Get more visible in your business for more success! Here's how to make it feel easy.

Are you invisible in your business?  

If we looked at your social media or your website right now, would we understand who you are?  Would we feel your perspective and unique gifts?  Would we almost be able to hear your personality and voice and be able to connect with the person behind the business?

How visible are you in your business?

Whether you are the name and face of your brand, or you are the founder of a business that isn’t necessarily all about you, you need to be visible and today we are talking with Alison Nelson, business coach and host of the Solopreneur AF podcast, about why that can feel so hard, what being visible really takes, and how to make it easier – even for us introverts – we see you out there.

Getting visible is key to really connecting with your audience and attracting the right clients for you and your business.  It doesn’t have to take hours a day, or feel hard, if you set yourself up for strategies that fit you.

It’s time to step out in front of your business and get visible and we’re going to help you do it!

Let’s get into it!

Connect with Alison:  http://allison-nelson.com/
Solopreneur AF Podcast: http://allison-nelson.com/podcast-links

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Transcript

Allison Nelson podcast

kristy: 

We are here today with Alison Nelson. Who's a business coach for solo preneurs. Looking to take action in growing their online service-based business. She helps female entrepreneurs build organic marketing strategies to take their side hustle to a consistent income. Hi Alison, thanks for being here with us.

alison: Hi, Christie. Thanks for having me. I'm like really excited. Me too. 

kristy: You know, what I love about your philosophy is that you believe in women starting their business right now, like right where they are not putting their dreams off to the kids. They're older or everything is just right, but finding the right strategy and mindset in place.

So they can really start building from where they are right now. I love that. And I want to talk about that today. We're going to dig into. Getting visible in your business and how you do that. But before we do that, can you give us a little bit more background on too, where you came from, how you got to, where you are helping solo printers and, and a bit of that 

alison: history.[00:02:00] 

Sure, sure. Yeah. I'm going to make a long story short as much as I can. And I love that you sort of really realized that about my brand. Thank you women not staying small is huge for me. and I think it comes from. Listen, a lot of us Zig and zag, right? A lot of us become entrepreneurs after doing a bunch of other things.

I've got two diplomas on my wall right now, and I'm not exactly working in those particular industries, but I have a marketing degree. I have a school counseling degree. I've worked in the corporate world. I've been a manager. most recently I was in education and I left to stay home with my daughter when she was born.

Now that's almost six years ago, which is crazy. And I had some network marketing experience and then I started a product based company with my husband and it was lifestyle goods, like shirts and mugs. And I realized I was really marketing to women, just like me, women with babies and toddlers who were home or wanted to be home and were starting their own [00:03:00] business.

And so I would get a lot of questions. How did you start this business? what was it like with the toddler and home? Like the nap, time hustle, uh, working at night when she was sleeping, all of that, working with my husband. What was that like? And so I started to, I started a blog and I started a Facebook.

And I started to answer those questions and I found that women kept asking, you know, more about that than about the product. So the products sort of started to phase out as I started to lean into the coaching side. And I realized with my counseling degree, with everything I know about marketing with running my own business for a couple of years at that point.

And, just, creating. programs and education, everything. And my management experience in my leadership experience, everything's really pointed towards, I could be a really good business coach. I can really make this work and I could have also looked at my daughter who was three at the time and say, I'll wait until she goes to kindergarten.

But I knew that a lot of other women were like me and felt that way. And I don't know if we want to make [00:04:00] impacts on the world. Why should we wait? And if we want to make impact, there are so many ways we can do it without the hustle, without having to go from zero to 60. and so. thought if I walk the walk, people will kind of like come with me and that's what I've been doing for three years now.

People are just coming with me. And 

kristy: you're right. there's no perfect time. There we wait for the perfect time when we're gonna be waiting forever. And I think in all areas of our businesses and our lives, honestly, we get stuck in that perfectionism trap. Right. It's gotta be just the right time.

It's gotta be just the right thing. The copy on my email has to be exactly perfect and done is better than perfect. And now, and slow is better than never, 

alison: Yeah, absolutely. And I also think clarity comes with action. I think that if you don't start and if you don't try something, it's not going to get better.

