Limitless Leadership: Leaning In When the Odds Are Against You with Laura Gisborne

Hello. My guest today is Laura Gisborne, host of The Limitless Women podcast, entrepreneur, philanthropist, writer winemathan and a fierce advocate for helping brilliant, passionate women mobilize their richest gifts into businesses they truly love. Laura is someone who is whose wisdom has quietly shaped my own journey in ways that still ripple today. She's not about Fairy Godmother success stories. Her work is grounded in lived experience, resilience and smart strategy. I'll talk about that and the kind of mentorship that pulls you forward when you're standing at a crossroads. Laura is such a joy to have Laura. It's such a joy to have you here on leading with purpose. Thank you for being here.

Thank you, Mark. I'm so excited for this conversation. I know we're just we're recording now. Right after the holidays, it was like just getting back to work, back to life, and just so excited to kick off this year with you. It's going to be a

person who told me about Michael singer. I'd never heard of him before, until you told me about the edge of their soul. I actually have it sitting by my bed right now, rereading it again, and it's just that whole idea of like, you know, again, the journey I always feel like in business. And we sort of sound a little blase to somebody, but I don't mean it that way. Making money is not the difficult part of business. You know, there's a problem and a solution and an energy exchange. There's that piece of making money, but there's the journey for us as leaders of how we continually evolve and grow spiritually. And our purpose is so often tied to that. So it's like leaning in when it looks against the odds and it's probably thinking about my beloved, because we just celebrated our 26th anniversary. You know, we got married 10 weeks after our first date. People were like, Oh, this is never going to work. You. People were crazy, and we were probably a little unhealthy. Not it was, it was that the wisest decision I made, or the most mature decision I've ever made, but it was the best decision I've ever made. You know, it's really in retrospect, the work is there. So I. Know if I answered your question, but I hope I did.

Yeah, that was really just again, all about leaning in, and yeah, being able to overcome the big challenges that happened. And yeah, it was one of the very practical things, because sometimes people are very woo or very practical, but you do a really good job of bringing them both together. I say woo, and it's spiritual, like you said, God, Christian, and very tactical and practical. So for me, it was simply saying, what's the what is the cost of it? What is the risk that you're taking? And it's high people know, if you're hosting an event, there's a lot of expense that goes into it, but what is the minimum number of people that you need to just cover the costs, right?

Right? That was the goal. Just stick to that, right? We figured out the logistics that you would have the courage to do the thing, and now you say seven years. You're coming up to seven years now. Congratulations. So exciting. Yeah, you can choose. You can choose to do the thing. You can choose not to do the thing. But every choice we have is going to have some kind of cost or benefit or both. And you're going to you're going to make it through. If it's your time, you're going to keep going and so not letting that define your happiness, your peace, your purpose, you know, keep moving forward in the service like I know you always do. You're such a service based person, which is one of the reasons I'm excited to connect with you today and hear about what you're up to coming up.

Well, I'm actually wanting to hear what you got coming up. I'm so grateful, first of all, to hear that was nine years ago with your husband. It was nine years ago they said, Say goodbye, incredible. And I see your life. I've seen what the fun that you have, the life that you live, and the ripples of impact that you have made together and you have a big event yourself coming up

