How I Went From BROKE To MILLIONAIRE Using These PROVEN STEPS | Allison Malsan

Have you ever thought of flying gracefully in the air? Flying on the flying trapeze? What does that have to do with business taking the leap? Right? We're going to talk about all of that and more right here, right now on Ally and you'd. Hi everyone, I am Alison Maslin. Welcome to Ally and you the Business Success and lifestyle show. My friends call me Ally and I've been a business owner for 35 years. My passion, my mission is, is to get my work out into the world and help millions of business owners just like you so that you can fast track your success and have a more meaningful life. So today I'm going to talk about business. I'm going to talk about the flying trapeze. I've got my brand new book and I as you know, have been talking about this and I just like holding this. I think I'm, you know, sleeping with it and you know, I just like, no, I'm not really sleeping with it. But if any of you have written a book before or have wanted to write a book, you, you, you know, well, if you've experienced, you know, it is, it's a lot of work, but it's, it's kind of one of those things where you, you know, you just want to leave something, you want to leave an imprint in the world. So this is my imprint and I believe it's my legacy work. It's my second book and you know, it's just the work. This is what I've been teaching for a number of years about scaling businesses from my own experiences, my highs, my lows, the pitfalls, my breakthroughs. And in doing this and building 10 companies, selling four, I have developed a blueprint I call the Scale IT method. And, and it just really helps you get your life back and scales your company. In talking and working with literally thousands of business owners over the years, I find that most business owners think way too small and they're just trying to either get through that six figure or break that seven figure. And I say, what about building a $10 million company? What about building a $20 million company? What about 100 million DOL. And you know, just remember that the size of the business, it's not just about the money. The more people, the bigger your business grows, the more people that you serve, you have more employees to support and you know, transform and lead and grow and all the people that they impact, their families and all of the people that you help with your products and services. So sometimes, you know, when I say those things, people, what do you Mean like I hadn't really thought of a 10 million or 20 million or a 50 million dollar company. Like they hadn't even been on my radar that that would be a possibility. And the first thing that has to happen is that you have to even see that it's possible. You might not believe you can do it, but first you have to see that it's a possibility. It's kind of like I'll give you a couple examples of, you know, before the three minute mile was accomplished and I, right off the top of my head, I can't think of the guy's name. If you know it, please put it in the comments below. That broke the three minute mile for the first time. And before that had been done, nobody had done it. It was like in everybody's consciousness. It was impossible that 3 minute mile was broken. And guess what happened? It was broken again and again and again. So it's kind of like we've seen, we've gotten a man on the moon, we know that we can do this again. Now we're doing private, you know, we're on the verge of private space travel, you know, and so it's like the same thing in business. Once somebody opens that door for any dream and you see that it's possible, then you're like, oh, wait a minute, maybe I could do that. Okay. And so that's the first step is to seeing that it's possible that you can attain any dream that you want, right? And you don't have to know all the answers. You don't have to know exactly how to get there. You just need to surround yourself with people that do that can help you. It's really not about the how, it's about the who. And so it's like once you start thinking that way, you, you don't have to worry about knowing all the answers. You find people that know those answers. Okay? And so in my book, Scale or Fail, I really give you that pathway to scaling your business. And I tell all kinds of stories, but one of the things I talk about is the flying trapeze. Why? Because I have been a trapeze artist for 20 years. And so just like in the circus, you know, you climb that 35 foot ladder and you jump off the pedestal and you do tricks and you're caught by the catcher and then they swing you back to the bar and you come back on the pedestal. Well, that's the goal anyway. Doesn't always happen that way. But it is like such a passion of mine outside of my business. And my family. And a year ago, I fulfilled a big dream of mine in building a flying trapeze in my backyard. And so I was driving from San Diego to LA every week for years and years. And my coach is there, Richie Gaiona, who is one of the top trapeze artists of all time, and he and his family. And so I've trained with him over the years, but now I get to walk out my back door and climb up the ladder, which is a lot better than