Did he know that 97% of business owners never break
Speaker:$1 million in revenue.
Speaker:So today's guests.
Speaker:I have Alison Maslan.
Speaker:She has not only done that, but has done it in 10
Speaker:businesses that she owns.
Speaker:And she's also helped 150,000 other founders to do the same exact thing.
Speaker:Now, before all of this, though.
Speaker:She was definitely at age 19 buried in her work.
Speaker:And she was, uh, in a situation.
Speaker:It almost took her life.
Speaker:Almost took everything from her.
Speaker:She's going to talk all about that and how that
Speaker:switched things in her mind.
Speaker:And now she finds herself flying through life in her own way.
Speaker:She'll talk about that as well.
Speaker:So if you feel stuck at any reason in your business and you're looking
Speaker:to scale and you want to do it in a whole different way of thinking.
Speaker:This is the episode for you.
Speaker:So let's go jump in with Alison Maslan.
Speaker:We're here.
Speaker:We're finally doing this, uh, recording, which is nice because
Speaker:we share a mastermind together here in San Diego, which, you
Speaker:know, I feel like I've, uh, I chatted with your husband last
Speaker:time at the holiday party.
Speaker:I love Mike.
Speaker:That guy's so fun too.
Speaker:Yeah, he is.
Speaker:but you and I haven't chatted enough and I'm like, man, I, I think this
Speaker:is a nice focused time that we
Speaker:Yeah, I'm excited.
Speaker:Yeah, and, and I gotta thank you for one for having us at your
Speaker:house one of the nights because first thing I noticed when I was
Speaker:there, I was like, you have a massive trapeze in your backyard.
Speaker:I'm like, what's up with that?
Speaker:kind of hard to miss, isn't it?
Speaker:tell me about that because I know it fits in here,
Speaker:but let's just start there.
Speaker:Like what's up with the trapeze?
Speaker:What does it mean to you too?
Speaker:well, my mom always jokes that when I was born, the doctor literally
Speaker:said that I belonged in a circus.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:apparently I was pretty flexible as a baby, so who knew?
Speaker:Uh, but I was a gymnast growing up and my gym teacher actually built me
Speaker:a set of uneven bars in my backyard at made out of plastic tubing
Speaker:Yeah, they bend, right?
Speaker:So
Speaker:yeah, it worked.
Speaker:And I, I was out there swinging around, you know, I used to do that
Speaker:so much as a kid and I competed.
Speaker:Um, professionally and in college and so I was always an athlete
Speaker:and then in my 30s I discovered the flying trapeze and when I
Speaker:was up there I, first of all I thought, I didn't even know
Speaker:anyone could actually do this or learn this, but I was so hooked.
Speaker:And I think it kind of brought me back to my childhood.
Speaker:And so I've actually been training for over 20 years and I found
Speaker:a five generation, um, circus family that, uh, performed in
Speaker:Ringling Brothers for 25 years.
Speaker:that many of the Cirque du Soleil people train with and so
Speaker:I Drove to LA every single week and then when we moved into the
Speaker:house We are now with more land.
Speaker:I was like I am putting a trapeze here I didn't I think
Speaker:my husband thought I was kind of joking But when he saw this
Speaker:massive piece of equipment being you know built he's like wow
Speaker:She's really serious about this.
Speaker:So yeah, I'm I'm back there flying all the time and
Speaker:Doing flips and everything.
Speaker:It's, it's really my happy place.
Speaker:Yeah, I remember you mentioned that because I think it was one of the
Speaker:first things I asked you there, too.
Speaker:I'm like, that's unique.
Speaker:What's the story here?
Speaker:And like, do you, how do you use it now?
Speaker:Like, are you, are you out there training to be in the
Speaker:next circus team or is it more of like a practical?
Speaker:no, well, first of all, I don't fly by myself because
Speaker:that would be dangerous.
Speaker:And so you need to have a catcher.
Speaker:You need to have somebody up on the board with you.
Speaker:And, uh, and then we often have somebody on the ground as well.
Speaker:And I, you know, I'm, I'm not going to be running off with the circus at
Speaker:this point in my life or Cirque du Soleil, uh, maybe next time around,
Speaker:but I'm always aspiring to grow.
Speaker:Uh, I've been working on my double back flip and some other big tricks.
Speaker:And the greatest thing for me is that I get to face my fear up there.
Speaker:And have major breakthroughs, which then when I'm on the ground,
Speaker:it just, you know, I end up having more breakthroughs here.
Speaker:I face my fear and I stretch myself.