You could hold off and that could work out for you. And then there are definitely things that I don't jump into 4,000 different things at once, right? Like there are things that are priorities, but I think starting the business really getting [00:05:00] going there really beginning that that's really just building your endurance for the.

You're going to want to create an email and you're not totally sure if you should send it or not, and you're going to want to create a new course. starting is really proving to yourself. I can do this. And that's really what it takes to have endurance and online business.

kristy: And the learning is in the doing, I mean, you, don't know if, if your message is going to land or your, you know, your course is going to be a hit or any of those things until you actually do it. And you're going to learn so much 

alison: along the way. Yeah, exactly. If you fail what you will. I mean, cause we all do, I still do right.

I feel all the time, but it's information and I don't know how you can continue to make better emails or make better courses or talk to people and help them in a better way. If you don't have that information, which has to come from you, putting yourself out there and possibly failing. 

kristy: Absolutely agree with you. 

alison: So let's talk, let's talk visibility. Yeah. Well, let's talk first about what does visibility really mean online business? Yeah. So for me, [00:06:00] visibility really means two different things. When I teach it, I see. Teach two different sort of camps of visibility. One of them is serving and the other one is positioning.

So I don't really believe that visibility is just posting a lot. I don't really believe that it's, you know, being consistent with the amount of emails you send or what kind of Instagram reels you put up there. That's not, really visibility to me, although of course that helps. but on the serving side, visibility really means like you're showing up for people who meet you.

Not everyone needs you, but there's a certain group of people who really need you. So if there's someone out there, social media is obviously still the fastest and least expensive way to get to our ideal clients. So I use that example a lot. if someone's out there and they're looking for feedback or they're looking for support, or they're confused, and they're not sure you reaching out and helping them much, like the same way you would help your child or a family member or a friend if they were in need.

so serving really is ends up being selling because we really [00:07:00] don't sell, especially if you are, you know, trying to sell a personal brand, your business is a personal brand. Like ours is. You really can't sell without trust. And that's where it starts with the serving. So they're serving and then there's also positioning.

And the positioning side is taking that same approach of like, I have a solution. There are people out there with this problem that the solution will help and turning it into some kind of content That could be any, I mean, content that like runs the gamut from written posts to reels, to emails, to podcast episodes.

And, and it doesn't have to live on social obviously, but it can, it can be in the form of a collaborative piece like we're doing right now, like you and I are doing, it could be. any kind of anything that you can put in a community and help nurture people. Because as you continue to serve, you are going to have people who want to be in your world and continue to be served by you.

So I think when it comes to visibility, we have to look at the other side of nurturing the people who are already sort of bought into us and saying, okay, I want more, so that we can nurture them down the funnel. And really [00:08:00] thought their problem really finished off the transformation, which would be, which would include them, putting some skin in the game and buying your.

kristy: What I love about that definition of visibility as well as, especially for, I find a lot of women have trouble selling. They have trouble marketing because they look at it as a negative. They feel like they're being in somebody's face or they're they're, you know, trying to give them something they don't need or, they're, they're gonna see rejection.

And I think if we, if we reframe it as serving. Right. And, and offering a solution that they clearly need. They can say no, if they want to, but if you never get in front of them and you never let them know that that solution is available, then you're doing them a disservice. 

alison: Right. Well, yeah, that's exactly right.

Yeah. And I think a lot of people say that to me, I have a Facebook group and that's sort of how I started converting people into clients. And a lot of people will say, well, didn't you feel strange having telling people to get into your Facebook group, knowing full well that you're going to sell to them.

That they're going to be a number in your conversion rate? [00:09:00] well, number one, like, wait, we don't have to look at it. So black and white, we're not car salesmen here. Okay. Were women trying to impact other women? that's number one, but number two is like, I actually, like you said, be doing a disservice to people's.

I used to tell them. How to move them forward in the transformation. And to be quite honest for anyone listening, whatever you have, that's free, whatever service you can provide on a free level is not going to be enough for a result or a transformation. It's just not, you are, you just are really not.

