing stories of people who are I feeling like they see, feel, be they're seen and heard because of this.
17:17
Tom Jackobs: Yeah and that's such an interesting kind of human dynamic that we would be shamed for doing something that's good for us.
17:25
Tom Jackobs: And yet there's no shame in going off on a bender on the I mean, to the extreme, there is shame in that, but just like regular drinking until, you're like slobbering.
17:35
Tom Jackobs: That's kind of, yeah, that's the norm, but it shouldn't be.
17:38
Laura Nelson: Right.
17:39
Laura Nelson: There's a really good book you told me about The Teenage Bartender.
17:41
Laura Nelson: I'm gonna look up, there's a really good book, anyone listening to this called This Naked Mind.
17:45
Laura Nelson: It's first book I read after I stopped drinking.
17:47
Laura Nelson: So literally on Amazon I'm like, I need a, I need something to help me.
17:50
Laura Nelson: And I read this book and it's Annie Grace and she talks about that.
17:53
Laura Nelson: She talks about why is it so hard?
17:56
Laura Nelson: And there's so many factors to it.
17:58
Laura Nelson: It's societal.
17:58
Laura Nelson: We grew up with our parents and people around us going, this is an adult drink.
18:02
Laura Nelson: Mommy and daddy get a drink.
18:03
Laura Nelson: And so when we're kids, we look at it like a magic elixir, right?
18:07
Laura Nelson: Then all the advertisement, if you know you're gonna be rich, famous, and sexy if you drink this whiskey or tequila.
18:13
Laura Nelson: So we have in our self-concious.
18:15
Laura Nelson: You go to sports events concerts, it's everywhere.
18:17
Laura Nelson: It's the big billboards, right?
18:19
Laura Nelson: Then you go to events and you're having a baby.
18:22
Laura Nelson: Here's champagne.
18:23
Laura Nelson: You're sad.
18:24
Laura Nelson: Here's a bottle of wine here.
18:25
Laura Nelson: So as humans, we use it as a way of connection and we grew up with it and it's just kind of in our subconscious.
18:32
Laura Nelson: And then your brain is like, well, of course you deserve this, or of course you need this.
18:36
Laura Nelson: And so there is this reprogramming that you have to do, which again is, it's not only help me with this, but it's helped me with so many other things in my lives now, in my life now too, because when you actually can retrain your brain to say, you know what?
18:51
Laura Nelson: I don't need that alcohol.
18:53
Laura Nelson: Like I choose not to drink.
18:54
Laura Nelson: Right.
18:55
Laura Nelson: And not saying I don't see a glass of wine once in a while and go, it'd be really nice to have a glass of wine, but the NA, the non-alcoholic versions are getting better and better every day.
19:03
Laura Nelson: And I could still sit down with a glass of tea and get the same responses.
19:06
Laura Nelson: Or an NA beer, right?
19:08
Laura Nelson: So yeah, it's just, it's a bigger thing than just I don't drink, it's, you have to look at the whole picture.
19:13
Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
19:14
Tom Jackobs: Absolutely.
19:14
Tom Jackobs: And what was the name of that book again?
19:15
Laura Nelson: This Naked Mind, and it's literally a she was a marketing vp who didn't drink much grow, in her early years, but then got into this vice president role and was traveling around the country and the thing was to.
19:29
Laura Nelson: to the bar and network at the bar.
19:31
Laura Nelson: And then she got to a point where she woke up one day and she was like, well, why am I drinking like a bottle of wine at night?
19:36
Laura Nelson: And why can I do all these other things in my world, but I can't control this one substance?
19:41
Laura Nelson: And so instead of shaming herself or quitting, what she did is she got really curious about it.
19:48
Laura Nelson: that's really the big difference is getting curious about what is my relationship with this substance and not trying to quit.
19:56
Laura Nelson: Just start looking at it for what it is, and maybe you choose to drink less or maybe you don't.
20:02
Laura Nelson: Like for me, I chose to stop drinking.
20:03
Laura Nelson: That's my personality style.
20:05
Laura Nelson: I'm all in or I'm all out.
20:07
Laura Nelson: But people can just choose to be like, okay, I just need to, I need to make sure I understand that I'm using this for the right reasons.
20:14
Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
20:15
Tom Jackobs: So, take us through kind of the, again, back to the business side of running a heart-led business.
20:21
Tom Jackobs: What kind of challenges have come up from choosing to be heart-led versus just looking at the profit and looking at your product and selling that?
20:30
Laura Nelson: Yeah.
20:30
Laura Nelson: So, well, money is always an issue.
20:33
Laura Nelson: Right.
20:33
Laura Nelson: I mean, just to put it down there, like my business partner and I, we've had some great companies to support us, which is awesome.
20:41
Laura Nelson: But trying to figure out, who are we serving, and then at the end of the day is this, this is our passion project.