Speaker:And so it really is the perfect alliance of me, you know,
Speaker:going after my dreams up there in the air and I see myself
Speaker:doing it on the ground as well.
Speaker:I can, I could, I mean, never have flown like that, but, uh, my sister
Speaker:in law, I think had she, you know, there's some places you can go to
Speaker:and kind of practice or try it out.
Speaker:And that's what I've heard is like, you're in the air.
Speaker:I mean, you're, you're literally flying.
Speaker:I
Speaker:You are literally flying.
Speaker:There is nothing like it.
Speaker:And you know, you're in the moment
Speaker:because you know, when you're in your, you're focused on
Speaker:your business, you're thinking about all the things like your
Speaker:brain is always going, I don't know if yours is, but mine is.
Speaker:But when you're up there, you have to be focused.
Speaker:You have to visualize, you have to really lock it in.
Speaker:You have to have your eyes open, your ears open, everything.
Speaker:And so you're truly, it's like a moving meditation in a sense.
Speaker:And I just feel so good and my head feels so clear when
Speaker:I, you know, when I'm done.
Speaker:I think everyone, and I talk about it often, you know, I took
Speaker:up jujitsu six, seven months ago and it's for similar reason.
Speaker:I find it's like meditative because you're going with the motions.
Speaker:You have to think on the fly quickly.
Speaker:It's physical.
Speaker:Um, yeah, different, obviously, but similar.
Speaker:And I feel like practices like that.
Speaker:Just a quiet, the entrepreneurial mind that gets a little wonky.
Speaker:Sometimes you need to layer something in there,
Speaker:You do.
Speaker:Everybody needs that.
Speaker:You know, my husband golfs and you've got to be really focused.
Speaker:It's such a mindset game and I think those things are really healthy.
Speaker:Plus to, you know, we operate from our neck up in our business so much.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so really to fully integrate it within our body and, and
Speaker:use it because you're going to lose it if you don't.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Keep moving that body.
Speaker:You only got one.
Speaker:So Allison, I mean, you, you've lived a wildlife from the
Speaker:research that I've gone down.
Speaker:I did some deep dive in
Speaker:Oh no.
Speaker:skeleton to coming out now, I'm just kidding.
Speaker:But you're, you're scaling businesses left and right.
Speaker:You have a full team, mentors.
Speaker:Everything you're doing at Pinnacle, it's really cool in the mastermind.
Speaker:I've heard, you know, other ways that you're scaling
Speaker:and I'm just like, well, you know, like this is true scale.
Speaker:I mean, you wrote a book on it.
Speaker:You did, you've done a lot.
Speaker:Uh, what was like, but I'm curious of the story before,
Speaker:because you have a lot of great strategies for scaling.
Speaker:I want to get to, and you know, helping people break through
Speaker:of maybe the doing themselves.
Speaker:And maybe, you know, it depends on the lay or the
Speaker:size of the business, but.
Speaker:What was your story starting out?
Speaker:Because, what was it, 40 ish year?
Speaker:Or you started at like 19, I think, right?
Speaker:Business for Yourself?
Speaker:So, was it scale in mind then?
Speaker:Or no?
Speaker:You know, I, uh, grew up in an entrepreneurial family.
Speaker:My father was very passionate about his business.
Speaker:My grandfather started, uh, a women's clothing store in Kansas
Speaker:city called Maslan's and then, uh, won a second store in a
Speaker:poker game in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Speaker:Uh, where I was born.
Speaker:And my grandfather and my father checked out this store to see,
Speaker:okay, what did we win here?
Speaker:And is this worth even taking over?
Speaker:And what they learned from the experience was it was a
Speaker:great store, but it wasn't, they weren't selling the right
Speaker:products for the right market.
Speaker:And so, my dad ended up taking that company, which is called
Speaker:Stewarts, and scaling it across the Midwest, uh, over 50 locations.
Speaker:And so, as a young girl, I would go with him from store to store,
Speaker:and I just took in so much, just being around that energy.
Speaker:And he was always so innovative and courageous.
Speaker:And so it, I really didn't know anything else.
Speaker:And I couldn't hold a job for more than two weeks.
Speaker:So I had to figure out this entrepreneurial thing.
Speaker:And so my first company, um, I started when I was 19 doing, uh,
Speaker:brochures and greeting cards, and that evolved to a full service
Speaker:advertising a PR firm when I was 25.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:but I didn't know how to scale.
Speaker:I had no idea.