Going to finish off that transformation. They have to be, they have to put skin in the game in order to get the transformation, because this is a 50 50 deal you're in it together. and you also have to be able to sell to them so that you understand that you are worthy of this, and you do get paid to do these things, and you will deepen your understanding and knowledge of your niche and your expertise.

there are plenty of other people out there who don't have a problem. And honestly we're attracted to them because they seem to be experts in their field. And the reason is [00:10:00] because they know how to get visible through serving and positioning their content. So 

kristy: Why don't people show 

alison: up in their business? Yeah. I mean, it's gotta be one of the scariest things you can think of to do. Right. I mean, like, it really does like talk to these strangers. Talk to him, you know, it's gotta be one of the scariest things that, you know, I think a lot of people think, am I going to look stupid?

Am I going to say the wrong thing is, am I going to look like I'm salesy? Like you said before, I'm going to look like the car salesman, the icky person that just wants your money and doesn't want to actually help you. am I going to confuse people? You know, and my, what do I even say? I think a lot of people don't necessarily even know what to say, which happens a lot.

In the beginning of our business. We don't know what to do. We D we don't know, we don't know what's going to resonate. We really don't. That's why we have to do it though. You know, the problem is that like, just telling people to go to your website is, is really just not effective. those things don't convert as well.

And the reason for that is when you're newer in your business, the copy on your website may not be. [00:11:00] Exactly what people need to hear. You really need to talk to people and build those relationships and really get in front of them. So you can hear what they have to say. You can hear what the, what the problems really are, and you can position your solution.

Actually, one example of when I started coaching, I thought that I was supposed to be like, sort of a productivity time management coach, because I worked with a lot of women. Who had young, young children and they did not know how to juggle and balance, the time. And so I thought, oh, well, if I just teach them how to be productive problem is once I started working with those women and really started to read between the lines I realized they don't have a time management process.

They have a habit problem, right? They have like a mindset issue around how much time they have, around what their, time is worth around. being pulled in so many different directions, feeling their mom, their wife, they're a homeowner. They have to do the dishes and they also have to do their business.

So by addressing those issues, I become more of an expert in that. 

kristy: A couple things there I wanted to unpack a little bit. One is, is [00:12:00] just that, that you, you need to talk to your audience in order to even use the language that they use. they're not going to respond to you until you're using the, you're addressing the actual problems they have in the language.

which is, we just don't know until we get out there and we talk to them, right. And two, is that again, women's specifically, and this is the way it's always been and will probably be for many, many years, we tend to be judged more harshly on our appearance on our, we were always looking for approval, from society at large.

And I think that really, really holds a lot of women back from stepping out in front of their business. I mean, if I, if I tell you the number of. Websites. And I'm sure you see this with your clients. The number of women owned businesses that I have, come to me and we look at their marketing and you would have no idea who owned that business.

You're not, you wouldn't even know it was a woman. They don't mention themselves in the, about us. because they want to hide behind the business. And, and I think we're conditioned to be so sensitive to, any kind of criticism. Right. [00:13:00] So it's, it's hard for us to get out 

alison: there and.

Totally. Yeah. But, but then it's, it's like such a catch 22, because the only way we're really going to get that sort of tougher skin, because you highlighted something that's very true and we should bring it out there. Like this is tough being an online business or being a business owner is hard.

Right. You have to have a tough skin, but the only way your skin is going to get tough, you weren't born this way. I certainly would. I'm a very sensitive person, but in certain areas I've grown skin. That's tougher. And my business is one of them because I've done because I've gone out there because I have done the thing.

I have heard the stuff and I've had to make the decision. Do I care about what that person says or do I just go about and do what I know I need to do? and understand now I have the benefit. Thank goodness of seeing that people hire me for me. I mean, there's a million other businesses. A million, like you could spit and hit 20 right now.

So how would you decide? Right. Um, Honestly, it's to your benefit to show people who you are. And I agree with you. I think sometimes we can't [00:14:00] be, we can either be perfect. We show up perfect or we're hot methods, and I don't really subscribe to hot mess culture, hot mess, mom, culture, and all of that stuff.

but I'm also not super perfect. So where, why can't I fall in the middle somewhere and you're right. We do, I hope it's getting better, but there has been that sort of like, you either have to show up like a hot mess or you have to show up. Perfect. And there's no. Yeah, but you know, you, you hit the nail on the head.

