Episode 4: Staying Present and Listening for Better Sales with Renee Hribar

You're listening to the Prosperity Lab podcast, episode number four.

For people to buy from you, and this is again, from a sales perspective, they have to identify with you as the trusted advisor in that space.

Welcome to the Prosperity Lab podcast. We've been given an amazing opportunity in entrepreneurship that's never been available in any other time period. We live in a reality where the number of lives we impact can be directly reflected by the dollars in our bank accounts. Prosperity is about more than income. It means living the good life and existing in a state of freedom, security and well being. This podcast will explore the paths towards living our best lives and the businesses providing for them. In this episode, I interview Renee Rebar, creator of the Sell Like a Mother course, coach and author. She teaches women how to sell online. In this episode, you're going to learn all about how to get in front of your clients and build relationships with them in a way that feels totally authentic and not at all sleazy. I know this is a skill that so many of us need support on and I cannot wait to introduce you to Renee. All right, welcome to another episode of the Prosperity Lab podcast. I am here with one of my really good friends and my sales coach, Renee Rebar. And I am so excited for her to talk to you all about sales, all about how she started her business, what role her business plays in her life, and her entire story of how she got started. So, Renee, thank you so much for being here. I am so excited to talk with you. You are so one of my favorite people in the entire world. So I would love to hear your story a little bit about you, your business and who you serve.

Ah, well, first of all, thank you. And right back at you, Ali. So thank you. So for those of you guys who don't know, we have been friends for a while. So like I really, we've met in person, we've hung out and so if you hear the reports, because it's truly there. So where did I start? It is 2018. I have to ask myself what year it is sometimes. For those of you guys are getting older, I'm going to be 46 years old this year. So if you're with me and you lose decades sometimes let me know. But it happens to me. So in 1996, I incorporated my first company. I was 23 years old and it was a sales company and I had huge clients like AT&T into it, QuickBooks, we even had Great Lakes trash because we were first based in Manhattan and then I incorporated here in Detroit and I had upwards of 300 sales reps in the field in different states at different times. And I had to get the clients, hire the people, train the people, manage the territories, organize the territory. So sometimes people say, oh, you know, you do sales, you teach me sales. I'm like, yes, that's absolutely what my specialty is. And then they sometimes ask, well, I'm looking for a business coach. You know, business coach. And Ali and I were talking about this the other day. It's kind of like asking a heart surgeon if they're also a doctor.

Yes.

I had to do that first. And then I went into my specialty, and that's kind of like where I think Ali and so many of the amazing people that I get to work with have is they've worked in business for a while, so absolutely. They could talk about business models and they could talk. I mean, Ali has her mba. She could talk about business at any level you want, from academic down to the most granular piece. But, you know, her specialty is something that she's focused on and spent some time on. And so for those of you guys listening to this podcast, you're in for a treat because she's awesome.

Absolutely. Let's do it. So what did that transition look like for you from going to the corporate world and changing from, like, those really large clients with all the different steps of infrastructure and to working with who you work with now?

Yeah. What created the need for that was. Well, I did some things in between. I had sold my territory for my sales company. I did that for almost 15 years. And then I started. I took a year off and I became a yoga teacher. I wanted to deepen my understanding of the world, and I loved it. And I still practice. I'm not a teacher any longer. I don't think if I did have a yoga class, it would be like farting yoga or burping yoga. Because I feel like always things come up when I'm doing anyway. Maybe that's just so. I'm also from New York, so these raunchy things are totally New York. So sorry if you're offended.

Yeah, I'm like, oh, we don't talk about.

We don't say such things. So then I had a cherry juice business, a regional beverage company, which we brought from zero to being sold in over 180 grocery stores within less than two years. So I'm very familiar with the manufacturing industry and shipping and receiving international and FBOs, and you call it, you name it. So back in my from sales days, training corporate RFPs that can speak in lots of acronyms. It just depends on what industry you want to talk about. And then a miraculous thing happened. My husband and I had been married for 12 years, and we finally. Finally. If you weren't talking about an infertility story, I got one. Had our cherub, who is now seven and a half years old. But that is the thing that, like, kind of knocked me into, you know, into a new era, because I was like, well, I am. I love what I do. I love being with people. I love teaching. I love selling. And I got to do that in every company that I worked with. So when he was three, I took time off. We saved, you know, we figured things out, switched around our budget. I took three years off to be solo mama. Wow. And when he was 3, it was like, okay, preschool time, Right? For those of you guys who can relate, like, mom hits three or maybe hits three, and Mom's like, okay, I think it might be time for preschool. So we went and discovered all these different educational models, and we decided on Waldorf, which is very hippie. I love it, by the way. It's like the antithesis of who I actually. It's my. It's what I wish I was, but I was so hot. But I wish I was more like breads and children and harp playing. I've never been accused of hemp weaving.