Speaker:And I was taking on big clients like Ben and Jerry's and Supercuts
Speaker:and Charlotte Roos and, and helping them with their marketing
Speaker:and building a small team.
Speaker:But I ended up getting buried in the work like so many entrepreneurs do.
Speaker:Uh, you know, I, one day I woke up and I was like, you know, the
Speaker:business is running me into the ground instead of me running it.
Speaker:And I was so burned out from the stress of it all and ended up
Speaker:having a terrible car accident that just about took my life.
Speaker:And so that was my massive wake up call to go, Okay, well clearly
Speaker:something isn't working here.
Speaker:And so that became my, uh, just my determination, my mission to
Speaker:figure out, you know, how was it that Ben and Jerry's or super
Speaker:cuts, you know, my clients, you didn't see the CEO standing over
Speaker:everybody, uh, like an orchestra leader, you know, micromanaging,
Speaker:they were out there building great strategic relationships,
Speaker:partnerships, and, and building the future of the company.
Speaker:And so I began to study.
Speaker:How this was working and that, uh, became the impetus for me
Speaker:to go on and build nine more companies that haven't depended
Speaker:on me to be founder independent.
Speaker:And so that's really what we do day in and day out at
Speaker:Pinnacle Global Network is helping business owners build a
Speaker:team managed scalable company.
Speaker:I like it.
Speaker:Founder independent too, because that makes all the sense.
Speaker:And yeah, you look at these other companies that are actually scaling.
Speaker:They're thinking of partnerships, the bigger picture, the
Speaker:strategic moves or gaps in the market product market fit.
Speaker:Like you said, even in the beginning.
Speaker:When you're drowning in the work or the inbound stuff or just hustling
Speaker:in general, it's like, yeah, you lose track of a lot of this stuff.
Speaker:take me back because there's also, I know you have a whole
Speaker:cool, unique way of partnerships and, and, um, not, it's more
Speaker:collaboration than than competition, which I want to touch on.
Speaker:But take me to the car accident because what I feel like there's
Speaker:a bigger story or meaning of like, because you said work was
Speaker:burying you, like, what, I guess what was the tipping point there
Speaker:from this grind mode to now?
Speaker:It's like, Oh man, I got to change things up.
Speaker:Well, you know, it sneaks up on you, and most people are
Speaker:living on autopilot, right?
Speaker:And you're just thinking of what's the next thing I gotta do and
Speaker:what's the next thing I gotta do.
Speaker:You're not really examining your life and how you feel.
Speaker:And my daughter at the time was under two years old, so I was also
Speaker:managing taking care of her as well.
Speaker:That's tough.
Speaker:And so I, uh, I just felt that I, I remember driving down,
Speaker:um, by the beach in San Diego and seeing all these people
Speaker:hanging out at the beach.
Speaker:And I remember thinking.
Speaker:How do they even get to do that?
Speaker:You know, and here I'm living in this beautiful city and I wasn't
Speaker:able to fully live my life.
Speaker:I was working weekends.
Speaker:I was working till two or three in the morning, creating ad campaigns.
Speaker:And I had a small team, but I was such a control freak.
Speaker:Uh, I felt like I had to have my eyes on everything going
Speaker:in and out of the company.
Speaker:And that's, you know, so many business owners are like that.
Speaker:You think you're doing the right thing.
Speaker:You think you're keeping things from falling apart and that
Speaker:it's your responsibility.
Speaker:But here I had these great people and I was in their way.
Speaker:And so, you know, just from the, the weight of it, but
Speaker:it was, I was doing it to myself, but I didn't know.
Speaker:And so I was fearful.
Speaker:I was exhausted.
Speaker:I felt trapped, uh, in my circumstances because I just
Speaker:didn't really know what else to do.
Speaker:And then I was embarrassed.
Speaker:To ask for help and I thought something's wrong with me, right?
Speaker:That's what we always do with something's wrong with me I
Speaker:should be able to figure this out and you're making money.
Speaker:You should be grateful, you know, like oh my gosh all these
Speaker:different emotions so That's you know, that's where I think the
Speaker:universe was kind of like a little tired of dealing with me and just
Speaker:said look Let's just let's wake her up, you know, don't kill her.
Speaker:But you know And that, that was my wake up call.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, uh, just the buildup to that because, you know, there's a lot
Speaker:of things that we just don't see.
Speaker:Yeah, we're blind to sometimes the obvious things around us.
Speaker:Car accident.
Speaker:I mean, there's a whole bunch of things that can
Speaker:happen otherwise as well.
Speaker:Um, I mean, that's, that's a wake up call.