There 

kristy: it business gets so much easier and selling and everything to do with your business gets so much easier. If you have the right customers, if you have the right audience, it all goes so much more easily. And how do you attract the right people? If you don't show them who you are, they need to be able to see you and hear you and, and, hear from you so that they can either connect with you or reject you.

And that's okay, because that just means they're not the right person for you. And then your business becomes so much easier because you're surrounded by the right people for your 

alison: take on. [00:15:00] That's right. Yeah. And I think, especially in online business, I think we need to remember, we don't need millions of people buying our thing.

if your offers are positioned the right way, you don't need millions. You don't even need hundreds of clients to do really, really well. Like even to build in seven, eight figure business, you don't need hundreds of people to like you, like, you need a small group of people, that like you.

And like we said before, if selling. It's all about the person trusting you. How are they supposed to trust you? If you don't show up for them? I seriously think a lot of selling. And a lot of being in this, in, in online business is, is walking. The walk is leadership. And I think that's why in the beginning of my business, I did so well, especially just sort of right away, because I wasn't afraid to sort of walk the walk.

And go live one day and say, look things. Aren't perfect. I messed this up or I used to do this and now I do this instead. And it's working and sort of just sharing with people as opposed to just, follow me, follow me. It's more like, come with [00:16:00] me. We're all in this together and that helps people 

kristy: connect with you.

Right? I mean, we, we, we tend to think, well, we need to be perfect. We need, you know, we can't have had mistakes, but it's the mistakes that connects them to 

alison: your, your story. Yeah, exactly. I think you're more likely to be hired. You're more likely to be the one that they connect with because.

You have had this issue and that's, you know, you think about anything that has happened in your life. you know, for example, I breastfed my daughter when I was younger and that came when she was younger when I was younger. and yes, I was old enough. I was old enough. I, that came with, um, you know, they came with some issues that came with some struggles.

Right. And so when I found other women who were also struggling, it didn't make me feel like, oh, well, they can't help me. Because they're also struggling maybe feel like, oh, thank God someone else is struggling. Maybe they're struggling with something that I can help them with. And maybe I'm struggling with something that they can help me with.

And that would be great, you know? And it's just that instant connection right there. We make those connections in other parts of our life. But for some reason in business, we [00:17:00] think opposite. And I don't know. It's the same, especially when you're working with women. Yeah. Yeah. Agreed. 

kristy: So, so getting visible.

So let's talk about how we, how we fix this. So take a long time to, to step out in front of our business, to, to start working 

alison: on our visibility. How do we, how do we do. Yeah. I mean, it certainly could, right? Like we've all been a part of the scroll hole and all that stuff like it certainly could get. But it's, it does not have to.

 I think that there's a lot of ways to get intentional. You know, we talked about some of the ways to position yourself in a collaborative nature, something like a podcast. Will last a very long time, right? This is something that will last a long time. Think about those kinds of things. , think about content that you can put out there.

That's like sort of evergreen, , packs a punch. That's also really helpful. , so you, you know, things that you can repurpose where you can sort of get, people can get to your name, they can click and they know everything, right? So that funnel is really, really helpful to. [00:18:00] So I, in the beginning of my business, I really wanted people to join my Facebook group.

So I made sure that I positioned everything to join the Facebook group. Right. So that they could get in there. And I wouldn't have to worry. Even if you know, someone, I was, I'd be talking to someone in a Facebook group and they wouldn't necessarily convert quote unquote into my group. I knew I had. The understanding that they could find me that I was very visible, , in the sense that they could click my name and know that they could join my Facebook group.

And that was exactly where I wanted them to go or get a freebie, go on my email list, make it super easy for people. , because you know, we all stock other people. Like we all have legs, , all over the internet. And so making it super intentional and leaving this like trail almost. It makes it so that you really can just show up from the heart, , and repurpose that kind of content and, and help people.

