We recently connected with Laura Wolff and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Laura thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s one of the most important lessons you learned in school?

I think the most important lesson anyone can learn is how to build/cultivate genuine relationships. The relationships you form as a child are the foundation of how you continue to build relationships throughout your adult life. I can remember being the girl who wasn’t a part of any particular group but could float from click to click, and get along with everyone. Growing up my mom instilled in us that you are to love all people no matter what. So my life has been about loving the people in my life the best I can.

I can remember my mom making meals for people when they needed it, bringing groceries to the neighbors, and throwing parties for other kids she knew wouldn’t have one otherwise. My mom taught me from a young age that we are to love people no matter what because you don’t know what happens behind closed doors.

This has served me well in the entrepreneurial space as people want to be seen, heard, and valued. With so much cyberbullying these days and the courage of everyone from behind the screen it’s easy to say things that you would not feel comfortable saying to the person’s face. I believe that all issues/problems can be worked out with conversation.

My business is built on building genuine relationships with those I come in contact with. I don’t want superficial relationships. If I don’t know about you, your family, your life, AND your business, how can I really serve you at the highest level?

For example, a client of mine was struggling at home and I could tell something was weighing on her and she told me a little of what was happening. I told her that I was there for her when she needed me, gave her some affirmations to say and told her to journal about what was going on.

The next morning she sent me a message that had me in tears. The next day it all poured out of her, she opened up and told me that she was struggling at home with her new schedule, lack of confidence, and imposter syndrome, the kids had an unexpected day off as did her husband and she had a list of things she wanted to get to but couldn’t with everything fighting for her attention. She said the journaling really allowed her to get out all the frustration she was feeling and get to the root of the issue.

She had been so hyper-focused on the things she felt she had to do for her business that she couldn’t allow her mind to switch off of business mode and back into family mode. The whole point of being an entrepreneur is that you set your own schedule and are able to make the necessary changes when things like this come up. She thanked me several times over the following week for helping her to see that she was putting too much weight on her shoulders and she needed to take a step back and reevaluate what her priorities really are right now.

Another example is when I was chatting on Marco Polo with a friend of mine and she kept saying she was “fine” but in her face said she was not. She was everything but fine! Her body language and tone told me something was going on with her but she wouldn’t say. I kept messaging her to check in and remind her that I was available if she needed to talk.

Once she decided to talk about it, it came pouring out. She told me later that she couldn’t believe that I picked up on the fact that she wasn’t fine. I told her because we have grown so close this past year I could read the signs and see that her voice was telling me one thing but her face and body were saying something completely different.

These cues are all part of building the relationship. You have to really know someone in order to read between the lines. If I didn’t know my client and her family I may have missed the signs of her struggles. And if I didn’t spend time getting to know my friend as deeply as I have, I may have missed her cues.

Relationships are far more important than anything else we do in life. They are the root of who we are and where we want to go. It kills me to see people attacking other people because if we learned earlier to just love people for who they are and not to expect to change them then our relationships would be so much better and I think the world would be a better place.

I talk about building relationships with my kids a lot because I don’t want them to go out into the world and be judgmental of others. You never know what struggle someone is having or battle someone is fighting, but by building strong relationships you can crack the outside armor we all have put up and really get to know your friends and family. At the end of the day, this is the bond that will tie us together.

My goal is to someday be so financially well off that I can start a program for moms that will offer meals, doulas, transportation, groceries, personal chefs, daycare, etc. Postpartum is hard on women, I know I struggled with it with all three of my girls, and if I had just had someone to help me watch the kids so I could take a nap or shower it would have made a world of difference. This goal pulls together two things that I feel strongly about, loving people where they are, and serving them the best I can.

I love taking new parents a few homecooked meals that they can heat and eat because not having to think about that one thing would have helped me so much. New moms don’t often take care of themselves as much as they should because they are now taking care of the new baby, the other children, and their spouse if they have one. Plus the home responsibilities and everything else that goes along with just living.

I hope I painted a good enough picture for you. I have more examples but This is already quite long and I wasn’t sure how detailed you wanted me to get.

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

I’m Laura Wolff, the founder of Wolff Custom Designs, and I help creative mamapreneurs prioritize, set, and reach their personal and professional goals by implementing systems, as well as providing encouragement and support all while you gain clarity for your future.

A little about me, I’ve been married to my best friend for 19 years, and we have three amazing kiddos that we homeschool. We moved from California to Georgia when I was pregnant with my oldest who is now 17. My hubby is in commercial construction and he travels for work. As a homeschooling family, we go where he goes. We feel it is really important to be together as much as possible. We choose to make memories rather than have a lot of things because my kids won’t remember what they got for their birthday 20 years ago but they will remember how they felt on date night, or taking long drives to nowhere.

