Many women carry a quiet tension into a new year: “I want to grow… but I don’t want to lose myself in the process.” In this encore conversation, I sit down with author and business coach Melissa LaPlante to explore what it really means to build a purpose-driven business after 50 – one that honors people, values, and the planet AND still creates real profit. Together, we talk about leadership without “boxes,” how to recognize the gifts inside your team (and inside yourself), and why intention-led businesses aren’t just kinder, they’re often stronger.
You’ll also hear a grounded, relatable take on intuition – how to tell the difference between inner guidance and fear, and how to move forward even when your mind wants a guarantee. Expect a blend of spiritual perspective and practical energy: equal parts heart and “here’s how.”
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TranscriptKey takeaways:
- Redefine “purpose-driven” as being intention-led: sustainable, socially conscious, and people-centered.
- Learn how to hire and lead “boxlessly,” looking beyond titles and degrees to real strengths and lived expertise.
- Recognize fear for what it is, and practice distinguishing fear from true intuitive guidance.
- Discover “abundance banking,” a way of leading and serving from what you do have: skills, wisdom, and presence, rather than scarcity.
- Normalize the rise-and-fall rhythm of business growth: big wins, recalibration, and returning to faith and self-compassion.
Why this episode matters now
Midlife has a way of refining you. What used to “work” may feel heavier now. All the hustle, proving, and pushing through. And as priorities shift, you may feel that spiritual tension that says, “I’m ready for success that feels true in my body and true in my spirit.” This conversation meets you right there with a reminder that your impact doesn’t require burnout, and your integrity doesn’t have to be the price of growth.
If this episode speaks to you, especially that pull to lead with purpose and trust yourself more — listen all the way through, subscribe, and share it with one woman who’s building her next chapter with heart. Your share might be the exact nudge she needs right now.
Resources:
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LinkedIn & Instagram: @Boxlessbusiness
Website: boxlessbusiness.com
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TRANSCRIPT – Purpose-Driven Business After 50: Profit + Impact
An Encore Conversation with Business Coach Melissa LaPlante
Introduction: Why Purpose-Driven Business Matters Now
Gloria Grace Rand:
A new year is upon us, a time when many of us set goals for our life and our business. And that’s why I thought this would be a great time to present an encore episode of my interview with business coach Melissa LaPlante about building purpose driven businesses that make money and make a difference in the world. So stick around for a fascinating conversation.
I am Gloria Grace Rand, founder of The L.O.V.E. Method and author of the number one Amazon bestseller, Live. Love. Engage. – How to Stop Doubting Yourself and Start Being Yourself. In this podcast, we share practical advice from a spiritual perspective on how to live fully, love deeply, and engage authentically so you can create a life and business with more impact, influence, and income. Welcome to Live. Love. Engage.
Namaste. For the first time in six years on this podcast, I’m actually taking a break over the holidays. And when I come back in January, Live. Love. Engage. will be known as Design your Life, Your Way – empowering women over fifty to live life on purpose. And that’s why I am actually replaying Melissa La Plante’s episode today. Her message about merging abundance with impact, science with, spirituality and purpose with profit is exactly what many of you have told me you need to hear right now. So whether you’re building a business, contemplating your next chapter, or simply wanting to show up more authentically in the world, this conversation is pure gold. Melissa and I dive deep into how to trust your intuition and business decisions. Why giving from your abundance creates more success than taking, and how that little voice inside of you, your own inner wisdom, is often trying to guide you toward something extraordinary. So grab your favorite beverage, get cozy, and let’s revisit this enlightening episode. And remember. I’ll see you in the New Year with Design Your Life Your Way, where we’ll continue exploring how you can boldly live life on your terms and live fully, love deeply, and engage authentically along the way. now let’s get into my conversation with Melissa.
Welcome: Meeting Business Coach Melissa LaPlante
Melissa LaPlante:
Hi. Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to be here and I’m just going to give you a super fair warning. I’m at in my home office and my dogs are in a conversation apparently, so apologies if you hear that in the background. But yes, I’m excited to be here. Thank you for having me.
Gloria Grace Rand:
Well, I, I’m glad that you’re here and I’m glad the dogs are here too. You know, they’ll probably add to the, they’ll add to the atmosphere. It’s always good. And I’m a dog lover and a cat lover, but I did close my door.
Melissa LaPlante:
I have both. Yeah, I love me some animals.