And I think as tactical, you know, as you want to get, like, make [00:19:00] a timer, put a timer for 20 minutes, it does not take any longer than 20 minutes. I always tell my clients who are starting out 30 to 45 minutes, , three days a week, like just a little bit more just to get into it, just get used to it. , but I mean, as of right now, I don't do any more than like 30 minutes a day.

It does not have to take forever, but you do have to be intentional about it in order for it to not 

take 

kristy: forever, make it and make it non-negotiable because this is something that we just, we do this with business development kind of stuff. Right. Because there's so much going on and there's fires to put out.

And I was actually just talking to a PR expert on another podcast and we were talking about how. And I, I, I'm doing this the last few weeks I've been doing this. I have some stories that I need to write for entrepreneur and I have put it off. I've moved it every day on my schedule to the next day for three weeks, because something has come up that has taken priority.

And until you make this stuff a priority, it's just going to get, get put off. So you put that on your schedule and you say, this is [00:20:00] non-negotiable. This is my visibility, my social media, whatever my time. And it 

alison: becomes a habit. Absolutely. Yeah. And that's, that's really the thing. Something like this is a non-negotiable in your business.

It is how you grow your business, whatever it looks like for you, whatever visibility exercises you choose. , so it is a non-negotiable it does have to be done every day. And what's nice about something like this is that this will live on, right? Like when this episode airs, I will be able to share it, but then I can also go back to it.

And so, you know, eventually you will start to get, you don't have to come up with something new every day, but I guess what I'm trying to. Trying to get to, cause I know that that can feel hard. 

kristy: Yeah, it can feel, but as you said, there's. You know, dozens more than dozens of, of different ways that you can be visible and you can find the things.

And I think you'll have more success if you find the things that feel good to you. If you like talking to people, podcasts are great. If you like writing then contributing or blogging is like, there's something for [00:21:00] everybody. So find the things that feel good to you. 

alison: Absolutely. Yeah. And it has to be the things where you shine, right?

Like where you really shine because then your messages just. Clearer. Like a lot of people say to me, oh, well, blogs aren't really read anymore. And things like that. Yeah. But if that's how you, like, that's how you create, then create the blog and then you can take it apart and make it Instagram posts, or you can make it into images or you can come up with a good idea for a real, if you, if you like that kind of thing, or literally read the blog aloud on a Facebook live.

But like, yeah. Yeah. Repurpose and start where you, where your heart really is. , so yeah. 

kristy: Yeah, we do. Uh, we do,, live every weekend in a Facebook group and I take that one. It's a 30 minute live and I take that one live and I take the video from that and we use it on, we do a video blog and we use it on YouTube for a video.

We cut it up into snippets for social media. , [00:22:00] we take the summary from that and make a written blog and an email out like that one 30 minute piece of content. And it takes time to do all the things with it. But still I get about two weeks worth of content out of that one 30 minute video just by repurposing it.

Like when you get smart about how you and you really strategize sit down and think, okay, how am I going to use this? It's you can get so much content out of just a short 

alison: period of. Totally. Yeah. And what's really great about what you're doing too, is that you're really driving the point home. A lot of people might miss that life, but they won't miss all the other 10 other pieces that you're putting out there when you're saying the same thing in a different way.

And it's just going to hit them differently. We all know that people are inundated. With information these days and content and all of that. And, you know, we're inundated with lives that we could go to and free trainings and all that stuff. So if they really wanted to go to it, but they missed it, they could still get the sense of it because you've shown up for them in all these other ways.

And even if I did watch the live, I might still need that [00:23:00] little boost or that reminder from the written post or the blog or the email that you send or whatever it is. that just really drives the point home of what you're saying. And you really do become the expert in that topic, before it's time to move on to something else.

kristy: And that's a great point because just because I'm using it on six or seven different platforms, it's unlikely that one person is going to be. Seeing it on all those platforms, even if they follow me on all seven platforms or the algorithms as they are, they probably did not see all seven of those things.

So it's just because I'm repeating it doesn't mean they're 

alison: seeing it repeated. No. Yeah. And also like that again, that's the serving. Like they might need that repeated. They might be better at, you know, a written posts at understanding or written post, or they might have time to sit the day that email came out as opposed to like they were running, , go on a run while they were listening to you and maybe they missed a couple of things, you know, it's just, you don't know.