driving for three hours there and back in a day. And it is just there's so many metaphors for the trapeze and business. You know, I mean, just think about in general, anytime you do something that you're facing your fear, that you're doing something where you break that fear barrier. The possibilities are endless because we allow as human beings, we allow fear to stop us. And it's something we create in our minds right now. Fear is also can keep us healthy too, because, you know, I'm not going to go walk off the top of a building. Some people do that. I know, but that's not something that I want to do. So in some ways it does, like, help us just to discern. But in other areas of our life, it really keeps us stuck. It keeps us playing small. And when business owners play small, they lose. They miss out on potentially hundreds of thousands or millions, even billions of dollars and billions of people that they can impact in the world. So I want to share some metaphors with the trapeze, and then I'm going to share kind of a story with you of a very brave woman that stepped out on that limb and on her own. Trapeze of life has now created a billion dollar company. So when you think of the flying trapeze and the metaphors of business, you have to climb the ladder. And it's kind of like in business, when you're going forward, you don't want to be thinking about the past in a way that a lot of people do. Oh, this didn't work before. I failed that before. I tried that and it didn't work. I mean, these are all the things that keep us stuck. Just because something didn't work before doesn't mean that you can't tweak it and make it work better. Right? This is how this is. These are the kind of thinking that keeps us small. And so when you're climbing that ladder on the trapeze, you're looking up, you know, you're not really wanting to look way down on the ground. That can feel a little disconcerting. Then you get up on this pedestal up at the top, and it's probably like, you know, it's not very wide, okay? And so you really work on your balance up there, and you're up there, and that's where you grab the trapeze bar. Somebody hands you the bar, and you really. You have to lean way out like this. You got to hold the bar. You got to lean way out, which feels like you're gonna fall, you know? And so that's same thing in business. You have to lean way out there. You can't hide. You can't hide behind your computer. You can't allow your being introverted as an excuse to get out and build relationships and meet people. Because business is all about relationships, and you have to be willing to take those risks. And so you put yourself out there, and then when you're ready to jump off that pedestal, you have to give it so much power. You have to put all your energy into it. You've got to kick back really hard, and you've got to. Then you need to let the momentum take you. You let them. You jump the right time, you let the momentum take you. And it's kind of like that in business. You have to jump in with both feet. You can't be like, you know, I'm just going to try this business thing and see how it works. I'm going to give it a go. It will not work. I'm just telling you, you really have to be all in, and you have to decide this is going to work no matter what, whatever happens, you hit a wall. You, instead of thinking, oh, my God, it didn't work. I failed. It's like, okay, what do I need to change? How do I need to approach it differently? Do I need a different headline? Do I need a different target market? Do I need to tweak the product, whatever that is, you stay with the game. You stay with the game until you break through. And then just like the swing on the trapeze, when you're on the right level of physics, basically, then you let the momentum carry you. So in business, once you put those right steps in place, which I talk about in my book, scale or fail, then you actually. Then you let, you. You really go with the flow. I see so many business owners churning, churning, churning, fighting and trying and holding on too tight and micromanaging and, you know, not delegating and not scaling, and it's exhausting. You're working so much harder than you need to. So you need to let that power of the swing carry you up. And then there's a point where you gotta trust and you gotta let go. You've built something, you're building a team. You need to inspire them, you need to help them take ownership of it and run with it. And so you're able to really fly high. Once you let go of that bar there, that's where you get to fly. And it's so much fun in that moment. Between the time you let go of the trapeze bar and you get the catcher, you're literally in midair and it just. I can't even tell you. It's most exhilarating thing. But it's like that in business too. When you have worked so hard at something and you see it all coming together, it's kind of like with this book, I've been working on it for the last couple of years and you know all. And we've so much has gone into the writing the book, the designing the COVID and marketing the book. And now the book has hit records for our publisher of the most pre sales they've had on a book in years. So it's like you've done all this work and