Defining Purpose-Driven Business: More Than Just Serving a Need
Gloria Grace Rand:
Absolutely. So I thought we’d start off because I do want to dive into this, this topic because I think it’s so important. But what, what exactly does a purpose driven business mean to you and how did you kind of discover your own alignment between, you know, making money, which is great, but also having an impact.
Melissa LaPlante:
You know, purpose driven. To me, and that’s, I love that you started with that question because it’s a, I think it’s a misunderstood term in some degrees. I think that, you know, when you think of purpose driven, you think of, oh, my company has to be doing something for consumers that have a need. It has to be, you know, servicing a need. And that’s not necessarily the case. Purpose driven is more about being intention led, knowing that, you know, you are showing up sustainably, socially conscious, you know, that you have. And sustainability is not just environmental sustainability. It’s are the hours you’re working your employees sustainable is the wage you’re giving them sustainable, is the way they’re being treated sustainable. And so, you know, purpose driven really means just understanding your effectiveness effect in the world and on your consumers and, and you know, and showing up in a positive and giving way versus what can we take? Right. And you know, I, I’ve always been, I’m a serial entrepreneur. I started my first business when I was 13 walking dogs ironically. And so, you know, it’s just always been important to me to flourish in business. But as a person, my moral compass also leads me to be intention led and purpose driven. And I just became really good at that paradigm.
Sustainable Business Practices: Beyond Environmental Impact
Gloria Grace Rand:
Well, I love that and I’m glad that you also clarified the difference between yes, maybe a purpose of being to earn a profit or to serve your customers, but really to have a much more deeper impact and not only, as you say, not only on the environment, but also your employees too. What? I’ve got, like, lots of questions, but one of the first things that popped into my head actually while we were talking about that is what are some of the benefits actually of having your business be that way, you know, have that specific.
The Profitability of Purpose: Why Sustainable Businesses Earn More
Melissa LaPlante:
I love that you asked that question. You asked the best questions, Gloria. I love it. So, so there are so many benefits aside from, you know, all of the positives of the things I just listed. Harvard Business just did a study that businesses that are showing up sustainably are 400% more profitable than their unsustainable counterparts. And I don’t know any CEO out there, myself included, who wouldn’t love a 400% raise. So, you know, and so there’s, you know, also when, you know, I’m known as the boxless business coaching consultant because so many years, you know, I’ve been coaching for almost 15 years in leadership and development in one way or another. And people always tell me, oh my God, you think so far out of the box. And I’m like, I don’t have a box. There’s no box. And so, you know, that’s why I developed boxless business, because it shows up, you know, looking at the different aspects of the business in a way that is cohesive. Right. And I’ll explain that a little bit more when we get into more of that. But, you know, I think the benefits are having dedicated subject matter experts that care, that want to show up because they’re, they’re being valued properly. Right. You know, you have increased profitability. I teach one to one problem solving. So, you know, I’m an autistic and ADHD individual. I, in a corporation, do not expect a corporation to educate every employee in the whole building on autism and make everything as autism friendly as possible. I would prefer that they just came to me and said, melissa, what is your actual struggle in this environment and what can we do to meet that need, period? They don’t need to be dumping millions of dollars into one size fits all initiatives to directly meet the needs of their actual employees. So, you know, there’s a lot of benefit to showing up this way.
Coaching Neurodivergent Entrepreneurs: Breaking Out of the Box
Gloria Grace Rand:
I love that. And yeah, and that was one thing I was going to possibly touch on because I know that you mentioned that you do, I guess, work with, as part of your business is you do like working with people who are, you know, similar to you. And I think we all like to do that. I think especially as coaches, we like to find that audience that we can relate to in particular.
Melissa LaPlante:
Right. Well, you know, like I said, I’ve been coaching for almost 15 years, but I went into business for myself a year ago, little over a year ago. And at the time, yes, I was working with neurodivergent entrepreneurs. Because nobody knows a neurodivergent entrepreneur like a neurodivergent entrepreneur. Right, Exactly. I realized that what I was doing was trying to help people who don’t fit in the box, which, by the way, no one fits in, but people who don’t fit in the box navigate fulfilling their dreams. When then I realized I’m kind of mowing the yard one blade of grass at a time. So what I’ve decided to do, because I have so much experience in corporate leadership, you know, half my career I was in IT leadership and development for a global outsourcing company. So I definitely know what I’m doing in that wheelhouse. And I realized that I need to be, instead of helping people fit in the box, I need to jump into these corporations and get rid of the box.
