Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura Cohn.
Hi Laura, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
If you had told me ten months ago that I would write a sales workbook and be talking about marketing, AI, customer behavior, and sales systems for small business owners, I probably would have looked at you funny. But I can see how one connection led to another and gradually brought me here. Things happen in my life that way. I’m not a person who has succeeded by having glorious goals. I follow what shows up in front of me and sometimes get ideas about things that might be cool. Then where I wind up is usually better than what I could have imagined… eventually.
I’ve always felt a presence guiding me inside, and that there is some kind of underlying framework that determines how things happen based on the decisions we make and what we do. That made me curious about what is really going on in life. Seeking to find deeper meaning and truth also gave me a new level of understanding about people, communication, and what was really important to me. There were times when I really didn’t understand why things were happening the way they were, but so many things were not in my control. That reality was in clear view in some of the circumstances I found myself in.
Professionally, my life was given a full stop when I experienced a chemical injury that landed me on workman’s compensation disability for 5 years. I wasn’t given much direction about how to deal with it so my health kept getting worse. When I finally did get some information about how to get my health back, it took time to recover. I worked in a variety of jobs after that before spending more than 14 years in internet marketing sales and strategy.
I had more than 50,000 sales conversations with business owners across many industries and helped thousands of businesses improve their internet marketing results. What I enjoyed most was listening to them talk about their goals and why they were motivated to do what they do. Small business owners are so brave. They are some of the most determined and creative people I’ve ever met, and I genuinely wanted to help them succeed.
A turning point came seven months after I joined a local networking group. I volunteered to give a presentation on Local SEO, but was asked to give a talk on Sales Without Being Pushy instead. While preparing, I started thinking about where my own approach to sales had come from. I didn’t learn it from sales books or formal training. I wasn’t introduced to sales training until about four years after I started working for an internet marketing company, and by then I was already a top-performing closer. The methods that made me successful came from experiences in my own life that weren’t really about sales.
Then I got this idea: what had worked for me to sell new clients services might help small business owners who struggled with sales themselves. The sales training was great, but it wasn’t as effective for me as what I was already doing on my own. My methods became the foundation for the workbook, Sales Without Being Pushy: Write a Simple Sales System You Will Actually Use.
My goal was to create something practical for service professionals and small business owners who don’t enjoy sales but know they have to figure out how to do it. Every business needs sales to grow. Instead of teaching sales tactics, the workbook helps people write a sales system based on their own experiences, values, and how they want to do business.
Today I help businesses with marketing strategy, sales coaching, custom bottled water, and wholesale wellness products. I also get to speak and write about sales, marketing, AI in business, and customer experience. What excites me most is helping people accomplish something and making it easy for them to do. I believe each of us is designed a certain way, and our experiences prepare us to make other people’s lives better through our work.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
My life has not been a smooth road and a lot of things were hard, but I wouldn’t change any of it because I love what I learned, how my life is today, and the way I get to be with people.
I think the biggest struggle I had was not understanding how my decisions were impacting my experiences. While I had great parents and a solid upbringing, the world was confusing to me and I picked up some negative habits along the way. It took me some time to unlearn those.
I found myself conflicted a lot. I was a working artist and singer-songwriter in my twenties. The inspiration to pursue art or music has shown up at various times in my life, kind of like seasons. When I was creating art or working on music, I was in a mental state that was peaceful, filled with joy, and the cares of the world didn’t exist. Then when I went back to my everyday life, the contrast was sometimes hard to adjust to. I wanted that peace and joy in every moment of my life and it took some time to figure out how to live that way.
The main thing that got me through the challenges was that I kept asking questions and trying to find answers. I wanted more understanding because I felt that no matter how hard I tried, I didn’t seem to do very well. I think I had an unrealistic idea of what my life should be. I remember when I was a kid and I told my dad something I was upset about. He said, “If you fall into a hole and you’re sitting in a puddle of mud and it’s raining, get up, go inside, wash yourself off and put on clean clothes.” He never let me wallow about anything for very long. He wanted me to take care of what I needed to do, be strong and not give up.
My goal wasn’t to be strong in my life but over time I did become resilient. The chemical injury I mentioned before was one of the biggest challenges I ever dealt with. It wasn’t like having a bad cold for a few weeks. It was years. I was really sick and it really sucked. At one point, I didn’t have the strength to walk a mile. When I got my health back I was at square one and had no idea of what to do for work. I wasn’t able to go back to what I had done before. The experience made life so different for me. It also gave me a new perspective about priorities and how to decide what was an immediate need and what could wait.
One thing that challenged me was how redundant and repetitive things were in my day-to-day life. I grew up with television and movies, which kind of distort how things happen. Time is condensed and characters are compressed so the story fits into a neat, short time period.
I didn’t recognize that doing the same things over and over again is what brings success. For example, exercising has to be done on a regular basis to achieve goals. A restaurant makes their menu items the exact same way every day, and that’s what people come back for. I remember my dad told me as a kid, “Don’t have a television mentality.” He said that because it wasn’t realistic to expect things in life to skip ahead that quickly.
I think I’ve always wanted a smooth road. Over time, I learned that it’s not really about the road but how you respond to it that makes the ride smooth.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about 416 Sales?
