The Nourished CEO Podcast

The Nourished CEO is the podcast for ambitious coaches, wellness practitioners, and online business owners who are done choosing between success and self-care. Hosted by business strategist and mentor Laura Schoenfeld, this show is your permission slip to build a wildly profitable business and a deeply nourishing life.Each episode dives into the strategies, mindset shifts, and behind-the-scenes realities of what it takes to grow a thriving business while honoring your energy, your values, your family, and your life outside of work. Through honest solo episodes and inspiring guest interviews with industry experts and real clients, you'll hear powerful stories and practical insights about what's actually working to create sustainable income and impact without burnout.Whether you're in the messy middle of growth or refining a business that already supports your lifestyle, The Nourished CEO will help you design success on your own terms, and love the life you're living along the way.

The Nourished CEO Podcast is a business podcast hosted by Laura Schoenfeld, with 242 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Laura Schoenfeld hosts The Nourished CEO Podcast, a business show with 242 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #72

  Stop Making Business Harder Than It Needs to Be

  Aug 18, 202651 minS2

  What would change in your business if you stopped starting every month from zero? In this episode, I'm taking you inside the rebuilding season I've been in this year, including what happened when I shut down a program that was producing $30,000 to $60,000 months, and what turning everything off taught me about which assets actually make income predictable. You'll hear the three core functions every business runs on, where most established owners are overcomplicating things (usually their offers and their marketing) while leaving their sales process dramatically undersimplified, and the seven authority assets I'm rebuilding in my own business right now. If your income has felt unpredictable lately, or your business has gotten heavier than it should be, this conversation will show you what to strip away and what to build so your revenue compounds instead of resetting every month. Timeline Highlights [01:59] – The rebuilding season: sunsetting a core program while launching new offers at the same time [02:54] – Why business decisions are rarely black and white, and the house-building analogy for hidden costs [04:51] – The lesson of the year: you don't realize what's working in your business until you shut it off [09:23] – What changes when your business pays the mortgage and your family relies on the income [10:29] – Having levers you can pull for more sales versus wondering where the next client is coming from [12:18] – How chasing top-line revenue created a heavy, overcomplicated, less profitable business [18:33] – The millennial habit of doing the most, and why that attitude is killing entrepreneurs [21:44] – Where businesses are overcomplicated (offers, marketing) and undersimplified (sales) [27:06] – The three core functions and the seven authority assets that make growth predictable [34:34] – The bingeable body of work: discovery content, depth content, and decision content [44:31] – The Compounding Clients workshop on August 20th, plus a free ticket for podcast listeners Top Quotes from the Episode "Most decisions have trade-offs, and sometimes you don't realize what something is going to cost until you actually start building it." "Sometimes you don't realize what's really working in your business until you shut it off." "There's a big difference between having no idea where money is coming from every month and having a system where you know exactly which levers to pull to make more sales." "I tried to make my offer so irresistible to every single person that I built a beast of a business, one that was exhausting to operate and far less profitable than it used to be." "Success is usually not your best teacher. Failure, challenges, and problems are where the best lessons come from." "Simplified business models don't get built by accident. If you're not paying attention, you will create complexity." "You're building assets, not content that disappears after 24 hours. That's what makes a business compound." Links & Resources Compounding Clients Workshop (Thursday, August 20th) CEO Type Quiz If this episode resonated with you, follow the podcast, leave a review if it lands, and share it with someone who's ready to build a business that actually fits their life.