Gloria Grace Rand:
I love that. Yeah, yeah. Because it definitely is so limiting and constricting when you feel like you have to be. You’ve got to operate in a certain way and yet create, you know, processes, I think that. That are going to fit everybody. But we are all unique individuals.
Melissa LaPlante:
Exactly.
The Science Behind Success: Quantum Physics Meets Spirituality
Gloria Grace Rand:
So what’s going to work for somebody is not going to work for somebody else. And you know, we. I mentioned early in your, when I was talking about your, your bio, that you also like to combine science with spirituality. So talk a little bit about that. Because. Because again, like I said, I, I geek out on quantum physics, but. Me too. But I also have, you know, my, my sort of more spiritual woo woo side, as some would say as well.
Melissa LaPlante:
Me too.
Gloria Grace Rand:
Yeah. Talk to me a little bit about that and how you kind of weave that into business.
The Physics of Success: How the Law of Attraction Really Works
Melissa LaPlante:
Yeah, that’s, that’s the secret sauce to my, my teaching. Right. So I have a three part method in boxless business. And the first part is the physics of success. I have been obsessed with quantum physics for probably 20 years. I did a deep dive and never came up for air. And one day I was sitting down and I was like, how do I always achieve? Because every goal I’ve ever set for myself, ever, no matter how grandiose or large I’ve achieved and, and accept my current goals. Right. Which I will achieve. I’m just still in the process. But I decided to sit down and like really analyze my, my process, my personal process of goal achievement. And then one day I got a hair to compare it to the laws of physics and see if I could make a one to one comparison. And I could on every level. Right. And so I developed so just something to give you kind of a, a teaser of what this talks about. Take for instance, you being someone who is in the woo woo spiritual world as well. I’m sure you’ve heard of the law of attraction. Well, it’s not really a scientific law, but it’s a real thing. So what is the scientific law? It’s electromagnetism. Why? Because our brains produce electricity and our bodies conduct it and our emotions create an actual magnetic field around us that can be measured with tools. MIT discovered that. Pretty cool stuff. And so when your thoughts are in line with your emotions and your actions or lack thereof, that is your electromagnet, that is the frequency that you are vibrating at that is attracting other things of that frequency. And that is neither good nor bad because if your thoughts say I suck and your emotions say I can’t do it and you take no action, that’s your reality, nothing happens. Right. So, and, and, and, and you can’t argue with the laws of physics. I know I tripped and fell the other day. Gravity is totally still working. And so, you know, so the, the physics of it is, is basically teaching leaders how to take actions with physics behind them to know that those actions are going to be successful. Right. The spirituality part of it is what I call is a system that I designed called abundance banking. So abundance banking, every single one of us is an abundance bank account with an abundance of our knowledge, experience, talents, curiosities, the way our brain thinks, everything. Right. And Then every person that you know who’s also a bank account is in your abundance portfolio, right? And, and so in a leadership position, when you really look at your portfolio and see the assets, not just the titles because you know the, the slogan for Voxels business is no boxes, no labels, no. Right. So let’s say you have Ted in accounting and he’s great at accounting and you love him for that. But he also had a, you know, few years in college where he was interested in marketing and he didn’t love the whole picture of it, but he has a super awesome knack for coming up with like ads, right? So in a boxless business you can actually pull Ted in on an amount in on that marketing meeting regardless of his, you know, experience, degrees, etc because his brain does that thing, right? And you can, you can say hey, can you add to this? You know, and it creates a collaborative versus competitive environment, right? People aren’t boxed in by their position. You know, also, you know, validating self taught people. You know, because my father and I both are self taught experts. My father passed away, but he taught himself computer programming and went on to be a senior systems architect for an aeronautic space company by the time he died.
Gloria Grace Rand:
Wow.
Hiring Outside the Box: Why Degrees Don’t Define Expertise
Melissa LaPlante:
And that was within a 10 or 15 year span, right. I taught myself physics and I have sat across the table from traditionally physics trained people who get what I’m saying, agree with what I’m saying and agree that I know what I’m talking about. But I didn’t go to school for it. So we need to be hiring outside the box. We need, oh, do you know how many people don’t apply for a job because they see they need this degree and that degree and this amount of experience, but they’re actually subject matter experts who could really do the job and love it. Right? So you know, it’s, it’s, it’s really understanding the assets of your abundance portfolio as a company to really maximize what you can do with your team. Right? So and then the final piece of it is, is what my company’s named after, the self awareness method. C, E, L, L F. And that’s because we’re each a cell in the greater organism and we each have that deposit of abundance that we were born with. Something we are just so passionate at and good at. I can never talk enough about what I do because it’s my abundance, right? And so, you know, when you hire people who are, you know, based off their assets as an abundance bank account versus their certifications, their degrees, who they knew, whatever Right. Then you hire people who are so passionately excited for the opportunity. You hire people who are grateful, you hire people who are dedicated and, you know, you can coach them in the gaps that they didn’t get from school. You know, I mean, that’s a leader’s job, is to cultivate and develop their team. Right. So this is what I do. I teach leaders how to be leaders. It’s funny, I, I love the term that I came up with. You know, you’ve heard the term a man’s man. Well, I, I consider myself a leader’s leader.
