We were lucky to catch up with Laura Di Franco recently and have shared our conversation below.

Laura, appreciate you joining us today. The first dollar your business earns is always special and we’d love to hear how your brand made its first dollar of revenue.

When I started the business, I worked with a psychic business coach. Yes, she’s a whole other story. I was in a group business coaching program with several other female entrepreneurs, and our coach was encouraging us to get into action with our BETA programs.

My course back then was called Intuitive Writing and Speaking for Healers. I wanted to help my fellow healers to write and speak about themselves and what they did in more impactful ways—to help them grow their businesses.

At the time, our coach said things to the group like, “This doesn’t have to be perfect,” and “Just do it.” She said, “You’ll learn along the way and perfect the course as you go.”

Well, I’m a “Just do it” kind of gal, so I did it. I created the program without being “ready” or “perfect”. I invited a group of healers into it for a huge discount in exchange for their feedback and help in making the course the best it could be. 12 women signed up! I was thrilled. And that first course was the start of a multi-six-figure business that I now call my Brave Healer empire.

And guess what. . . I was the ONLY one in our coaching group who followed the coach’s advice and got into action before I was “ready.” I’m so grateful to her. And I’m proud of me, too – for taking that risk and going for it.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’ve been writing in journals since I was 15. Those pages have always been my refuge. Writing as a path to healing has always been what’s helped me. I write to Feng Shui my soul.

When I opened my first business as a physical therapist in 2008, I was journaling but also started blogging so I could write and educate people about holistic healing. I loved writing even more through blogging. I loved helping people! And I was (am) such an anatomy geek! I was obsessed with peak performance. Up until then, I had been a collegiate soccer player and marathoner.

Then, my first book, Living, Healing, and Taekwondo, was self-published after I realized I had six years’ worth of journaling that needed to be a book! My son and I trained for and earned our black belts together starting in 2006 when he was five and a half (and I was 38!). I journaled about all aspects of those six years as a mom, wife, healer, martial artist, and business owner. Just before we took that black belt exam, I knew this was going to be my first book.

That first book led to so many things, including book number two, Brave Healing, a Guide for Your Journey. But not before severe impostor syndrome set in, and I was convinced my mom and my BFF were the only two people on the planet who had bought and read my first book.

This journey of writing, publishing, and sharing myself with the world has been a lifelong journey of reclaiming my worth and stepping into my power. It’s been about moving through the purpose-driven fears and creating a life I love. Writing my books was the way I figured out what mattered and how I wanted to move forward in life. It’s what triggered the awakening that helped me ask for my divorce and start my current business.

There was a day I sat at the computer and saw a post from Elizabeth Gilbert that said, “Your fear is boring.” I got a tattoo sometime later to remind me of that. Yeah, a tattoo. Now, I like to share this with my friends who are afraid to go for it in their lives: Your fear of not-good-enough is boring. This isn’t about you. It’s about the person’s life you’ll change (or even save) when you share your brave story with the world.

I met Shirley that same year, which is also the year I started that BETA program I told you about. Shirley found me online and reached out via Facebook Messenger for help. Here’s what she wrote: “I’m a mom of five, and I’m struggling with depression. I loved that blog you wrote on MindBodyGreen and was wondering if you had any other articles I could read.”

After chatting a bit and writing and dedicating a new blog to Shirley (anonymously), she reached out, signed up for that class, and went forward to write her own two blogs for the world. One about being a mom of five and struggling with depression, and the other as a reach out to other moms with a message of “If I can do this, you can, too!” What I didn’t know throughout that whole time (which she shared later) was she had been planning the suicide note she would write to her husband and five kids.

And since that day (and year, which was the beginning of my business), I haven’t looked back. To my authors: Your fear of not-good-enough is boring. What if that thing you’re still a little afraid to share is exactly what someone needs to read or hear to change (or even save) their life? It’s time to be brave.

If helping Shirley is the only thing I ever do with my writing, it’s enough.

Now I help my authors understand the deeper purpose behind their writing and sharing. I help them overcome the fear of writing about personal things because the more personal, the more universal. I help them have fun with their fear and share their brave words—the words that also help them build their businesses and thrive.

What sets us apart from other publishers:

When I opened my current business in 2016, I married the healing and the writing into something I call the Brave Story Medicine Method. I had already published a couple of my own books by then and had grown my first business to six figures on my own, so I knew I wanted to pay forward the information about business-building, writing, and publishing I’d learned to my health and wellness professional friends. I set a foundation for my publishing business on the idea that writing, publishing, speaking, and sharing about yourself and your business is a healing and self-development journey, and created a safe, sacred space for healers to share their brave words.

Brave Healer Productions is an award-winning publisher for holistic health and wellness professionals that supports the business and healing journey behind each author.

I don’t know any other publisher who takes responsibility for what authors truly need AFTER the book launch. But the launch is just the beginning!