And all of those.

Chilled out. Yeah. Very, like, handwork. Amazing. And so my job. So here's what happened. I got him into this school. I loved it so much, and I spent so much time there. I started talking to people. They offered me the director of development role at their school. So it's a not. It's considered a nonprofit educational facility. If you're in Waldorf, it's not like being like, a Catholic school, private school, where you have, like, the archdiocese who's giving you money. Money. Like, there's no mama or papa Waldorf. Each school has to be independently funded. And so the director of development required me to raise over a million dollars, which I exceeded in nine months.

Wow.

Dropped the mic. And I was like, peace out. I hate working with the board of directors. Peace out. So I've definitely had that chain of success. So then at that point, Ben is like, three and a half. He's hating preschool. So I'm like, forget it. We're gonna take it. We're gonna take a break. What do they call it? Like, a gap year? Yes.

At three.

So at three. Well, he was four at that time. So we took a gap year, did, like, a Disney cruise. He and I did a 30 day road trip from like Detroit to New York. I have family all along the east coast or down to Florida and drove back. We have so many fun memories from that. So in the meantime, I was working about five hours a week on my new Internet side of my business. And I was like, just dipping my toe in the water at a few groups. I didn't really know. I didn't know if it was gonna be legit. Like, is it legit to do business online? I don't know, is it a real thing? Do I need an office space? Right. If you guys have ever felt the same way. So I realized not only was it legit, but it was freaking amazing. And you literally could do real business.

From anywhere with real, actual humans, with.

Real humans that really need your services. And the world is becoming more remote as we speak. Even, you know, even the big corporations are getting on board with the remote idea. It's just, you know, you don't have to commute, you don't have to worry about gas. And I mean, there's just so many positives. Those are just the ones that I really like first and foremost. So that being said, I came into the online space slowly and then I incorporated my online business January of 2017. And the WHO I serve now are the individuals who I feel are in my space, right? Like, they feel like they're of a certain age, of a certain experience level. Something in their life made them look at their life differently and say, well, I have these skills and I want to work, but I don't live by their rules anymore, so how can I put this forward? And as soon as you start a business, there's a lot of things you have to think about. One of them is I need to bring in new clients. And that's oftentimes where I meet them. And I have programs and one on one work and group programs and a lot of different ways to get the information so that they can say, okay, well, here's who I want to work with, here's what I need to say, and here's how I can deliver the service. So that feels good, you know, selling without selling your soul. Yeah, I love that.

I think that's so true what you said too. It's like people hit a spot in their life, whether it's burnout or whether it's just they need that freedom, they don't want to work for anyone else anymore. The birth of a child or, you know, something tragic like death that just totally rocks their world and they start Seeing things a little bit differently. So I've definitely seen that across the board in the industry too. So you touched a little bit on your customer journey, how you serve people in different levels. But I'd love to hear more about how that developed and how you started. Like if you just started with high end clients and went to one work or started with smaller group programs, I always think it's so interesting to hear how people round out their businesses. And I know a lot of people that are listening might be either in one phase or trying to branch out into the next phase. So hearing how that worked for you I think would really be cool.

No, that's fantastic. Thank you for asking. So I had a lot of experience before I came to the online space with big one on one clients, Corporate, huge ones. Right. I was the small business owner. I mean, I was small compared to that means I owned my business. I had one or two support staff. That was it. The rest were salespeople on commission. So mama had to like, we had free beer Friday. I mean, I had to figure out ways to like keep them excited and coming in in case they had a crap day in the field. Right. And these oftentimes were like very young people, like in their 20s. So it was definitely a party, which I think you can still see pieces of in my business today. So when I came online though, what sales taught me more than anything is to meet people where they are. So I felt very natural, like looking around, I mean, like, okay, these people don't need what I did for AT&T. They need an individual, like big sister, basically. So I started with small, low priced, one on one most mentorship type roles. So it wasn't like I was full on coaching. I was just guiding them and that, you know, sort of, I think, I think it. I think I charged like 247 for like three calls over the course of three months. Yeah, $247. But I just was like, what? Just to kind of again, I was only working like five, six hours a week. I wasn't marketing anything. I wasn't doing any live streams. I was just kind of like just tipping my toe in the water. And then I realized there was a bigger need. And so I said, okay, well I can help like five of these people at once and like a secret Facebook group for like a week and charge them all like 97 bucks and make 500 bucks in a week. It's like, all right, cool. At that point, working like five. And then I was starting to grow to like 10 hours. A week. I was like, if I could just make like two grand a month. Friggin magical. Because at that point we had set our lives up. You know, my husband and I are, you know, we've been working for a long time. We had set our lives up so that we didn't need to. We didn't have a lot of bills. So any money that I was making at that point was like gravy. And then I was like, well, that was easy, making two grand a month. And I'm really getting people to, you know, they're really like getting excited. Like I see the results and then I got excited about the results they were getting. I'm like, holy smokes. And then I saw like, it's like I just was looking right in front of me and then I kind of like, like there's a line of people. I'm like looking back and I'm like, holy moly. There's like thousands more people that I could help if I just could figure out how. And that's when I started looking into, you know, I need a coach to, you know, breathe into my business, to see the forest of the trees, to give me this, the online business savvy that I didn't, I felt I didn't have the finer minutia of. And that's really, you know, that's when I really, I got excited and I saw that they were like, I had to do the programs. I didn't understand the tech. I didn't understand, you know, things like Click Funnels or LeadPages or ActiveCampaign or ConvertKit or. I didn't understand Zoom or Skype. I didn't understand how you get 10 people on a Zoom call. I didn't understand any of those things. All I knew was I was showing up in these virtual meeting places like Facebook groups and just hanging out and talking to people, asking questions. And they were asking questions back. And then we would start. I'm like, well, it's just easier. I don't type. I got little hands. Let's just talk. Like I talk way better than I type. So all the natural evolution was to group programs and then eventually to more one on one only because the people that I was serving weren't ready for that high level of one on one support. Now I work, you know, I work full time in my business and I make a full time income and I'm really excited about the continual gradual elevation of the people around me.