Gloria Grace Rand:
I like that. Very good, very good.
Building Your Dream Team: How to Hire with an Abundance Mindset
Gloria Grace Rand:
Yes. So, so how would someone, so let’s say a lot of my audience are women entrepreneurs. And let’s say maybe right now they’re, maybe they have a small team or maybe, or maybe not, but maybe they’re looking to start, you know, adding team members. So what, what do you advise them to do to. How to be able to find people that, you know, because normally, you know, you have, you set up, you know, as you said before, you know, you’ll say, oh yeah, you know, I want someone to be able to fill this position and you have these requirements, but to have it more abundance minded. I love that and putting that into it. So how would you go about, you know, putting out a call for, you know, I want to hire somebody and this is, you know, how do you go about doing that?
Melissa LaPlante:
Yeah, so I think you just got to have the right facilitators. So what I mean by that is put out the description the same way you would. Right. And add if you prefer a degree, that’s okay, you’re allowed to prefer a degree. But, you know, also have a section where they can actually fill out a questionnaire that is related directly to the job duties, have qualifying questions that they can show up and say, you know, they can kind of prove, hey, I actually know what I’m talking about, despite this degree. And then, you know, I remember years and years ago when I was in college, I was an engineering headhunter and I understand the pain of interviewing well. Not to mention I’ve been in a leadership position in almost every company I’ve been in. So I understand the pain of interviewing and how like, tedious it can be. And I think the best way to weed out your best candidates is really like, give, you know, a format that they can answer specific questions that gives you the confidence they can do the job. Right. And many, like administrative positions do this typing test or, you know, a quiz on different software things, etc. Right. So I think that the best way to not waste your time interviewing a bunch of people who just really wish that they could do the job but aren’t actually subject matter experts is to have, you know, something that is quantitative that they can actually go through and answer and fill out and whatever. And then you can take that and say, okay, wow, this person, they didn’t go to college, they don’t have any experience in this field, but these answers are it. This is what I’m looking for. Right. So I think that would be the best approach to take.
Gloria Grace Rand:
Very cool. All right, well, I appreciate that and I’m sure everybody else out there as well, and that makes a lot of sense too.
Measuring What Matters: Tracking Financial Success and Positive Impact
Gloria Grace Rand:
So I want to get back to when we were talking about this purpose driven business. What strategies have you found most effective for measuring, let’s say, both financial success but also positive impact on humanity?
Melissa LaPlante:
That’s actually interesting that you mentioned that because I’m running a case study right now for exactly those things. I’m actually looking for 10 leaders, which by the time this airs, I’m sure I’ll have found them. But I am looking for 10 leaders to participate in a case study where they implement the boxless method into a corporate environment and then we can measure how they’ve grown. But I feel like it’s been very successful in my one to one when I was working with entrepreneurs, when I worked with them, especially in the self awareness section of it, really helping them learn who they are, how they relate to their career, you know, what they want to achieve and things like that and really like zeroing in their focus really helped them make decisions with intention that led to positive results. Right. So as far as the data goes, I am excited as heck about doing this study because, hello, I am a scientist and I love data mining. I know that’s insane, but I do. And so I, you know, I, what I will do is once I get some numbers, I would love to send them to you so that you can kind of, you know, add them at the, under the blurb of the, of the conversation we’re having.
Gloria Grace Rand:
Yeah, absolutely. That would be great. I would greatly appreciate that for you.
Melissa LaPlante:
Yeah, me too. So hopefully I find those 10 leaders soon.
Gloria Grace Rand:
I’m sure you will. I’m sure.
Melissa LaPlante:
I know, I’m not worried.