11 years we do. So we this April, will be celebrating our 11th limitless Women Business Conference. And when we created that, it was a little bit probably like yours mark, like I had this calling to do something, and I couldn't really find other people doing it right. I had, I've had, at this point, about nine companies. I've sold six of them. So a lot of the things around building businesses, modeling structures, building business systems, is fairly simple for me. Not that it's always easy, but it's simpler just because I've done it enough times that I've made all the, you know, not all the mistakes. I'm alive and breathing. There's more mistakes, I'm sure, but I've made a lot of mistakes. So it doesn't intimidate me, does it take me out of the game? Like, like it will when somebody's a brand new entrepreneur. The piece around the conference is, I said, Okay, show me. I keep, kept being asked to speak and lead, and I kept hearing that they wanted, you know, the invitations around women. And I want to tell you I had never done women's work. I was on an author. It was, this was nowhere in my business plan to own a winery, a real estate company. I was raising my kids. I was volunteering, you know, in our community, but I didn't see myself. I didn't see myself in my destiny. And it was, you know, I think God shows us these things as we're ready, right, a little bit more and a little bit more, a little bit more. And if we're willing to lean in and take those steps, then everything we need is always provided. So yeah, so we did the first event and said, Okay, can we I said, Can I invite 100 girlfriends to come together? And Cynthia Kersey, who is a mutual friend of ours, I asked her if she would come and speak to us about the unstoppable foundation. I'd been introduced to her that year. Yeah, and I loved Africa. I'd already been to Africa. I hadn't been there as a philanthropist. I'd been there just as a tourist. So she came, and we only had 50

women show up, not 100 which is okay. And I thought, gosh, if we could just raise $10,000 I want everybody to donate 50 bucks when they come in the door. Let's start there. You know, we were trying to get our numbers for figured out. At the end of our weekend Mark, we had raised $35,000

and I am this is not for you. For profit. This is for

unstoppable foundation. Yeah, 100%

Yeah. You know what that does for building schools and wells,

oh my gosh, so incredible. So I was in a puddle. I was literally at a puddle on the floor, and I was like, Okay, Lord, show me what's next, right? And then the next journey was, you know, because I'm a business person, I love numbers and love numbers and metrics. Most people don't, but I geek out on that stuff. So I said, Okay, what would be like for us to while we're raising our family and doing the thing and all you know, Life is lifeing. What would it be like if we created a vehicle to give away $250,000 over the next five years? And I don't know how this is going to happen. I mean, like, Listen, I'm literally on a need to know basis leading a lead life. So we started changing our model. And so we changed our model so that for our programs, if somebody comes into an education program or a mentorship program, the first 20% of all of our revenue is donated to charity. Now I will tell you that I don't recommend that for other people, because unless you're really good at how you run your business, you got to know how to run on 80% instead of 100% but I knew, I knew, with a little bit of overhead that we had in a digital business as we were learning that versus a brick and mortar space, we could do that. We could really run this as a nonprofit. So fast forward, get to five years, and we were not at 250,000 we were at 600,000 I said, Okay, Lord, show me what's next. Show me what's next, right? And, yeah, and. You know? So life is lifeing, and Scott's getting diagnosed, and kids are growing up, and we're moving and having car accidents and back surgeries, all kinds of stuff. You know is going on in life. But we're here, you know? Now I just, I'm excited to be celebrating this 11th year. We're a little over $750,000 in donations now, because I took a few years off, and we're still moving forward and growing again, and it's super, super cool and so grateful.

I love that. I think philanthropy is such an important piece. I just had a conversation with Cynthia. I think it was like six months ago now, yeah, is she feeling good? Yeah, what an amazing miracle. And yeah, the idea of tying in your work to a cause so important, it not only makes a bigger impact, but it helps people to know who you are, what you stand for. And I love that that was right off the bat with a big part of what you do.

more and more, trying to be enough. And she pulled me outside and she just said, you know, it's not okay that you keep coming to work with bruises on your face. And I said, Oh, it's no big deal. John and I just had a fight. She's like, you know, it really is a big deal. And she proceeded to explain to me about her domestic violence and how it started out small and it just kept growing, and it kept growing. And she's like, it doesn't stop it keeps getting worse if you don't get some help, till she ended up in the hospital with broken ribs and a broken arm before she left her husband. You know, she helped me. Her name is Estrella, which means star, but she really is, for me, one of these angels in my life that saw me when I couldn't see myself. And I feel like this last decade of limitless women has been a love letter to those women who saw me so that we are now in this season of like, how do I pay forward that gift to other women and help them know that they're not alone and that they can create a new normal. All the blessings that I've had today, you know, came as a result of some really amazing people that saw me and that poured into me, and for the grace of God, I'm here.

