CEO Stories: Entrepreneurship, Business Strategy, and Online Marketing

Alison didn't always have the confidence she has now in her business. In fact, she had to work hard to get it, and she did it through journaling. Today she's sharing her daily practice that built her confidence and her business.

• Her biggest strategy was getting the mindset to have the confidence to proceed.  Having the confidence that she is where she is supposed to be and doing what she is supposed to do means everything.
• Sometimes everyone can tell you that you are doing the right things, but it is just not working.  It was getting in the right mindset that turned it around.
• Starting and ending with journaling.  What did I accomplish? What went well?  What did not? Why did it not work and how could I have made it work better?
• Writing out "I am phrases" are powerful.  Its ok to feel great at what you do, feel needed, and that what you do is valuable.
• Being confident to talk about money.  Be confident in the numbers that you give because you know that what you have is valuable.  
• Journaling affirmations just builds your confidence.  
• You have to know you can get the results for our clients, knowing that value and sticking with that price when you are in negotiations.
• Her biggest hurdle was allowing herself to be exposed.  Knowing you don't have to be perfect. People want to get to know you, who you are, and they want to work with you because of the way that you do things.
• She is putting herself out there on the public speaking platform even though it is terrifying.  
• Continue to better yourself, learn more things, and challenge yourself.  No one else is going to do that for you.

• After reading "Think and Grow Rich" she realized she continued to dig deeper when journaling.  Challenging the assumptions you have based on past and not fact. You can rewire them and create new habits.
• You can recreate new habits by repetitions.  If you continue to repeat the same thing over and over, it becomes repetitive behavior, and then repetitive behavior becomes a habit.  
• You can actually change your thinking in the long run by being mindful in the short term.  You can catch yourself in the thought.
• You have to work harder to recreate the new thoughts, but eventually they will become automated and the new habit.  Everybody has the ability to do this.
• In changing her mindset she thought bigger and more confident in who she approached, and it allowed her to make bigger investments in herself.  
• Knowing she will be successful because she wanted to be.  It's all a numbers game. You can reverse engineer from the goal you want to achieve.
• Read the book "The Miracle Morning" because it is about carving out the time you need in your day for success.  Test out different things to see what helps you.

Alison has always balanced many things at one time, which also means she's had to learn to do a lot with little time. The key to being successful with a micro-schedule? Delegation.

• The CEO is the visionary.  They are in charge of the direction the company is going to go, the overarching missions, the purpose, the drive, the values, and having the leadership to achieve those goals.
• Being CEO is not being involved in all of the day to day operations and letting go of control during the time of growing your business.
• She was forced into the role very early on because she did not have the time to do every little thing.  She had to have trust to pick the right people to do certain activities. She was delegating things out from the very beginning.  
• She had to embrace the investment of hiring people who are better than herself at certain things.  Your role is most importantly the vision, direction, and values.
• Focus on your area of expertise 80% of your time.  Spend the other 20% of the time directing the team to keep things going in the background.
• Just because you can do something, does not mean that you have to execute those tasks.  They may not be the best use of your time.
• From day one start passing off a few things.  Learn to delegate small tasks so you can use your time more wisely.  
• Get people to help you with your personal stuff even, so you can focus those hours on your business.
• She weighed the delay of how long it would take to do it myself, versus the cost to hire someone else to edit her Podcasts.  She knew this podcast was the key to getting leads, and this podcast would exponentially excel the business. It could not afford the delay.   
• She does quarterly planning and strategies.  Then, even daily bookends of what she is going to get done today then what she actually got done.   
• Purposely keeping herself on a micro schedule is key.  

• When she takes the jump, she feels she will have more time to consult which will cause larger revenue growths.  This is a positive because she feels ready to take on this growth because this is her specialty in consulting. Added to this, she will finally have the time to be open for the creative juices to flow.
• In this new jump, making sure there is time to put the laptop away and take a break will be very important.  
• Her time with her kids gives her more ideas, so even scheduling more time with the kids and more traveling.  
• Advice:  Jot down and journal the things you are best at.  Spend your time focusing on these things.
• Know where you are in the business and don't worry about the things to come.  Get super clear on the things you do and the things you serve.
• You must know your market, who you help, and how you help them.  What do they need, what do they want, and what are their pain points?  Do the research. Use it. You must know those things because no one else can show you those things.  This is your job as the CEO. If you can't articulate these things you will never have employees that will understand these visions.  