Trusting Your Intuition: Making Strategic Business Decisions from the Heart
Gloria Grace Rand:
Something else I want to ask you about too. And, and this kind of goes along with what we were talking about and you know, when you were talking about spiritual spirituality and I know part of that is also like paying attention to your intuition. So how does that play into, you know, making strategic business decisions? But you know, how? Also, because I think I’ve, I’ve even written an article about this in the past as well. Is, is balancing it though, with, you know, being focused on your numbers and, and, but, you know, so being able to. How do you, how do you, how do you. Yeah, yeah, kind of combine that.
Overcoming Fear: Why It’s the Real Root of Business Failure
Melissa LaPlante:
Absolutely. So I, I have always, always followed my intuition. From the time I was, When I was 17, I moved from Kansas City to Los Angeles by myself. I knew one person, I had no money, no plan, but my intuition said, this is home, this is where you belong. And 25 years later, it was not wrong. Okay. So, you know, I’m not religious, but I am extremely spiritual. And I feel like intuition is sort of the universe’s voicemail or God’s voicemail or whatever you want to call it in your faith, right? But it’s that place that the higher self and the higher universe is telling you this is, this is legit. And what people tend to come across when they listen to their intuition is fear, right? And fear. You know, people say that, you know, the Bible says that the love of money is the root of all evil. I disagree. I believe fear is the root of all evil. Every thing that we’ve ever done, rather, we’re, you know, terrible to somebody because we feel insecure or we, you know, start a war because we’re running out of resources. And this country has them. It’s all fear based. Everything is, is, you know, so when you act out of fear and don’t listen to your intuition, you make terrible decisions. And a lot of times money can be the root of that fear. Like, oh, if I do this change that I, that I really want to do, then it’s really going to hit my numbers, right? And, and the truth is that when you listen to your intuition and you learn to distinguish it from fear, right? And you push through that fear, then, then you’re going to get amazing results regardless, you know, and having a goal and taking actionable steps towards that goal, it’s using those physics of success. If you follow those physics of success and you listen to your intuition and you practice that self awareness and that abundance mindset, you cannot fail. Einstein actually said a quote, match the frequency of the reality you wish to achieve and you cannot help but achieve that reality. It is not philosophy, it is physics.
Raising Your Vibration: The Key to Effortless Business Flow
Gloria Grace Rand:
Yeah. And I, I know this is so true because it is, it really makes so much sense. Because when, you know, when you are focused on being in that high Vibration state. Then number one, I find that things are a lot easier to deal with anyway, you know, and, and you can really, you find that you’re more in the flow, but when you’re miserable, then, then it’s, sometimes it’s, it’s harder to even get stuff done. I, I, yeah, so, yeah, well, and.
Melissa LaPlante:
It goes back to that electromagnet, right? What frequency are you vibrating at? Something that I love to tell my clients is to picture a bowl of room temperature water and a glass of room temperature water. And then you pour the room temperature water in the room temperature water. Does the temperature of the water change? Of course not. So if you are vibrating in this negative frequency, if you are, you know, your electromagnet is aligned in a way that’s not conducive to what you’re wanting, and the actions that you’re taking are not direct with your intention, you know, then that’s, that’s going to be your reality. But if you, you know, flip the script and, you know, you understand these ways to take actions and listen to your intuition and do these things, then it’s impossible to fail. You’re gonna hit bumps along the way, right? There’s the law of inertia. An object in motion stays in motion until an outside force stops it. But then that’s when you go back to your, you know, drawing board and say, okay, what worked? What didn’t work? And this is gravity. Gravity is a, you know, we all know that what goes up must come down. And, but we also don’t realize that breathing in and out is part of gravity. Waves coming in and out is gravity. Your heart beating is gravity. It’s all gravity. And, and something that is important to understand about gravity and business is that when you have a big win, there will be a fall. And that’s okay, it’s normal, right? But it is understanding to surrender to that process and to take that time to step back, reassess, reevaluate what’s working, what’s not working, what options do I have to make changes? Right? This is, this is where you kind of surrender to the gravity and to faith. And faith is huge because if you don’t have faith in what you’re doing, faith in yourself, faith in your team, faith in your company and what they’re doing, that plays a big part in the vibration of your electromagnet.
Gloria Grace Rand:
Yeah, absolutely.
Impact Without Compromise: Staying True to Your Values in Business
Gloria Grace Rand:
So I want to again, because I love, I love this whole idea of being, being really purposeful with our business and being able to create a bigger impact in the world. And that’s something that I want to do as well. How, what advice would you give for someone who really does feel called to make this bigger impact, but maybe they’re afraid they might have to compromise somehow. They might have to compromise their values in order to be able to succeed. Because again, you know, we live in this kind of culture that is so focused on, you know, profit and succeeding and also a lot of like, you know, just go, go, go type of mentality. More of the masculine energy, frankly, as opposed to the feminine, which is where you can lean into your intuition. So what would you, what kind of advice would you have for someone who really, who wants to do good, you know, in the world, but maybe they’re still a little, you know, unsure about that?
