The Nourished CEO Podcast

Laura Schoenfeld

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.

  1. 21h ago

    Instagram for Introverts: How to Use Social Media Without Burnout with Madelyn Victoria

    You know social media can help people find your business. But does using it effectively really require you to constantly post, film yourself, follow trends, and essentially become a content creator on top of everything else you already do? I'm joined by fractional CMO and social media strategist Madelyn Victoria to talk about a much more sustainable approach to Instagram, especially for introverts, busy founders, or anyone who doesn't want social media taking over their business. Madelyn shares why "attention is not the same as trust," why going viral isn't necessarily a useful business goal, and how to create a consistent presence without posting every day. We also get into practical strategies for making content easier, including repurposing, B-roll, case studies, pinned posts, Instagram Stories, batching video content, and tools inside Instagram's Edits app. In this episode, we cover: Why visibility doesn't require constantly being "on" What matters more than going viral Why two or three strong posts per week may be enough How to repurpose blogs and emails into Instagram content Lower-pressure content formats for introverts How to create stronger case studies Simple ways to make filming and editing easier Why your audience's questions are already content ideas When to actually start paying attention to your analytics Why you shouldn't abandon a new strategy after two weeks About Madelyn Victoria Madelyn Victoria is a fractional CMO, social media manager, and ShowIt website designer who has been helping six- and seven-figure service providers and coaches with their marketing since 2019. She's also a self-described huge introvert, giving her firsthand experience building visibility without wanting to constantly perform online. Get Madelyn's Playbook Want to see what these strategies look like in practice? Follow @madelynvictoriaco on Instagram and DM her the word PLAYBOOK to get her behind-the-scenes resource featuring real content examples and the strategy behind them. Build a Business That Can Grow Without More of You If your business still depends heavily on you personally delivering, selling, explaining, and holding everything together, watch my free training: How to Build a Signature Offer That Sells, Scales, and Gives You More Freedom Go to lauraschoenfeld.com/scale to watch.

  2. Sep 15

    How to Make Your Signature Offer a More Reliable Source of Revenue

    If your signature offer gets great results but still isn't a particularly reliable source of revenue, it's easy to assume you need more leads, better marketing, or another launch. But that may not be the real problem. As your expertise gets deeper, your offer, messaging, and sales process don't always evolve with it. You understand why your approach works and how all the pieces connect, but a potential buyer looking at your work from the outside doesn't automatically have that context. I call this the translation gap. When that gap gets too wide, you end up filling it yourself by explaining the value on sales calls, creating more customized support, or relying on launches that require a huge amount of your personal time. In this episode, I'm walking through my Signature Offer Scaling Plan to help you figure out what may actually be keeping your signature offer from becoming a more reliable source of revenue. We'll look at the offer itself, the positioning and sales path around it, and whether enough of the right people are finding and moving deeper into your work. Most importantly, I'll show you how to find the first meaningful constraint so you don't walk away thinking you need to rebuild your entire business at once. Timeline Highlights [04:01] – What the translation gap is and how it shows up in an established business [05:36] – Why your expertise is not too nuanced to scale [08:45] – Why knowing more doesn't mean putting more into every offer [12:57] – The question to ask before you scale the business you already have [13:55] – Distill: the right buyer, right offer, and right client journey [18:15] – What your best-fit client actually needs from the offer [22:35] – Why simple does not mean basic or low value [27:12] – Position: why better copy alone may not solve the problem [32:35] – Why useful content and sales content are not the same thing [38:27] – The leverage test for your sales process [43:12] – Why more traffic may not actually be the answer [44:02] – Why nuanced expertise needs a bingeable body of work [49:54] – Helping someone move from consuming your work to choosing you [54:40] – The leverage question across the entire business [57:11] – How to find the first meaningful constraint [59:47] – Choosing what deserves your attention over the next 30 to 90 days [1:00:36] – How to get Laura's help implementing the plan Top Quotes from the Episode "Your expertise is not too nuanced to scale." "Knowing more doesn't mean I have to put more into every offer." "Does this work" and "is this how I want to run my business" are not the same question." "I don't think you should scale more of something that you actually secretly don't want more of." "Simple does not mean basic or low value." "Teaching something useful and helping someone make a buying decision are not the same job." "Fix the earliest meaningful constraint first, and then move on to the next one." Do This Next If you want my help figuring out what needs to change first in your business, DM me FIRE on Instagram and I'll send you the application to work together. If you enjoyed this conversation, leave a review, and send this episode to an experienced coach or practitioner whose signature offer still requires too much of them to grow.