Speaker:I mean, what's the, 'cause I'm thinking, you mentioned so many
Speaker:things, like people getting in the way of great people that you hire.
Speaker:Delegation, of course, is a term that everyone's said, but in
Speaker:the moment when you're grinding, it ain't that obvious, right?
Speaker:Like, you're not thinking of that.
Speaker:You're just trying to get the stuff done, moving to the next
Speaker:thing, trying to make more money to live in San Diego or whatever
Speaker:you're trying to do, freedom.
Speaker:So
Speaker:for sure.
Speaker:You know, and, uh, I had a lot of people depending on me.
Speaker:And looking up to me.
Speaker:And, uh, I, you know, felt like I needed to keep it together.
Speaker:Outwardly.
Speaker:Even though inwardly I was crumbling.
Speaker:And, you know, just trying to hold it together.
Speaker:And I think that was probably the hardest thing.
Speaker:You know, I think business owners put an enormous amount of pressure
Speaker:on themselves to get it all right.
Speaker:And I think if I would have just lightened up and asked for help
Speaker:back then, I would have gotten it.
Speaker:But, you know, I don't regret it because that's where some of
Speaker:my biggest lessons came from.
Speaker:And, you know, I, I do remember a, a very powerful moment back
Speaker:then when I was in the hospital and, uh, you know, it was a, it
Speaker:was a pretty serious accident.
Speaker:But once I kinda knew that I was, everything was gonna be
Speaker:okay, my, the first thought that came to my mind was, what if
Speaker:you're in the same place a year from now or ten years from now?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:that it literally was like somebody was speaking to me and I knew
Speaker:that if I didn't make a change, I would be in the same place.
Speaker:And, and time just goes so fast.
Speaker:And so that really lit this fire under my feet to say that, you know,
Speaker:if this is success, I don't want it.
Speaker:Uh, I love business, but I need to do it a new way.
Speaker:And so that was where I just became super determined.
Speaker:to learn.
Speaker:And, you know, because of that, it really was the best
Speaker:experience because it set me up on my mission for my life.
Speaker:Cause once I figured it out for myself, I also realized that
Speaker:millions of business owners struggle with the same thing.
Speaker:In fact, 97 percent of business owners never even make it
Speaker:past a million in revenue.
Speaker:And this is really why,
Speaker:because they're in their own way.
Speaker:They're not thinking of, yeah, outside of them or even their,
Speaker:their, maybe their small team, but they're in their way is
Speaker:what they're just creating friction in all, all areas.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Yes,
Speaker:And that's.
Speaker:So before we get there, because I want to ask the question, maybe
Speaker:I'll just seed it now is scaling because a lot of folks won't even
Speaker:think of scale until some point.
Speaker:I mean, who knows when, you know, what is that tipping point?
Speaker:And I guess that's for everyone to ask themselves.
Speaker:And for you, Allison, this, this car accident was a moment where for
Speaker:whatever reason that that question came to your mind, like, what's it
Speaker:going to look like in 5 to 10 years?
Speaker:And, Like, do you, do you see the people?
Speaker:Cause you know, Pinnacle is obviously coaching, mentoring
Speaker:a ton of business owners.
Speaker:Is that a pretty recurring thing that these, these moments happen?
Speaker:And then like the question needs to happen or like,
Speaker:yes.
Speaker:how do you coach people through that?
Speaker:And how do they identify maybe it's not a car accident, but it could
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, hopefully, yeah, they get to us before then.
Speaker:we primarily mentor business owners in the seven and
Speaker:eight, multiple eight figures.
Speaker:And by the time they've come to us, many of them have been stuck in that
Speaker:same mode that I was in for decades.
Speaker:And it's just become their life.
Speaker:And, you know, it's affected their health or relationships in,
Speaker:you know, in one way or another.
Speaker:And they can feel very lonely at the top and feeling stuck.
Speaker:And many of them have, have managed to grow even, you know, 50, 100
Speaker:employees, but they're still very much buried in the weeds.
Speaker:And so the first thing we have to do is create awareness.
Speaker:We have to put a mirror up for them to see what they're doing
Speaker:and how they're in their own way.
Speaker:And we help them determine what phase that they're
Speaker:in, in the scaling process.
Speaker:And so once they know, and many of them we call it, they're
Speaker:in the third phase, which we call the ring leader and the
Speaker:ring leader is like a circus.
Speaker:Uh, interestingly enough, because we were just talking about
Speaker:that earlier in the circus.
Speaker:Um, but they are, are growing and they're growing teams.