Giving from Abundance: How Small Acts Create Big Impact
Melissa LaPlante:
Well, that’s the thing is that a lot of people mistake that doing something good in the world means doing something big. And that’s not true every single day. Every choice that I make is with intention to be aligned with who I am as a person, which I know intimately because I developed the self awareness process. And so a great example of this, I was driving down the road one day several months back and I saw a gentleman broken down on the side of the road and my first thought was, well, I’m not going to pull over and help him. He seems like the type of guy that would know stuff about cars and I know limited stuff about cars, but, you know, and, and I don’t really, I don’t really have anything, I don’t have money right now to help him get a tow truck or anything, you know, and, and so I kept driving and then I realized, like, my abundance philosophy is all about what can I give versus what can I get versus and using what you do have in the moment to do that. And it doesn’t have to be money, right? And so I felt really bad and I actually pulled a U turn and drove back and I got out of the car and I said, you know, I don’t know anything about cars and I don’t have the money to help you get a tow truck or anything, but how can I show up for you? What can I do, right? And. And then his wife got out of the car, didn’t realize he had anyone with him. And they were like, oh my God, thank you so much. You know, if you could just give us a ride a mile down the road, like our cousin lives there, he can help us. And I’m like, oh, absolutely. So I gave them a ride, but in the time that I gave the ride. I ended up finding out the wife had no idea that she was neurodivergent. We know our own. We can. We can just tell you, you know, And. And. And she had dreams of being a zoologist and all these things, but she had grown up poor and abused. Hey, ditto, you know, and so I gave her just the inspiration I had to give by telling her, hey, this is where I came from, and this is where I am, and this is how I did it. And it wasn’t the way that you think you have to do things, right? It’s out of the box. It’s boxless. And she was just in tears by the time she left my car. And I realized that that was the abundance I was meant to give in that situation. It wasn’t the ride, it wasn’t the mechanical help. But if I had never stopped, if I had never asked how I can be of service, you know, with what I did have available to me, I would have never had that experience. And, you know, that experience was a big part of, you know, really solidifying abundance banking for me. Really like saying, yeah, this is absolutely. Because this is the way I’ve always been my whole life. But, you know, it’s sometimes hard to quantify how one exists in words and steps and whatnot. So that’s what I’ve spent the last 15 years doing, is developing these processes. And then I spent the last year or so going, okay, now they need words.
Gloria Grace Rand:
I love it. And. And, you know, you just reminded me of something that happened to me a couple of years ago as well, is that I had. Actually, someone had run into me, had. Luckily it was very slow motion, and so there wasn’t a whole lot of damage to my car. But then when I took the car to the dealer and while they were doing some work, I wound up having a discussion with the receptionist, and she started telling me about all of the stuff that was going on in her life, and she was struggling. And so I kind of did the same thing as you as I wound up offering this woman advice. And. And I. I kind of came away from. There was like, well, if I hadn’t gotten into that accident today, I wouldn’t have gone over to see this person, and I wouldn’t have been able to give her, you know, the support that she needed in the moment, because she really, really needed it. So.
Melissa LaPlante:
And that’s your abundance. You know, that is what you had to give. And so that’s. So when people realize, you know, take the steps to learn what their abundance Is right. Then they, they can, you know, and to be conscious enough to say, I don’t know how I can help you because I don’t necessarily have the resources I think you need. But, but with what I do have, how can I help? Right. And that’s, you know, abundance banking. It’s giving versus getting.
Abundance Banking in Action: A Wine Company’s Creative Solution
Melissa LaPlante:
So how do we translate this to business? Well, this is an excellent example. I love giving people of a business that’s already doing things boxlessly. There’s a wine company in Northern California called Fetzer and they had a terrible mole problem in their vineyards. Moles were eating up all their grapes and tearing up their vines. And instead of taking traditional measures like companies normally do, pesticides, traps, extermination, whatever, they decided to invest in building really attractive owl habitats so that owls naturally wanted to live there. And then the owls all moved in and were like, look at all the takeout here. Yes. And so they solved the problem. They ate all the excess moles. And one or two moles is not going to hurt an entire vineyard. Right. But they, they solved the problem. And so instead of taking from the environment by poisoning the earth by, you know, also they saved a ton of money because you have to redo those initiatives every few months to, to every year, depending on what it is that you’re doing. So you’re constantly paying for exterminators. Nobody’s paying those owls to live in those awesome houses. That was a one time investment. Right. And so this is a way that a company can give to a problem versus take from a problem to meet its own means while increasing profitability. Because one, they saved their grapes.
