Recognizing Your Core Business Identity with Shaina Longstreet
Release Date: 10/20/2025
Make Better Business Decisions Part 4: Lifestyle
The Experienced Entrepreneur
Lifestyle and energy are often treated as personal concerns, separate from “real” business metrics. But for experienced entrepreneurs, they are some of the earliest and most honest indicators of how a business is actually functioning. In this episode of The Experienced Entrepreneur, Marissa Lawton explores why lifestyle and energy deserve a permanent place inside your business metrics system — and what happens when you ignore them for too long. Rather than framing energy as a mindset issue or a self-care problem, this conversation positions lifestyle metrics as leading indicators. They...
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Make Better Business Decisions Part 3: Sales & Profit
The Experienced Entrepreneur
Sales numbers can look fine on the surface and still leave you feeling uneasy. For experienced entrepreneurs, sales and profit are not just outcomes. They are signals — indicators of alignment, capacity, sustainability, and decision quality over time. In this episode of The Experienced Entrepreneur, Marissa Lawton breaks down how to think about sales and profit metrics beyond “did it work or not.” Instead of treating revenue as a scorecard, this conversation reframes sales data as information that helps you lead your business more intentionally. You’ll hear why many seasoned business...
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Make Better Business Decisions Part 2: Engagement
The Experienced Entrepreneur
Lead nurture is not about posting more, emailing more, or staying visible at all costs. For experienced entrepreneurs, lead nurture is about trust, continuity, and relationship — and when it’s working, it should feel steady, not exhausting. In this episode of The Experienced Entrepreneur, Marissa Lawton explores what lead nurture really looks like once your business has matured past hustle-based marketing. Rather than focusing on engagement hacks or content volume, this conversation reframes lead nurture as a signal-based system that helps you understand how your audience is actually...
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BONUS EPISODE: Rant on the Amy Porterfield Jenna Kutcher Drama
The Experienced Entrepreneur
Bonus Episode: The Market Shift, “Dead” Business Models, and What’s Actually Changing In this spontaneous bonus episode of The Experienced Entrepreneur, Marissa Lawton shares an unscripted, candid reflection on the current market shift and the growing narrative that “courses are dead,” “podcasts are dead,” or that entire business models are suddenly no longer viable. Drawing on more than a decade of experience in online business, formal business education, and firsthand work across industries like real estate and mental health, Marissa brings much-needed context, nuance, and...
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Make Better Business Decisions Part 1: Lead Acquisition
The Experienced Entrepreneur
Since you’ve been in business for a while, you already know that “getting more leads” isn’t the be-all-end-all solution some coaches say it is. The real challenge is knowing what kind of leads you’re attracting, where they’re coming from, and whether your lead flow is actually supporting sustainable business growth — or quietly working against it. In this episode of The Experienced Entrepreneur, I kick off a four-part January series about making better business decisions starting with Lead Acquisition. This conversation is for seasoned online business owners who are tired of...
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10 Questions to Get Your Business Ready for 2026
The Experienced Entrepreneur
Before you rush into goal-setting, optimization, or “what’s next,” there’s something more important to do: integrate the year you just lived. In this reflective year-end episode of The Experienced Entrepreneur, Marissa Lawton guides seasoned business owners through 10 powerful questions designed to help you make sense of 2025 and move into 2026 with more clarity, steadiness, and intention. This is not a productivity episode. It’s an integration episode — created for entrepreneurs who have been in business long enough to know that insight doesn’t come from moving faster, but from...
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Decisions That Shape 2026: What Stays, What Goes
The Experienced Entrepreneur
As an experienced entrepreneur, the most powerful decisions you make aren’t about doing more — they’re about choosing what actually deserves to come with you into the next chapter. In this reflective year-end episode of The Experienced Entrepreneur, Marissa Lawton invites seasoned business owners to pause, integrate what 2025 revealed, and practice CEO-level discernment as they step into 2026. This episode isn’t about setting aggressive goals or forcing clarity before it’s ready. It’s about learning how to decide — calmly, intentionally, and with maturity — what stays in your...
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Energy Accounting — The Year-End Audit Successful Entrepreneurs Actually Do
The Experienced Entrepreneur
As online business owners head into a new year, most look only at the traditional metrics — revenue, growth, conversions, launches. But seasoned entrepreneurs know those numbers don’t tell the full story. The real signals that predict stability, sustainability, and success are often intangible: energy, capacity, creative bandwidth, emotional resilience, and decision fatigue. In this episode of The Experienced Entrepreneur, Marissa breaks down the concept of energy accounting — the year-end audit that mature entrepreneurs use to evaluate the health of their business, not just the output....
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Should You Even Make a Business Plan for 2026?
The Experienced Entrepreneur
Should We Be Planning 2026? (How to Lead Your Business in an Unpredictable Market) If you’ve been wondering whether it even makes sense to plan for 2026 with the market shifting under our feet — this episode is going to feel like a deep exhale. In today’s solo episode, we’re talking about what mature entrepreneurs already know: Annual planning isn’t about predicting the year. It’s about directing it. It’s about creating a structure sturdy enough to hold you, even when the market doesn’t cooperate. I’m walking you through the exact framework I use — the Rocks, Pebbles, and...
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The Answer to Self-Sabotage in Your Business
The Experienced Entrepreneur
Being in business long enough, you’ve faced this question: “Do I stay the course… or am I self-sabotaging?” In this week’s solo episode of The Experienced Entrepreneur, we unravel one of the most complex challenges seasoned business owners face — knowing when something in your business still has staying power, and when your desire to quit is actually coming from fear, fatigue, or avoidance. This is not a beginner conversation. This is a maturity conversation — one that honors both your intuition and your data. For years, the online business world taught us that ease equals...
info_outlineYour brand isn’t something you create — it’s something you uncover.
In this episode of The Experienced Entrepreneur, Marissa Lawton is joined by designer and brand strategist Shaina Longstreet, founder of Dawn and Delight Creative, for a deeply grounded conversation about what it really means to build a business that feels like you.
After nearly two decades in creative work, Shaina has developed a powerful philosophy she calls identity-led branding — an approach that starts with who you are at your core, not with trends, templates, or what everyone else is doing online.
Together, Marissa and Shaina explore:
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Why your unique identity is your greatest differentiator in business.
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The difference between “building a brand” and becoming one.
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How to operate in your zone of genius (and stop trying to do it all yourself).
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The reality of choosing your hard in entrepreneurship — and why the right kind of challenge still feels fulfilling.
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Why visual branding is only one piece of the puzzle — and how your values, voice, and visuals must align for long-term growth.
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How an identity-led foundation keeps your brand relevant, adaptable, and authentic through every pivot or rebrand.
Shaina shares her four-part Dawn Approach — a process that blends strategy, visuals, and meaning — and explains how identity-led branding naturally evolves as you do.
This conversation is for the business owner who’s tired of “pretty but empty” marketing and ready to root their work in something deeper: purpose, consistency, and truth.
Listen now to learn:
→ How to recognize your business’s core identity
→ Why authenticity is the strongest growth strategy
→ How your brand can evolve with you — without losing its soul
Resources Mentioned:
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Free workbook: Discover Your Deepest Why
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Connect with Shaina on Instagram → @dawnanddelight
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Learn more at dawnanddelight.com
Connect with Marissa:
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Follow The Experienced Entrepreneur for weekly, heartfelt conversations about business sustainability, brand clarity, and staying steady as you evolve.