Our services include:
~Expert book collaborations (our signature service)
~Children’s books (Brave Kids Books)
~Expert business book collaborations (Brave Business Books)
~The Brave Healer Writers Retreat & Author Journeys (We travel as an author group and then publish a collaborative book)
~The Brave Healer Transformation School (Our course platform where authors create and teach their tools through courses)
~The Brave Healer Writers Circle (our club for writers who want accountability, education, and community)
~The Monday Morning Breakthroughs Business-Development and Networking Events (Online)
~Business Coaching (Writing, Publishing, Copywriting, Blogging, Business Development, Networking, book launching, etc.)

The thing I’m most proud of: The community of over 1000+ Brave Healer authors who continue to show up and help us wake the world up to what’s possible for healing. These people show up taking responsibility for the energy they’re bringing to the world. They practice awareness and are in a beginner’s mindset, which is the mark of a master. My authors are master healers and teachers. They are trailblazing authentic healing. They aim to change the world by doing the work themselves and then sharing that energy and intention and their powerful tools.

Books are legacy work. My author’s legacies are important to me – because they are also mine. This is big-potatoes stuff to me. It’s a big ripple.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In January of 2020, just before the pandemic, my daughter came to me to report that she’d been molested by a cheerleading coach. I fought alongside her for almost four years to put him behind bars. We succeeded. He messed with the wrong girl and the wrong family.

This event challenged me and my entire family in ways that went beyond what I had experienced in the past in terms of mental health. I felt “at capacity” many days. And. . . this purposeful work of my business became a survival tool.

Just two months after she came to me, I woke up dreaming a dream about inviting my healer friends to write The Ultimate Guide to Self-Healing with me. It was a collaboration of stories and tools to help the world heal at home. That first book was the beginning of my business becoming the publishing empire it is today, with over 68 Amazon bestselling books.

But if you think about what was happening in the background of my life, you might wonder how those two things could go together.

Remember my martial arts training? “Discipline the mind, the body will follow.” That was my master’s quote. And I’d been training for over 14 years at the time this happened. This is where I love looking back in retrospect at every perfect thing I’ve been through that has prepared me for my life, and especially this one thing.

It took every single ounce of me to stay present, aware, calm, and effective during those years. I had to take care of myself, my daughter, the people around us who were also effected, and my business. I wrote a poem in the middle of it with a line that said, “I want people to ask me how I did it because sometimes I don’t even know.”

As a company we would publish so many expert collaborations over those years we were fighting in court that ended up being my guide. Our titles covered mind, body, soul, and spirit healing. They provided guided tools to help with when you were at the bottom of the pit. And we published a book called Stop the Silence: Thriving After Child Sexual Abuse, right in the middle of it all. This expert cast of global authors not only came through for the world in terms of stories and tools, many of them texted and emailed me, and hopped on the phone with advice, support, love, and court preparation strategy!

There’s so much more I want to say here. I’m so grateful to my community. The day of the trial, I had hundreds of healer authors on social media and speed dial. They poured their energy and love into us. They held us for those many days and excruciating hours of waiting. Until we won.

Resilience is about awareness and the practice of feeling. I’ve been training all my life. And now we get to help the world with these ninja moves of awareness. This is what I was born for.

Any advice for managing a team?

The reason I chose this question to answer is because if any of you are interested in growing your business, it’s your (eventual) team who will help you do that. It’s your team and the community you build around you who become the bigger energy that expands into the world.

I’m a newbie here. I’ve learned by flying by the seat of my pants and failing forward. Every mistake and failure has been a stepping stone, lesson, and learning moment. Hiring and firing is torture for a recovering good girl. Being the “bad” guy in your business isn’t only necessary, it requires you to step up in ways you probably don’t want to. Here is where the mark between success and failure happens. If you don’t step up you’re going to see very quickly how a business can fail in the mess you make when you don’t work on your communication skills.

On the good side, when you step up in your own self-development journey and take responsibility for knowing who you are, what you need, and understanding other people, magic can be made on your team and in your business. You know that saying, “Hire slowly and fire quickly?” I get that so much now. And I should’ve slowed WAY down in my hiring process in the beginning. But, no regrets, because taking action got me to where I am now. But If I were to go back and give myself some advice, a lot of it would start with “Slow down. The house is not on fire. You got this. Figure out what’s aligned first. Trust yourself. Move forward from there.”

I try to remember that I wouldn’t be here with my team. And I’m so proud to say I’ve grown from just me to a team of over 20 independent contractors now! I recently held my first team meeting to celebrate. Looking at all those beautiful faces of people all around the world was the best! Slowing down to celebrate is so important! Visionaries tend to run at 150 miles per hour and don’t often slow down to see how far they’ve come because they’re always moving so fast! Recognizing the team, celebrating with them, and keeping that energy high-vibe is my plan from here on out as we grow together. We get to change more lives as we work together. This is so exciting to me!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://lauradifranco.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bravehealerproductions
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bravehealerbylaura
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-di-franco-1b037a5/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@bravehealerproductions2444
• Other: Poetry: https://www.facebook.com/warriorlove https://youtube.com/@positivelypurposefulpoetry8316

Image Credits
Melissa Demple