Well, yeah, it's very interesting, because you were able to take that challenge and and get that mentorship, and you're very open about the role that mentors played in your journey. How do you know when it's time to seek support and when should women look? What should they look for in a mentor?

organization, and they've created an incredible impact to the world, to which she opened up her business checking account. At the same time she opened up her nonprofit checking account. She grew up in a very humble family. They were on food stamps. Her father died, but she was a small child, and she no matter what was going on in their own lives, they were taught that giving was an important part of who you be. So she was really my first, I would say she and them, because I love them both. They were my first role models of what it looks like to have a purposeful business, right? And to build it to scale. And then, you know, we just kept I kept studying and learning, and now what's happening in the world for us is quick sidebar, if I may. I was in a head on collision a couple of years ago, and, you know, I'm well now, but it took me out of the game for a couple of years. I had five surgeries over nine months, including, including having my spine fused. So it was not an easy journey. It was in bed for a long time, and a person like me that like loves to go. It was really show me, Lord, what is it that you want me to hear here? Because please let me be a good student and let me heal quickly. And I knew again, he wasn't done with me. And then Scott, my husband, retired. So I was like, are we supposed to be done? We, you know, we've done more than we thought and done it out. But the answer was no, get your butt out there. What I also was aware of at that same time, while I was healing, is I began studying AI work, and I began studying and I began investing in companies, this is maybe three, four years ago that were doing AI investments. Before it was like the thing right before it was all that everybody wanted to talk about, you know, and I just my, I'd say, my, my spiritual gift of prophecy, I try to use that superpower for good. And I just kept saying, Okay, I know where we're going. How is this a gift for humanity? How do I move forward with our business,

with God as my CEO, and then AI is an amplifier that allows us to create greater impact? So we're very excited about what's happening for the next decade, and to put a caboose on the train of what you asked about a mentorship, I was like, who's doing it? Who can I find that's actually wildly successful using AI and leading this, not in a way we just go into a group program, but that it's, it's narrow and deep and fast, and so, you know, that's where I put myself next. And it's fast. It's fast. It's fast and furious and amazing. But the advice is, find the person who's already doing what you want to do, and then feel into if it's a spiritual match. I mean, I feel like one of the things I love about you and your community is we're unapologetically loud and proud about the fact that we are, you know, made in the image of the creator. We're divine beings, and we're having a purposeful journey here in this body. So the more we can align ourselves with source, the more we can align ourselves with our divine purpose, the faster we can get to impact in the world, which is really a life well lived that

Is so beautiful and juicy. And I, I love that balance between the faith being the CEO, and then the AI being the amplifier that I do. I see the AI as just a reflection that doesn't have consciousness, but it reflects consciousness.

Yeah, and it's, it's literally, I feel, I feel all good things come from God, so I feel like it's a tool that's been gifted to us. And, you know, there's a lot of fear and there's a lot of uncertainty, just because it's new and we don't, we don't like the things that we don't know, we don't feel comfortable with, right? But if we cannot, if we can move away from having that be a fear based thing, and move more, especially in your community, you know, those of us that have our life as a calling, and we are aware that we've been blessed and that we have the opportunity to give back in gratitude, you know, we don't tithe to get we tithe in response. So the idea that the people that are in your community that feel this calling man use every resource you can in the in the highest and best, most integrous way to help all of us as a species. You know, humanity needs each one of us to be out and loud right now.

Amen, yes, yes. And you know, going back to mentors and aligned mentors, you're just talking about mentorship. You are a wonderful, brilliant mentor. You help women build businesses that they adore rather than ones that they feel trapped by. What are some of the common ways that you see women over complicating success, because you said before, is very easy for you.

Are you worried on your How do you know

And how do you guide people back to back to clarity and alignment, as you've been talking about,

I'm teasing. That's love for Renee. I think

She's that same way. She loves money. She geeks out on it. Yeah.