This also allows us to see some really awesome places we may have never visited otherwise. I love it here in GA but look forward to someday moving closer to the ocean, I am a beach girl. I joke that I am the real-life Moana because the ocean calls me, but it really is my happy place.

On any given day you can find me dancing with my kids like a weirdo, walking at the park, crocheting, practicing yoga, or driving my kiddos around in my jacked-up Jeep with the doors off and the music cranked up. I feel that self-care is very important for mamas, especially entrepreneurs, and that is why I am passionate about living a simple and healthy lifestyle, that encourages time for ourselves. I love getting lost in a good book, growing a garden, cooking healthy meals, baking all of the yummy sweets, learning new ways to use my essential oils, and just being creative.

I have been a VA for over a decade but until 2018 I didn’t know that’s what it was called. I love helping women grow, learn and thrive in their businesses. I realized that there is a gap in the creative space where the crocheters, knitters, painters, potters, and designers don’t have the support they need (and most don’t know they need it). I decided to fill this gap because I too am a creative person and understand the mindset. The issue with most creatives is that they focus so hard on creating they pay no attention to the business side of things and hold themselves back.

I offer support both as a VA and a mentor. I feel it is important to have a person you can call and vent to, brainstorm with, and who will push you to grow outside of your comfort zone. I offer tough love because I want to see you succeed. My greatest gift is being an encourager, I will be your biggest cheerleader and celebrate all the wins with you no matter how small it may seem. I remember when I went live on FB for the first time, I reached out to my business besties and we all celebrated together. This type of comradery is very important in your continued growth.

Something unique that I offer is a vent session. I believe it is important to have a space where you know what you say is in confidence and you can unload what is eating at you. Whether this is client-based, family-based, or self-inflicted. I will listen and we will work together to see if this is a problem that we can solve or if this is just a “I need to get it off my chest” situation. Either way, I love these sessions because it allows me to see how your mind works. Sometimes an outside perspective can open your eyes to things you never would have seen otherwise.

I am most proud of taking the step outside of my comfort zone to start mentoring clients. This has been a game changer for me in many ways, helping others to grow has helped me to grow as well. I love working with women who have a hobby they want to turn into a business because I love seeing all the creative things people come up with. I know it can be lonely on this journey and my goal is to help women to find out what they really want and to formulate a plan to make steps towards achieving those goals.

Goals are something I am super passionate about. If you don’t have goals that you are writing down daily they will not come to fruition. The stats on people who write down their goals vs those who don’t are crazy, if you have a chance look it up. I believe it’s something like 90%.

I believe that building genuine relationships is the foundation of every good collaboration. So bonding with my clients is important to me. I will dig into their family life and really get to know them on a deeper level. I feel that this is important because without understanding the whole picture of who they are and what they are struggling with I can not serve them at my highest level. I take their business’s success as seriously as I take my own. If you are not succeeding then I am not succeeding and that is not acceptable.

My goal for my clients is to find out if they are in need of some support, accountability, motivation, and guidance, or maybe they are struggling with imposter syndrome and have lost faith in themselves or their abilities. I want to be able to help those get off the hamster wheel of overwhelm and back to living not just surviving.

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

The risk I took was cold messaging my now client. She has over 70K following on YouTube and in every sense of the word successful. She was struggling with the work involved and I messaged her at just the right time. We met several times over the next 6 months via zoom and built a friendship. I did some work for her for free while we were getting to know each other. This included accountability check-in’s which did not take up much of my time but meant a lot to her. She messaged me and said she was finally ready to hire me and we have been working together since. I love that I took the risk and asked if she needed help and then offered at no charge things I knew I could do that wouldn’t be a huge time buster for me. Building relationships is the core of who I am and my business. I believe that in order to succeed you have to have strong relationships no matter what field you’re in.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

The lesson I had to unlearn is that I am not enough. I am not smart enough, good enough, strong enough. But all of those are lies that I am working to unlearn because I can do hard things and I am enough just as I am.

The biggest jump for me in this learning or unlearning was putting on a 6-day summit this year where I planned, hosted, and set up 11 amazing ladies from all different backgrounds to come together and share how they are intentional with their time and energy when it comes to our businesses, home life, and self-care. It was inspirational, educational, emotional and so much bigger than I ever planned for. But I did it! I made it happen and in 2 months it went from an idea to a real-life event. I am so proud of myself for all the work I did and how it all came together.

This really helped to push me outside of the helpless, not enough phase and into my greatness. I proved to myself that I can do things that I didn’t previously know how to do and I can do it my way and be successful. It was an amazing experience. I don’t know if I will host another one because it is A LOT of work, but I am thankful for this experience and all it helped me to see about myself.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/wolffcustomdesigns
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wolff_custom_designs/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WolffCustomDesigns
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-wolff-260575b7/
• Youtube: @wolffcustomdesigns
• Other: Alignable – www.alignable.com/snellville-ga/wolff-custom-designs

Image Credits
I took the photos