20:49
Laura Nelson: This is our, we've got day jobs and this is what we do on the side.
20:53
Laura Nelson: But I think it's, we've pivoted a lot.
20:56
Laura Nelson: We've only been around for, we're going on two years soon and we've pivoted a lot we were gonna do this and then, like I said, there wasn't a need.
21:04
Laura Nelson: Like we were gonna do community meetings and we were gonna do once a month meetings and, but people haven't, they're meeting out, they're zoomed out.
21:10
Laura Nelson: They had, they, so then we were gonna do, emails and it was gonna be new, daily updates, but you know what our emails look like.
21:18
Laura Nelson: And so we pivoted from that.
21:20
Laura Nelson: And so we just, it, I think it's a lot of, what do you need?
21:24
Laura Nelson: What do you want what gaps are you filling?
21:26
Laura Nelson: And really, when it comes down to it for us, is it's when they're in the environment where you feel the pressure.
21:34
Laura Nelson: And you feel alone, how can we serve them?
21:37
Laura Nelson: And so that's really, it's just kind of learning what it, what do we need to do.
21:42
Laura Nelson: And I don't know that we figured it out.
21:43
Laura Nelson: We're crossing our fingers.
21:44
Laura Nelson: 'cause my book has made a big difference.
21:47
Laura Nelson: I know that our podcast my business partner runs our podcast.
21:50
Laura Nelson: We know that, and, and, we're just gonna keep serving until we figure out what that niche is.
21:56
Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
21:56
Tom Jackobs: So how are you monetizing the business?
21:58
Tom Jackobs: Right now
21:59
Laura Nelson: it's a lot of sponsorship.
22:00
Laura Nelson: It's a lot of companies who support our back, what we're doing.
22:03
Laura Nelson: We have our first conference'cause that's really what we have pivoted to now, and we could talk about that in a minute.
22:08
Laura Nelson: But our first conference we're really hoping that this is the thing that we make.
22:14
Laura Nelson: An annual thing or maybe a regional thing or a quarterly thing, because again, when we're at home, it's a little different.
22:21
Laura Nelson: Like you can pick what you do and who you hang out with.
22:24
Laura Nelson: But when we're at events, that's where we really need the support.
22:26
Laura Nelson: And so we really want, we think events.
22:29
Laura Nelson: Getting people back together like w e have the best intention to do the next thing, and then we go off to our, so getting people together to really connect and collaborate and work together is the focus that we're going after.
22:40
Tom Jackobs: That's awesome.
22:41
Tom Jackobs: I'm guessing that Jack Daniels isn't one of your sponsors.
22:44
Laura Nelson: Yeah, no.
22:45
Laura Nelson: But honestly, if you look, if you pay attention, a lot of the alcohol brands now are buying NA brands.
22:52
Laura Nelson: They're starting, they have their NA because it is, it's a growing market.
22:56
Laura Nelson: So maybe one day they will be.
22:59
Laura Nelson: And one of the things that I see going, this is kind of a tangent here, but there was the sober like the NA space, alcohol free space, sober.
23:08
Laura Nelson: And then there was the non what.
23:10
Laura Nelson: What really I think is gonna come next is we have to learn how to blend together.
23:13
Laura Nelson: I might go to an NA bar, a bar that doesn't serve alcohol or whatever.
23:17
Laura Nelson: But when I'm hanging out with a group of 10 friends, and let's say eight of us are sober, but two drink, just like, we're gonna wanna be at places where there's both where we can blend it together.
23:27
Laura Nelson: And so one day, maybe Jack Daniels will be a sponsor who knows?
23:31
Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
23:32
Tom Jackobs: Well, if they're smart, a lot of the liquor companies will start to look at alternatives to keep their profits up.
23:39
Tom Jackobs: Because I, I heard on a another podcast that.
23:42
Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
23:42
Tom Jackobs: Alcohol sales has been declining over the years.
23:46
Tom Jackobs: They were on this podcast, they were saying it because of cannabis taking over a little bit more.
23:51
Tom Jackobs: But, either way, whether people are just not drinking alcohol because they wanna feel better or for other reasons.
23:59
Tom Jackobs: Yeah.
23:59
Tom Jackobs: They're losing market share.
24:00
Laura Nelson: I actually do think that, so I think of alcohol, like, cigarettes were like 30 years ago, like everyone smoked in the ads and all this stuff, and now people still smoke.
24:09
Laura Nelson: It's just not as prevalent and I think alcohol's up that's what it's going to turn into.
24:15
Laura Nelson: But then I do believe, and not, I'm not pro or against, but I think cannabis is the, like, our younger generation doesn't drink the way we do, but now the next vice is gonna be cannabis and all of the stuff there.
24:26
Laura Nelson: So I, I do potentially agree with that, but that mine is I'm just gonna stay in this segment here.