Give her. My love, please. I think that, you know, here's the reality, it's exactly what you said. Women, you know, we're made. We're made in the way that we're made, and it's just precious. I love when I'm working with men, because you're very focused, and you're like, one thing at a time, and it's pretty simple, and you go, right when I'm working with women, you know, our brains are just wired. We're wired, if you think about it, mark to like, have a baby on the hip and to be cooking over here, then to be like, sewing something, taking care of an elder. You know, historically, it's women that stop work when something happens to the family, right? It's not always the man that stops. Historically, it's women that stop. Is, I think, one of the reasons why our numbers, as far as business owners and entrepreneurs, are often so much smaller than men, because we, you know, unapologetically put our families first.

Funny that you say that because just before the show, you know, Renee starts her day like 5am and has more done by breakfast than than I'll get done in the day. But she, she was coming with the kids, and they're really like, yelling out their orders of what, welcome all mom. She's been working here in our business all day. And then switch. It's just like, so, yes, their brains are definitely different.

And yeah, so we're so it's, it's the having that blessing not become an Achilles heel, right? The blessing of being highly creative beings and loving to start things and loving to create the Think about we, our bodies, create humans. I mean, like, how cool is that? I'm not trying to dis you, but I'm just saying, like, honestly, that's pretty that's pretty obvious. You're made to create, right? Like, a whole species depends on us to create humans. So if we're divinely designed to create, we get into business and all we want to do is create, create, create, right? What's not easy for us often is focus. What's not easy for us is execution. And so the secret sauce for every woman that I know that's successful in business is becoming hyper vigilant around her time and learning healthy boundaries, right, which is, again, if you have to think that I went from being 20 years I'll be 60 years old in August, I went from being 20 years old to what I'm saying to you now. I did not know this. I certainly didn't come out of the hopper knowing how to say no, knowing how to say that's not mine or not for me. You know, I was just trying to be liked and loved like most of us. So what I can see now is that in business, when you have systems and when you have a values based business and a mission focused business, which I think is so important for your community, right, because you lead with purpose, Mark, and this is where you and I are so synchronistic, our goal is that every woman that wants to have a profitable business join us in the mission of profits for purpose. So she needs to have sufficiency. She's got to learn how to take care of herself first and hopefully provide for those around her. But once that sufficiency happens, and that's a concept, if you haven't read Lynn twist book, The soul of money, I'm sure you have. Everybody should read that book. It's one of my favorites, once somebody has sufficiency, then how do you actually live in this

overflowing abundance, right? How do you actually take for the overflow and actually have a higher level of experience, instead of just going in Maslow's hierarchy of needs and getting up here to self actualization, it's all about the self. There's a whole world up here above that pyramid, although I got a pyramid until the pyramid, it's like exponential, and that's, that's the playground that I live and I live in this playground, right? Like, what happens that we can't even see that we can't see right? Now, that's where I think, you know, when I look at the next 10 years for limitless women and building an ecosystem of legacy focused women who are mentoring, not just I'm the tip of the iceberg of my community. I'm like, the smallest little pinky over here, right? What you really want is, you want a community of like minded souls like you have in your community, and we need a lot of us, because there's 8 billion people you want a community of like minded souls that help you stay on track, that help you feel supported, that love and nurture you, that support your mission and vision, that help you expand so you can all grow together. I mean, that's really where the win is. I think for for any of us, male or female

I love that you talk about systems and structures, but also about boundaries. And you were saying that you often didn't have boundaries because you just wanted to be liked. And I've always had that thing too. I want to be liked and appreciated by everybody like there should be nobody that doesn't like me, but that's also not the case. That shouldn't be the case that we don't need everybody to like us, but it's beyond that, even, even when we get beyond that. We are caregivers. We want to help people. So we also want to help every body, and that's part of the boundaries piece. So you work with all these women who want to make impact and want to so how do, how do women who want to help everyone realize that they need to put themselves first? Like, what is the shift that happens.