you put all that energy into it and then it just. The momentum takes it. Especially if you're clear on your vision. You know where you're going, you know where you're headed and you stay focused on that. You don't let negativity throw you off. You don't let that shiny object syndrome, which is like, oh, I gotta do this and I gotta do this and you get off course or someone says no to you and you get deflated or something doesn't work, and then you go another direction. No, you stay the course. You stay the course. And so you, you let go and then, ah, that sweet spot, right, where you, you catch the catcher and like everything is in alignment and with your team that you know. Because trapeze is not a solo sport and neither is business. Business is not a solo sport. You can create a vision, you the visionary, and then you need to be surrounded with some amazing people to help bring that vision to fruition. Right? So there's a lot of other metaphors with the trapeze as well. And let's see, what are some of them? Of course there's a net, although a lot of people don't know this, but you can actually break your neck in the net. If you don't know how to land in the net and the net is not very wide, you Actually can get thrown off the net. But I don't want to get all gory on you here. But there is a lot of risk that happens up there, just like there is in business. And so that's where you want to practice. Practice. I've had a coach for 20 years in my business and in trapeze as well. And just, you know, be smart about it. Work with people that know what they're doing and so that you can get there faster and you can get there safely and have fun along the way. So I want to share this story with you now. What did I do with this piece of paper that I thought I marked? Did I put. Oh, here. It's in this book. I just got tons of books around me here. Okay, so I want to share the story. I sat here, I wasn't even sure what I was going to talk about today, and I just opened the book to the page and this was perfect. So I lead my team and I lead some awesome events during the year. And we have one coming up in January called Level Up Live. And let's team, let's put the Level Up Live link on there. And it's levelupliveevent.com January 18th through the 20th. And so a couple years ago I had the keynote speaker was Kendra Scott of Kendra Scott Jewelry. And she has, well, at the time, over 50 stores. I'm sure that's grown tremendously since then. That was two years ago. And she said some powerful things when she was on stage. And I got to interview her. Her story is tremendous. She had a hat store at first and the store didn't make it. She had to close the store. And, you know, some years went on and she was designing this jewelry and decided to go back into retail. And so let me just read you a little of her story. So she had the retail store, but, you know, if you think about right, there's challenges all the time. There's challenges in retail. You've got the Internet, you've got all these things that, you know, competition and so forth. And so she knew that if she was going to really make this happen, she had to get out on her trapeze. She had to be willing to take the leap and to take the risk. So this is what she says. Okay, every successful. So I'm just going to read this to you. So every successful business owner has that pivotal moment in their lives and careers. I call mine the moment of impact. Mine happened to occur during a wonderful thing called the recession. It was a terrible time for everyone. All of my eggs were in one basket with retailers. But I was afraid to go to them and continue to do business. Let's see where I am right now. Buyers I had worked with for years had lost their jobs. I was worried. Stores were shutting. Companies had filed for bankruptcy. I had spent so much time and energy pleasing my buyers, doing things like sending them cupcakes. But my company wasn't going to survive this way. The recession taught me that I no longer needed to worry about my buyers. I needed to worry about my customers. My focus completely changed. My business started going direct to consumer. We weren't going to worry about our wholesalers and retail partners anymore. Of course, we still did business with them when there were opportunities. But mostly I redirected everything to the customer. So when you're working in your business and you feel like there's a change in the climate, this is so key. You don't want to be like holding onto that trapeze bar and not letting go. You have to be willing to change. You've got to be willing to be flexible. You've got to be willing to pivot to go where that demand is going. So Kendra says I had only seven employees at the time. I maxed out my credit cards and my line of credit. I pulled out of the rep groups and opened my own showrooms. I built a direct to consumer website. I created the color bar where the customer could design her own jewelry so she'd pick the color she wanted and choose her own metals. Have you been into the Kendra Scott store? They're absolutely gorgeous. I don't have my piece. I should have my pieces on today. I don't. But I am such a fan of her work. Anyway, we did the unthinkable and opened our first