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  Episode #71

  The Simplest Path to a Six-Figure Income as an Expert (A Strategic Intensive Case Study)

  Aug 11, 20261h 4mS2

  What if the fastest path to a six- or multi-6-figure expert business is refining what you already have, instead of adding more to it? In this episode, I'm walking you through a real case study from one of my three-hour strategic intensives with a registered dietitian who works with chronic skin conditions. She's excellent at what she does, with the client results to prove it, and her best month ever was still $7,000, with plenty of unpredictable months in between. I'm sharing the exact changes we made in that single session: why we doubled her price from $2,197 to $4,500, how we rebuilt her six-month program into a nine-month offer designed around the actual result, the friction problem that was quietly killing her sales conversations, and the marketing plan we built without a single Instagram post in it. If your income swings between great months and crickets, or you've quietly started backing off your marketing because it doesn't seem to be working anyway, this episode will show you how simple the fix can be. Timeline Highlights [02:49] – Meet the client: a highly skilled dietitian whose best revenue month was $7,000, and why that number made sense [05:28] – The inquiry ghosting cycle, and how it quietly convinces expert women to stop marketing altogether [08:09] – Running the math out loud: why her $2,197 program made her 10K goal impossible before marketing even started [11:18] – The trap of setting your prices by looking at what your peers charge [12:54] – The luxury experience myth, my $1,200 laser treatment story, and why people pay for outcomes [18:31] – Moving the program from six months to nine, because that's when her clients get the full result [20:42] – Finding the three-phase framework that was hiding inside her existing client process [26:21] – Doubling the price to $4,500, and the confidence check I run before any client raises a price [29:30] – The sales process teardown: a $55 mystery consult, no visible pricing, and a friction problem disguised as a demand problem [36:50] – Rebuilding her website around conditions instead of programs, and the difference between showing and telling [41:00] – Building a marketing plan with zero social media: discovery, depth, and increasing your surface area of luck [47:26] – Why the fast stuff comes first, and the deadline we pulled a full month closer Top Quotes from the Episode "People pay for outcomes. Everything you put into your program is there to make the outcome more likely for the right person." "You can't hit a goal that isn't compatible with your numbers. It doesn't matter how well the plan works if the math was never going to get you there." "Selling is leading somebody to what they already want. You share the process, the timeline, and the honest truth of what it takes, and you let them decide." "She thought she had a demand problem. What she actually had was a friction problem." "You're allowed to have standards. Protecting your calendar from people who aren't a fit is respectful to them and to you." "The online world has convinced experts that social media is the price of having a business. It's one tool, and if you hate it, pick a different one." "For an established expert, the fastest way to more revenue is usually subtraction: cutting and refining what already exists until it's the straightest path to the goal." Links & Resources CEO Type Quiz Want a strategic intensive of your own? DM me the word "intensive" on Instagram @laura.schoenfeld or email hello@lauraschoenfeld.com If this episode resonated with you, follow the podcast, leave a review, and share it with someone whose income deserves to be as consistent as their expertise.

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  Episode #70

  Personalization Before Strategy: Why Someone Else's Proven System Keeps Breaking In Your Business