Gloria Grace Rand:
Right.
Melissa LaPlante:
And two, they saved the money that they would have spent repeatedly on extermination services, all while benefiting the environment. And this is abundance banking in action. Right.
Gloria Grace Rand:
I love that.
Melissa LaPlante:
Yeah.
Gloria Grace Rand:
Oh, so cool. I. This has been amazing and you’ve exceeded my expectations, frankly.
Melissa LaPlante:
So thank you.
Curiosity Corner: Exploring Teleportation and Quantum Physics
Gloria Grace Rand:
Yeah. I love this discussion we have. And I know folks listening have been just getting so much value, but I’m going to, I’m going to, I love to throw a curveball at my.
Melissa LaPlante:
Oh, I love to get one. Yeah, let’s do it.
Gloria Grace Rand:
Yeah. Because I love asking our guests, what are you curious about right now?
Melissa LaPlante:
Teleportation. So I, like I said, I’ve been a huge physics nerd. And while I was, I tend to, even though I know my stuff, anytime I teach a master class or anytime I’m going to be in front of people, I tend to want to brush up a little just to, you know, make sure I’m on top of my game, make sure nothing changed. Science is obviously always changing. And so I was reading something about thermodynamics that sparked an idea, and I just went down this huge rabbit hole of the way that they should be doing teleportation versus the way they are. The really cool thing is I actually had a conversation yesterday with a guy who was a physics major in college and threw all my ideas at him. And he was like, that’s definitely plausible. That is a valid idea of what to do. Right. And so that was really cool. Also, huge, Huge nerd. You know, you said you were geeking out about spirituality. I’m just a geek in general. I got so excited, I just posted a new newsletter called the Boxless leadership revolution on LinkedIn. And Dan golden, the ninth chief of NASA, actually heart, reacted to the first edition and I almost fell out of my chair. I was like, no way. Um, but yeah, I’m always curious about quantum physics, science. That’s, as an autistic person, that is my special interest. And so I’m constantly engaged in, like, new science and new theories. It’s always driven me a little nuts that I will have this crazy theory that I think, oh, there’s no way that’s, you know, plausible. And then three to seven years later, NASA will come out, new breaking theory. And I’m like, new for you, dude.
The Collective Conscious: How We’re All Connected
Gloria Grace Rand:
Well, that’s it. And that’s because, you know what? We’re all connected, you know? Yeah. It’s that energy.
Melissa LaPlante:
It’s a collective conscious. Yeah, right.
Gloria Grace Rand:
Exactly. Yeah. And, oh, there was something else I was going to say about that, but I forgot now. Darn it. Well, that’s okay.
Melissa LaPlante:
It happens. I can relate.
Gloria Grace Rand:
Yeah, well, yeah, because I, I, I love that story. So it was just so good. So, yeah. Oh, I know. Yeah. Because, ah. Oh, well, it’s okay. I know, I know. It was, it was something related to when you were just, just talking about being serious.
Melissa LaPlante:
I do understand. I have adhd, so I definitely understand. It’s so funny. My friends giggle at me whenever I do that. Whenever I forget something, I’ll say, oh, hi, little ADHD thought.
Gloria Grace Rand:
Yeah, I suspect I may be ADHD a little bit as well, but I’ve just never.
Melissa LaPlante:
It’s honestly a superpower in many ways. It is. It can definitely be challenge. But again, I teach people how to understand their challenges and their strengths enough to use their strengths to overcome their challenges or when to ask for help from your abundance portfolio.
Gloria Grace Rand:
That’s right. There you go. I Love that.
Keys to Success: Gratitude, Faith, and Self-Compassion
Gloria Grace Rand:
Okay. I’m trying to think. Oh, I know. Yeah. That’s the question I want to ask you next is is there anything else I should have asked you about that I didn’t? Or any other last point you want to leave with our listeners before we close today?
