Today we get to welcome Lori Harder to the blog. I mean, jazz hands right?
If you have yet to meet Lori, go check out her episode on The Skinny Confidential HIM & HER podcast. She gets into tools, products and resources she used in her boob job recovery & really, if you’ve had any type of surgery this episode is a good one for you.
Lori is a leader in the fitness world, and is all about transformational work and self love. Not only is she a fitness world champion (3 times!!), she is also an author, model, podcast host, & entrepreneur.
In this post she is sharing all the tips she’s learned along the way to be a successful entrepreneur. Think knowing your WHY, overcoming fears, & how to ‘parent’ yourself in business.
With that, let’s get into it with Lori Harder.
Beginner Tips For Female Entrepreneurs
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Hi! I’m Lori Harder. I was coined “weird” in the 6th grade, I’m guessing for multiple reasons. I didn’t date, wasn’t going to sleepovers & wasn’t allowed to do any extracurriculars. Instead, I went door to door recruiting for my religion (talking about the bible and the end of the world), and found a thrill in licking Ban Roll-On Deodorant because it immediately dried out your tongue. Frankly, I was “weird.”
I’m from a small town in Upper Michigan called Marquette. Most people have no idea that there is an “Upper” part of Michigan. In fact, it’s not even attached to Michigan so it feels more like we belong to Canada or Minnesota based on our accents and winters that seemed to last 9 months. But let me tell you – those other three months of the year where the sun stays up until 10pm because we are on the furthest edge of the eastern time zone. And those never ending sunsets over Lake Superior that wrapped around us like we were on a magical, lush green fairy island – those were the days that are burned into my memory.
I can’t say I have a lot of proof that growing up in a small town encouraged anyone to be a big dreamer, entrepreneur, or go-getter. How could it? There was nowhere for unique ideas or talent to grow. And if there was, who would support your new store, restaurant, or cool new idea when what was already there was “hurting for business?”
Living through my Dad’s business going bankrupt was the proof that locked in this narrative early on.
For most, not all, having big dreams was discouraged because it meant disappointment. And it was just better if we understood early on that life was hard, disappointing, and most definitely a day-to-day struggle to make ends meet.
Life was good. It was simple. My family loved me and I loved them. Rules were clear: be kind, be humble, live humbly, don’t associate with people outside of the church, and do all you can to FOLLOW THE RULES.
There was only one little problem…my soul had different plans.
This is usually where you’re either “picking up what I’m putting down” and you totally relate. Or you resonate with your soul having different plans than what your life is revealing to you now.
Either way, I want to show you how to set up a life that supports where you’re going no matter where you’ve been.
When I was eighteen I moved out, didn’t finish high school, and started waitressing at three different places at once. I was running from my ugly past into an uglier future. I spent the next five years trying to figure out who I was by doing everything I had never been allowed to do…and being everyone I was told not to be.
This landed me in an unsustainable nightmare of a life where I found myself surrounded by untrustworthy, shady-ass people doing shady-ass things that I was ashamed of. It was there that I hit my first of many rock bottoms.
I spent the next ten years figuring out what my soul was screaming at me to do my entire life.
I went from waitress to personal trainer, to gym owner, to losing everything again and being in massive debt, to a multi-millionaire network marketer, entrepreneur, best-selling author, speaker, top podcast host and now founder of a female-funded beverage company called Lite Pink. I’ve run three seven-figure businesses and am certain that I will never go backwards again because of the steps I have created below. They’re all a result of what I learned from my mentors, matched with personal trial and error.
The most empowering thing I’ve learned is that we can break out of the cycle and narrative we grew up with (or that we are currently living in). It takes your willingness, time, and dedicated effort. But here are the steps I took to create a life that supports my dreams.
Beginner Tips For Female Entrepreneurs
♡ Know what you really want and why.
Never judge the carrot that gets you started. It could be that you want to feed starving children or that you want to be able to buy organic Greek yogurt without sweating in the checkout line. Whatever your most tangible, reachable, motivating and present “why” is what you need to visualize and hold onto with all your might. Just know, once you reach those first goals, bigger “whys” will reveal themselves. You have to make a practice of visualizing these daily and keeping them in the forefront of your mind.
♡ Figure out your limiting beliefs and fears and how to support them.
Most people try to “get over” their fears and beliefs and quit when they think that what they are doing is not working and they still don’t feel confident. It’s not about getting rid of your fears – it’s about learning how to support them.
For example: I was petrified of public speaking. No matter what I tried before I went on stage, I still felt like I was having a heart attack. Inevitably, I would cancel or avoid seeking opportunities to speak. Therefore, never giving myself the opportunity to fail, learn, and grow.
Determined to overcome this, I decided to tell people about my fear and ask for support. I went to an event that teaches you how to publicly speak. Where we had to get up in front of people and actually do the thing that scared us – except in a supportive environment. I was even able to ask current speakers for advice and tips that continue to help them when they are nervous.
My biggest advice to overcome a fear you have is to practice your fear in a supportive environment, tell people your goals, hire someone to help you, and hang out with people who are trying to break through their fears and want to see you succeed.
♡ Build your network.
Listen…every good thing I’ve ever experienced came by way of a human who also knew other humans who were kind enough to introduce me. You can’t be successful without building and continuing to build your network. It’s how you grow, learn, and move through obstacles.
You’ve got to put yourself in rooms with people smarter than you and start making this a habit. I think a good place to start is to aim to go to an event or networking meeting once every quarter. More is always better, but this is a great start!
♡ Put pressure behind your goals.
There comes a time where we have to become our own boss and parent. That means we must find a way to hold ourselves accountable on our own. For me, this means investing money, time, and telling as many people as possible what I’m doing. I may even hire people to hold me accountable.
For you, this could look like making your first hire in your company or getting investors if you know it will make you follow through when times get tough. Whatever it is, we have to put pressure behind our goals. Billie Jean King says “Pressure is a privilege.” Once I started seeing it this way, I don’t start a big goal without having my positive pressure in place first.
I used these methods to start Lite Pink, which is what I’m spending all of my time on these days. I would love to meet you and hear if you’re going to apply these steps to your business. So shoot me a DM on Instagram at @loriharder and follow @drinklitepink as well! Stay tuned for tons of female-focused products created to help you feel better, do better, and connect better!
Much love,
Lori Harder
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We hope you loved this post. Be sure to stalk Lori’s book, podcasts (@earnyourhappy & @girlfriendsandbusiness), & drink her rosé.
Cheers,
The Skinny Confidential team.
+ get your shit together with the new HOT MINUTE PLANNER.
++ stalk this post on angel investing with Kira Jackson.
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