Well, I think I want to go back to, if I may, Mark, you know, the evolution of a human right. So in Maslow's hierarchy of needs, he and I'm going to make this extremely simplified, to advance and take in psychology 101, it's, you know, there's a survival thing. So when I'm going to tell you something that when I'm in Africa, we were just there with eight of us in especially, we took. Legacy community to Africa to actually be on the ground. And we worked in a leadership camp with 300 girls ages 11 to 14. I don't know how old your daughter is right now. I mean, yeah, so you can imagine like that, the power of that space was like, literally, life altering for each of us. The these girls talk about the next generation of leaders. If you want to get excited, here it is. We have to get through that place of survival we had so nobody there in like Africa. When I'm out traveling around or I'm off the grid, I took my kids last year down to the Amazon again, people who live close to the ground, who live simply, are doing the same things that we do first, which is they are taking care of their elders. They're taking care of their children. They're hoping for a better future for tomorrow. They're trying to find a way to provide sufficiency, right? So once you move past that sufficiency, then you move into the awareness of the other, and then you get evolved and find out yourself as a self actualized human, right? This is short version of that long story. Well done. We are people. Thank you. Where people get stuck, I think, in our world and the entrepreneur space is they've moved up past survival mode, right? They've had some level of sufficiency. And what happens then is, what I what I believe is a self induced insanity. Now hear me with grace. What shows up is, no matter how hard I work, I never have enough money. What shows up is I work and it's nine o'clock at night and I still need more hours in the day. There's this scarcity around time and

money that's happening. What that actually is, it's almost like you went to the doctor. Those are symptoms of the underlying challenge, which is somewhere, someone told you you're not enough, and you decided, as a mere mortal to take that on, right? So that drives everything. And so the symptoms that show up for you personally show up for you professionally, whether it's in your career or whether it's in your business, if you're an entrepreneur, the healing of that poverty consciousness, I tell you, only happens in the developed world. What do I mean by that, where people are literally still in survival mode. They're not worried about my hair is too red, I'm too fat, I'm too thin, I'm too tall, I'm too short, all those things go away because they're literally just wanting to have their children have water, to have their children have an education, to have their elders have their medication and be not in pain, right? So we have this luxury of not enoughness. And you know, I'm, I'm kind of a tough cookie. I'm not for everyone. If that's your game and you want to really be addicted to it, you can stay in it. But if you'd like to change it, think about how many people you could help, the amount of time and energy you worry about not being enough. If you redirected that into service, we could change the world. Period Stop the bike. That's the shift. That's well, it's the luxury of understanding that poverty consciousness is not poverty. Poverty means a lack of access to resources. So anyone who is listening to this or watching this has access to something, either a cell phone or a computer. They're someplace with electricity, so they're actually already way ahead, but they don't know they're ahead, right?

That's why we call them first world problems. They're literally

We do, but, you know, forgive us because we're born in the first world.

That's all we know. We don't, we cannot imagine,

So beautiful. And I love that you're taking young women out into Safari and having them getting closer to the ground, as you say, and this whole idea of limitless women through your limitless women move, and I'll even call it you really amplify stories of women stepping into their power despite real odds. I'm curious what is limitless actually mean to you in practice, not just as a concept,