Speaker:They might have a customer service team, a sales team, a marketing
Speaker:team, all of those things.
Speaker:Uh, but they're not aligned with the vision.
Speaker:And so the CEO of the company, the founder, needs to be more of that
Speaker:visionary CEO focused on the future.
Speaker:And so often you have team that is a revolving door.
Speaker:And generally it's happening because we're bringing team members on
Speaker:before we're super clear about that vision and what success looks like
Speaker:for every single one of those roles.
Speaker:You have to really understand what they're reaching for,
Speaker:what those metrics are.
Speaker:And if you know, then you can communicate it to them.
Speaker:If you don't know, they're not going to be able to reach it.
Speaker:Then everybody gets frustrated and you know, then you jump
Speaker:back in to save the day.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And this is that, this is where that hamster wheel starts.
Speaker:And so so many business owners come to us right there and
Speaker:they've been there for so long.
Speaker:And once we, we kind of shine the light on them and show
Speaker:them what's happening and help them to back up, re strategize,
Speaker:uh, you know, and restructure really, It, they grow fast.
Speaker:They get out of their own way.
Speaker:They have more freedom than they have ever experienced.
Speaker:You know, they were taking vacations without checking
Speaker:their email 50 times a day.
Speaker:And, uh, and, and now they have this great team.
Speaker:Uh, and, and many of them, I get messages all the time.
Speaker:Oh my gosh, I had my biggest month and I'm not even there.
Speaker:So that's a great feeling for an entrepreneur.
Speaker:It is.
Speaker:And so like, so for thinking scale, you said seven, eight figure folks.
Speaker:I mean, you're still, yeah, you have this PTSD of being in the
Speaker:grind for probably just decades, you know, for a lot of folks.
Speaker:And when would you recommend people to start thinking this way
Speaker:with scale in mind, maybe, maybe being realistic and knowing like,
Speaker:hey, you know, you're not that seven figure business yet, or
Speaker:you're not that eight figure yet.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:What are, what would you suggest they start thinking and doing?
Speaker:Well, honestly, I wish I knew this stuff way back then, because if
Speaker:you know this from the beginning, then you know what you're reaching
Speaker:for and you can plan for it.
Speaker:Now, in the early days, you're just trying to figure out
Speaker:your products and services.
Speaker:You're trying to, uh, get your customer journey.
Speaker:lined up, um, and get more clear on your target market.
Speaker:All of those things have to happen in the beginning.
Speaker:There's really not a lot of scaling, uh, or multiplying
Speaker:what you're doing because you're just laying out the groundwork.
Speaker:But once you do, and if you can get support early on and get out of the
Speaker:way, you're going to scale faster.
Speaker:Uh, they have, there's been a statistic that if you hire,
Speaker:Uh, like even an assistant in the first six months of your
Speaker:business, you will get to seven figures in half the time.
Speaker:If you really empower that assistant to do those things
Speaker:that are just taking up so much of your time and keeping you,
Speaker:you know, out of working on the business and the business growth.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Would, do you recommend, cause I've heard folks tracking their time or
Speaker:activities or their energy level?
Speaker:Like, is there a way that you would recommend folks to have awareness?
Speaker:Cause you mentioned that earlier.
Speaker:It's just having awareness of the, of the issue or
Speaker:maybe potential issue.
Speaker:Like, what are there some practices you could
Speaker:Oh, yeah, for sure.
Speaker:And I'm sure there's a way for AI to even do this better.
Speaker:This is something where you could, you could recommend.
Speaker:But, um, one of the things you want to do is, first of all, divide up
Speaker:the company into four quadrants.
Speaker:So you want to look at your business from operations side, your
Speaker:marketing side, your sales, and then whatever your revenue stream is,
Speaker:you know, whatever your offering is.
Speaker:So for us, it's mentoring.
Speaker:And, uh, and then, so let's just say you take a piece of paper and you
Speaker:divide it into these four quadrants.
Speaker:Then in each of those areas, write down everything that you're
Speaker:still doing in the business.
Speaker:And it may take you a while because so much of this you do
Speaker:unconsciously, you don't even realize that you're doing it.
Speaker:And just keep writing and writing and writing down
Speaker:everything that you do.
Speaker:Another thing you can do, because some things you, you won't
Speaker:remember, is over a three, four day period, literally write down
Speaker:everything that you're doing.
Speaker:Mm hmm.
Speaker:Mm
Speaker:once you look at it, I like dividing it in the four quadrants
Speaker:because it helps you think of the whole company holistically.