Melissa LaPlante:
No, I think you asked excellent questions. And the only thing I would leave our listeners with is probably the key to every bit of my success has been three things. Number one, lead with gratitude. Always be grateful for what you do have instead of what you don’t have and keep the mindset of, you know, I, I posted something on my social media, a quote the other day that I came up with based on an interaction with someone, but it said turn the end of I can’t because into a to do list. That makes you the person that can, because. Right. So writing things down, you know, being intentional, you know, always, you know, asking yourself, is this, you know, does this action? Does this choice? Does this, you know, does this align with what I want to do? Right. And then lastly, faith, faith in the universe, faith that, you know, physics can’t fail you, that if you take the action, there will be a reaction, you know, and so, and if your electromagnet is tuned properly, it’s going to be a good reaction, right? It’s going to be the reaction you want. And so, you know, just faith, gratitude and, and dedication, you know, those, those are the three ingredients that really keep you going. And self compassion. I will add that as well. Because it’s okay to make mistakes. Einstein said, if you’ve never made a mistake, it’s because you never tried anything. And think about, you know, I love to use the example of Thomas Edison when, and in two separate areas, I love to use this reference and when people tell me, oh, I can’t do this because I don’t have a degree. I’m sorry, where did Thomas Edison get his electrical engineering degree? And also when people get frustrated with, you know, what they assume to be failure, the only failure is quitting or never starting making mistakes, having setbacks. Those aren’t failures. Those are learning points, those are growth points. Those are ways to, now I know what not to do next time, right? And so, But Thomas Edison, 8,000 times, he failed 7,000, 999 times before the 8,000th attempt worked. So imagine if he’d given up at time 20, 30, 50, 100, we’d be sitting in the dark right now. We wouldn’t be on this phone, nothing would be happening. I mean, Nicholas Tesla might have brought up the lead for sure. Because he definitely coined a lot of the stuff that, that, you know, Edison did, but did it right. And, and so, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s definitely a powerful thing to give yourself compassion and to say, hey, you know, it’s okay that I am where I am, but I, I’m just in constant competition with myself. I wake up every day trying to be better than I, not better than other people, better than I was the day before. Right. My favorite quote in the world, and I’ve probably said this 7 million times. Maya Angelou said, do your best until you know better, then do better. Right. And that’s all there is to it.
Gloria Grace Rand:
Absolutely. I love it, I love it. I love you. We, we are like minded people, but I am so glad that we connected and I know our audience is going to want to connect with you too. So where’s the best place for people to reach out to you right now?
Connect with Melissa LaPlante: Boxless Business Resources
Melissa LaPlante:
It would be on LinkedIn. Absolutely. And I can message you the, the profile for LinkedIn. And then of course I have BoxlessBusiness.com which should be fully up and running by the time, you know, this comes to air. My former website, you know, focused on what I was doing, you know, before I decided to get behind the lawnmower. So.
Gloria Grace Rand:
Well, I, and I, I love the whole concept of the boxless business. Anyway, so I, I think you, I think you’re on the right track for, for sure. And, and I did actually sign up for your subs for your newsletter, but I haven’t read the article yet, so now I gotta go check it out because.
Melissa LaPlante:
Awesome.
Gloria Grace Rand:
Why that especially why the NASA was excited.
The Real Currency of Success: Recognition Over Revenue
Melissa LaPlante:
So I know. No, that made my year like that was better than making money times a billion. Every time that, you know, I’m recognized for my work or people benefit from what I teach them, like that’s my currency and that’s really what currency we need to be leading with the abundance currency. Right. That’s why I call it abundance banking. So, you know, and I, you know, if we had more time, I’d get into this whole story I have about it. But you know, we don’t and that is. Okay, so, but yes, you know, reach out to me on LinkedIn on Boxless Business dot com. You can also find me on Instagram at Boxless Business. And so.
Gloria Grace Rand:
Yeah, all right, excellent. Well, I’ll be sure and have all of that information in the show notes for everyone. So not to worry. So thank you so much for being with us and who knows, maybe we’ll have to have you on again and dive more into the abundance thinking.
Melissa LaPlante:
So I think I would absolutely enjoy that. I would enjoy that. Gloria, I have enjoyed our time together. Thank you for having me as a guest on your show. Thank you to your listeners for listening.
Closing: Live Fully, Love Deeply, Engage Authentically
Gloria Grace Rand:
Absolutely. And I do. I want to add that as well. So I do want to thank all of you for listening and for watching today. And I really hope you got as much value out of our conversation as I did. For sure. And I encourage you to make sure that you’re subscribed if you’re not already. And. Yeah. And then I always like to end my show with this encouragement as well, is for you to go out today and every day and live fully, love deeply and engage authentically.