  Aug 4, 202653 minS2

  How much of your business was designed by you, and how much of it came from watching what worked for somebody else? In this episode, I'm getting into the concept I've been circling all year, which is personalizing your business model before you buy another strategy. Nearly every "proven system" on the market is somebody's personality and strengths turned into a process, and when you buy the process without checking whether the person behind it resembles you at all, you end up running your business on willpower. I'm walking through why two completely opposite launches both worked this year, where the income roller coaster comes from, and the three functions of your business that can be personalized to how you're wired. I'm also sharing the two questions I run every new strategy through before I spend money on it, including the four-hour webinar I sat through for a program I decided not to buy. If something in your business has felt off lately and you haven't been able to name what it is, this conversation will give you language for it and a way to decide what stays, what goes, and what you never should have bought in the first place. Timeline Highlights [01:19] – Coming back from the summer interview series and why I pulled myself off the content cycle for six weeks [03:20] – The concept I've been diving into all year, and the offer I built that made money without fitting me at all [05:32] – Two launches at opposite ends of the price spectrum, and what they prove about what's working right now [09:02] – Why the thing that's working isn't a specific model, and what it is [13:03] – The four-hour webinar I watched for a program I decided not to buy, and the discernment behind that call [19:01] – Every proven system is somebody's personality and strengths turned into a process [20:26] – Why the coach teaching daily video and the mentor who refuses sales calls are both teaching themselves [23:57] – Where the income roller coaster comes from, and why willpower is the mechanism [27:15] – The three core functions of your business that can all be personalized to you [38:22] – The two questions to run before you buy another strategy, course, or coaching program [45:49] – The free personalization panel on August 12 with Megan Yelaney, Heather Sager, and Linda Sidhu Top Quotes from the Episode "Every proven system you can buy is somebody's personality and strengths turned into a process. The real question is whether that process fits how you're built." "If you try to run a system that doesn't match you, it runs on willpower, and willpower always runs out before the revenue does." "Those income swings are a design problem, and no amount of discipline is going to fix a model that was built for somebody else." "Almost any business model you've ever heard of is working for somebody right now. What's left to figure out is which one is working for you." "The strategy has to fit your average day. Your best day is not the one you'll be living most of the time." "I had close to a 40K month in July while barely showing up online, because the business runs on assets that compound instead of a schedule that demands I perform." "Simplicity is what scales. Complexity is usually the thing draining your revenue while you're busy adding more to fix it." Links & Resources Take the "What's Your CEO Type?" Quiz Free personalization panel, August 12 at 12:30 PM ET, with Megan Yelaney, Heather Sager, and Linda Sidhu: https://go.lauraschoenfeld.com/personalization If this episode resonated with you, follow the podcast, leave a review, and share it with someone who's ready to build a business that actually fits their life.

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  Episode #69

  How to Use AI in Your Business to Cut Busywork and Protect Your Sales with Nicole Harlow

  Jul 28, 20261h 18mS2

  Almost everyone is using AI backwards right now, and it's doing more harm than good. They hand the public-facing work that actually sells for them, the brand voice, the messaging, the marketing, over to AI, and then keep grinding through the operational work themselves. The follow-ups, the treatment maps, the back-office systems nobody sees. That's the stuff that eats your week and never feels like it's moving the business forward. My guest this week is Nicole Harlow of Lead Better, who has spent 18 years building operations for health practitioners. She keeps watching the same thing happen. Brilliant, fully booked providers burning out, not because they can't get clients, but because they're the single point of failure holding the whole business together. Nicole and I have both gone all in on AI and both got burned doing too much with it, so this conversation is neither hype nor fear. It's two people who already made the expensive mistakes showing you where AI belongs, including the operational work it can pull off your plate this week, and the one part of your business you should never let it touch. If your practice is running on sticky notes and a Google spreadsheet you're scared to open, and you're starting to suspect you're the bottleneck, this one is for you. Timeline Highlights [00:00] – Why almost everyone is using AI backwards, and the operational work it should be doing instead [04:51] – Why operations is where the bottleneck shows up for six-figure practitioners [09:17] – How Nicole landed on operations after 18 years across branding and podcasting [15:58] – The reluctant CEO problem: practitioners who never signed up to run a business [18:11] – Why hiring a VA into a messy system almost always backfires [22:04] – A client story on expecting admins to think like entrepreneurs, and the SOP fix [27:50] – How Claude became a strategic thinking partner, and where that gets dangerous [34:29] – The pay-grade filter for deciding what AI should and shouldn't do [40:20] – Automations versus AI, and the difference that actually matters [49:14] – How to decide what stays human and what gets handed to AI [1:11:19] – Nicole's Brand Voice Starter Guide and why generic AI output costs you Top Quotes from the Episode "You give me something messy and chaotic, and I can create something that's beautiful and elegant and works, and ultimately helps you to work less." "An assistant or admin isn't there to create the system. They're there to slot into a system that's already been thought out." "If you don't have your operations thought through and you hire someone in, you're expecting them to come in and clean up your chaos, and that's the wrong expectation." "What's actually quite normal for most people is they like to know what's expected of them, what good work looks like, and what done looks like." "Systems are saving me and my business, not because I'm hyper organized, but because I already made all of these mistakes." "What makes AI different from automation is the thinking component. Automation is binary. AI adds reasoning and logic on top of it." "I turn to AI in the places where I feel the most resistance." "Just because it's AI and it can write it fast doesn't mean it's using words you or your clients would ever actually say." Links & Resources Nicole Harlow, Lead Better Nicole's free Brand Voice Starter Guide (workshop + workbook) Take the "What's Your CEO Type?" Quiz If this episode resonated, follow the podcast, leave a review if it lands, and share it with someone who's ready to stop being the bottleneck in their own business.