Speaker:And then you'll see, okay, which area of the business.
Speaker:is taking up most of my time.
Speaker:Is it sales?
Speaker:You know, is it operations?
Speaker:And you want to divide that by percentages and then you,
Speaker:the, the one that's taking up the most time you work on
Speaker:first to replace yourself.
Speaker:And for some of the things that if it's your special
Speaker:delivery of what you do, that's probably going to take a little
Speaker:longer to replace yourself.
Speaker:So if you're an attorney or if you're an electrician or, you
Speaker:know, you're a psychologist, but you're also the CEO of the
Speaker:business, ultimately you need to replace yourself with other
Speaker:attorneys so that you can be focused on building that vision
Speaker:and being the CEO of the company, leading the team and so forth.
Speaker:So, usually those are the areas that you can, you replace yourself last.
Speaker:But still, you need to do it.
Speaker:But once you have it all on paper, you do that big drain, brain dump,
Speaker:then you can see, oh my gosh.
Speaker:You know, if I, if I stop attending these meetings, okay, that's given
Speaker:me back, alright, six hours a week.
Speaker:And if I, if I, Uh, let go of this task in marketing, whether
Speaker:it's, I don't know if it's copywriting or it is doing some
Speaker:work in admin, whatever it is, all of those things add up.
Speaker:So your goal is to get your hours back and have other people
Speaker:that that is their expertise.
Speaker:That's their superpower to take that off your plate.
Speaker:I have a project manager that that she literally
Speaker:says that all the time.
Speaker:She's like, I love doing this kind of stuff.
Speaker:I'm like, thank God.
Speaker:Oh my God.
Speaker:managers, right?
Speaker:They're amazing at what they do.
Speaker:So my form of project managing is, you know, wake up at three
Speaker:in the morning going, Oh my God.
Speaker:Oh, is it?
Speaker:Yeah, that would be mine too.
Speaker:And I think most founders, right?
Speaker:Like, would you say most founders people start in the company?
Speaker:I mean, of course you came from a family of entrepreneurs, which
Speaker:maybe you have some insights.
Speaker:Are most of us visionaries kind of, you know, maybe not
Speaker:the best at organization.
Speaker:I know we come in all flavors, but like, are there some
Speaker:themes that you've noticed?
Speaker:Well, I, I do think that if you have that as your background
Speaker:and you grew up in it, it is a little easier to step into it.
Speaker:Some people struggle though if, let's say, your parents lost their
Speaker:business or went bankrupt or, you know, they had some trauma there.
Speaker:We have to be careful not to project that in our own life and always be
Speaker:in this kind of poverty mindset.
Speaker:That can be a challenge you have to overcome.
Speaker:I do think coming from a corporate background, we've, I've seen very
Speaker:successful entrepreneurs come from the corporate background,
Speaker:but I think it's harder
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:it's a different way of thinking.
Speaker:And especially if you've been running a department, for instance,
Speaker:in the corporate business as a business owner, you know,
Speaker:you're wearing many hats and you have to learn to be strategic
Speaker:and a big thinker and look at the gaps within the company
Speaker:and how to close those gaps.
Speaker:And also, you know, you have to understand how to pivot quickly,
Speaker:as we know, for what's happened over the last several years.
Speaker:And you know, you mentioned AI and as you're talking about
Speaker:all this stuff, you know, I'm thinking of how would I do
Speaker:this brain dump of operations, marketing, sales, revenue streams.
Speaker:Like I would get AI, I would get out my phone and go on a walk
Speaker:probably to start and just start rambling into something like otter.
Speaker:ai.
Speaker:And, you know, that can help me then distill it down.
Speaker:And then of course, I think the writing, all the modalities, and
Speaker:then, you know, AI is one example of how to take a lot of admin
Speaker:off your plate these days with automations and things coming.
Speaker:So next couple of years, Alison will be wild.
Speaker:I
Speaker:I know it, it really is.
Speaker:You know, we've been through a lot as entrepreneurs
Speaker:the last several years.
Speaker:The pandemic, um, uh, economic uncertainty, AI, an election,
Speaker:you know, I think we're ready for, uh, a bullish market.
Speaker:But you've got to plan, you know, you cannot wing it.
Speaker:And what I love about scaling is that you get to be as
Speaker:creative as you want to be.
Speaker:And especially with AI, there is literally no limit on what
Speaker:you can create in your business.