 I think serving people is really making sure you're holy giving them this message. Um, [00:24:00] and it makes you look like the expert. Like I'm spending a good two weeks on this topic by the way. And I think that's valuable. Yeah, 

kristy: absolutely. So we had a little, chat here before we started recording for the podcast and we are both big old introverts 

alison: introverts out there.

I know you're hiding, but we see you. Yeah. You guys are awesome. 

kristy: First of all, for those of you that your very first thought, when, when you say, when you heard the beginning of this podcast was, oh, no, I can't do that because I'm an introvert. Yes. Absolutely can let's talk about it. Cause you know what?

That's like 50% of the population, people talk about it as if like it's a, you know, a few people that maybe can't do it. Literally half of us will hear this and be paralyzed because we're we're, we think we're introverts and we can't do these things. I do a whole. series of, of trainings on like networking as an introvert and that sort of thing, because there's just a whole, there's a whole conversation that goes on in our heads that extroverts don't necessarily have that often stops us [00:25:00] before we start.

So introvert. How can you still, how can you be visible in your business and not a burn yourself out because that's very real.

alison: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think it's so funny. You say 50. I mean, it makes sense 50%, but I would think it's more, um, and I think we're made to feel like introverts are, are negative in some way or wrong in some way. And extroverts like have all the fun. It's like blondes have more fun kind of thing. Like they must all be like your blonde, but they must tell me, like, not.

Here leaders. It's all that stuff, right? We had this sort of high school mentality about the introverts being the wallflowers and it's just not true. , and I had to work through that because I thought that in order to be successful, I had to be loud. So I could be seen, right. Just like an, an extrovert because he will see extroverts out there.

But the real, only difference is that extroverts get their energy from other people and introverts don't they get their energy from within. And I think , just even saying that how freaking [00:26:00] powerful is that we get our, we get our energy from within, we have such a special skill as introverts because our leadership quality is really, really there.

 Introverts are also really amazing at small groups or one-to-one settings. So when you're thinking about. Serving or getting visible, by positioning, what can you do that feels intimate and good. In a small group setting in a private setting, even if it's just, when you're writing that blog post and you're writing to one person, how valuable is it to write to one person, seven extrovert being like, Hey, you guys, right?

 Hey, all of you. I know that when I talk on my podcast and I say, well, I know that you listen to it. I have this problem and I want to talk to you about it feels good to me. It feels like I am talking to one person and an introvert has an expertise in that. Yeah. So, yeah, but you do need to build in time to recuperate.

Please do that. I actually found, even though I'm an introvert, I found that I love doing Facebook lives in the beginning of my business, [00:27:00] which is one of the reasons I had a Facebook group, so I could do the lives. If I did a live and also did a coaching call that day. I mean, you'd find me in the corner, in the fetal position, crying for a half hour.

I mean, I just, you know, I just have to know my limits. I think introverts just have to know their limits. And I think, 

kristy: I think identifying who you are, whether it's extroverted introvert, I think the power in that in making better decisions moving forward, because. It feels good to you. It's also going to come across better.

So you're much better to identify what your strength is. And, and I remembered when you say that about the fetal position I used to, I used to work on cruise ships. I was a public speaker on cruise ships and w w which was actually fine as, as an introvert. Once I got over the whole speaking issue, because.

I was speaking to them. I wasn't necessarily interacting with them. I found it wasn't quite as exhausting as like having people that you had to just, you know, talk to all night. But all of the other people that did what I did were all big time type a personality extroverts, and we would have a [00:28:00] conference once a year.

And I remember by the end of that, like three, four days, that's exact, I needed a dark room to like curl up in the corner and have no one talk to me for 24 hours because. It was all of these extroverts for three days, you know, 24 hours a day. And I just, I was done done. 

alison: Yeah. And they love it. Right. They're like, oh, let's keep it flowing.