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  Episode #68

  Systems Over Hustle: How High-Achieving Women Reach Their Goals Without Burning Out with Dr. Tiffany Shelton

  Jul 21, 202655 minS2

  What if the reason your systems keep collapsing isn't that you picked the wrong tool, but that you built them for a version of yourself who never gets tired, never gets interrupted, and never has a kid walk into the room mid-meeting? In this episode I'm talking with Dr. Tiffany Shelton, a neuropsychologist and published author who has spent over a decade helping ambitious women build what she calls a sustainable hustle. We get into why productivity advice built for machines falls apart for real women with real lives, and what it looks like to build systems from a human-first place instead. We cover the goal work that has to come before any tactic, the concept of defining your "enough" so rest stops feeling like something you have to earn, how to find the actual bottleneck in your business the way an engineer finds it on a factory floor, and the two systems Tiffany won't let a client leave without. If your business is technically working but you're exhausted by it, or you've quietly been chasing a revenue number that never actually felt like yours, this conversation will give you a steadier way to think about how you run your days. Timeline Highlights [00:03] – Tiffany's origin story: the shift from running on coffee and late nights to actually needing systems after becoming a mom [00:07] – Why going from one kid to two ends the "make it work in the margins" era for good [00:08] – What "putting out fires" actually looks like day to day, and the difference between reactivity and intentionality [00:09] – Slow down to speed up: the goal system Tiffany builds before any tactic, using the bow-and-arrow metaphor [00:15] – Why chasing a bigger revenue number often masks a safety need, and the hedonic treadmill that keeps high achievers stuck [00:17] – Defining your "enough" so white space and rest become claimable instead of guilt-ridden [00:20] – The human-first approach to productivity, and why building systems that expect you to be a robot guarantees they break [00:22] – How to tell when you've crossed from resourceful and committed into burning out [00:25] – Finding the real bottleneck with a process map across the four engines of your business [00:33] – Where AI actually belongs in your systems, and why neither Laura nor Tiffany uses it to create content from scratch [00:41] – Forming white space as a genuine habit, starting at 30 minutes and letting the hard emotions come along [00:48] – The two must-have systems: task management and time management, and the capture habit that empties your brain Top Quotes from the Episode "I went from a need to just be productive to actually needing systems, because I couldn't rely on push-through and coffee anymore." "You have to pull the arrow back slowly, aim, breathe, and then let go. Slow down to speed up, and it flies straight to the target." "The money is usually the top layer, and it's usually a safety thing. What keeps you fueled lives underneath it." "You can be on the treadmill chasing more and more, or you can take a walk in the park, sit on the bench, and rest because you already know you're enough." "Productivity isn't supposed to turn you into a robot. Your systems are going to break, so build them expecting it." "When you contain your time, you reclaim your time." "Your brain is for having ideas, not for storing them. If you're a high-level woman, running your life on sticky notes and random apps just isn't enough." Links & Resources Take the "What's Your CEO Type?" Quiz Dr. Tiffany Shelton on YouTube (over 40,000 subscribers) Dr. Tiffany Shelton's free White Space GPT (link shared in the episode) Getting Things Done by David Allen The One Thing by Gary Keller Essentialism by Greg McKeown The 12 Week Year by Brian Moran Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell Fair Play and Unicorn Space by Eve Rodsky Follow the podcast, leave a review if it lands, and share it with someone who's ready to build a business that actually holds up.

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