Lani and I are listening to a call with Ali Brown right now, who’s talking about the big, bold moves she made in her business in 2008, and what she’s got on tap for 2009.
We went to her Online Success Blueprint Workshop (OSBW) last November, and got a sneak preview of how she’s up-leveled in a way that even Lani and I hadn’t expected – and Lani’s been following her since 2001, for Pete’s sake.
So I’m going to try to catch some of the bon mots as we listen, and drop them here in this post for you…
When she asked herself what the most important message was that she could deliver to the listeners on the call, the answer was, “Be ready to receive. Be ready to receive larger gifts than any of you can imagine.”
When it comes to your specialized knowledge, “The marketing is more important than the mastery.” (If you need to hear that right now, then we’ve got a soultion for you.)
Letting go of parts of her business – particularly the Big Rock, the OSBW – was scary, for her and for her team, because they weren’t sure how they were going to replace the revenue. But she knew she was “making room for something bigger.”
When you’re getting out of your comfort zone, that’s a good thing. That feeling is a sign that something’s brewing. And her new billionaire mentor opened her eyes to what’s possible – to go from info marketer to media mogul.
“Write down the moments from childhood that brought you so much joy” … and find ways to bring those feelings into your life today.
Before, I was doing one thing at a time … I’ve created the leverage, by building a team, to launch five websites in March, and do lots of things simultaneously.
She used to be thinking month by month, and about just paying the rent, and now she’s looking years in advance to plan her growth.
There’s a “good kind of uncomfortable.”
She’s gone from creating an “Online Success Blueprint” to an “Ultimate Business Blueprint.”
The five big mindset shifts she made to be ready to get to this point in her life and biz:
1. Stop “ladder-climbing” and start “leap-frogging.” And when you see the leap you want to make, you can’t worry about the “how.” Just make the choice, make the leap, make the decisions, and the details will come to you. It does require completely different thinking, though.
2. Learn from a broader perspective than your own industry. Look at people who’ve done what you want to do, but outside your circle. If you are comfortable doing what you’re doing, then you’re actually stagnating. The single purpose of a business is to make a profit. If you can’t make a buck, you can’t help anyone else. If you can’t see the bigger vision, don’t worry if you can’t see the bridge, because you should…
3. Make decisions not from where you are, but from where you want to be. It’s like the old saying about dressing not for the job you have, but for the job you’re aiming for. It’s up to you how big you want to take it, but success is never on sale. Money is not going to magically appear – but you can make decisions about the money that goes out of your business, and spend it in ways that can bring in much, MUCH more.
4. Plan carefully, but don’t sit on your plans. Planning was the key that brought Ali in 2006 over the million-dollar mark for the first time. (Hey! We’ve got a marketing planning teleseminar next week!) That includes moving away from immediate results. You may have to make decisions to spend money where you won’t see the results right away, but when you do the planning, it’s easier to make those decisions in faith.
5. Surround yourself with people and environments to support you. Most of us spend our days supporting other people. And not necessarily people who want to play at the same level you’re gunning for. Ali referenced the Jim Rohm quote about being the average of the five people you spend time with most (I’m paraphrasing, but that’s about right.) You need to be around people who GET IT, who are positive, successful entrepreneurs who want to make a big impact on the world and many people’s lives. All the traits for success are, as Napoleon Hill says, are not birthrights but actually learnable. And masterminding, as Hill flagged in Think and Grow Rich, was key for Ali.
To that last point, Ali is holding people’s feet to the fire, so to speak, in her new Millionaire Protege Club. As of this call I’m blogging, there are 24 spots left in the Platinum Level of the Program, and if the success stories of her previous Platinum Program participants that we heard at OSBW are any indication, it’s certainly worth a look.