Yeah, I think when you come from a place of serving instead of trying to make as much money from people as a whole ball game. Like, you just come in with a different mindset. It seems like it grew really organically or naturally for you to this is who I'm going to help first. Then I'm going to see this next group of people. Now I'm going to help them and then just continue growing from there. Where, you know, that's not always people's mindset as they start their businesses. So I think that's a really key note for people to take away from. This is like think about the people first and how you can serve them and help them. And then start thinking about like the programs you can build and make sure you're actually solving a problem and filling a need in the market.

Boom. Huge. Yeah, that's so huge. I've seen so many people build courses in a closet in essence, right? And then come out and be like, ta da. And the course may be phenomenal, it may be value packed, but they haven't used. They don't know their people well enough. They don't know who needs it well enough to be able to speak their language. And so I always say just go be with the people. Go be with the people and talk with them and you'll, you'll understand right away what they need and how to speak to them so that they know what you have is what they need.

Well, that's even advice that you've given me from a marketing perspective of like just go interview people, talk to them, get in front of them. Instead of like being a marketer and going to all the marketing events, I assume that I know what people's problems are. But if you're not actually talking to them and understanding how they're phrasing it, what words they're using when they're talking about it, that's like a game changer, right? So I think that's really huge and.

I think a great example, and I think we've talked about this is like, you know, like the MP3 player that has been around forever and it's a very popular case study, you can look it up on any Google search is like how the MP3 player, when finally Apple got their hands on it and they were like, oh, the ipod, thousand songs in your pocket. So all these MP3 player, you don't even know what MP3, like, what does that even mean? But all the techies who created it were like, it's this megabytes and digitized and all these different languages that we were like, what is it? I don't okay, I'm over here now, squirrel. Whereas thousand songs in your pocket, they're like, boom, I need that. Speak to me in my language. Yeah, totally.

Absolutely. So speaking of marketing, what are some of the strategies that you use to bring people into your sphere and get familiar with you? Your Facebook group is one of the most engaged Facebook groups I've ever been in. And I would love just to hear about how you run that, how you get people in the group and then. And what that journey looks like for them. I'm assuming that's your entry point or one of your entry points to bring them through a customer journey.

So, yeah. So you and I love. So again, Ali, you're so smart, right? And educated. And I think so many people like you are so academic, and they like customer journey. And so to the layman, who doesn't have. I mean, I bet I chose English as my major at party school. Like, I chose my college because it was the number. It was listed on the Playboy top 10 party schools, number one. Number two, I chose. I chose my major because I spoke English already. I thought that would be easy. And then, so I don't have my MBA. I graduated college in 1994. God bless. Before MBAs were even a thing. Like, nobody did that.

Yeah.