Speaker:Yeah, how do you, I want to, there's a couple of things I want to go
Speaker:back to, but for now, like just on foreseeing the next handful of
Speaker:years in terms of scale, like, are there any threats opportunities
Speaker:that are just glaring to you, things that you, you share with others?
Speaker:Because I've read a bunch of AI reports, you know, which industries
Speaker:will be shaken up the most.
Speaker:But of course there's replacing jobs or positions, but it's going
Speaker:to create a whole bunch of new ones.
Speaker:And there's massive opportunity.
Speaker:Like you said, a bull run.
Speaker:I think that's going to happen.
Speaker:Probably not across the board though, for everyone.
Speaker:You got to be prepared, like you said, and start
Speaker:foreseeing this stuff.
Speaker:Yeah, well, I mean, AI is going to replace a lot of companies,
Speaker:and so you need to figure out how you're going to differentiate
Speaker:yourself and in your industry, and how do you utilize AI.
Speaker:to either build out new tools within your company or set yourself apart.
Speaker:Use it to fuel you and not to stifle you or disrupt you.
Speaker:So I think that's going to be really critical.
Speaker:I definitely believe that there are some service businesses
Speaker:that will probably go away.
Speaker:But, you know, like for instance, I think community, If you
Speaker:have a business that creates a community, that is extremely
Speaker:valuable, because I think people are craving that connection.
Speaker:And I think you can create community around many types of businesses.
Speaker:So you want to be thinking where is that people connection.
Speaker:And where's the craft in your business.
Speaker:I think people are really going to pay, uh, you know, uh, higher amount
Speaker:for things that are one of a kind that are, you know, especially made.
Speaker:So I think there's still so many ways to take the business that you
Speaker:have and, and help it to evolve.
Speaker:But just like anytime, you always want to be thinking
Speaker:of the customer first.
Speaker:And what is it that the customer wants staying customer focused and
Speaker:then work backwards from there.
Speaker:Yeah, working backwards is usually key.
Speaker:And that's the, that's the part.
Speaker:So you mentioned holistically, because that's something in when
Speaker:I was doing research and notes and even your background in homeopathy.
Speaker:And I think that spurred from, you know, experience as well.
Speaker:like, what does that mean for one, this whole holistic approach
Speaker:to business and how, you know, I'm thinking the background
Speaker:because one of your businesses was basically centered on that.
Speaker:It sounds like, um, so, and I'm just thinking of the gaps and stuff.
Speaker:So, yeah, give me your thoughts there.
Speaker:I discovered homeopathy when I went through, uh, this
Speaker:terrible car accident, and then, which led to a divorce.
Speaker:And I was kind of in a definitely lost place in my life.
Speaker:And at the time, somebody recommended this
Speaker:homeopathic physician.
Speaker:And I grew up in the Midwest.
Speaker:I, I knew nothing about holistic, okay?
Speaker:And I remember going there, and this was in my, uh, late twenties.
Speaker:I remember walking to the door of this woman and almost, I stood there
Speaker:for a minute before I knocked on the door and I ended up, I ended
Speaker:up staying, but I almost left, uh, because I was questioning
Speaker:it all and the experience ended up changing my life.
Speaker:And, you know, we don't need to get into a homeopathy lesson
Speaker:here, but what homeopathy does is it treats the whole person.
Speaker:And for me back then, it just helped me get my grounding.
Speaker:It helped me to clear my head and build my confidence because, you
Speaker:know, when everything fell apart, I started questioning everything
Speaker:and my own capability and also what I wanted in the future.
Speaker:So it helped me to figure all of that out and deal with some
Speaker:aches and pains and things that I was going through.
Speaker:And I became fascinated by it.
Speaker:And I was trying to figure out what was my next move.
Speaker:And so I went back to school and studied to become a
Speaker:homeopathic physician.
Speaker:And I ended up running that practice for 20 years.
Speaker:While I was building other companies as well, and I ended
Speaker:up building the first homeopathic college in Southern California,
Speaker:called the Homeopathic Academy of Southern California.
Speaker:And, uh, it still runs today and it, we built it as a
Speaker:three year training program.
Speaker:And in homeopathy, because you're, you are literally studying the
Speaker:human being from the inside out.
Speaker:You're getting to the core of what their issues are,
Speaker:even from the outside.
Speaker:childhood and kind of unraveling all of that.
Speaker:And so when I moved on from, from that business, I still
Speaker:use homeopathy in my everyday life and, you know, help with
Speaker:friends and so forth that I don't have the practice anymore.
Speaker:I still look at the business owner the same way.
Speaker:And I look at the business the same way is that if you just coach
Speaker:somebody and say, you know, I told you, you need to go do that.
