Episode #557 - How To Improve the Value of Your Business with Trivinia Barber

Welcome to this edition of the Million Dollar Mastermind podcast. This is where we pick the brains of high achievers from all walks of life and get their hard earned real world insights on winning. I'm your host, Larry Wydell.

I'm talking with Trevinia Barber from Rincon, Georgia. Hello, Trevinia.

How are you doing, Larry? I'm doing fantastic. Thank you for having me today.

And I know it is a rat race there in Rincon, Georgia, and it's hard to pull yourself out of all of that mass of people and bodies flying around there in town. But thanks for, you know, thanks for taking the time. And let's talk about winning. How's that sound?

I like winning. Let's have that conversation.

Okay, so you are, right now, just to give people context, CEO of Priority va. Is that right? How you say it?

Yeah, yeah.

Priority va. And revenue is a revenue. We like to give people's ideas of scale, but unfortunately, when we get it, we get it third, fourth, fifth hand. We show revenue north of 15 million. Is that about right?

No. They lie to you. Okay, they lie. We are multiple seven figures. Yes, but not anywhere near 15 million. I'm ready for 15 million, though. And we're well on our way.

Okay, now, how long have you been there?

We've been in business nine years this year, Eric.

And by the way, for the editors, make a note for them to cut that out, okay? All right. Okay. So talk about your. We'll kick it off with this. Talk about your fun you've had growing and how the numbers have climbed since you've been in charge there with priority.

You know, I have such an interesting story about this, Larry, because growing up, a kid that's sort of ate government cheese, right. In a very lower middle class family never did I think I'd be at a place where I wouldn't have to think about eating government cheese. But that story that I brought along with me into leadership actually created a ceiling for me into the kind of growth that we could have. When I first started our company, I actually did almost the exact same services that we do right now for 15 and $20,000 for free. I just wanted to help people, right. And I would do it for free. And it took a mentor of mine telling me, you need to be charging money for this. And so the first fee that I charged for our service was $49. Yeah. And then, you know, slowly but surely, he kept hammering away at me to increase our fees and to charge what we were worth. And I remember one time he Wanted me to change my fees from 497, I think it was, to 2,500. And I was like, ray, Ray Edwards, beautiful man up in the Seattle area. And I was like, ray, they're not buying. It's just, it's not going to work. And he said, well, they're not buying because you don't believe you're worth it. And as soon as you believe you're worth it, they'll start buying. And so he did a lot of role playing with me, and sure enough, they started buying at 2,500, and now they buy at 20 grand.

That is interesting. And so how did he do that? Role playing? Because a lot of, you know, I've. I, I've, for one reason or another, see a lot of therapists, you know, you know, physical therapists, you know, recovering from. From injuries and things like that. 16 years of show jumping and falling off horses and being thrown off horses, you know, and then trying to put my body back together. But a lot of they get to the point where their schedules are full, but, you know, they just hate to raise the money, you know, raise the fees and all of that. So how did he get you to that point?

Yeah, the role playing really was just a matter of me repeating over and over and over again our value proposition, right? Until I got comfortable saying I knew what we were worth, and I knew that the value we were bringing was equal or greater to the amount that we were charging. And so it was repetition. He had me in a room, I was in, a mastermind that he held, and he had me in a room and, you know, eight to 10 other people there, too. I kind of felt like an intervention. And we just kept going through it. And I came home from that event and just tried it out on my own, and sure as hell, people bought. I was like, what? This worked? Right. And it was really just a mindset shift for me that I had to believe that I was worth it.

So repeat that for me again. Explain that for me again. You went to a meeting, like a retreat?

Yeah. Like people there. Yeah.

And I was. Put you in the middle and threw paper, wadded up paper and threw it at you.

May as well have.

And said, you're worth nothing. You're worth it. Made you get mad and spit back at them or. So how did that work?

Yeah, it was some weird, weird kind of conversion therapy that worked. But basically what Ray was trying to do with his intervention there was have me realize the value that we bring. And he had me go through all of the Steps that we bring to match executives with their assistance. And he had me just continue to repeat that and then ask the rest of the peers there, what would you pay for that? What would you pay for that? And he kind of beat it into my head enough in the kindest and gentlest of ways that I was my upper limit, that it wasn't the market, it wasn't the wrong type of leads, it was me. And in my head what was the.

One thing you think that usually facts, it's the truth will set you free type situation, but you hear a fact or someone will state it to you in a way that is like, oh yeah, I didn't look at it that way. Was there anything that anyone said that allowed you to like, oh, you know, to create the crack in the door where some light could get in?

Yeah, certainly. It, it actually narrowed itself down to the amount of hours that we spend working on a placement. Right. So at the time it was just me and I had a contractor assistant supporting me and you know, I would put anywhere from 20 hours to 80 or 90 hours in a placement. And doing that math of what I was actually losing by not charging money was really, really eye opening for me that it. I was my own worst enemy when it came to growth and success.

Yeah. And so, you know, there I started to tell, tell you this story, but I'm self editing myself because I don't want to give anyway any secrets that doctors have told me about some of their client, their famous clients and everything. But in this situation, let's just say there's an extremely famous athlete. I won't say golf, tennis or whatever, but I won't say male or female. So it'll be hard to nail me down however. But this athlete who is a world beater, it came time to go to the next, you know, like they'd won seven in a row. I will give that away. They'd won seven in a row and it came time to go for the last one, you know, couldn't be doing this forever, but it came time for that and you figure like, you know, they've got this, you know, but a new star had come on the scene in that area and was just beating the crap out of everybody. So when you said that name to this person who had always seven in a row. One, she just turned into Jello or he, he or she turned into Jello. Okay. And so they went through a thing of role playing and said I can beat. They did muscle testing basically where you put the arm out and you put Pressure I can beat blah, blah, blah. And I can beat blah, blah, blah. No. And over time, it got to where rock solid. I can beat so and so, so and so. And she went out and won it. Or he. Let's just say he or she went out and won it. And now they've got eight. And so you can get over these things. And I read a book when I was in high school, this guy came through, Bill Glass, and he was talking about psycho cybernetics. Have you ever read that?