So you're so smart. So instead of client journey, I want you to think, like, how can I help the people? Right? So, like, what. What are people saying? What is the marketing journey? Like, how. So what? I learned more than anything ever. Because, you know, when I was in the field, first, first, first, no matter what I had, I could have had gold bricks. I literally could have had a brick of gold and been like, hey, I got this free brick of gold that could have been given away for free. If I came out of nowhere, the clear blue sky, they're like, get out of here, kid. We even did a study because I was based in Manhattan initially, right? Selling Skytel sky pagers. This is like 1995. Okay. When before cell phones, Like, I know, Gosh, did the Earth exist then? Barely is the answer. So we did a study. Like, we took, like, we didn't have a hundred dollars because we were poor kids, but we had 10 single dollar bills and we were in Times Square, the bus on Earth, right? By many variables and data, we would, like, get. Try to give away a single dollar bill here just to hear passersby here. And they're like, people would literally shun us, like, run away from us. Like, I don't want to touch that. Because the number one rule is, people will not. 99% of the people will not buy from you unless they absolutely feel like they know you, they like you. They absolutely have to trust you. Because people get real freaked out. This is where sales comes in. It's a freaky thing. It can get super awkward super quick. People have to, have to, have to know that they're not, like, losing money, that they're not being played, that they're not throwing their money away, they're not being taken. And as the horse creator, you and I can agree we would never do that ever. I mean, I've never worked with anybody. I've never met anyone in our environment, in our online space that would ever take anyone like, that would be like, they would rather, like, stab themselves in the eye than have anybody be like, your thing was crap and I want my money back. They would be like, absolutely. Here, here, here. Even if they don't have, like, an official refund policy, right? Absolutely. For sure. Like, there'd be no way they would, like, screw you, you bought it. You know what I mean? They would never say that.

Yeah.

So to answer your question about the customer journey and like, how do people come into my world and the Facebook group specifically is I want people to come in and feel comfortable. I see a lot of Facebook groups out there that feel very programming based and very curriculum esque and a. That's super hard on the admin because now you feel like you always have to be creating and new and training and these are free groups.

Right, Right.

But instead try to just make it a place where you can show up and be you in all the phases of you. I also have never met anybody who only does one thing. Like, you could literally. I have yet to ask you to do something or ask your opinion about something, and you did not have an opinion. Like, you have. You're like, well, I could do that. And, oh, I had some experience with that in this situation, in that scenario. So. And everything from like literally Allie, everything, like babysitting to like, podcasting to funnel building, you have an opinion, you have experience with it. So in our groups, those people are also there having the same opinions and experiences. So why not just talk about it? And in that journey of talking about babysitting or our favorite coffee cup or podcasting or anything that we want to. Today, I fought with Zoom. Has anybody ever fought with Zoom before? What did you guys do? What were the alternatives? When you can't go live and you can't share and you can't blah, blah, blah, and people have an opinion. They have experience with it. So just by having that, that conversation, they realize she's a real person. She's nice. I like the way she said that.

Yeah.

What does she sell again? Doesn't she do something special? Oh, let me listen.

It's mantra Monday. Share your favorite mantra. You know, whatever, whatever it might be the curated that are silent in groups these days.

Right. And I'm. Nothing wrong. There's nothing wrong with that as long as you also come in and show up like as a human. Be like, hey guys, it's freaking Thursday. Is it Thursday? I don't know what day it is. I have my pajamas on still. But I'm just curious what you guys are up to, you know, like, you show up as yourself. So thank you for saying my group is engaged and thank you for bringing it up because, like, I think that the pressure we put in ourselves to try to make everything so organized and programmed and well thought out is fit. It's so kind to be well thought out, but also to not forget about just showing up, even if it's just you.

It's also people are getting burnt out on that too. Like, they want connection. They want that actual one on one. They want to share their opinions because they have opinions about everything. So in your opinion, that's still a very viable way to get in touch with people. Because there's that phase. Like, I don't know if it was last year or when, but all the really big name entrepreneurs were like shutting their groups down like crazy and wondering like, well, do they know something we don't? Should we not be putting effort into the groups? But in your experience, because you have such an engaged group that's still a really viable.

Yeah, and it's. And I have a small group. I mean, as of today, it's like 800 people, which, you know, these big guys have like 20,000, 100,000 people. I don't know. I don't know if it'll ever get that big. I don't really care. I just know that when I show up, I want the other people that are in there to like it as much as I do. I look at it like a, Like a sat. Like the water cooler. It's kind of like how I feel it. It's like my, my virtual water cooler. I can go and hang out and talk about, you know, the whatever. Like this guy just sent me like all the. I had totally. I'm totally running a live stream on that later. All of the political stuff because it's like campaigning year Everybody's sending you stuff and what that means and how I feel about it.

Right. So showing up authentically and actually building relationships and connecting with people in that safe place where they feel welcomed and they feel safe feeling there or sharing their opinions.

Right. Because when you think about. So first they have to know, like, and trust you. But secondly, for people to buy from you, and this is again, from a sales perspective, they have to identify with you as the trusted advisor in that space. If you and I. I know there's like probably a thousand people right now in your newsfeed that also teach sales and business.

Yep. Ads and marketing too.