Alison Beierlein used to only plan in the short term, but a problem abroad shifted the way she plans, makes decisions, and -- now -- executes in her business too.

• At about the age of 19, on a rebellious path, she decided she did not want to end up like her mom spending all her time working a very boring business job.
• In 10th grade she learned Germany had free college.  She knew this was her path. She learned to speak German so she could move over there, take the tests, and enroll in school.  
• She had no idea what she wanted to do, and on a whim she decided she would major in horticulture.  After a year of studying this, she had an epiphany, "What in the world am I doing? My immature teenage rebellion led me to this stupid choice."  She thought she could quit now and lose a year of her studies or continue. She continued in this degree getting the highest grades possible.
• She got a job in the field but always knew her skills could probably be used better elsewhere.  She ended up moving up the ladder into quality control and actually liked the business side.
• After all of the negative questions in her head, she decided to push through, be all in, and prove to herself she could do it.  
• This has been the number one lesson that helped her in her business.  Being all in is the driving force to keep her going every day.
• Looking back she has impressed herself with the things that she accomplished without ever having a mentor or a guide growing up.  
• After all of these times of having just a short term goal and not knowing what to do next, she has learned to focus more on the details and ask the question "What comes next?"
• She uses a decision making tree to help.  What is the motivation behind the yes or no?  If it is fear based, then what's the worst that can happen?  She continues this process to get to the root of the decision making to keep her decisions from being based on self-conscious feelings.
• Coming from a place of lacking self-confidence, she knows she has to check in with herself on a regular basis.  
• Take the emotions out of it when making a decision.  If you really don't need it, don't buy it!
• Look at the actual results and numbers from purchases.  Take out the excess!

Alison Beierlein didn't plan on becoming an entrepreneur, but one book changed the way she looked at managing money in her day job and became a game-changer that kickstarted her entrepreneurial journey.

• Alison did not grow up wanting to be an entrepreneur or even knowing what she wanted to do.
• She thought about starting a business after moving back to Canada and recent ideas.
• At 18 she moved to Germany for school, met her husband there, and worked there for a few years.
• They moved to Canada together in 2008 during the economy downturn.  They started working at a horse ranch while figuring out what they wanted to do.
• Their Germany degrees were not recognized in Canada.  
• She had an idea for a startup but really ran away from it because she was too scared and did not know what she was doing.
• Alison stayed working in a job for the next 8 years and started struggling with how to manage a career in management and how to be a mom… The thought hit her "maybe I can design something that will fit this."
• In 2016, she started looking at how to start an online consulting business, and it all just started happening in the background of her 9-5.
• In 2017, she felt comfortable that it could actually work and plans to take it full time.
• Fear was the driving factor to research and launch this successfully.
• She knew she was confident in her skills at consulting but not so confident being a business owner.  This caused her to want to put money into the research to be successful.
• When she found the world of online business opportunities she realized she could reach anyone, anywhere.  She watched others become successful and knew she could do it too.
• She read the book, "Profit First" and started implementing some steps in her current job.  The book had very similar ideology from her education. She liked the thought of cutting out the fat to only keep the essential parts in a business to save money.  
• She then went on to become a Profit First coach to help in her consulting business.  
• It gave her an already known brand to piggy back on and use them as well to help her clients when she got stuck.
• Her biggest motivation to take this to the next level is to have more time with her children.  She doesn't want to miss out on them and in doing this she can work flexible hours to be the mom she wants to be.  
• It has been a lot of time and effort with late nights to get to this point.  It is exhausting but in doing this she knew she laid the proper foundation. The entrepreneurial process does weed out the people who do not have the hard work ethic and ability to push through.

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