24:32
Laura Nelson: This is my, yeah.
24:35
Tom Jackobs: Hey, you're not, I don't think you're gonna have non, well, I guess there's cbd, so there's non thc.
24:42
Tom Jackobs: But anyway, we digress a little bit.
24:44
Tom Jackobs: So tell us a little bit about the conference and how people can get a hold of you and learn more about having a sober life
24:52
Laura Nelson: Yeah.
24:52
Tom Jackobs: or in yeah at their conference.
24:55
Laura Nelson: So amplify Sober Voices is our conference.
24:58
Laura Nelson: It's our first ever one.
24:58
Laura Nelson: It's in January.
24:59
Laura Nelson: It's January 15th in Orlando.
25:02
Laura Nelson: And what Amplify Sober Voices, what it came up, why it came out is because as Margie and I were interviewing on podcast and talking to people, our podcast and on other people's podcasts, there's a lot of people in the sober space who got into this because this is their passion project too, but they, maybe they're a podcaster and they wanna be a speaker, or maybe they're, they've written a book, but they wanna start a podcast.
25:27
Laura Nelson: Or maybe they just wanna amplify their message more.
25:30
Laura Nelson: There's also a lot of coaches who wanna coach and help others who are struggling, right?
25:35
Laura Nelson: And so this is a movement that we think the more we talk about it, the more we can help people and the more people can feel like they're not alone on this journey.
25:45
Laura Nelson: And we think that anybody can amplify their voice.
25:48
Laura Nelson: I mean, you might just be one person in a community that people are like, you're sober.
25:53
Laura Nelson: Like how are you sober?
25:55
Laura Nelson: And how you don't have to be a coach.
25:56
Laura Nelson: You don't have to be a speaker, but.
25:57
Laura Nelson: We're all making an impact of our environment, and so we decided to have a one day conference where we bring everyone together, where we can all learn and collaborate.
26:07
Laura Nelson: Because one of the things we're seeing is that there's a lot of disjointed, like somebody in New York is helping restaurants get better mocktails and somebody in Florida's doing it, but they don't know about each other.
26:18
Laura Nelson: What if we came.
26:19
Laura Nelson: What a bigger impact we can make and then how can we learn from each other?
26:23
Laura Nelson: People who have a podcast, what did they learn?
26:25
Laura Nelson: What did they not learn?
26:26
Laura Nelson: What mistakes did they make?
26:27
Laura Nelson: So we just wanna pull everyone together.
26:30
Laura Nelson: 'Cause nothing has been done like this where there's creatives people in this space around sober and sober choices.
26:37
Laura Nelson: And so amplify sober voices and we're having it at Pod Fest, which is, I don't know if you're familiar with it, but it's a three day podcaster conference.
26:46
Laura Nelson: So it's a conference within a conference, but anybody who comes get a gets access to Pod Fest also.
26:51
Laura Nelson: So it's like a win-win for everybody who comes.
26:54
Tom Jackobs: Oh, that's awesome.
26:55
Tom Jackobs: That's very cool.
26:57
Tom Jackobs: And the URL is amplify.sober.liferocks.com.
27:02
Laura Nelson: But if you go to Sober Life Rocks, you can get to our conference.
27:06
Laura Nelson: You can learn about our podcast, you can join us on LinkedIn.
27:09
Laura Nelson: We have the largest LinkedIn group around sobriety.
27:12
Laura Nelson: So you look at for Sober life, rocks community.
27:15
Laura Nelson: And then my book is there also, and it's a free download.
27:18
Laura Nelson: So anything in this space, wherever it touches any interest somebody has, it's all at sober life rock.
27:25
Tom Jackobs: Awesome.
27:25
Tom Jackobs: Well, cool.
27:26
Tom Jackobs: Well, Laura, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and being vulnerable on the show with us and sharing the vision that you have for better conferences and better networking without alcohol.
27:38
Tom Jackobs: And thank you listeners for listening to the show today or watching it.
27:41
Tom Jackobs: If you're on YouTube, we really do appreciate it.
27:43
Tom Jackobs: So make sure you're checking out what Laura's doing and we're gonna provide all of those links down in the show notes.
27:49
Tom Jackobs: Uh, so make sure you're checking that out.
27:51
Tom Jackobs: And also, while you're down there checking out those show notes, if you could press that little button that says, give a rating and review.
27:56
Tom Jackobs: I would really appreciate that.
27:58
Tom Jackobs: It just helps spread the word about the podcast and get more people learning about heart-led businesses like Laura's Sober Life Rocks.
28:07
Tom Jackobs: So until next time, lead with your heart.
28:11
Speaker 2: You've been listening to The Heart-Led Business Show, hosted by Tom Jackobs.
28:16
Speaker 2: Join us next time for another inspiring journey into the heart of business.