Right. So why choose me over somebody else? What makes me different? I don't have to try to think about what makes me different all the time. I can simply share stories that my clients have shared and just show up. My voice makes me different. My hair makes me different. The way I talk, the way I think makes me different. And some people are going to be like totally turned off by that. They're like, she is just not my person. And that's okay. I mean, God bless, right? Bless and release. Or some people are like, oh my God, I freaking love her. She reminds me of my sister, you know, and then they'll listen. When they're having fun, people are listening. And then when they're listening they're like, oh, it's kind of good, I do need that. Or I'll check that out. Or at least I'll look into it. Yeah, that's all I need.

So back to the marketing questions. So if someone within your group, do you feel like you have a mix of people who would become your high end clients, like your one to one clients or your, you know, if you're doing like a smaller group program or a course, are all of those people in the same group like seeing the same information and just getting to know you no matter where they're at on their customer journey, quote, unquote.

Yeah. Yes. Because. Well, the highest clients, I mean the clients that I work with that like, you know, for like 10 grand, those people are probably not on Facebook hanging out at all.

Yeah.

They're most likely running bigger companies and they don't have time to socialize.

Yeah.

But the people for my entry level group program or my, you know, my entry level digital. Digital course or even, even in my masterminds, like, I feel absolutely sure that those people have either been there or are there now. Yeah.

So that's one really cool thing about how you do it is that no matter where they are Whether they're ready for a high end program or an entry level program. Like you're showing up as yourself and you're just talking to them and sharing your expertise. Which if I'm ready to hire a one on one sales coach, I'm going to already see you as an expert. If I'm just coming in and I've been in business for like two months, I'm still going to see you as an expert. So it's really great that you have so many different pieces built out. And I think you just did a live stream about that this morning, like having your entry level products and all the way up to your high end services. So I think that's great. So something I'm curious about in your business is that how you've always had it operating? Like did you, have you ever pivoted into being burnt out on the high end services and then starting to offer more? What did that. Talked about it a little bit earlier, but what did that look like for you when you started building out the entry level pieces? Like how did you balance working with just high end one to one clients to all of a sudden seeing the line of people that you're looking at and seeing like, oh, I need to create a product for them and I need to do this. Was it one at a time or did you, did you do all the things?

Okay, well I still do all the things, but I also am very cognizant of my time and the time that it's going to take me to deliver the result that I've promised. And so if I only want to work 20 hours a week, then I have to be very aware of how many one on one clients I can have. The answer is 2. How many people? In my mastermind, the answer is 20. How many people in my digital program? The answer is totally 100% scalable. As many as want to be because I will show up for them in a group environment and I will be me and all they can all, you know, gather around the campfire.

Yeah, that's awesome. That's what the Prosperity Lab is all about. It's like figuring out what you want your life to look like and then fitting your business into that model. Because you could have, I mean you could work 80 hours a week and just do high end products, but your life might not look like, you know, your freedom might not be there, which is probably a large reason why you started your business. And so just knowing like this is how I can show up for the life that I want with offering High end services. This is how many I can handle. And people can really design it however they want. You know, like there's no expert answer, no one size fits all business model. So I think that's awesome how you set that up. So switching over to sales a little bit, since that's your expertise. I know a lot of people listening probably are interested in learning more about how you operate sales. What are some of the common struggles that you see with your clients? We notice themes across different levels. I'm curious what you see people struggling with when it comes to sales.

Yeah, that's a great question. Have I seen themes and patterns? Yes, I have for 20 years. The first one is they over complicate the entire experience because they try to play it out in their head before it even happens and it's just not possible. Yeah, you literally just have to like, it's like you can't. If you were to in line on the roller coaster line and trying to imagine how it's going to feel going through the roller coaster, you're probably just gonna get freaked out and leave the line. Or you're gonna get so excited that when it comes time to get online you have to pee and then you have to leave the line.

Yep.

Or something else that probably is negative. So the point is, is that you have to just like literally this is where yoga really helps me honestly is like just staying present in the moment and listen to people. So the second pattern that I hear is as a salesperson, when we create something or when we're talking about something that we're excited about, we want to talk about it ad nauseam. I think we all have children and that we can say when we have a child who's excited about something, they want to talk about it. Minecraft, Super Mario Brothers. We have seven and eight year olds. Right. So Pokemon, all those things. And I'm like, that's great, honey, I'm so happy for you. And I'm his mom, so I'm supposed to care the most. Right. And your client isn't your mom and she isn't supposed to care the most. So people's number one song is their own name and their number one story is their own. And so as a salesperson, and especially if you're running a solo business and you're the only salesperson in your business, therefore you must be the best one. Just ask a question and listen. And don't, especially as women, don't try to give advice after every single answer. Yes. Think about how you would feel like you like we want to be seen, we need to be heard, we need to feel like the person understands us and then we're willing to listen to their probable advice. And that's in essence the offer, the invitation to work together.