  3. Sep 8

    The Rookie Niching Mistake I Made This Year and How I'm Correcting It

    Earlier this year, I made what I can only describe as a "rookie" niching mistake. I built my new positioning around something my current clients talked to me about constantly, people responded really well to it, and some even reached out about working together. Then the conversations with new prospects kept ending with, "This sounds great. But I'm not ready yet." That pattern forced me to look at the difference between what my current clients value after they've worked with me and what prospective clients already know they want before they hire me. In this episode, I'm sharing how I missed that distinction, the data that finally made it impossible to ignore, and what I'm changing about my niche, messaging, and the backbone of The Foundry curriculum as a result. The deeper work around building a business that fits your strengths, personality, capacity, and life still matters to me. I just realized it wasn't the right thing to lead with if I wanted new clients to understand why they should work with me now. If people are responding to your content but your sales conversations keep stalling at "later," this episode will help you figure out whether you have a sales problem, a messaging problem, or a niche that's asking people to want something they're not ready to pay for yet. And if you're an experienced coach or practitioner whose work already gets results, but your signature offer still takes too much explaining or selling, this conversation is especially relevant. Timeline Highlights [00:00] – The rookie niching mistake: choosing a topic before validating buyer demand [03:47] – Why I decided to move upmarket and speak to more advanced entrepreneurs [08:17] – The client conversations that shaped my messaging around strengths, burnout, and business fit [15:02] – Where the strategy broke: people liked the outcome but didn't want it enough to buy [16:38] – The sales data that exposed the mismatch between positive response and buying intent [21:33] – Why current-client insight can miss what prospective clients already know they want [24:32] – The role messaging and positioning must play when trust hasn't been earned through delivery [29:26] – How I'm rebuilding my niche around value, skill, joy, and active demand [34:35] – The experienced coaches and practitioners I'm choosing to serve now [39:01] – Why personality and strengths remain part of my perspective without leading the offer [45:44] – How to diagnose a market-demand mismatch instead of blaming the market [47:51] – The offer, sales system, and marketing plan behind the next version of The Foundry Top Quotes from the Episode "People saying 'this sounds great' isn't the same as people wanting it enough to pay for it." "I was speaking to what my clients valued after working with me, not what prospective clients already knew they wanted." "If 'I'm not ready' keeps coming up, you have to consider whether you're leading with a problem people want solved right now." "Your messaging has to earn the trust of people who haven't had the chance to experience your work yet." "A profitable niche comes down to what people will pay for, what you're exceptionally good at, and the work you actually want to do." "Being ahead of the curve is helpful until you're so far ahead that people admire your idea but aren't ready to buy it." "The mistake isn't the problem. Refusing to look honestly at why something isn't working is the problem." Links & Resources Join The Foundry waitlist Take the What's Your CEO Type? Quiz

  4. Sep 1

    How to Make More Without Dropping Insurance: A Dietitian's Signature Offer Makeover

    Most health experts who take insurance have been told the same thing. If you want to make real money, drop insurance and start selling high-ticket cash pay programs. I like a good cash pay program. I also think that advice gets applied to practices where it makes very little sense. This episode is a real coaching conversation with my client Angelina, who owns an established, heavily insurance-based dietitian practice in Ohio. She has clients, she gets referrals from gastroenterology groups, and her reimbursement rates are solid. The most important question for her business was never whether to blow up a working model. It was how to make that model more profitable, more differentiated, and less dependent on adding sessions to her calendar. We build a hybrid offer in real time, where insurance covers the clinical sessions and the client pays separately for the testing, messaging access, and resources insurance was never going to cover. We get into pricing, continuity, boundaries around access, and how to position a practice so the big insurance-based platforms stop being competitors at all. If the only two options you've been given are more 1:1 sessions or stop taking insurance, this conversation gives you a third option that's got serious potential. Timeline Highlights [00:00] – Why "stop taking insurance" is the wrong first move for an established practice [08:16] – Angelina's setup: buying a twenty-year-old insurance-based practice in Ohio [12:57] – How a hybrid offer works and what the cash portion actually pays for [15:51] – Competing with Nourish, Fay, and BerryStreet without competing on price [20:44] – Naming the specific result: healing IBS and IBD instead of managing symptoms [29:08] – Building a low-ticket continuity offer so clients don't disappear at month four [33:10] – What belongs on the cash-pay side: testing, meal plans, supplements, portal resources [37:40] – Pricing the hybrid when insurance already covers part of the total [42:44] – Why graduating every client costs you revenue and costs them results [48:40] – Setting messaging boundaries before you need them [55:45] – SEO, GEO, and Google reviews for a practice built on local referrals [1:04:41] – Doubling income without adding a single session Top Quotes from the Episode "You can't out-price a company with venture funding and insurance leverage. The move is to build something they aren't even offering." "Nobody stands in a parking lot deciding between McDonald's and a good gourmet burger. Those aren't the same product, and your practice shouldn't be the same product as a platform handing out free sessions." "Insurance teaches people to buy an hour of your time. A signature offer teaches them to buy a result." "The cash portion of a hybrid offer covers everything insurance was never going to pay for, which is usually the part that creates the outcome." "Not everyone wants to be graduated. I've worked with the same trainer for eleven years because I like having the help, and your clients are no different." "People overstuff their deliverables and then spend years on the hook for all of it. The better question is what's the least amount of support someone needs to get what they came for." "Set the boundary before you need it. Renegotiating access after someone has already crossed the line is a much harder conversation." "This model lets you earn twice as much from the same number of sessions, or keep the income steady and cut your session load in half." Links & Resources Take the CEO Type Quiz Practice Better (EHR, client portal, messaging, program delivery) If this one landed, follow the podcast, leave a review, and send it to a practitioner who's been told insurance is the reason they aren't making enough.