Okay, so it's funny because it's a different spin on the question question, but sometimes people will ask me, am I the limit? This woman, and I'm like, no, let me tell you who the limitless woman is, in my opinion, the most one of my one of my greatest teachers, who actually also happens to be one of my mentees. It's always sounds weird, mentee mentor, right? She's one of my daughters. At this point. She calls me her mama. Monica niragawa grew up in a small village in Uganda. Her parents probably lived on somewhere around two to $3 a day. So again, sufficiency just trying to feed their children. School is not free in much of the world, right? Education is something that we can also take for granted because we're born in the United States, and I don't know people are listening to you from other places, but if you're born in a developed nation where you actually have access to free education, that is a blessing, because many, many people in the world do not have access, right? And that's one of the reasons that unstoppable is so focused on education as well. Monica parents said we can only afford to send one child to school, and it's going to be your brother, because your brother's a boy, and he will stay here and take care of us when we're old, you will get married. Usually, you know, when you're 12 or 13, you're going to get married and move off and go live with your husband's family. So Monica said, Well, I'm not down for that. God bless her. She's one of us, right? She just said, How can I pay for Ann's school fees? And so she started going, she used to walk, like, five miles to the local market. There was a big market, bring back a bushel of vegetables and sell them door to door and start paying for her own school fees, which is like seven or eight. She was so tiny I can't even fathom this. She then got her first pair of shoes. Are you ready for this work? At age 13, she would school every day without shoes and pay for her own school as

So beautiful, so good. And how old is she now? She's 38 okay, I met her.

I mean, it's just incredible. She has 37 full time employees now. Her nonprofit is just growing and impacting lives everywhere, and she's one of my greatest teachers. She reminds me about what matters.

Well, that actually brings us right back to the title of the show. Is leading with purpose. But I always like to ask my guests, what does leading with purpose mean to you?

Yeah, I think that businesses, Mark, you know there's, there's one thing of leading your own life. And I pray to lead. When I talk about praying to lead a LED life, I really do. I pray for divine guidance every day. I know that I've been divinely protected, and I know that I've been really divinely gifted, and I pray for divine guidance to show me what's in the highest and best for service. And when I think about leading a business or leading other people, because I'm in the business of leading leaders, right? There are people that lead followers, and they're just like, let me just get out there and do the numbers that way. For me, I our ripple effect is that in every woman that comes in and now sees herself as a catalyst for change, she now owns her role as a leader and you in your own way, right? As just picking on you because you're dude, but as a man, you're like, Okay, I can do this piece, and Laura can do this piece, and Scott can do this piece, and Monica can do that piece, together in the collective is how we actually create impact. It's not one person doing any of it. Even Jesus had 12 Disciples, right? So leading from that place. I think it takes humility. I think it takes understanding where you are needing help, without giving up your self esteem or without saying that there's something wrong with you, but really recognizing, I feel like Mark, if something is shown to you, if you have a vision of something, it's not shown to if it's not yours, right? Like it's just really it wouldn't be on your radar. It'd be on somebody else's radar if it was theirs, right? So, so owning that and then really trusting that, like you don't need to necessarily know the how, but if you walk in faith, and for me, if you walk in in partnership with God, everything you need will be provided. The work for us as leaders, Mark is to increase our capacity, increase our presence. And those two exercises are a daily practice. Every day we're alive and

breathing, we are going to We're either going to be expanding or contracting, you know, kind of know that law, right? So for me, it's like, how do I how do I get stronger? What I was told after my back surgery. I don't want you to bend, lift or twist again. I was like, I had two questions before I went in. I was like, number one, okay, sorry, sweet, little rude, but number one, can why can I have sex? I don't. This is G rated. We're gonna have sex. Okay. Number one, why can I have sex? And, like, as soon as you feel ready, right? Then, the second thing is, when can I do yoga? I do yoga every day. And they were like, No, we don't want you doing yoga ever again. And I was like, well, that's not going to work for me. So we got to figure out how I do yoga, way that other people don't do yoga, where I, you know, keep my back straight. So depending on over I've got a whole thing going on here. I feel like, again, stronger than ever, better than ever.

Hope that helps. That's so good and so practical, so great understanding of leading with purpose. Is there anything that you would like to leave with our listeners? Last message, and then where can we find you?

Hayes book, I gotta give my book away, right? This is the good Laura free book.com. I like simple, Yeah, beautiful.

I'm so grateful for the light that you are in the world and for being a part of my life, thank you for being here such an honor. Thank you so much. Appreciate you. My love to your husband and your whole family. Lots of love.

Hugs to Renee, talk to you soon.