416 Sales started when I needed a DBA name. I was hired as an independent contractor doing sales for an internet marketing company and didn’t know what name to use. Our street address was 416 Mockingbird Lane, so I took the 416 and put it with sales. 416 Sales was born. I had the business name, the domain, and the email address for years, but it’s only been in the last few months that the business became what it is today.
After 14+ years, I stopped working in internet marketing in 2025 and got into custom bottled water through a former client. That business is what pushed me to build my website. That website became my testing ground for understanding how businesses show up in AI search results, which is now an area I help clients with. Sea Moss Organics came later, through the business owner I’d worked with years before. Both businesses are still part of what I do, but writing Sales Without Being Pushy clarified a need and gave me a direction I’m excited to grow in.
416 Sales is now primarily focused on helping service professionals and small business owners succeed in sales and navigate the new landscape taking shape online with AI. Customer behavior has changed in a few key ways and business owners need to make adjustments for that. Sales and internet marketing strategy are where I have the most experience, and I believe those two things work better when they are connected intentionally.
If there’s a gap between marketing and sales, customer experience can suffer. When that happens, businesses can struggle to get a return on their marketing investment. Closing that gap is one area I’m focused on with business owners.
What probably sets me apart is that I don’t come into a client’s situation with a one-size-fits-all approach. I look at what they are doing, what is working well, and find things to add that will enhance their customer’s experience and bottom line. I can combine marketing and sales in my approach and then look for ways to extend that into the customer experience for the life of the client. Everything is based on the core values of a business and who they best serve. To me, it’s all part of the same conversation.
If a business is struggling with sales or needs help developing packages for what they offer, I can help with that. If their marketing isn’t working, there are a number of areas we can look at to figure out why. A great marketing campaign can generate leads, but without a designed sales process, opportunities can get lost. Building a great customer experience into that process helps turn more of those leads into customers.
All the sales conversations I got to have gave me kind of a Rolodex of information about random things stored in my brain that comes in handy when I’m talking to a business owner. When I started writing Sales Without Being Pushy, it brought back a lot of memories and so many ideas came to my mind. When I found out that in the Federal Reserve’s 2025 Small Business Credit Survey small business owners said reaching customers and growing sales was their top operational challenge in 2025, it confirmed there was a real need.
As I was writing and editing the workbook, revamping my website, creating a free cold calling sales lesson for newsletter subscribers, designing the book cover, and building a media kit, it felt like everything I had learned in my life was coming together in a way that could serve a greater purpose.
My sales workbook, Sales Without Being Pushy: Write A Sales System You Will Actually Use, is available on Amazon. There’s a read sample button under the thumbnail of the book cover so you can check out what the workbook is like and decide if it’s a good fit for you before you buy it. There are nine sections. Each one helps you create one piece of a sales system that you write for your business. The final worksheet puts it all together.
The workbook shares stories from my life and what I took from those experiences that became my sales approach. That approach made sales enjoyable and interesting for me, and it got results. Writing this workbook gave me the opportunity to share what I did so other business owners can do the same.
From my first sales lesson at eight years old to flying airplanes with my dad, earning a degree in political science, performing as a working singer-songwriter, recovering from a life-changing injury, getting certified in mediation and more, the reader gains insights from stories, lessons, principles, and simple exercises. By the end of the workbook, if they do all the exercises, readers will have a sales system they wrote themselves for their business.
More than anything, I want people to walk away feeling encouraged and better equipped to address their next marketing or sales step in business, whether they work with me or not. I think business is one of the best ways we can help other people and serve a greater purpose.
How do you define success?
Today, there are a number of things that go into my definition of success. Overall, my view of success starts with recognizing the significance of what we’re doing and acknowledging that achieving simple small goals builds into bigger goals getting accomplished.
On a basic level, from a people standpoint, I think success is being able to help another person accomplish something. Or it could be offering encouragement that helps someone have a better day. I love hearing success stories people have experienced. One of my favorite parts of my job in sales was listening to business owners talk about what they had done and what they were going to do next.
But success isn’t always about other people. Some of it shows up in the small wins that come from getting things done each day. Those can be great motivators because one small accomplishment can lead to the next one and the next one. Small daily habits can really build something good over time.
One example of that in my own life started about five years ago when I saw a video with some neck exercises that promised to change my life. I loved that idea so I started doing them every morning. Then I added some arm stretches and other easy exercises I could do as well. Five years later, I do exercises and stretches every day that keep my body in good shape and my muscles feeling good. It all started by doing one small thing everyday.
To me, another part of success has to do with making decisions, having a willingness to change based on new information, and following through to achieve a different desired outcome.
After we adopted an African grey parrot, we found out that cooking with non-stick pans would kill the bird over a period of time. My husband wondered what those pans were doing to our health if it would kill a bird. I started cooking with a cast iron skillet and using it is now my favorite way to make dinner. I had to learn the art of cooking with it and cleaning it. That is a success I’m super happy about.
Then there is the kind of success that is more important to me than anything else. From a personal standpoint, success is all about where I’m spending my eternity. I made my decision about Who I put my faith and trust in so I will be in heaven. To me, that is the only thing a person needs to get right in this life. And when I say that, people might think I’m religious but my faith isn’t about religion. I’m just really in love with God and could brag about what He does all day long.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.416sales.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/416SalesTX
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauraanncohn/
- Other: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H9CD52YD?ref_=ppx_hzod_title_dt_b_fed_asin_title_0_0