I have never read it, but I've heard of it. Yeah?

Yeah. And it's fantastic. It's like mine. You don't have to be controlled by your instincts or your fears or whatever. You can overcome it. You just psych yourself up. And they had the example of the football players before the game, realistically, you know, envisioning the grass and, you know, the impact and this, that and the other, and seeing themselves going to win. So I psyched myself up one day to make a high dive off. To me, the biggest thing I can do is go high dive off the diving board at the pool because I'm terrible in water. And so I psych myself, psych myself up. You know, you see the form, you go. So I walk up there, you know, psyched myself up, went and jumped. Bam. Imperfect. And as soon as I hit the water, my mind and body said, boom. Don't you ever do that again. So you can psych yourself up to do some strange things, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it's the right thing for you, but it's the doing that will tell you whether or not it's the right thing. And so how did this unfold when you went back?

Yeah, I just. I got the. I got the reps in. Right. I practiced a lot with my husband. I practiced with my assistant, and I just got the reps and, and, and got a feeling in my body that changed. And I don't want to get a little, you know, too spiritual here, but the feeling in my body ended up changing when I feel.

Go ahead and get as spiritual as you want to get. Go ahead, knock yourself out.

Well, great.

No, I think a lot of people need to get more spiritual because it's the connection of your whole being to where you, you know, this is where you believe in it or not. And, you know, if you feel like it's right for you, this is what you're supposed to be doing. A lot of people, they do all the work, and they don't really feel like they're Supposed to. Or they're worth it or whatever. And that's a spiritual thing. That's not a mental thing. You know, it's a spiritual thing. Connection.

Exactly.

To their core, what they're supposed to, what they believe they're supposed to accomplish in their life. And so feel free to tap.

Yeah. Oh, thank you. So, yeah, I just got really still with myself and I have this phrase that I use, I know it in my knower. And, and I knew that I was, I was meant to do this and that I was good at this and that I was also worth the money that I was going to be charging to do it. And, and it was just a series of those events, just repetition, getting still with myself and believing that I was worth it that helped transform things. And, you know, we went from 2,500, I think to 2,500 to 7,500 was the jump that we made. And then 75 to 10 to 15 to 20.

And when you put this service is, is finding executive assistance for businesses. Is that right?

Correct. Yeah, we serve primarily entrepreneurs and executive CEOs, COOs, CMOs, anyone in the C suite typically who has built an amazing business. But they have often done it at the expense of their sanity or their family or something else that matters to them. And so we pair them with executive assistance, either direct hire, full time support, or on a fractional basis where we serve as an agency.

Or they do it at the expense of their executive assistants.

Yeah, also true.

Sacrificed on the altar of the boss's dream. People might say ego, but it's a dream.

No, it's ego. Thankfully, we have a mentorship for executive assistants to help them too.

Okay, good. And so why do you have that sign living the dream behind you?

I think that we get to create whatever we want in this life. And I think that sometimes we can be.

Why do you say that? Why do you say that?

Because we can be limited.

I just like to challenge. I get my best answers when I challenge people.

We can be limited in our view of what's possible. Right. And I think that we can either have a dream and keep it out there as something that's not attainable, or we can take actionable steps every day that are going to help us live that dream. And I think it's just a, a mindset shift. You know, one of the, one of the best pieces of advice that I thought, I wish I would have had is that your mindset guides everything. Right. If you think slow, you'll be slow. If you think negatively, like the sky is falling. It will fall. And so I want to live the dream every day instead of just wishing for it. I'm going to work for it instead.

Yeah. And is it. And when we talk about. So to me, what I would interpret, that's the living part of it. You're doing things to make that happen. You're being proactive. You're living. You're not just reacting through life and complaining, oh, this, you know, this rock fell out of the sky on my head and, oh, you know, look what they did. But you're being proactive, and you're starting with a list. You know, this is behind, like, checklists and lists and to dos and things like that. I noticed that the. Your podcast is called Diary of a Doer. And so, you know, when you're going to be doing things, usually got it planned out of your mind. Do this rather than that. This is this, you know, this is where I need to spend my time. And then you go on the attack. So that's the living of it. But let's talk about. Is it the dream or your dream?

Yeah, it's my dream. It's my dream. And I think that my dreams have changed over the years, right? When I was working in corporate and driving 45 minutes a day and paying $8 to park and begging my leaders to let me work from home, my dream was to just work from home. And then my dream shifted into not having someone tell me when I had to wake up and when I had to work, right? And then it was flexibility. And so my dreams have changed over the years. And I think that everyone has an individual dream. And that's where I think we can get messed up, is we can start pursuing a dream that is someone else's. It's someone else's. Seven happy hops to freedom, right? Or to business bliss or whatever they want to call it, instead of creating ours for us. Right. It's the one time I think we should be very selfish with our. With ourselves is when we're creating our path for our lives. You know, I have. I have four daughters, Larry, and my oldest. 19. Thank you. My oldest is 19, and she's at this place in her life where she wants to do all the things right. And we keep telling her, like, take your time and make sure you're living your dream and not ours or not your teachers or not, you know, your boyfriends or whomever else. And I think that that's something I wish that we would embed in our society a little bit more and make that okay.

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