Yeah, I know that's something you've worked on with me too is just the power of silence during a sales call. Because I have so many ideas with marketing I'm like, oh, you could do this. Oh, maybe you should try that. And instead of like giving them a chance to talk about their experience, I'm jumping in with ideas. And same with overcomplicating. When you know so much about the subject that you're an expert in, no matter what you're selling. Mine is ads and funnels. So then I come to you and I'm like, oh, I should build a webinar and I should, you know, have this email sequence follow and I should do this and I should do that and I see my clients over complicate things in the same way where like, oh, I need a five part video series and then I need this and then they need to go this direction. It's like, no, you just need to get in front of them and talk to them and figure out, you know, for me it's more about automation. But with selling it's like get them on the phone and figure out what it's going to take.

Right. What do they need?

Yeah, absolutely. So what have you seen with when it comes to selling, what are your best strategies for selling something that's high end and how do you define that? Is it something that's like over 997 to a phone call or you know, where do you make that break in? Getting on a phone call or automating a sale?

Okay, great question. So it depends, is the answer because. Yeah, because I mean I'm not going to get on the phone for, you know, $37. But it depends. Some people just need to hear my voice and understand me a little bit better. Oops. And then we can do that.

So what advice do you have for someone who's just getting started with their business and they don't know what to do for sales, they don't have anyone in their group, they don't have any context. Where do you start? At the beginning.

I love people that come to me first because you can't have a business without some kind of income. And what I find is a lot of people at this beginning phase is they think way too hard about everything down the road and they try to put they Try to, you know, in their good nature, efforts of creating a business plan and putting all the steps in place, what they end up doing is putting boulders in their way that they don't seem to be able to move. And then three months, six months down the road, they're like, my business is a failure because it's not making any money and it's just this expensive hobby. So my advice is just start to talk to people, get them on the phone. Especially when you're brand new. Who cares if it is 37 freaking dollars? When you're on the phone with somebody who's a potential client, you know, whether you call them coffee chats or sales calls or discovery calls or exploratory calls or just research for something that you're doing, you are connecting with the people that potentially might need you. So this is my overarching theme. If I were to get a tattoo, it would be this. And it would say, good salespeople have good pitches. Great salespeople ask great questions. And so as you're developing your sales page or your course or your offers or how you want it and figuring out how you want to show up online, how many hours do we want to work? What does that mean when I say work? Does that mean live, like on calls? Or does that mean all the other things I also have to do, which I didn't take into account initially? Right. Administration and networking and marketing and blah, blah, blah. So, yeah, those things add up quick.

Yeah.

So I would say just talk to people and get them on the phone and start asking questions. You know, where are you at right now and what are you looking for and what have you tried so far and what has worked, what hasn't worked? Where are you looking for support right now? And this is where I learned to be a connector. Because if I couldn't offer some advice, maybe I could advise them on a direction to go. Somebody that I did know. Oh, I need Facebook ads. Well, allies. Your, you know, talk to Allie. She knows how to do that. She's amazing, right?

Yep. That's exactly how I started to like. Because I have a wide variety of skills in my background, I wasn't sure which direction to go when I was starting with, whether it was, you know, designing websites or doing SEO or social media. And all I did when I was getting started is get on coffee chats with people. And the more I talked about what I was doing, the more I heard myself say, like, well, I do a lot of things. Like, you start hearing yourself answer the questions about what you do. And you just get more and more clear at the same time as building connections with all of these different people through coffee chats. And I think that's one of the reasons why I feel like my business grew as quickly as it did in the beginning, is because I did, like, 20 coffee chats in one week. And all of a sudden referrals were just flying in, like, oh, you need to talk to Ali. She does abs. You need, you know, like, Facebook land getting tagged in all of those different recommendation posts. Like, that's a really big way to grow your business quickly.

Absolutely.

Without spending a billion dollars on Facebook ads.

And when you got on the phone with them, you didn't feel like this is a sales call. You got in on the phone to be like, I just want to ask questions and figure out what this place is all about. Exactly.

Yeah.

That helped you. That's awesome. And that's what we still need to keep doing.

Yeah, for sure. So as far as having your own business and managing your own business, how has that added to your life in general, since we're all about, you know, building the life of your dreams? Like, do you feel like your business is at a good place right now? Do you have big dreams for where you want to bring it in the future? What does that look like?