Speaker:You know, this is the thing you need to go after.
Speaker:And if they're not doing it, that means that there's some inner block.
Speaker:And if you don't get to that, they're just going to keep repeating
Speaker:that same pattern for the rest of their life, uh, in their personal
Speaker:life and in their business.
Speaker:And then when we're looking at the business, same thing,
Speaker:what are those stop gaps?
Speaker:that we've got to remove and so that the business can
Speaker:breathe and start to flourish.
Speaker:And from a holistic perspective, what that means
Speaker:is looking at the whole.
Speaker:In traditional medicine, you're treating a symptom,
Speaker:and you're taking a medication for that particular symptom.
Speaker:But in holistic medicine, you're looking at the core,
Speaker:the cause of that symptom.
Speaker:If there's a fire burning in your house, you don't take
Speaker:a hammer and start banging.
Speaker:Fire alarms to put out that fire.
Speaker:No, you gotta get to the core of what started the fire in the first
Speaker:place so it doesn't keep repeating.
Speaker:And that's the same thing for the business owner and the business.
Speaker:So all of that work that I did in homeopathy has really helped me.
Speaker:And then we went on to build this method called the Scale It
Speaker:Method, and it deals with all five pillars of the business
Speaker:from a holistic perspective, which is the strategic vision.
Speaker:The cash flow, which is marketing and sales, and the organization
Speaker:of your finances, alliance of the team, leadership, and execution.
Speaker:So all industries need these five pillars completely shored up within
Speaker:these companies for them to scale.
Speaker:You can't just focus on, I need more leads, uh, or, you know,
Speaker:I need this one team member because I'm out of bandwidth.
Speaker:You have to look at it from the holistic perspective.
Speaker:Got it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I know you have a whole method there, the scale it method.
Speaker:So, um, is there a good, cause I know, you know, in terms of time,
Speaker:we won't be able to go through the whole thing here and break it
Speaker:down, but is there a good spot or place next step that people could
Speaker:jump to, to, uh, to understand that a little bit more from you.
Speaker:Yeah, well, one thing is to get my book, which is called Scale or Fail.
Speaker:And, uh, you can, you know, get that on Amazon and we really
Speaker:break down, I break down the scale up method there and give
Speaker:you all types of processes.
Speaker:And, and really any level of business, this works.
Speaker:We've had, you know, companies that are in the nine figures
Speaker:use that book startups.
Speaker:So that's a great place to start.
Speaker:And you can also just go to our website, which is,
Speaker:uh, pinnacleglobalnetwork.
Speaker:com.
Speaker:And, uh, and then we, we put a little, uh, URL together for
Speaker:those listening to your hustle and flow podcast for anybody
Speaker:that wants to, uh, have a CEO strategist really look at their
Speaker:business and figure out, you know, what phase are you in?
Speaker:What is your biggest gap keeping you from scaling to the
Speaker:next level of your business?
Speaker:And that is scaleit.
Speaker:ceo forward slash hustle.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Well, that's awesome.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I'll make sure that's in the show notes linked everywhere.
Speaker:Super easy to find.
Speaker:Um, Alison, this is great.
Speaker:I have like so many other questions, but like, you know,
Speaker:we'll, we'll, we'll see it where it goes in the future.
Speaker:Maybe we'll do it again.
Speaker:Um, but thank you for doing this and sharing your story.
Speaker:I think that's the biggest thing.
Speaker:Uh, one of the biggest takeaways for me is just
Speaker:how everyone can relate to.
Speaker:Your path, your journey, you know, maybe not all of us, you know,
Speaker:got raised in an entrepreneurial family, but it doesn't matter.
Speaker:We all have some background that we get to see in the mirror.
Speaker:However, we looked at, you know, we do that practice
Speaker:you know, we're here to evolve and grow.
Speaker:Mm.
Speaker:And I think that those bumps and bruises, there are
Speaker:research and development.
Speaker:So, embrace them.
Speaker:And just know that whatever you're going through in your business, in
Speaker:your life right now is leading to you to exactly where you want to be.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So instead of trying to dodge them, embrace those moments
Speaker:and those lessons because it's beautiful on the other side.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:And we have the choice, right?
Speaker:Just like opening the door to, uh, to the, to the location
Speaker:and you chose to, to walk in and see the other side.
Speaker:So we all have that choice.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:much.
Speaker:Ah, thank you so much for having
Speaker:See you next time at the mastermind.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:we'll see you there soon.
Speaker:right.