And you're like, no, I need to stop. And so I think, but I think how, how exciting and how powerful, I think. , getting around being an introvert and not wanting to show up and all of that, it's really just an excuse to be honest. , and I also think that, you know, the extroverts kinda miss something a little bit, because if you're going to canvas an entire room and speak to everyone, you're not really going to be able to serve, , as well.

Deeply and more, and as thorough as you could. And an introvert has that capability. And introvert is an amazing leader. I think pretty much every leader that we could look to is actually an introvert. And, and there's a reason. There's a reason for that. [00:29:00] It's, because we understand how to walk the walk.

We understand how to take one person by the hand or a small group of people by the hands. And we're not comfortable with the spotlight, so we'd rather shine it on other people. And isn't that? What serving it's. Oh, I love 

kristy: that. Yeah. And I think, you know, no matter what you want to do in your business, no matter what it is that you're trying to accomplish, there's going to be a way, whether you're an extrovert, whether you're an introvert, there's going to be a way that's going to feel more comfortable.

You it's not that you can't do it. You can do. Which way do you do it? And, and I'm like you actually for, for lives and stuff, because there's not a whole bunch of people in the room, even though I'm speaking to, you know, hundreds of people,, it doesn't drain me. It doesn't, it feels fairly comfortable to do that.

I would definitely be more exhausted from being out, networking in a room full of people than, than doing a live for 

alison: thousands. Absolutely. Yeah. We have a local networking group here and before COVID we would do a lot of in-person events and they were very highly attended, but of course,, you would always see people on the [00:30:00] outskirts.

 and we would always, you know, have to go out there and be like, hi, hi. Cause we knew that they were more comfortable talking to a small group. I actually was always like, okay, no, let's not have them meet everyone because then they're going to be too overwhelmed and they won't come to the next one and how's that going to help their business?

How's that going to be helpful? Right. Let's make sure they meet five people tonight. Let's give them the task. I want you to say hi to three people, tell five people about your business. Maybe something like that. , so I think, I think it is in the boundaries and listen with online.

There's so much growth. If you let that happen. I know so much more about myself and my capabilities and all of that than I did even six months ago. , even three months ago, probably. And so, , this is just another reason, excuse, whatever it is to learn more about yourself. What you need. I mean, for a while I knew I couldn't, I had to do my calls.

I had to give myself a true lunch break. I had to be a good boss to myself and give myself that true hour lunch break [00:31:00] so that I could recoup, I was not going to be able to serve my clients if it was my fourth call of the day. I would rather cry than listen to them talk. So I think, I think if you have to know more about yourself, That's going to help your burnout factor.

We're all gonna feel stressed and burnt out to a point, but let's , let's do what we can to kind of protect ourselves and remember walking the walk and being that leader. That's what this is all about. Yeah. 

kristy: And what would you say to, you know, I know imposter syndrome is the struggle is real, , all hidden it, and I don't think we've ever stopped hitting it.

I think you just get better at managing it, but for those people that are, that are finding that as a block to getting up in front of the business and getting visible, what would you, what would you give them for advice to kind of get past that or work through that? Or, or how. 

alison: Yeah, I guess. So. I mean, your imposter, I'm a little bit of, , I don't have a lot of patients for the imposter syndrome.

 While it happens to everyone, I know it happened. I mean, Tony Robbins says it still happens to [00:32:00] him, right. It happens to everybody, but the reason that it happens to everybody and the reason it can't fully go away is because imposter syndrome is literally just your ego talking to you. And in my business, I like to call the ego of the mean girl, because.

We all love the movie mean girls. And I just think it's an easier way to teach it. , this mean, girl is not who you are. It's a part of you, but it's not who you are. And when you do something scary or when you're about to do something new, when something's about to change, right? You think you're about to get that client just when visible, , in a way that you've never done before.

And it felt good, but oh shit what's going to happen. That's the mean girl saying , Hey dude, I don't like this. You've never done this before and it's not safe. So, what we have to do is we have to understand, okay, look we have to acknowledge it. We can't kill it off. Right. We can't tell it to, you know, go take a long walk off a short pier.