Yeah, no, that's great. I've been. I've been a business owner and a solopreneur very much. I only ever had two or three people around me that were, like, on support since 1996. So there's a lot of ways to slice it and dice it. And, you know, back when I had my office space and no, there was no such thing as, like, wi fi. And I mean, I. Or like, external hard drives even didn't even exist as far as I knew. You could probably have a thumb drive, but I didn't even know how to do that. So if I wasn't at my office, I wasn't able to work. And so leaving and coming home was my way to. To demarcate when I'm working. And so to. Cause I think what you're. To have that life that you want to live there is, in essence, time away from work and time when you're working. The challenge with the Internet age and how it's all coming together is it's almost like since we can always work, we are always working, it's very hard to turn everything off. So I actually physically turned my phone to blackout mode, except for just phone calls. And most people from the Internet aren't, like, Phoning me on my telephone. So some people do, but not. But if they are that it's an emergency. And most people are, you know, I'm not an emergency room doctor, and most of them aren't doing heart surgery, so that doesn't happen very often. Yeah, the future of this business has got. For me to want to continue to do it, I had to have a bigger vision. And that bigger vision, you know, I kind of look at, like, what Barbara Stani has done. Are you familiar with her?

No, I'm not.

So Barbara Stani is the daughter of H and R block, the R. And she has a great story. And she was, you know, in, like, the 70s, like, when women were just, like, getting their jobs. Like, it was like feminism was new. You know, Donna Karan was new. Like, you know, the rap dress and women in business. She was in church meeting rooms and, you know, little. Little rented spaces. I get chills thinking about it. Talking to women who ever would listen about how to handle their money and that. Because when you have that money conversation, that's the first step to like, well, what am I gonna do if I want more? Or, what am I gonna do if I, you know, don't want to do what my husband wants to do with the money? So she is, you know, talked about that, and then she talked about, well, what do other women do? And then she started sharing those stories. So sharing the stories and helping women not only become educated, but then feel the confidence to make their own best decisions. And how that translates to what I feel excited about doing down the road is helping women understand that they can have a business. They don't have to wait till the babies are older. They don't have to wait at whatever stage in life they're in. It doesn't. They never have to wait? Because I hear so often, well, I'll wait until the kids are out of school. I'll wait until the kids are in school. I'll wait until my son graduates. I'll wait until, well, he's graduated. Now I can't, because now I want to go to his college on the weekend. Whatever things we put in our way, the answer now is you don't have to wait, because you literally can run your business not just from your laptop, but from your phone.

Yeah.

And I do most of the time run it from my phone because I'm, like, in my car picking up Ben, or I'm at the soccer field, or I'm, you know, I don't know where I am. I'm all over the place.

Yeah.

I want to give them the understanding that that's possible, and then I want to give them the confidence to do it. And the confidence comes from seeing small wins initially and then building on that as much as they want. Some people really do only want to make a couple thousand bucks. Like me. If I could just make 2,000 bucks a month working five hours a week, that'd be all I need. And then I hit that point, and I was like, this was awesome. Let's do more. But not everybody feels that way. And if that's all they need. Halle freakin, Lilia. That's freedom is what that translates to for women. So the freedom fighters, you know, in a way, I don't know. I know that's a common term, but, like, the real thing is, like, we're, you know, we don't really always have to fight for it because it's not like people are against us. Yeah, we're our own worst enemy. If we're not getting the things out of this life that we want, then it's probably our own fault.

So continuing to serve on an even bigger level, helping more people.

To understand and then to have the confidence that. That they can too.

Yeah. Has that been challenging for you to realize that you can be that solution and you can help people with that on that large vote scale?

Challenging isn't the feel. I feel like it was scary initially, but I've had a lot of really big people that I trust and respect encourage me to try. I don't know how. I don't know where the future will hold. Right. I don't want to plan out the roller coaster ride, but I am excited to try because it's like that whole.

Thing where you can impact as many people as you want. It doesn't mean you're strapped to your office or you're not away from your family. You know, you're not chained to your desk somewhere. You can have whatever level of impact you want and still build a business that you want at the same time and not be working, you know, a billion hours a week, if that's possible.

Right. And I think the biggest thing as you're saying that is as you, you know, maybe. Maybe people that are listening or even you might be thinking, who else has done that in the past? And what did it look like? Well, maybe it looked like Tony Robbins and he fills auditoriums and he does these clapping things and whatever he does. I mean, hey, God love him, right? But I don't want to do that. So I don't want to be like that. I don't want to have that big of. So then if I have to look. If what I want to do has to look like that, then I don't want to do it.

Yeah.