  5. Aug 25

    Why Your Sales Keep Dropping Back to $10K Months (and the One Asset That Fixes It)

    Most coaches and practitioners who stall out somewhere between 8 and 12K months assume the fix is more visibility, better credentials, or harder work. The actual gap usually sits somewhere else entirely, and once you see it, the income rollercoaster starts to make a lot more sense. In this episode, I'm breaking down the single asset that separates businesses with predictable revenue from businesses that reset every month. I call it the sales bridge, and it's the connection between everything you publish and the offer you want people to buy.  I'm also walking through what happened with a client of mine, Chris, a UK nutritionist who had been in business since 2009, podcasting since 2015, and selling high ticket one-on-one with no trouble at all. His group program was a different story. Two launches, £10,000 of ad spend on the second one, refunds, and almost no profit later, he was ready to shut the whole thing down. What we changed was smaller than you'd expect, and his revenue doubled in a year when a lot of businesses were shrinking. If your income has been resetting every month no matter how much effort you pour in, this conversation will show you exactly where the leak is and what to build instead. Timeline Highlights [00:00] – The income rollercoaster: 8 to 12K months, the occasional spike, and the reset that always follows [03:25] – Why sales that run on manual effort and good timing can never compound [04:49] – The asset that sells for you every day, including the days you don't show up [05:32] – What a sales bridge is and how it links your marketing to your paid offer [07:58] – Chris's situation: ten years in business, easy high ticket sales, and a group program nobody wanted [11:35] – Why his one-on-one had demand baked in and his group program never did [12:26] – Two launches, £10,000 in ad spend, a discount strategy, and a wave of refunds [18:59] – The podcast mention that produced six sales in a week and what it proved about his audience [23:33] – The three changes we made: a hybrid offer, thesis messaging, and getting discoverable again [29:25] – Everything we deliberately left alone, including his niche, his prices, and his podcast [32:24] – The outcome: doubled revenue, 4,500 to 13,000 followers, and a four-day week [39:27] – Who the one-on-one sales and systems audit is built for Top Quotes from the Episode "If nothing connects your marketing to your offer, your income will reset every single month no matter how much effort you pour into it." "Chasing people in the DMs and spending forty-five minutes on a call explaining your offer is what happens when nothing else in your business is doing that work for you." "You want people arriving at sales conversations with one foot already in your offer, needing one last touchpoint from you to say yes." "Demand you don't have to create is the most valuable thing in your business. Chris's one-on-one had it. His group program never did." "Lowering the price is what people reach for when an offer isn't landing, and it's almost never the thing that moves it." "Your thesis is the set of beliefs that, once someone takes them on, make your offer the obvious next step for them." "Chris didn't have a traffic problem, a skill problem, or a work ethic problem. He had marketing on one side, an offer on the other, and nothing carrying people across." Links & Resources Take the "What's Your CEO Type?" Quiz Work with me DM me the word SALES LINK on Instagram Chris Sandel, Seven Health Full case study interview with Chris: Read it HERE or listen HERE. If this one landed, follow the podcast, leave a review, and send it to someone whose income keeps resetting every month.

  6. Aug 18

    Stop Making Business Harder Than It Needs to Be

    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.

  7. Aug 11

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

    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.

  8. Aug 4

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

    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.

Trailers

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out of 5
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About

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.

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