 I mean , it'll come back. If we are, we are human beings and we have ego. The thing is though what you have to remember is there is no rule. For your ego and for helping your ideal client, they [00:33:00] literally can't exist in the same room. You cannot have an ego that tells you, you can't do things or whatever it's telling you ever mean stuff it's saying and help your clients at the same time.

It's impossible, or at least help them the way you want them to. So you have to choose. And we get to choose. That's what's really beautiful about this. It doesn't feel like we have a choice, but we actually are in control. We are in control of our thoughts. We are in control of our feelings and we that's sort of my take on imposter.

kristy: Yeah, that's great. That's great advice. And I think we, we need to, you know, we hear that voice that says we can't, you know, we can't do this or we aren't that person 

alison: who says, you know, yeah. I mean, you're just looking for evidence. I mean, it feels good almost right. To look for evidence that you can't, because then it means you can't and you shouldn't, and then you won't do the scary thing anymore.

And the scary thing is really scary and who wants to do the scary thing. Right. , but again, Are you, are you going to make impact the way you want to? It's the deepest desire for your life going to be realized when we listen to the ego? [00:34:00] Never the ego never has anything good to say. So we have to just knock it off.

Yeah. Yeah. You 

kristy: get to define who you are. Yeah. Before we wrap up here, I would just want to tell you, I always love to ask because you were obviously a woman. And we've got a lot of newer women founders, newer women entrepreneurs that are on their journey. What would your best bit of advice be? Maybe something somebody told you or something you've learned along the way for newer women founders?

Oh 

alison: my goodness., you know, I think this is, this is something that has been said a lot, but it is something that I have to continue. It's a little bit attached to the ego. When I let go of. What the result was going to be. Got more clients that got, you know, my business grew more in the way I wanted it to grow.

So when I looked at the process and I sort of fell in love. , service and all of that, there's a quote out there that said, I dreams of a life of joy. I woke up and realized life was service. And so I [00:35:00] acted and behold service is joy. And to me that's just like, that's every. , so I think you can't fully serve when you are attached too much to the result and result could be followers.

It could be likes, it could be loves. It could be comments, good or bad. Right. We can't live by people's, praise, because then we have to live by their criticism. And so I think as much as we can kind of move towards, no, this is my problem. Versus I might not get a client or I don't know if I'll get a client this week or I need to get it.

 I need you to look at the results. I think, looking at your process is just going to make you a better business owner and it's really going to put those blinders on. That's a huge thing when you're new, because you're looking at other people, , and sometimes in a good way for market research and competitive analysis.

Yummy stuff. , but I think sometimes it gets into, into us a little bit, and we are not fully who we want to be. And you want to show up fully as yourself as much as you possibly can, especially in the beginning. [00:36:00] This is hard. 

kristy: That's great advice. That is absolutely fantastic advice. 

alison: So people are 

kristy: trying to track you down and we're going to put your website, , a link to the website and a link to your podcast in the show notes.

But just tell us a little bit about what you've got kind of going on that people can pop over to your site and have a look at 

alison: and get in touch with you for. Yeah, sure. So I, my signature program is actually an evergreen program. It's called fast track to four figures. It's a group coaching program six months, and we get you consistent clients online, reach four figure, monthly income.

I wanted it to be simple. So it's the fast track to four figures. It literally does what the title says. Um, we have such amazing success with that program. Right now it's been almost two years running. , so that is always available to check out on my website. , but other than that, I am just looking to do a summer series for the podcast, solo preneur RAF, and I'm actually coming out with an offer about visibility pretty soon.

So if you're happy with this, what I have to say about it, then that might be. 

kristy: Excellent. So definitely check that [00:37:00] out. So it's alison-nelson.com. And we're going to put that in the show notes and the podcast is solo printer, a F, which I love. , if you're listening on a platform where you can't see the show notes, I know on some of them, you can't just pop over to one step empire.com.

That's our podcast website. And. All the links, all the other episodes, all of the good things are there for you. It's one step empire.com and we'll have all the links there for Alison as well. I just wanna say, thank you, Alison. Thank you so much for being here with us today. This was incredible information.

alison: Really appreciate it. Yeah, it was a great conversation. Thank you so much for having me. I had a lot of fun.