So, well, then, like, what are the other options? Okay, you got, like, Joel Osteen, right? Like, and then he feels, you know, churches. And then he's got his suit on. So Tony Robbins wears his all black and his headset, and, you know, Joel Osteen's got his podium and his business blue suit on. And I'm like, I don't want to do that either. If that type of impact requires me to do that, I don't want to do it. And so the biggest encouragement that I've gotten is it's absolutely up to us what that looks like. If it's up. If it's us, like, with our families and hanging out and they're doing their thing and it's at a resort, and we take nap time, you know, two hours at, like, this beautiful resort in Cancun, and we commune in, like, this little room, and we talk business, and we mastermind and we strategize. Wouldn't that be cool? That seems fun.

Yeah.

Because then afterwards, I can go and hang out with my hubby or, you know, hang out with the kiddo and go surfing. I don't have to be all business all the time. And when I show up, I don't have to wear a business suit if I don't want to. I can. I don't have to wear heels. I can, but I'm not. I mean, you probably never catch me in a ball gown and high heels. Yeah, I don't. I don't know when that would be necessary. I'm trying to think of what situation. Meeting the president. I mean, he'd have to kind of like me in jeans and a black T shirt. Yeah, pretty much what I wear.

Yeah. I love that. I think that's really key is knowing that, you know, your business fits in around your life, not the other way around. You don't have to. Starting a business doesn't mean it has to consume every part of you. And, I mean, that's really the biggest point of how I feel. And what I'm trying to help people understand, too, is that you design what it looks like and you decide how to fill in the gaps of, like, okay, this is the income I want. This is how much I want to work, and then backpedal from there and figure it out. Reverse engineer, if you will.

Exactly. Reverse engineer. And that's why I love what you're doing, Allie, so much. I love this podcast so much. And your mission here, because I think it really falls in line with, you know, what so many amazing smart people are trying to do. And the more we all share our voices together, it's kind of like the Lorax, right? Like, we are here. We are here. Do you remember that movie we're like, on that little. Is it the Lorax? Is it the one where we're like, they're on the flower and the elephant carries it around?

Yeah.

Right. Is it called, like, the Dr. Seuss one?

Yeah.

They're like, it's this tiny world, and they can't believe that there's this other, bigger world out there. But the elephant can't believe that there's this tiny little world on top of this little flower that he found in the field. And so the little people. And maybe that's. That's how I feel sometimes is like the little person being like, we are here. We are here.

Right. And we can build.

Don't kill us.

Yeah, absolutely.

Don't drop the flower. And so you're really helping us all share our voices by having guests on and sharing this to the world with itunes and podcasting. And so I thank you for that.

Yeah, I'm super excited about it. And I know people are really going to relate to your story and learn a lot how to sell their services, too, and be able to make that bigger impact because of the skills that you're teaching. So I think that's really important.

Thanks. I'm excited. I just got that we got invited to. I say we, me, myself, and Irene got invited to, and I do a TEDx talk this fall, and it's all about. It's all about social entrepreneurialism. And this one school, it's in Guatemala, and it's so it's kind of like that Tom's like, how do you sell your business if it's buy one, give one, Right? Like, how do you sell inside of that business? And there's a school, a K through 8 school. So the 8th graders are actually organizing a lot of the TED talks, specifically getting sponsors to, like, support the event. And so I got to do a class with them on how to sell. It was so fun. I don't think I've actually grown up since I was 14. Yeah, these are all, like, eighth graders, like 14 year olds. And they were like, that was such a good idea. Oh, my God. I didn't think of that. And so just, you know, Opening up to all the possibilities is what I want to encourage all your listeners to do is you never know one thing, what one will lead to. So take the lead.

Yeah, I love that. Well, thank you so much for being here with us today. I would love if you could share a little more information about where we can find you, where people can get connected with you and join your group.

Thank you. Yes, the first, the best place is my website. That is will there will always be my name which is Renee R E N E E H R I b a r.comrenee rebar.com go there you get all kinds of free sales training, links to the group, links to where I hang out on social media and I do hang out.

Yes, you do.

I'm a social bird. Yes.

Well, thank you so much. Have a great rest of your day and we'll talk to you later.

Thank you so much, Ally. Yep.

So there you have it. Isn't Renee amazing? I feel like she has so much to share and I know that I could just talk with her for hours and just listen to her and all of her life experience experience and all of the skills that she has around sales. So I know since finding her, my sales approach has totally changed and I really hope that you seek out her information and all of her great content that she puts out because she can really change the way you practice sales and even the way you think about sales and help you embrace it in a positive manner instead of a lot of the negative connotations we have about sales. So I have brought her techniques into my business and I sincerely hope that you'll find one way to do the same. Thanks for listening to the Prosperity Lab podcast. Check out the show notes for this episode and all past episodes@problesity lab.com if you enjoy this show, please share it with your biz besties. Leave us a review and subscribe to make sure you stay in the loop for any updates. Keep believing in yourself, chasing your dreams, and designing your version of prosperity. I'll talk to you again soon.