retail store. It was a calculated risk during the recession, but retailers were, they were shutting, so space was cheap. I was able to negotiate my own great lease. Everyone thought I was out of my mind. While everyone else was pulling out, I was trying to do something disruptive, innovative and creative. I wasn't going to allow anyone to speak for me again. I was going to build my own relationship with customers to find out for myself what they loved and what they hated. And that's when the magic started. Years later, I now have a one billion dollar business and 2,000 employees, all due to that moment of impact. So that's an excerpt from my interview with Kendra Scott. If you want to see the full interview, go to scaleorfail.com bonus and you will be able to see that interview. But you Know, really, she was willing to let go of that trapeze bar, you know, run up her credit cards, her credit line. And I'm not. That's not what I'm saying that you should do. But, you know, when you're really going for something, you have to lay it on the line. You got to be willing to go for it. I have maxed out all my cards many times over the years to go after something instead of playing small. There are other ways to go about it, too. But my point is, it's just an example of, like, you know, do you want to look at the end of your life and wonder, you know, what would have happened if I would have taken that leap? How would my life have changed? Like, who are the people I would have met? Who are the people I would have impacted? Instead, you hold on too tight and sit up on that pedestal and you never jump. And you live in this box. You know, I'm not saying you have a terrible life, but what if there's this whole adventure over here and you never saw it? Like, you never gave yourself that chance? That, to me, is way worse than fear. Way worse than fear. Having that regret or just not knowing. Right. I never want that to happen, and I never want that to happen to you. So remember that fear is what you're creating in your mind. It's not real. Get the support you need and go for it. Go for your dreams. All right? And, you know, we give you a lot of support in our new book, Skills Scale or fail. You can get it atscale or fail.com if you want to learn about our mentoring and how we support business owners like yourself. You can check us out@pinnacleglobalnetwork.com we'll put the link there. I'm sharing lots of links with you today. I know, but I'm getting all sentimental on you because I know what it's like. I know what it's like to have big dreams, hopes, you know, and that longing. And all I can say is that it doesn't matter your circumstances. I was a single mom. I had literally no money, like pennies to my name and zero support. I have not had anyone that was supporting me or backing me. I did it all by myself. And you know, I say that in the most humble way possible. I share that with you. Not to give myself a rah rah. I say that because it really doesn't matter what your circumstances are. It's what's inside of you and your willingness to face your fear and take that leap okay. So I hope this inspires you to do that. And thank you for sharing this time with me on Ally and you'd. You can watch us. We're here every single week on Wednesdays at 4 o' clock on our Facebook page. You can go to subscribeto aliyou and you will get to see all of our episodes every single week. We're on all the platforms out there, itunes and all the. All the places where you find podcasts. And I think that's about it. All right, and. And get out there, elevate yourself. Take the leap. You've got this. We've got your back. All right, see you later next time. Bye.

Scaling a business is not for the faint of heart. Playing it safe causes 34 million American business owners to avoid risk entirely and suffer smallness. I understand what you're feeling. No matter how hard you work, no matter what you sacrifice, you just can't seem to get to that elusive next level. That's because what got you here is not going to get you there. Scaling is not about working harder. It's not that one right strategy. It's the whole picture. It's you. It's your big, beautiful vision. It's your team, it's your drive, it's how you show up. It's time to take a leap off.

The trapeze so you can soar high in your business.

But you're holding on too tightly and killing your growth. If you're truly ready to leap, it will not be easy. If you want easy, there's always your comfort zone. Are you prepared to fly? You're well beyond the startup phase in your company. You've created a decent level of success. Your tenacity, your spirit have gotten you here. But my gut tells me you were not put on this earth to play small and stay inside the box. There is something about the ability to direct your own fate. That drive for freedom, expression of creativity, building your legacy that pushes your entrepreneurial buttons.

And that wild spirit.

If you are fully ready to bust out, step into your power. Own it. As the leader and visionary that you are, it's time to get your arms around the method that will finally get you there. You are not meant to be small. You are meant to shine. If you are truly all in, then let the adventure begin.